You are Not The Hulk (and that's a good thing)

When "The Incredible Hulk" premiered in May 1962 it lasted only 6 issues before being cancelled.  It would have been easy then for Stan Lee to write off the character and cut his losses, but we all know that didn't happen.

Yes, his original title series had been cancelled, but all of a sudden we see Bruce Banner and his big green rage monster appear as a guest in "The Fantastic Four" (March 1963).  Lee wrote in the character first as the enemy of the Fantastic Four, then 3 issues later, making them his ally.

Then, The Hulk shows up in "The Incredible Spider Man" in '64.  Once again, Stan was ignoring the fact that the market had rejected the character.  In the fall of '64 Hulk makes an appearance in a comic series called "Tales to Astonish" an episodic comic series Stan Lee would use to introduce characters and test the markets approval of newly invented superheros.

Now, as you probably know, The Hulk's blessing (and curse, Stan Lee won't give you a superpower unless it comes with a catch) is super strength that is triggered as a direct relation to his anger.  His power exists on a sliding scale that literally makes him stronger the angrier he gets.  This means he spends his days hyper managing his emotions, until it's "hulk smash" time, then he must force himself to somehow trigger his own anger in order to transform and save the day.

I've often wondered about The Hulk, specifically if he has one memory in particular he can use to trigger his anger, the same way an actor has a memory he/she can trigger in order to cry.  It turns out that this is often times exactly the case.

Stan Lee revealed to us in some origin work the fact that Bruce Banner's father was abusive to his mother.  In fact, when Bruce was young his mother used to hide and protect him during his father's fits of rage.  This in turn, meant young Bruce was afraid of anger and the specific physical reactions it could cause.  On a very deep level in Bruce's mind being angry is directly tied to acting angry.  In fact, Stan Lee says, in many instances where Bruce needs to fight, he is often times triggering the memory of his father being abusive, that's his "go to" Hulk memory.  It's ironic then that the one memory Bruce needs to erase from his memory is in fact the memory he needs to keep closest.  You can see now how deep and touching the character is, and why Stan Lee wasn't ready to give up on his story, which leads us to one of Bruce's signature catch phrases.

"You're making me angry"

An interesting phrase considering the fact that no one "makes" another person angry, well, not for "normals" like you and I.

People that aren't The Hulk have this barrier between "being angry" and "acting angry" we all have to make the active decision, even when angry, to act on our emotion.

The problem is, too many people act as if they don't have control, they imagine themselves with the curse of The Hulk, unable to fight against their actions once they become angry.

We all know "being angry" and "acting angry" aren't automatically sinful.  The theology behind this can be discussed at depth in another blog.  The point of this short little ditty is the simple fact that you and I have a power that The Hulk does not.

Once we "feel angry" we can decide to not enter the doorway into the "acting angry" realm.

From OEV, hope your holidays were special and we'll be back with more soon!