Hulk (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

"I can't control it... But maybe I could guide it, aim it in the right direction."

- Bruce Banner, talking about Hulk

Hulk is the form taken by Bruce Banner whenever he is stressed or enraged. This is due to exposure to gamma radiation. Bruce has flashes of when he was in his Hulk form.

Creating the Hulk
The Hulk was born out of a botched science experiment where Dr Bruce Banner tried to use gamma radiation to create a super soldier like Captain America. But instead created the Hulk and continued to trash the building he was in until he injured his girlfriend.

To Find a Cure Part 1
Now a fugitive from the United States Army, and Betty's father, General Thaddeus Ross, Banner goes on the run for five years. He settles in Brazil, working in a soft drink bottling factory while attempting to find a cure for his condition with the help of an Internet friend, "Mr. Blue". He also studies martial arts and meditative breathing techniques with a Brazilian Jujitsu expert to help control his emotions, and has not suffered a transformation for five months.

The Team
After Banner suffers a cut, and his blood drips into a soda bottle eventually drank by an ill-fated consumer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ross discovers Banner's location, and sends a team to capture him, led by Russian-born British special operations expert Emil Blonsky. Following a ferocious battle in the soft drink bottling plant where he transforms into the Hulk, Banner escapes Blonsky, and ends up in Guatemala. He travels to the United States, where he sees that a now - recovered Betty is working at Culver University and is dating psychiatrist Leonard Samson. He also sees his old friend Stanley, a pizzeria owner, who gives him a job as a delivery boy. Banner uses this job to sneak past a security guard to continue his research. After Betty visits the pizzeria and sees Bruce, she later reunites with him.

Blonsky reports to Ross that Banner evaded them in Brazil because of the appearance of a large green monster. Ross explains that the monster is Banner, and that he was created accidentally during an experiment in radiation-resistance that was inspired by World War II era military bio-force enhancement research (or "Super-Soldiers", as Blonsky puts it). Blonsky, seeking both revenge and power, volunteers as a test subject in order to capture Banner. He receives a small dose of the mothballed original Vita Ray serum, created by Dr. Reinstein for Weapon Plus. He leads an assault on Banner at Culver University, during which Betty is knocked unconscious. Despite Blonsky's increased strength, speed and agility, the Hulk crushes most of the bones in Blonsky's body. The Hulk saves Betty from an explosion and escapes with her to the Smoky Mountain National Forest.

To Find a Cure Part 2
Banner and Betty then travel to Empire State University in New York City, where they meet "Mr. Blue", Samuel Sterns. Accompanying Sterns to his lab, Banner and Betty learn that Sterns has developed a possible antidote that may cure Banner's condition or merely reverse each individual transformation while an overdose could kill him. Despite the risks, Banner agrees to test Sterns' antidote and is restrained before being shocked into transforming with electricity before being reverted to normal with an injection of the serum. Exhilarated by the success of the antidote, Sterns reveals that he has synthesized Banner's blood sample into a large supply with the intention of using it to enhance the human condition to the next evolutionary level. Appalled by what Sterns had done and fearful of the Hulk's power falling into the wrong hands, Banner attempts to convince Sterns to destroy the blood supply but is shot by a tranquillizer from one of General Ross' snipers.

The Abomination
As both Banner and Betty are taken into custody, Blonsky, whose super-soldier treatment has healed all his injuries but is desperate for more power, demands Sterns subject him to a dose of the Banner's gamma radiation treatment. Sterns warns that the combination of the Super Soldier formula and a gamma treatment would be an unpredictable combination that could turn him into an "abomination". Blonsky is less than concerned about this, and Sterns promptly administers the gamma charge. As Blonsky mutates into the monstrous Abomination, he knocks Sterns aside and an irradiated sample of Banner's blood - derivative drips into an open wound on Sterns' temple, causing his cranium to mutate and expand. In an attempt to draw the Hulk out, the Abomination goes on a rampage through Harlem and Banner, realizing that he is the only one who can stop the Abomination, convinces General Ross to release him. He jumps out of Ross' helicopter as it hovers over the city, hoping the fall will stimulate his adrenal glands into triggering a transformation. Banner's plan succeeds and after a brutal battle the Hulk manages to defeat the Abomination by strangling him with a huge chain, though he releases his grip after a plea from Betty. The Abomination collapses, and the Hulk flees the scene with the army in hot pursuit.

General Ross
Thirty-one days later, Banner is in Bella Coola, British Columbia. Instead of trying to suppress his transformations, he is attempting to initiate them in a controlled manner. As his eyes turn green, a grin appears on his face. Meanwhile, General Ross is drinking in a bar when he is approached by Tony Stark who reveals that a "team" is being put together.

Iron Man 2
When Nick Fury debriefs Tony the screen on the right shows the report of the attack on Culver University which was in fact the Hulk.

