Anti-Hero: Varies on writer, from anywhere to Type I to III, with Pak playing him at a III by lying to those close to him into getting his way. Not to mention putting innocent people including his own son in harms way for his personal gain. In fact, at times he's seemed to be the biggest threat; however, he never crosses the line into straight Villain or Anti-Villain.
Badass: While out of his mind after being completely separated from the Hulk, he demonstrated just how badass he can be, creating an arsenal of superscience weapons that allowed him to fight on equal terms with the green giant. He does it again in Fall of the Hulks, and any other time that he's depowered.
Can't Stay Normal: No matter how many times he is depowered, Bruce will always transform back into the Hulk.
The Chessmaster: Particularly during the Fall of the Hulks storyline, where Banner manages to outmanouvere all of the smartest people in the world to save Betty and the Avengers.
Green-Eyed Monster: Jokes aside, the Indestructable Hulk series reveals one of his major issues with being the Hulk is that he's constantly in the shadow of men like Tony Stark and Reed Richards- they'll be remembered by history as men of science, while he'll be remembered as the Hulk, even though he has as much to offer the world as either of them. The fact that neither treats him as an equal doesn't help matters.
Guile Hero: Bruce is one of the smartest people in the world, and it shows, particularly in Fall of the Hulks, where he plays the likes of Dr. Doom and The Leader with panache.
I Lied: Happens a lot during The Fall of the Hulks, as he manipulates the superhero and supervillain communities to save Betty and the world from The Leader.
Not That Kind of Doctor: Played with, while Bruce doesn't have a doctorate in medicine, he was originally a med student. Because of this, he is capable of providing medical care in a pinch, such as when he gave his cousin Jen that blood transfusion.
Science Hero: Whenever he has to save the day independent of the Hulk, you can bank on a wide variety of gadgetry and scientific theorising being involved.
Self-Made Orphan: Although it was an accident, and self-defense, while visiting the grave of his beloved murdered mother, he did kill his own father.
Underestimating Badassery: Everybody does this to a depowered Bruce. They all pay for it in the long run.
The Unfettered: Once he's finally separated from the Hulk, he becomes an absolutely terrifying example of the unfettered in his quest to get the Hulk back.
Unstoppable Rage: Banner's anger is what triggers his transformation into the Hulk, and good lord does he have a lot of it.
Strong as They Need to Be: With no known limits and it being known that Banner mentally resists him thus restraining his powers, this takes completely new meaning, just look at his entry on the page.
Villain Protagonist: He was a mafioso, a torturer, a bully, a murderer, a mercenary, a lecher, a Break Them By Talking-giver to broken people, and proud of all of it. He mellowed out during the Dale Keown run, which is why he may have a type IV rating above.
Good Samaritan: Ran multiple charity organisations, research for cancer cures provided food for starving children, shelters and education for war-refugees, supported revolutions against tyrants of oppressed peoples through much lesser loss of lives than real world military interventions can manage, and so onwards.
Eldritch Abomination: He has essentially gradually turned into one, both in terms of raw power, destructive nature, and turning even more powerful from both dark magic and nuclear explosions, as a force of pure destruction merging forces of both science and mysticism. More openly after picking up one of the hammers of "The Worthy".
This is especially true when he goes full on "Worldbreaker". For example, he went Worldbreaker in the Dark Dimension and reduced most of the realm into floating rubble.
World's Strongest Man: Word Of God is that World War Hulk Green Scar was "stronger than any mortal and most immortals in the Marvel universe", and as always, except the Onslaught fight, he was holding back a lot so he wouldn't risk to destroy his entire home reality. Hulk's full level of power is of a literally infinite scale going by the Beyonder, and that he overpowered a villain with the power of two Celestial-level beings.
Supporting characters
Betty Ross/Harpy/Red She-Hulk
Bruce Banner's first and most enduring Love Interest, Betty Ross is the daughter of General Ross, one of the Hulk's longtime foes. She's since been through almost as much trauma as Banner himself having married, and then divorced Glenn Talbot, lost her relationship with her father, been turned into the supervillainess Harpy by MODOK, nearly died of cancer given to her by the Abomination, and finally been turned into the Red She-Hulk by The Leader, who then forced her to fight against most of the Marvelverse's heroes. Currently back in control of herself, Betty is now struggling to establish a new sense of self.
Can't Stay Normal: Betty is almost as much of a victim of this as Bruce himself. She's been turned into two different supervillains, died and come back, you name it.
Convenient Miscarriage: Nightmare killed her and Bruce's unborn baby. He also raped her in her sleep to magically conceive the entity "Daydream", which is Betty's daughter that she never met.
Daddy's Girl: At first, but Ross eventually managed to shatter that bond.
Daddy Issues: Has developed more and more of them.
The Dragon: As the Red She-Hulk she was The Dragon to MODOK and The Leader.
Dying as Yourself: Just barely averted. When Skaar stabs Red She-Hulk Betty reverts to herself in time to die...only to be saved by Doc Samson.
Faking the Dead: Her father faked her death and put her on ice until somebody found a cure for her condition.
First Girl Wins: She was Bruce's first cannonical love interest, and the one that the writers will always come back to.
Ill Girl: When she got cancer after being poisoned by the Abomination.
