Today, we look at the first time that the Hulk and Bruce Banner met each other, both in person and also in their mindscape!
In “When We First Met”, we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, “Avengers Assemble!” or the first appearance of Batman’s giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man’s face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.
This one is a request that came from reader Bob H., who asked, “Have you ever spotlighted the first encounter between Bruce Banner and the Hulk (or a Hulk, at any rate) within their shared mindscape? Peter David used this technique of getting the facets of the persona to interact, but I was wondering if writers prior to David ever employed it. If there’s already a “When We First Met” on it, could you let me know? And if not . . . well, I think it’s begging for an entry in the series.”
That’s a great question, Bob, but when I went to go write it up, I thought, “Hmmmm…that’s a bit of an esoteric headline, right?” So I figured we could do this as a two-fer! I’ll show both the first time that Bruce Banner and the Hulk met each other PERIOD and then also show the first time that they met in the mindscape, like Bob wants to know! Wow, all that extra content and for no extra charge!
As you most likely know, one of the key bits in the early days of the Hulk’s comic book was attempts to cure Banner from BEING the Hulk. In The Incredible Hulk #4 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers), Bruce Banner developed a gamma ray machine that could turn him from the Hulk into Banner (perennial superhero sidekick Rick Jones operated the machine when Banner was in Hulk form). However, while he could be cured permanently at this point, Banner decided there were times the Hulk was needed. Thus, he continued to use the machine to turn himself back into the Hulk, with Banner maintaining some semblance of control over the Hulk’s actions. However, the longer he remained the Hulk, the more he wanted to remain the Hulk. Additionally, the gamma ray machine took longer to turn him back, and became more and more painful, with each use.
In 1963’s Incredible Hulk #6, the final issue of the original “Hulk” series (it’s always interesting to think that the Hulk’s first series only lasted six issues!), Lee and artist Steve Ditko saw Banner use the gamma ray machine one last time. It didn’t work at first, kicking in after a delay, and Bruce ended the issue with a vow never to become the Hulk again.
That did not last long, of course. The Hulk soon appeared in The Avengers #1-4, Fantastic Four #25-26 and Amazing Spider-Man #14, and those issues all pretty much ignored the change in Hulk’s status quo. When the Hulk began his run as a featured character in Tales to Astonish #59 by Lee, Ayers and Paul Reinman (a year and a half after his first series ended), it was explained that Banner just eventually lost the ability to prevent himself from turning into the Hulk. Reed Richard and Banner put their minds together and came close to curing the Hulk in both Incredible Hulk #105 (by Stan Lee, Bill Everett, Roy Thomas, Marie Severin and George Tuska) and #122-123 (by Thomas and Herb Trimpe).
That leads us to 1970’s Incredible Hulk #130 (by Thomas and Trimpe), where the second-most famous expert in the field of radiation research, Dr Raoul Stoddard, developed an idea on how to cure Banner of being the Hulk. Banner’s old classmate, Stoddard developed a machine called the Gammatron.
He used it on Banner and it seemingly erased the Hulk, but in reality, he had actually split Hulk from Banner!
Banner eventually realized that the Hulk was still connected to him — even though they were separated, killing the Hulk would kill Banner, as well. However, Betty Ross theorized that they could keep the Hulk captured, allowing Banner to live his normal life. Banner wouldn’t trust that, so he tried to trick the Hulk into merging back into him; there was even a chance that the merger would erase the Hulk’s personality. Stoddard, realizing that that would mean Banner would once again be the top dog in the world of radiation research, tried to kill Banner instead. He failed to do so before the Hulk showed up and smacked him around, and in the next issue, with the help of Iron Man, Banner re-merged with the Hulk, only back to their normal set-up again.
Okay, so let’s fast-forward eight years to 1978’s Incredible Hulk #227 (by Roger Stern, Peter Gillis, Sal Buscema and Klaus Janson), where Doc Samson uses an experimental machine that will allow the gamma-powered psychiatrist to literally enter Hulk’s mind…
This was major stuff by Stern (perhaps working from a suggestion by Gillis? Or maybe Gillis came up with something else in the issue? I have no idea what the credit to Gillis is. Maybe he lent Stern five bucks for lunch the day Stern wrote the issue), seeing Hulk look back upon Banner’s past and react to it. The “problem,” as it were, is that the childhood trauma stuff that Barry Windsor-Smith later came up (which was then…ahem…adapted by Bill Mantlo) had not yet been established, so this stuff looks kind of funny now, with what we later know about the Hulk’s childhood issues.
In any event, Hulk eventually finds Banner and wants to kill him…
The feeling is mutual and Samson can’t get them to try to have a dialogue with each other (the same dialogue that they later WOULD famously have in Peter David’s run on the series) and so the visit to the Hulk’s mind ends when Banner and the Hulk attack each other with so much force that it ends the simulation (and the energy needed to power this whole exercise leaves Banner trapped as the Hulk for a WEEK!).
There ya go, Bob! Thanks for the request! I love interesting requests!
If anyone else has a suggestion for/question about a notable comic book first, drop me a line at [email protected]! And if you think I missed an earlier mindcape instance, feel free to drop me a line about that, as well.
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