Warning: Spoilers for Hulk and Dr. Strange #1!With one origin story alteration, Marvel finally answers an age-old fan question regarding the Hulk. It's often debated among fans and touched on thematically in his stories whether the Hulk is truly a hero or just a monster. By extension, fans have wondered if the Hulk's status makes Bruce Banner more of a man or monster. It's been the ultimate question within Hulk lore, and now, it has an answer.

In Hulk and Dr. Strange #1, Marvel reveals that the Hulk is more than just a hero, man, or monster; instead, he's "life incarnate," harboring a "rage against a dying light." The story centers around Bruce Banner at a crossroads, unable to answer that same ultimate question for himself.

To find the clarity he hopes to seek, Strange astral projects Bruce's spirit back to the day he became the Hulk. It is at this time that Bruce is able to rediscover exactly what he was thinking at that moment. Above all, Hulk and Banner are one and the same.

"I Reject Death! And I Embrace Life!": Bruce Banner Is Repackaged in New Hulk Origin Story

Hulk and Dr. Strange #1 by J. Michael Straczynski and German Peralta

Hulk and Dr. Strange #1 sees Bruce Banner struggling with a conundrum. He theorizes that anyone who gains Gamma rays like he did becomes more of what they already were before. It's a misconception to say that every Hulk is driven by anger. Jennifer Walters didn't have anger issues, but as She-Hulk, she became an even more efficient, more ionate lawyer. Similarly, Amadeus Cho gains advanced control as Brawn, while Emil Blonsky as The Abomination is just a bigger jerk than he already was before.

Bruce fears that since he turns into a raging monster, it may only amplify the bad person he suspects himself to be. He questions whether the Hulk ever wonders who Bruce really is, rather than just an identity separate from him. When Strange sends Bruce back in time, it allows him to revisit the day he saved Rick Jones and took his place in the Gamma accident while also reading through his past self's thoughts as every moment es. While offering a monologue of what went through his head that day, present-day Bruce narrates the following:

I reject death! And I embrace - life! I stand for life ... the riot and the violence of life against the silence and darkness of the void, against death and those who bring it to those who do not deserve it, against pain, against hurt. I am stronger than anyone who would hurt me. I am more dangerous than anything that would kill me. I am fury and force and I am life incarnate. Indomitable. Untamable. Ferocious. Unstoppable. And as the other guy is born inside me, the two becoming one, the one becoming two, his presence and his fury seared into my DNA, I a line from a poem I read in high school. "Rage. Rage. Rage against the dying of light."

The Hulk Isn't Just a Hero or Monster: He's a Survivalist

Bruce Banner Becomes the Hulk Out of Survival, Not Just Anger

It's worth noting that just before the monologue and just before he transforms, Bruce Banner had multiple thoughts racing through his head. Not just the fear of potentially dying, but the anger at everything he would be missing out on by dying. His instincts tell him to survive by any means necessary. Survival seems to be on Bruce's mind, not only for himself, but for Rick Jones, as he shoves the pedestrian out of harm's way out of instinct. Then, as his ultimate survival tactic, Bruce transforms into the Hulk.

Bruce Banner's official origin story first appears in The Incredible Hulk #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Keeping Bruce’s theory in mind, that becoming the Hulk amplifies a person's core traits, his transformation is revealed to be more than just a reaction to anger. At his core, Bruce Banner is a survivalist. When faced with the threat of Gamma radiation, his fear and will to survive caused him to become the strongest version of himself. This ensured his survival and reframed his transformations over the years. Bruce does not turn into the Hulk only when he is angry. He transforms whenever his life is in danger, showing an instinctive refusal to accept death.

Hulk and Bruce Banner Are Not Opposites But Rather One Survivor in Two Forms

Hulk Exists Because of Bruce, and Bruce Survives Because of Hulk

Marvel has often dabbled with the idea that Hulk and Bruce Banner are separate entities, but this re-evaluation of his origin story suggests the opposite. Even in acknowledging Bruce's canonical Dissociative Identity Disorder, Hulk is still a necessary extension of Bruce. Bruce even its this himself as he re his origins as "the two becoming one, the one becoming two." Being the Hulk allows Bruce Banner to be the hero he was always capable of being, but perhaps lacked the physical prowess or even the bravery to do so until he saves Rick Jones.

Hulk can't be Hulk without Bruce Banner, and Banner can't be Banner without the Hulk. Hulk carries with him the genius and sense of justice that Bruce always harbored, while the monstrous fury of the Hulk burned within Banner long before going green. Bruce's fears of being a bad person stem from his own discomfort about what an enraged Hulk is capable of. Even if the two entities mutually hate each other, they need each other to lean on the other's strengths. The Hulk is Bruce Banner's chance at surviving in a world that is constantly trying to kill him.

Hulk and Dr. Strange #1 is available now from Marvel Comics!