Who created the character The Hulk?
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The Hulk is a fictional superhero appearing in publications by the American publisher Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of "The Incredible Hulk" (May 1962). In his comic book appearances, the character is both the Hulk, a green-skinned, hulking and muscular humanoid possessing a vast degree of physical strength, and his alter ego Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved physicist, the two existing as independent personalities and resenting of the other.
Hulk
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She-Hulk was created by Stan Lee, who wrote only the first issue, and was the last character he created for Marvel Comics until his return to comics with "Ravage 2099" in 1992. The reason behind the character's creation had to do with the success of "The Incredible Hulk" (1977–82) and "The Bionic Woman" TV series. Marvel was afraid that the show's executives might suddenly introduce a female version of the Hulk, as had been done with "The Six Million Dollar Man", so Marvel decided to publish their own version of such a character to make sure that if a similar one showed up in the TV series, Marvel would own the rights.
She-Hulk
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For the "Marvel 2099" imprint, Gerard Jones and Dwayne Turner created a new version of the character. First appearing in "2099 Unlimited" #1, John Eisenhart, a selfish film producer in "LotusLand" (future Hollywood) is inadvertently exposed to gamma radiation by the Knights of the Banner (a cult worshipping the original Hulk) who intend to create a Hulk of their own. As the Hulk, Eisenhart finds himself representing freedom to a closed-off society. A "Hulk 2099" series was published for 10 issues.
Alternative versions of the Hulk
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ILM, who worked on previous incarnations of the Hulk, had to add much more detail to the character's facial features in "Ragnarok" due to the Hulk's increased dialogue. ILM visual effects supervisor Chad Wiebe explained that Ruffalo's expressions were captured fresh for the film using Medusa, a performance capture technology. With 90 different expressions captured, ILM "built an entirely new library that would allow [Hulk] to cover a full range of normal human visual characteristics." To help create the Hulk, a person on set was covered in green body paint, and would replicate the intended motions of the character to aid the visual effect artists. Additionally, stunt actor Paul Lowe, who is under tall, stood in for Hemsworth during some of his interactions with the Hulk so that the Hulk's stunt men would be proportionally correct. In some instances when Thor and the Hulk interacted, a digital double was used for Thor, also created by ILM, to have greater flexibility for the shots. ILM worked on all of the Hulk moments in the film outside the final fight sequence, which was completed by Framestore using ILM's assets, as Framestore was primarily responsible for rigging that sequence. Framestore completed nearly 460 shots, which featured digital doubles of Thor and Hela, Fenris, Korg, Miek, the giant Surtur at the end of the film, and over 9,000 buildings for Asgard, based on assets D Negative had from "The Dark World", resulting in over 263 character, vehicle, prop, and crowd rigs.
Thor: Ragnarok
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Over the long publication history of the Hulk's adventures, many recurring characters have featured prominently, including his best friend and sidekick Rick Jones, love interest and wife Betty Ross and her father, the often adversarial General "Thunderbolt" Ross. Both Banner and Hulk have families created in their respective personas. Banner is son to Brian, an abusive father who killed Banner's mother while she tried to protect her son from his father's delusional attacks, and cousin to Jennifer Walters, the She-Hulk, who serves as his frequent ally. Banner had a stillborn child with Betty, while the Hulk has two sons with his deceased second wife Caiera Oldstrong, Skaar and Hiro-Kala, and his DNA was used to create a daughter named Lyra with Thundra the warrior woman.
Hulk
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Among the characters co-created by Trimpe during his run on the title were Jim Wilson in issue #131 (Sept. 1970) and Doc Samson in #141 (July 1971). During his time on the comic, he became the first artist to draw for publication the character Wolverine, who would go on to become one of Marvel's most popular. The character was conceived by Roy Thomas, written by Len Wein and designed by Marvel de facto art director John Romita, Sr., was an antagonist for the Hulk, introduced in the last panel of "The Incredible Hulk" vol. 2, #180 (Oct. 1974) and making his first full appearance the following issue. Trimpe in 2009 said he "distinctly remembers" Romita's sketch, and that, "The way I see it, [Romita and writer Len Wein] sewed the monster together and I shocked it to life! ... It was just one of those secondary or tertiary characters, actually, that we were using in that particular book with no particular notion of it going anywhere. We did characters in "The [Incredible] Hulk" all the time that were in [particular] issues and that was the end of them." Trimpe co-created nearly all of the characters introduced during his run on "The Incredible Hulk", with Wolverine being a rare exception.
Herb Trimpe
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Kirby, commenting upon his influences in drawing the character, recalled as inspiration the tale of a mother who rescues her child who is trapped beneath a car. Lee has also compared Hulk to the Golem of Jewish mythology. In "The Science of Superheroes", Gresh and Weinberg see the Hulk as a reaction to the Cold War and the threat of nuclear attack, an interpretation shared by Weinstein in "Up, Up and Oy Vey". This interpretation corresponds with other popularized fictional media created during this time period, which took advantage of the prevailing sense among Americans that nuclear power could produce monsters and mutants.