Thor
Erik Selvig mentioned Banner as the pioneer in gamma radiation. Then S.H.I.E.L.D. came and he wasn't heard from since.

The Avengers
"Puny God."

- Hulk

Black Widow
Banner is working as a doctor in India having not transformed for over a year. He is tricked into contact with Natasha Romanoff by a little girl and is brought into the Avengers Initiative.

Time Bomb
After meeting members of the team on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, Banner and Tony Stark begin research on the recently captured Loki's spear. When the team begins to spark unnecessary arguments, the brainwashed Hawkeye leads a team into the ship and explodes one of the engines, causing Banner and Romanoff to fall into the weapons cache room. Banner transforms unwillingly despite Romanoff's efforts to calm him down and ends up falling off the helicarrier after causing much destruction and even throwing down with Thor. He eventually transforms back to Banner to find himself having been watched falling by a man. The man gives Banner new pants.

The Good Fight
Banner returns to fight in the war in New York and finally reveals his secret of keeping calm; he is always angry. Banner transforms into Hulk and takes out a Leviathan with one punch then aids the Avengers in the battle. After assisting and sucker-punching Thor, Hulk enters the Stark Tower and beats Loki into submission. The World Security Concil eventually send a missile to destroy Manhattan. Stark flies the missile to the Chitauri's portal, though his suit shuts down in the progress. Hulk catches Stark and screams in his face, waking him up. After Loki is sent back to Asgard with Thor and the Tesseract, Banner and Stark drive away in one of Stark's sports cars and then the team go their separate ways.

Personality Traits
The Hulk is constantly enraged and draws his strength from this rage. The angrier the Hulk is the more powerful he becomes.

Powers
Due to an combination of an similar version of the Super Soldier Serum and exposure to high levels of gamma radiation, Bruce Banner is an "mixed result" of what Rogers is. As Bruce Banner, he has no visible powers. But when his heart beat increases to high levels, he transforms into the monstrous Hulk, a green-skinned giant. The Hulk's physical body attributes him great strength and power, which is fueled by his rage meaning the madder he gets the stronger and more powerful he gets. Although not as powerful as the comic version, nonetheless, Hulk is easily the strongest person in his universe, and one of if not the most powerful person, since his powers increase with his rage. He is capable of easily overpowering beings like Thor and the Abomination.

Superhuman Strength: Hulk´s primary power is his superhuman strength, enabling him to do feats like split a car in two with just two punches, he stopped an Humvee in its track and picked it up and slammed into a tree a couple of times, he also took the entire engine of the same Humvee and threw it into another Humvee, making it explode, throw Emil Blonsky more than 40 feet away with just one kick, even though the latter has been given great resistance, and throwing a forklift truck in the air very easily. He can throw normal humans around like rag-dolls. In the form of the Hulk, Bruce possesses immense physical strength. As the Hulk he was able to rip steel as it was made of paper and was able to throw heavy objects with tremendous force. While maybe not as powerful as he is in the comics he is stronger than anything within the world of the movie. He is also capable of leaping great distances. His strength is only rivaled by the Abomination or Thor. In times of stress the Hulk's adrenaline level escalates, causing a corresponding escalation in strength. This is not accompanied by an additional gain in mass, but does appear to promote increased levels of energy efficiency. To date the Hulk has never apparently been provoked into demonstrating a maximum output of strength, hence his upper limit remains a mystery. However, whatever the limit, it is well in excess of 100 tons. This is also displayed when seeing Betty in danger in the damaged helicopter, he out-muscled the Abomination to free himself. In his fight with Thor, he was able to hit him hard enough to make the thunder god bleed. He was the "ace in the hole" when the battle of New York happen, destroying scores of Chitauri troops, ships and Leviathans.. Moreover, he could easily individually defeat the God of Mischief Loki by crushing him to the ground respectively. Another great demonstration was when he took down and killed a leviathan with one single massive punch. Most important of all, he tore through scores of Chitauri soldiers with ease. Most important of all, he tore through scores of Chitauri soldiers with ease.
 * "Hulk Smash": By raising his fists and arms and striking the ground (accompany by one of his classic lines "Hulk Smash"), he can create tremors of incredible force that stunned the Abomination.
 * Thunderclap: By clapping his hands he was able to make a shock-wave that snuffed out a fire.
 * Weaponization: Hulk demonstrates the ability of using his strength to turning anything in the environment around him into weapons and/or armor to use. During the battle at Culver University, he turn pieces of a Humvee into a shield to use when Blonsky attacked him with a grenade launcher, using one piece to protect him against the waves of the sonic cannons and using the same piece to destroy one of the Humvees carrying one of the sonic by throwing it and splitting in half and then taking the other piece to jump into the other Humvee and basically jump diving into it and using it to destroy an attacking Apace helicopter. Finally, during the battle with the Abomination, he split a cop car in half and use it as boxing gloves to beat into Blonsky and using a large chain that Blonsky was using to nearly choke him to death before being stopped by Betty.
 * Superhuman Leaps: The Hulk's great strength also extends into the highly developed muscles of his legs which allows him to leap great distances. The Hulk also shows incredible precision with his ability to aim his jumps and landings. He could reach the top of Stark Tower from ground level, in a single leap.

