There is no disputing that since its debut in 1962, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created it, the work has gone by a number of names. Fans who are familiar with the character will be aware that Dr. Bruce Banner, dubbed the Hulk, is made up of a variety of altered personalities that began manifesting in the physical world in the form of multiple Hulks after his unintentional exposure to gamma rays. Remember that each alter is a distinct personality brought on by a particular feeling or experience.
This gets us to the video we will be looking at today, in which we will examine the top 13 alternate selves of the Hulk. You prepared? Do this now!
Bruce Banner – The Theoretical Physicist
Bruce Banner was severely mistreated as a youngster by his father, Dr. Brian Banner, who thought that his son was the product of his own DNA being mutated during an unintentional overload of nuclear radiation equipment. Bruce was born to Dr. Brian Banner and Rebecca. For Rebecca, the situation was entirely the opposite; she adored her son with all of her heart, which finally made Brian envious. In fact, he actually killed his own wife in front of Bruce at one time when his emotions turned violent. Bruce was transferred to live with his aunt while Brian was committed to a mental health facility as punishment for his behavior.
Bruce, however, was clearly affected by the trauma of his mother’s passing and his father’s violence, and it goes without saying that he was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. His passion in nuclear physics led him to receive numerous awards from numerous top universities and eventually got him a doctorate at Caltech; this went untreated for a few years. Bruce, who was undoubtedly a prodigy in his profession, desired to further charitable scientific causes.
However, on not getting financial funding to back his projects, he chose to work at a US Defense Department nuclear research facility at Desert Base in New Mexico. This is precisely where he encountered General Thaddeus Ross and his daughter Betty. The General employed him to develop the first Gamma Bomb and it was during the initial live test that he inadvertently got irradiated further mutating into a mindless, green giant – charged with pure rage and physical strength.
Savage Hulk – The Classic One
Not to be confused with the Mindless Hulk, this one here happens to be the most destructive and sabre-rattling alter ego of Hulk. His child-like comprehension of the world, add to that his brutish intellect, limited vocabulary – we are particularly stressing on his popular ‘Hulk Smash’ dialogue, Savage Hulk is basically the inner child of Bruce Banner expressed in a giant physical form. To be honest, it is the part of Bruce that never really got to live childhood solely because of the trauma that he had to endure right from a very early age.
It is reported that this altered personality came into being when Bruce was only six years old but back then he had his emotions suppressed. So, you can imagine that if there happens to be one thing that this altered personality is aware of, it is rage. The angrier he gets, the stronger he becomes and there is no limit to his exceptional stamina.
Savage Hulk is more inclined towards putting at risk the lives of innocent people along with other superheroes. All you need is to make him angry and there is no-one that can survive his wrath. Every bit of his brainpower is put into fully ravaging anything that gets in his way. Please note that he has barely ever attacked women or children intentionally.
As a founding member of the Avengers, the only thing that he wishes is to be left alone and loved, may we add!
Devil Hulk – The Beast
One of the very first altered personalities that Bruce created in his mind whilst being abused by his father, Devil Hulk in the beginning served as a comforting figure. Of course, young Bruce craved for a father figure, one that would be affectionate towards him and at the same time be protective of him. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with his own father. Brian Banner’s abusive nature towards Bruce had this altered personality take on many facets of the young boy’s fear. So, what we basically have here is someone who bears a resemblance to a saurian, has scaly rough skin, glowing red eyes and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.
Post Bruce’s exposure to the gamma bomb, he is often seen transforming into the Devil Hulk and making regular appearances in the real world. In fact, if we take a look at some of Hulk’s initial comic book appearances, you will notice how Devil Hulk took control of Bruce and came out at night. He might look daunting and appear to be exceedingly ruthless and rancorous but all he really wants is to safeguard Bruce from every bit of harm and for that, he can go to great extents. Mind you, he isn’t just about muscles; he’s got the brains too – you cannot disregard the fact that he is in possession of Banner’s intellect.
We are not sure how many of you know this but the Devil Hulk had once broken Thor’s skull demonstrating his level of violence and to take things a notch higher, he had even wished to eradicate humanity. Fair to say, Devil Hulk is Bruce Banner’s inner evil and you most certainly would not want to irate him.
Joe Fixit – The Strategic One
Stan Lee invariably wanted Hulk to be gray but call it an ink problem that Hulk became a green goliath instead. Even the first appearance back in 1962 was justified calling it an altered personality attempting to gain control of Banner’s mind. Well, credits to Peter David for expanding the Bill Mantlo storyline and broadening the part showing Banner afflicted with Dissociative Identity Disorder. In fact, David’s stories exhibited Banner having pressing mental problems long before he became Hulk. David reconstructed the personality giving it a nice twist and there we have Joe Fixit – the ultimate Las Vegas leg-breaker with an epic sartorial sense.
