Bruce Banner is Never Going to Escape the Hulk (And That’s a Problem)

The oldest Hulk story is one where Bruce Banner attempts to find a way to cure himself of his gamma-powered other half. Ever since he discovered that his rage (and occasionally the fall of night) turned him into a nigh-uncontrollable monster, Banner has sought to stop his transformations and save the world from the savagery of the Hulk. This makes sense, and some incredible stories have come from this structure, but the problem is that it keeps happening. Banner and Hulk are stuck in an endlessly repeating cycle that, at this point, only holds both of them back. Bruce Banner cannot be separated from the Hulk, and trying to push it only hurts their characters.

Repetitive Arcs Destroy Growth

Like I said, the oldest Hulk story is about Banner trying to separate them, but that worked because it was the first one. Banner and Hulk had a great dynamic where Bruce fought to rid himself of what he saw as a dangerous curse, and the Hulk fought to survive and live a life he wanted. Over time, however, that dynamic evolved. Banner and the Hulk have accepted each other multiple times over the years, such as when they merged their consciousnesses into the Professor Hulk persona, or worked together to become a great warworld in Planet Hulk. These moments of them coming together are typically seen as markers of growth, with Professor Hulk being the ultimate signifier that Banner had accepted every part of himself and become the best person he could be. A constant shift back to status quo is the norm for comic books, but unlike characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men, Hulk’s status quo is the beginning of a character arc. Thus, the reset not only eliminates all the progress he made, it also forces him to constantly tread through the same realization again and again.

Beyond the characterization reason the constant drive Banner has to be rid of the Hulk works against them, it also fails from a meta perspective. Hulk and Banner are one of comics’ best duos because of how they bounce off of each other. Banner is the humanity that guides Hulk and the intelligence that can solve problems Hulk’s fists can’t, where Hulk is the raw emotion to contrast Banner’s often cold logic. They pull each other back when either goes too far, and the story is all the better for it. The story does not need Banner to try and get rid of the Hulk to produce tension, because it always comes from their uneasy relationship. Hulk and Banner are designed to work together, and neither can run a story on their own. It can work temporarily, but they are always linked and fans love them, so it’s not like Marvel’s ever actually going to permanently separate Hulk and Banner. That reality just makes Banner chasing the impossible dream even worse because we all know it’s pointless.

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Banner and Hulk Have to Move On

Some of the worst modern Hulk stories are about Banner trying to get rid of or control the Hulk in some way, while the best ones are always him working with (and often against) the Hulk in some way. Immortal Hulk is widely considered to be one of the best Hulk runs of all time, and one of its main themes is about Hulk and Banner forgiving themselves and working together as a unit. Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s run on Incredible Hulk has evolved their dynamic to Hulk wanting to be rid of Banner, but Banner instead fights to convince the Hulk to be a hero, knowing they are bound. It’s a constant theme in the story, where other heroes repeatedly tell Hulk that he needs Banner. Even the near-universally loved World War Hulk story is about the two of them working together to smash anyone who got in their way.

The Hulk and Banner will never have a perfect relationship, and they shouldn’t. They work best when they are either completely at odds with each other, or form an uneasy alliance to unleash the ultimate combination of unmatched genius and unparalleled strength on whatever poor fool gets in their way. They will always fight, but stories where Banner chases some cure just don’t work as well as they used to with all the history they have together. Banner and Hulk are always going to be together, so I say let’s embrace that fact and explore how they work together instead of wasting time by teasing how they could break apart.