Hulk
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During his 12-year run on "Hulk", David explored the recurring themes of the Hulk's multiple personality disorder, his periodic changes between the more rageful and less intelligent Green Hulk and the more streetwise, cerebral Gray Hulk, and of being a journeyman hero, which were inspired by "The Incredible Hulk" #312 (October 1985), in which writer Bill Mantlo (and possibly, according to David, Barry Windsor-Smith) had first established that Banner had suffered childhood abuse at the hands of his father. These aspects of the character would later be used in the 2003 feature film adaptation by screenwriter Michael France and director Ang Lee. Comic Book Resources credits David with making the formerly poor-selling book "a must-read mega-hit". David collaborated with a number of artists who became fan-favorites on the series, including Todd McFarlane, Dale Keown and Gary Frank. Among the new characters he created during his run on the series were the Riot Squad and the Pantheon. David wrote the first appearance of the Thunderbolts, a team created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, in "The Incredible Hulk" #449 (January 1997).
Peter David
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For "Thor: Ragnarok", ILM had to add much more detail to the character's facial features, due to the Hulk's increased dialogue. ILM visual effects supervisor Chad Wiebe explained that Ruffalo's expressions were captured fresh for the film using Medusa, a performance capture technology. With 90 different expressions captured, ILM "built an entirely new library that would allow [Hulk] to cover a full range of normal human visual characteristics." To help create the Hulk, a person on set was covered in green body paint, and would replicate the intended motions of the character to aid the visual effect artists. Additionally, stunt actor Paul Lowe, who is under tall, stood in for Hemsworth during some of his interactions with the Hulk so that the Hulk's stunt men would be proportionally correct. In some instances when Thor and the Hulk interacted, a digital double was used for Thor, also created by ILM, to have greater flexibility for the shots. ILM worked on all of the Hulk moments in the film outside the final fight sequence, which was completed by Framestore using ILM's assets, as Framestore was primarily responsible for rigging that sequence. Framestore completed nearly 460 shots, which featured digital doubles of Thor and Hela, Fenris, Korg, Miek, the giant Surtur at the end of the film, and over 9,000 buildings for Asgard, based on assets D Negative had from "The Dark World", resulting in over 263 character, vehicle, prop, and crowd rigs. Taika Waititi also provided additional motion capture for the Hulk after Ruffalo had completed his scenes.
Bruce Banner (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
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The Hulk appeared in the 1978–1982 live action television series, "The Incredible Hulk", and its subsequent television films. Created by Universal Studios, it starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk. It does not follow the comic book-fantasy format, omits the typical villains or supporting characters, and Hulk does not speak, but only growls and roars. In this series, David Banner becomes the Hulk, is assumed dead, and goes on the run while being pursued by tabloid investigative reporter Jack McGee (Jack Colvin), who is bent on proving that the creature exists. The two-hour pilot movie, which established the Hulk's origins, aired on November 4, 1977. The series was originally broadcast by CBS from March 10, 1978 to June 2, 1982, with eighty-two episodes in five seasons, and later followed by three television films.A sequel to 2008's "The Incredible Hulk" has been discussed, with Marvel Studios having suggested a possible release after 2015's "Avengers: Age of Ultron" due to the positive audience reception towards Ruffalo's portrayal of Bruce Banner in "The Avengers". Ruffalo is set to reprise his role in any future adaptation of the character. In June 2014, Ruffalo said he believed the studio might be considering doing a new standalone Hulk film, saying, "I think they are, for the first time, entertaining the idea of it. When we did "The Avengers" it was basically 'No!', and now there is some consideration for it. But there's still nothing definitive, not even a skeletal version of what it would be." In December 2014, Joss Whedon stated that, for the time being, a new solo Hulk film has not been announced or confirmed, due to Marvel wishing to have a character that only appears in "Avengers" films, despite the positive reception to Ruffalo. In April 2015, Ruffalo told Collider that Universal holding the distribution rights to Hulk films may be an obstacle to releasing a future Hulk standalone film. Two nights after the release of "Infinity War", fans started a petition for Marvel to extend Ruffalo's contract for him to appear in an "Incredible Hulk 2" and for Universal to let Disney have the distribution rights to any potential post-"Avengers 4" Hulk films and Disney, in return, give Universal, for each, a marquee credit (including placement of the studio's opening logo) and 8-9% of the profits as they have for Paramount with "The Avengers" and "Iron Man 3".
Pocket Books published two mass market paperback solo novels starring the character, "The Incredible Hulk: Stalker From the Stars" in 1978 and "The Incredible Hulk: Cry of the Beast" in 1979. The Hulk has appeared in the following novels:
Hulk in other media