Summary
- Hulk in Earth-65 hates Banner for being evil, a complete inversion of their original relationship in Earth-616.
- Banner becomes Hulk in Spider-Gwen: Smash, but to his dismay, he becomes a genuinely good person.
- The dynamic between Hulk and Banner in Earth-65 mirrors their current standing in Earth-616 continuity in The Incredible Hulk Vol. 4.
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Spider-Gwen: Smash #4! Bruce Banner’s relationship with the Hulk is depicted as a curse to Bruce, other times Banner is actively using the Hulk for his strength while stripping him of his free will, and sometimes the two are harmonious to the point of even sharing a personality. And now, the current state of their relationship is the exact opposite of what it was at the start of Bruce Banner and the Hulk’s Marvel Comics careers.
In Spider-Gwen: Smash #4 by Melissa Flores and Enid Balám, Ghost-Spider and Black Widow of Earth-65 are tracking down Bruce Banner after he kidnapped Mary Jane and Dazzler. In this universe, Banner is a mad scientist who’s obsessed with Dazzler. So, being the insane person he is in this world, Banner kidnaps Dazzler to run experiments on her (which he already did to Mary Jane). However, when Spider-Gwen and Black Widow showed up, Banner did something drastic: he blasted himself with gamma rays and became - for the first time in this reality - the Hulk.
Bruce Banner was hoping that he’d become a rage monster upon flooding his system with gamma rays, but instead, the villainous doctor became something he’d consider to be much worse: a genuinely good person. The Hulk (while still big and angry) hates Banner because he’s evil. So, when he meets Spider-Gwen and the rest, Hulk simply apologizes for Bruce’s actions, assures them that he vehemently objects to those actions, and invites them all to leave in peace without any more trouble.
The New Hulk's Identity is Finally Revealed, Confirming Bruce Banner Transformed a Major Ally
Marvel Comics recently introduced an all-new version of the Incredible Hulk who isn't Bruce Banner, and now, their identity has finally been revealed.
Hulk Hates Bruce Banner for Being a Monster (The Opposite of Their Original Relationship)
When Bruce Banner first became the Incredible Hulk, he saw his mutation as a curse - and he wasn’t wrong. The Hulk was the living embodiment of rage and destruction, and any time Bruce Banner transformed into the Hulk, there was a chance innocent people would be hurt. Indeed, even Loki knew how deadly the Hulk really was to those around him when the God of Mischief tried to use the Hulk to conquer the world.
The Hulk wasn’t even a welcome founding member of the Avengers, as he was all but kicked off the team in the second issue, and even fought the Avengers alongside Namor a few issues later. Skip ahead a few decades, and the Hulk is being sent off-world by the Illuminati due to the fact that he’s simply too dangerous to be allowed to live on Earth. Earth-616’s Hulk was originally a monster that lived inside of Bruce Banner, but on Earth-65, the opposite proved to be true.
Hulk’s Relationship with Banner in Earth-65 Mirrors their Current Standing in Earth-616
The Incredible Hulk Vol. 4 (2023) by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein
It’s interesting that the Hulk hates Banner in Earth-65 due to Bruce’s heartless scientific endeavors, because that’s exactly why the Hulk of Earth-616 hates Banner in the current Incredible Hulk continuity. In the previous run (Hulk Vol. 5 by Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley), Banner trapped Hulk within their shared psyche and put him through endless torture in order to have complete control over the Hulk’s physical form. Once the Hulk escaped this metaphysical prison, he vowed to make Banner pay for how he used his brilliant mind for evil - just like the Hulk in Spider-Gwen: Smash.
While the Hulk of Earth-616 and the Hulk of Earth-65 are currently in the same proverbial boat when it comes to their Banners, the relationship between the two will assuredly smooth over in Earth-616, whereas the Hulk in Spider-Gwen: Smash truly hates his Banner to his core. But the biggest takeaway here, however, is how the Hulk in Earth-65 sees his Banner versus how Bruce saw the Hulk originally in Earth-616, as they both believed they had a monster inside of them (and both of them were right).
Spider-Gwen: Smash #4 by Marvel Comics is available now.