For those of you who are trying to connect things here, let’s rewind a bit. When Bruce was young, he watched a couple of mobster movies and upon seeing them, he yearned to be as crafty, tough and immoral as the characters – precisely, what Joe Fixit turned out to be. This altered personality here does all the things that Bruce could not even imagine himself doing. Speaking of his appearance, his grey head will remind you of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein. Of course, he is in possession of ‘the angrier he gets, the stronger he becomes’ ability but unlike the other Hulks out there, it happens at a gradual rate. Instead, he likes to resort to his intelligence and reasoning skills to get out of trouble.
Mindless Hulk – The Uncontrollable One
The only emotion that he understands is rage and he feels that all the time – say hello to the one that simply cannot be reasoned. Intended to inflict the utmost level of damage and destruction, Mindless Hulk stays true to his name. Every sense of Banner is lost when Mindless Hulk takes over; he is violent, he is unpredictable and he is exceptionally strong.
Credits are given to the overlord of the Dream dimension, Nightmare, who is often believed to be the reason behind the creation of this personality here. It was Nightmare, who made use of Banner’s personal fears of what Hulk might end up doing and simply surfaced them. A lot of you will actually be surprised to know that it was Nightmare who set him free in public, which of course led to a complete massacre followed by a fierce battle with the Avengers later on. Had Doctor Strange not intervened and successfully guided Banner to take back control of himself banishing the Mindless Hulk personality to the crossroads of dimensions, we doubt if anybody could have survived his fury.
Merged Hulk – Professor Hulk
Going by the name here, Merged Hulk happens to be a merger of three main personalities – Bruce Banner, Savage Hulk and Joe Fixit. This brand new alter not only brought all the personalities together but also reflected their best aspects. Boasting a size bigger than most of the other Hulks, a higher base strength level and Banner’s intellect, the Merged Hulk even led his own team of superheroes calling themselves the Pantheon.
A closer look into his face and you will realize that he looks a lot like Banner himself. The Merged Hulk was later revised into Professor Hulk, one who defined himself as a separate ‘fourth’ personality, whilst portraying himself as Banner’s ideal self.
Now, coming to Bruce, looking at the combined personalities all blended into one, his subconscious fear led him to install a safeguard within the Professor so that when the latter got a bit too angry, he would transform back into Banner but with the mind and personality of the Savage Hulk. In spite of being the biggest in size, this particular thing automatically makes him the weakest of the three alters which of course, is a big drawback.
Guilt Hulk – The Nasty One
Standing 20 meters tall, boasting claws and spikes all over the body and an ability to breathe fire, Guilt Hulk easily proved himself to be one of the most menacing altered personalities that was embedded deep inside the minds of Bruce. He represented all of Banner’s remorse and regret; the former over things that he had no control over and the latter over the daily rampages that the Hulk engaged himself in.
With Dr. Leonard Samson attempting to cure Banner of his Dissociative Identity Disorder by entering inside his disturbed mind, he crossed paths with this altered personality for the first time. Initially, Guilt Hulk took the form of Bruce’s father but post the temporary demise of Betty, he took a rather nasty, monstrous form. We are so glad that he has hardly ever exhibited himself in the real world and credits to the collective efforts of a few altered personalities that Guilt Hulk was eventually prevented from taking full control over Banner. Dr. Samson along with Banner later created a prison within the latter’s mind confining Guilt Hulk there permanently.
Green Scar – Sakaarson
There came a time when Hulk’s allies on Earth came to a joint decision that he was becoming a tad too dangerous to be roaming around and therefore ended up putting him or let’s say tricking him into a space shuttle with the solitary purpose of sending him to a peaceful world. No points for guessing before the shuttle could reach its planned destination, Hulk goes into a fit of rage and veers the shuttle off course, crash-landing on the planet, Sakaar. He is taken as a prisoner and thrown into gladiator pits to fight for his freedom.
Eventually, he becomes a champion at the gladiator games and ends up overthrowing the tyrannical Red King. Next, he takes over his throne and also ends up marrying the late emperor’s lieutenant, Caiera. The people of the planet by then had already started addressing him as ‘Sakaarson’ aka Green Scar. The new title came with a new responsibility. It was no longer just anger that he had on display; while it is true that he was driven by fury but let’s not disregard the fact that time spent in Sakaar taught him to become both tolerant as well as calculative.
World Breaker Hulk – The Avenging Conquistador
It is important that we look at the narrative before addressing this altered personality here as the next level of Green Scar. Well, as the ruler of Sakaar, Hulk was quite convinced that he had finally found balance. After all, he did marry Caiera, both of them were even expecting a child together and most importantly, he was also able to find a new inner peace. What could possibly go wrong? The fact that the space shuttle which had brought him to Sakaar blew apart resulting not only in the destruction of his planet but also the death of Caiera along with their unborn child.