Superhuman Durability: The Hulk is able to withstand substantial punishment; even high caliber bullets bounce off of him and the fire causes much less damage compared to a human. His bone, skin and muscles are overly dense, hard and tough and he possesses a high degree of resistance to injury, pain, and disease. Only beings with tremendous force or extremely powerful weapons can harm him. The Hulk also withstood multiple energy blasts from Chitauri weaponry, maximized cold without freezing in the Arctic Circle, and great impacts from heights of over six miles.

Superhuman Endurance: Hulk has substantially greater endurance than a normal human, he hasn't shown to tire at all. Even when most of the Avenger were exhausted Hulk kept fighting. It's because his body counteracts fatigue poisons that build up in his muscles during physical activity, allowing the Hulk to run and fight for a long time. While fighting others in an enraged state, he can maintain peak output for hours on end and still continue to become even stronger as his anger escalates. He also has an insane pain tolerance as when Thor hit him in the face he just grinned and then hit him back.

Instantaneous Regeneration: Despite his high resistance to physical harm, it is possible to cause the Hulk injury. However, Hulk is capable of regenerating damaged or destroyed areas of his body with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. Grievous bodily harm has also proven to be a trigger for Banner's transformations, and he has recovered from otherwise fatal injuries sustained in his normal form. Banner said he tried to put a bullet through his mouth but the "other guy" spit it out.
 * Retarded Aging: Hulk is almost ageless, meaning he could potentially outlive Banner.
 * Advanced Immunity: Hulk also has a enhanced immune system; Dr. Samuel Sterns described that a synthesized Banner's blood sample would make humans impervious to disease.

Superhuman Speed: Hulk is capable of running faster than a human; he was able to keep up with Blonsky (who was enhanced by the Vita Ray serum), and massively outrun the Black Widow.

Superhuman Reflexes: Hulk was able to catch a person ejecting out of a jet.

Abilities
Formidable Combatant: Hulk, while having no formal training, he is a formidable hand to hand combatant simply due to his great physical attributes. He typically uses street fighting and brawling techniques that make full use of his strength. With his strength and tenacity he is able to match Thor in a fight and never truly lose.
 * Formidable Weapon User: He also frequently employs pieces of his immediate environment to fight with, often to use as thrown objects to strike distant targets, and sometimes for melee attacks or protection.

Strength Scale
Class 100+ Superhuman Strength: The Hulk ability to get stronger with rage which gives him an almost limitless strength though his base level seems to be about 1 000 tons or higher due to him immediately stopping and essentially taking down a Leviathan (weighing about 1 000 tons and moving towards Banner/ Hulk) after transforming... he doesn't really have a strength limit, his strength is virtually limitless.

Relationships
Bruce Banner - Alter-ego
 * Betty Ross - Ally
 * Military - Enemies
 * General Thaddeus "Thunder" Ross - Enemy
 * Emil Blonsky/ Abomination - Enemy
 * Samuel Sterns - Ally turned Enemy
 * Steve Rogers/ Captain America - Avengers teammate and team leader
 * Tony Stark/ Iron Man - Avengers teammate
 * Thor Odinson - Avengers teammate
 * Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow - Avengers teammate
 * Clint Burton/ Hawkeye - Avengers teammate
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. - Allies
 * Nick Fury - Ally
 * Phil Coulson - Ally
 * Dr. Erik Selvig - Ally
 * Loki Laufeyson - Enemy
 * Chitauri - Enemies

Appearances/ Actors
Marvel Cinematic Universe (3 films)
 * The Incredible Hulk (The Film; first appearance) - Edward Norton
 * Iron Man 2 (cameo, footage from The Incredible Hulk) Edward Norton
 * The Avengers - Mark Ruffalo

Behind the Scenes

 * The alternate opening to The Incredible Hulk where Banner attempts to commit suicide is referenced in The Avengers; when Banner begins to describe his "secret" to the other Avengers on the Helicarrier, he says "I took a gun and put a bullet in my mouth. The other guy spit it out." This is likely a reference many did not understand since the alternate scene is only known about by people who watched it over the internet or home release.
 * In the 2008 film the character was played by Edward Norton; Lou Ferrigno, who played the Hulk with Bill Bixby, remarked Norton "has a similar physique, similar personality. Ed is a very fine actor and it adds tremendous credibility for him to be involved with the movie".
 * According to Kurt Williams, the visual effects supervisor for the 2008 film, they decided it was important to make The Hulk a consistent size throughout the film.

Related Topics

 * Hulk (1977 - Johnsonverse)
 * Hulk (2003 - Leeverse)