Caught in a gamma bomb explosion while trying to save the life of a teenager, Dr. Bruce Banner was transformed into the incredibly powerful creature called the Hulk. An all too often misunderstood hero, the angrier the Hulk gets, the stronger the Hulk gets.
Robert Bruce Banner was the son of an alcoholic who deeply hated him. Banner's mother showed much affection for her child, who returned her love, but this only served to fuel his father's rage. Dr. Brian Banner was an atomic physicist who worked on producing clean nuclear power as an energy source, but he was afraid his exposure to it mutated his son's genes. Bruce showed signs of high intelligence at an early age which strengthened his father's belief. Brian became abusive to Bruce and when his mother intervened, Brian murdered her. He frightened Bruce to keep quiet, but his own bragging landed him in a psychiatric institute.
As a child Bruce was withdrawn, possibly developing a split personality to help deal with his pain and rage. His only happiness came from spending time with his cousin Jennifer Walters. Bruce found it hard to develop friendships and often found himself on the receiving end of physical abuse at the hands of school bullies. One such incident sparked him to build and plant a bomb in the basement of his school. The bomb was a dud, and Bruce was expelled, but the military took notice of his genius. Eventually, Bruce earned a doctorate in nuclear physics and started a career with them.
Robert Bruce Banner
5' 9½" (Banner); 6'6" (gray Hulk); 7' – 8' (green/savageHulk); 7'6" (green/Professor Hulk)
128 lbs. (Banner); 900 lbs. (gray Hulk); 1,040 – 1,400 lbs.(green/savage Hulk); 1,150 lbs. (green/Professor Hulk)
The Hulk possesses an incredible level of superhuman physical ability. His capacity for physical strength is potentially limitless due to the fact that the Hulk's strength increases proportionally with his level of great emotional stress, anger in particular. The Hulk uses his superhumanly strong leg muscles to leap great distances. The Hulk has been known to cover hundreds of miles in a single bound and once leaped almost into orbit around the Earth.
Dr. Bruce Banner is a genius in nuclear physics, possessing a mind so brilliant that it cannot be measured on any known intelligence test. When Banner is the Hulk, Banner's consciousness is buried within the Hulk's, and can influence the Hulk's behavior only to a very limited extent.
Formerly Avengers, Defenders, Fantastic Four, Pantheon, Horsemen of Apocalypse, Warbound