It goes without saying that he is seen to be in his most powerful form and angriest too may we add! Every bit of his meditation training vanished in a trice and all one could see in him was his fury. As the World Breaker Hulk, he ended up absorbing the planet’s radiation and transformed himself into a living cosmic bomb, one that was capable of literally destroying planets.
No points for guessing, his primary target was Earth, the members of the Illuminati to be more precise and he simply initiated a war against them. Right from the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men to Juggernaut, Ghost Rider and also the US Army, everybody faced his wrath.
While the final revelation that it was Miek who was responsible for the detonation and not the Illuminati did put a halt to his crusade, the disclosure made him furious to appoint that he was almost about to wipe out the planet. Had the Sentry not intervened, the world would have turned into a graveyard for sure.
Doc Green – The Upgraded One
There was a time when Bruce Banner while working for S.H.I.E.L.D. ended up getting shot in the back of his head. The bullet wound makes Banner incomprehensible and each time he transforms into the Hulk, there is a high possibility that he might never come back to his Banner form.
Enter Tony Stark in the picture and he decides to implant the newly enhanced Extremis virus into his brain and voila, we have another altered personality who only goes by the name, Doc Green! Mind you, he absolutely despises being addressed as Banner or even Hulk for that matter. Much like the Professor Hulk altered persona, this one also likes to think of himself as an entirely separate identity boasting both exceeding levels of intelligence as well as strength. He is seen developing an antidote with an aim to depower every other Gamma Mutate.
This includes A-Bomb, Skaar as well as She-Hulk. However, with the Extremis virus wearing off its effects, his control over the shared body of Banner becomes weak. While Doc Green is able to create an A.I. version of himself with the sole purpose of keeping Banner in check, the duplicate personality turns against him post realizing that he isn’t as ‘intelligent’ as before.
Kluh – The Hulks’s Hulk
Imagine a Hulk that’s powered by sadness, you do realize where we are heading with this, right? We all know Banner has had more reasons to be sad than angry which easily proves how powerful and dangerous Kluh turned out to be once he took control. As per the AXIS storyline, Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom’s inversion spell flipped the moralities of not just superheroes but also supervillains.
In short, Hulk was turned into Kluh retaining most of the former’s abilities and add to that a more muscular physique, black skin with red lines, deadly claws and a white Mohawk. For someone, whose sole mission is to cause as much carnage as possible or in his words, ‘bathe in the blood of the innocent’, he surely did cut a swathe through the Avengers.
The barbarous Kluh conclusively comes under the category of the most wicked altered personality of Hulk showing traits of even being cannibalistic in nature. He is shown to bite off and eat Sam Alexander’s arm with not even the slightest bit of hesitation or remorse for that matter.
Thanks to Doctor Doom and Scarlet Witch for bringing an end to Kluh by reversing their inversion spell and rendering Hulk back to normal.
Nul – The Hammer Hulk
With the Serpent invading Midgard and bringing along a set of mystical war hammers, he rains them down upon Earth to seek out the Worthy or in other words, Serpent’s elite vanguards and agents of destruction. The task of the Worthy was to aid the Serpent in spreading fear. After the Hammer of Nul fell in Brazil, it caught the attention of Hulk. No points for guessing, he was obviously drawn to the hammer and upon wielding the hammer, he was eventually transformed into Nul, Breaker of Worlds.
Of course, he went on a rampage with the sole purpose of spreading fear. The Nul-possessed Hulk is seen engaging himself in a battle with Red She-Hulk and also going to the extent of attacking Dracula’s Romanian castle. Clearly, the other alters within him weren’t too happy and with Nul forcing them into the background, they eventually started fighting back for control. This resulted in the hammer getting ultimately destroyed and Hulk breaking free of Nul’s control over him for good.
Titan Hulk – The Deadliest
Imagine a persona strong enough to take control of Bruce and then turn him against the Hulk, eventually leading Banner to imprison the Savage Hulk in his mindscape and taking over the Hulk. Next, the persona is seen pretending to be Betty Ross and taking charge of Spaceship Hulk and thus causing the Hulk to transform into the monstrous Titan. This leaves Banner no choice but to let loose the Savage Hulk out of sheer desperation.
Titan is defeated and Banner is seen imprisoning the Savage Hulk back in his mindscape. However, despite the earlier defeat of the Titan, he survived and kept communicating under the guise of Betty. The Titan is easily able to infect others making use of Banner’s rage and further causes them to lose control. The Titan while possessing control of Hulk, bragged a colossal height of at least 30 feet with black skin and solid rock-like protrusions projecting from his shoulders and thereby erupting energy blasts.