Every Type Of Hulk Bruce Banner Has Become Explained

The Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing redefined how fans looked at The Incredible Hulk. Taking the character back to his horror roots while also diving into Banner’s dissociative identity disorder, The Immortal Hulk has become a cornerstone of Hulk’s lore, recontextualizing the history of the character and bringing a lot of nuance to the dichotomy between Bruce Banner and the Hulk.

However, subsequent stories have caused slight confusion about what counts as an alter for the Hulk and what doesn’t. There are personalities that The Hulk and Bruce Banner have developed internally, while there have been external forces that have invaded the system to install new personalities into his body. There have been power-ups, boosts, and enhancements that sometimes get billed as separate alters, but aren’t.

It can be difficult to discern which of these are part of Bruce’s system and which are not. The aim of the article is to try to set the record straight, given the vast and complex history of the character and how it has been woven together by The Immortal Hulk.

Every Personality Bruce Banner Developed Internally- Explained

These are the alters that exist in Bruce’s mindscape, which, at various times, take over as the main personality given the environment. While casual fans might read Bruce Banner and The Hulk as the only two innate personalities, long-time comic fans are wholly aware of the fluctuating heights, intelligences, and even colors that have come with Hulk transformations over the past years. Al Ewing and some subsequent stories have set the record straight for at least 10 such personalities.

First, of course, is Bruce Banner. He is the host for the system. Then comes the Big Guy, more popularly known as The Savage Hulk. This is the Hulk that fans are most familiar with. Also called The Child. This Hulk is said to have formed directly as a response to Brian Banner’s killing of Bruce’s mother. The Hulk that has no influence from Banner (when he is subdued enough) is called the Mindless Hulk, a being of pure instinct and rage.

Joe Fixit is the Gray Hulk, who is much smaller than The Child. Fixit is interesting because he is the only Hulk who has an entire life distinct from Bruce Banner. Combining the intelligence of Bruce Banner, the cunning of Joe Fixit, and the brute, unfiltered strength of the Hulk results in The Professor, the idealized version of Bruce Banner. However, it would turn out that this was actually a third alter made by Doc Samson, in a bid to bury the other alters and allow Bruce to live a good life.

Apart from these, there exists The Green Scar, who is a personality that Hulk developed during the events of Planet Hulk. He is a brilliant warrior and a master tactician, playing the role of a Barbarian king, similar to Conan. Then comes the Devil Hulk, who was the first Hulk to ever manifest out of Banner. Equal parts a loving father figure and a horror monster, Devil Hulk, while manifesting as a giant version of Hulk, has also been conceived by Bruce as a reptilian monster, given that he couldn’t imagine love without pain.

The last of the core personalities is the Fractured Son, who dedicates his life to making Bruce’s life hell. Apart from him, in the time between Civil War II and The Immortal Hulk, Hydra managed to resurrect a version of The Hulk who had a distinct personality as well, but not much is known about him. There is also Guilt Hulk, which is a Xenomorph-type entity that embodies Banner’s guilt and shame.

Personalities That Bruce Banner Developed Through External Means

The Hulk, Bruce Banner, and their various alters, when in the driver’s seat, have been possessed, controlled, and puppeted by various entities. These powers and entities have entered their mindscape, generating versions of the Hulk that cease to exist after they are expelled from the system. These ‘altered’ Hulks are usually used by villains to fight in their stead, either as a mindless brute or as a warrior similar to the Green Scar.

Doc Green is the personality that develops when Bruce is shown in the head, and Tony Stark is forced to use Extremis to save him. He doesn’t like being called Hulk or Banner and is way smarter than Bruce ever was. Ewing depicted him as an altered, enhanced version of Savage Hulk, rather than a separate alter in his own right. Kluh was actually the result of a spell that switched the moralities of heroes and villains during the Axis event. So he is polite and destructive all the time, as opposed to The Hulk, who is rude and only destructive sometimes.

Titan seemed like he was a new alter, being an entity that manifests when the Hulk gets angry. However, given that it was actually a personality that The Leader created through the Below Place, it wouldn’t exist naturally. The Eldest outsourced Banner’s personality, the Host’s personality from his body, to create the Infernal Hulk. Similarly, he was possessed by the Hammer of Nul when he became Nul, Breaker of Worlds. Dark Hulk is Hulk when he is possessed by Shanzar, the Sorcerer Supreme of the universe. This renders The Big Guy black.

Hulk has also served as Apocalypse’s incarnation of War, and was similarly enhanced has his Horsemen often are.

Every Form Of Hulk That Is Not An Alter

There have been alterations that Banner has developed himself, and a few that have developed when other entities have invaded his head. However, there have been certain forms of the Hulk that are not alters at all, but simply power-ups and boosts that don’t result in a different personality.

Worldbreaker is a title that is often given to The Hulk when he is the Green Scar. However, it is also the title of the character when he reaches critical mass, a monstrous form of the Hulk that is a walking nuclear reaction, causing earthquakes with each breath and typhoons with each breath. Starship Hulk is a version of The Big Guy where his body is controlled by Bruce Banner, while he keeps the body running by fighting monsters and villains in the mindscape. This version is cybernetically enhanced to aid in the arrangement.

Blue Hulk is just The Big Guy hopped up on The Unipower. Savage Banner was a failsafe that Bruce put in place so that the Savage Hulk could never have access to The Professor’s body. If Professor Hulk got too mad, Savage Hulk would take over, and his body would revert to being that of human Banner.

Sunshine Joe is another name that was taken up by Joe Fixit, less of a villain than his Fixit counterpart. This character has the unique ability to take up Bruce’s body, born from Bruce’s exposure to mobster films.

Maestro and The Breaker of Worlds (distinct from Worldbreaker and Nul) are two alternate futures of Banner. Maestro is a future version of the Hulk with Banner’s intelligence, who is tempered by the post-apocalyptic future that humanity created for itself. Breaker of Worlds is the logical extreme of the Hulk, becoming the ultimate destructive force in the universe. The Uberhulk another ‘Hulk hulks out’ scenario where an extra gamma bomb beefs up The Big Guy a little more.

Do you think we missed an alter or a version? Let us know in the comments!