Love Interest: Other girls come and go, but Betty is always Bruce's love interest. Even when married to Glenn Talbot, she confessed that she was unable to stop being in love with Bruce.
Love Triangle: First with Bruce and Talbot, then with Bruce and disposable love interest Ramon. Through her and Bruce's alternate personalities into the mix and things get even more complicated.
Self-Made Orphan: Narrowly averted. Betty almost killed the Red Hulk, only to realise he was her father and stop in time.
Split Personality: The degree to which she retains control over Red She-Hulk varies a lot. Sometimes it's just an angrier Betty, while at others it is an entirely different persona whom she fears losing control over.
Unstoppable Rage: Beneath her calmer exterior, Betty is nearly as repressed as her husband. When she turns into Red She-Hulk all that rage finally gets an outlet.
Badass Normal: Trained in hand-to-hand combat by Captain America.
Can't Stay Normal: Even moreso then Bruce or Betty. Rick has been turned into how many beings and has been a sidekick to how many different superheroes now?
Informed Attribute: Supposedly his strength and durability are related to the makeup of the atmosphere of whatever planet he's on at the time. That hasn't really been expanded upon.
My Greatest Failure: Most people point to him breaking his oath as a shadow guard, but he stands by that. He sees his greatest failure as believing that he was the Sakaarson.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: In Planet Hulk he was shown to be versed in the mystic practices of the shadow priests, but there wasn't anything to suggest those practices translated to actual magical power. In World War Hulk, he's able to break through enchantments made by Doctor Strange, who was weakened at the time, but still.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Broke his oath to the emperor when he refused to kill the emperor's son on his orders. Considering that son grew up to be the Red King, that might not have been the best move, but he stands by it.
Villains
Abomination
Arch-Enemy: He was considered this for quite a long time.
Carl "Crusher" Creel was a professional turned ordinary criminal, until he drank a liquid provided by Loki that gave him the power to copy the properties of anything he touches. Creel's intelligence lags far behind his incredible power, leading to his defeat more than once over the years. Originally a Thor villain, but turned into a semi-regular sparring partner for the Hulk, due to his scale of power and simple nature.
Size Shifter: Creel can copy extra mass if the object he's touching is larger than himself.
Super Power Lottery: He can duplicate virtually any power or attribute whatsoever, including energy, and the more powerful you are, the more powerful he gets.
Super Strength: His strength level depends on what object he has copied the properties of.
Pet the Dog: His personality is virtually identical to that of Zeus, but similarly he had a very well hidden "soft" spot for his favourite son. With that son dead, he doesn't have any nice spots anymore.
Sins of Our Fathers: One of the laws he enforces are to slaughter the entire family of anybody who goes beyond any of his rules in the slightest, regardless if they had nothing to do with it, as it serves as a "more powerful preventative warning".
Blessed with Suck: Mess. The left half of her body is Abomination-like. She's super strong, super durable, and has a healing factor... only on her left side.
Brother Chuck: Glenn (and Grey) technically has a nephew named Matt Talbot (which means that there is at least one missing brother or sister), who briefly hunted Hulk, but thought better of it.
Genre Savvy: Griffin/Clown. He guessed Stryker's plan exceedingly quickly.
Insane Troll Logic: Mister Gideon blamed the Hulk for the death of his son, Jim Wilson. Jim died of AIDS (which, to be clear, he did not contract from the Hulk).
Revenge Before Reason: For Gideon, Mess, and Prodigy. Grey has his own motives and Griffin just wants someone to be mad at.
Sibling Rivalry: Grey's real reason for joining the team. He is Glenn Talbot's younger brother. Glenn tormented him during his upbringing, so he is not out for revenge, but to prove himself more capable than his brother by beating the Hulk.
Antagonistic Offspring: Like Skaar, he desperately wants to kill their father. Unlike Skaar, he doesn't care how many people become collateral damage in the process.
Originally associated with the X-Men, but similarly to Absorbing Man, he eventually turned into one of Hulk's regular opponents, due to being one of very few regular supervillains that can actually pose any threat to him.
Once a mentally-handicapped janitor working in a nuclear facility, Samuel Sterns gained green skin, an enlarged head, and the brains of a supergenius after being exposed to gamma radiation. He has fought the Hulk dozens of times, usually as a part of his schemes to Take Over the World
Archenemy: Another major contender for the title, opposing the Hulk continuously and viciously since the Silver Age.
Assimilation Plot: More than once, his goal has been transforming most/all the world's population into gamma beings.
Back from the Dead / Not Quite Dead: He's been killed off more than once, and there's rarely an explanation as to how he's come back. It's even been theorized there's more than one Leader running around from alternate universes.
Big Bad: Frequently, and of the Fall of the Hulks storyline in particular. If somebody is masterminding a scheme to make Banner's life miserable, chances are it's The Leader.
Catch Phrase: "So says the Leader" in the 90s cartoon.
Charm Person: Can mind control any non-gamma being just by touching them.
The Chessmaster: The Leader always lays out his plans weeks, or months in advance. This is best evidenced during the Red Hulk and Fall of the Hulks storylines.
Do Not Call Me Paul: Hates being called Samuel Sterns. This is somewhat justified; after the Hulk, his gamma transformation likely caused the greatest alteration to his personality, to the point where they may well be two different people, like the Hulk and Banner.
Evil Is Petty: It's been pointed out several times that many of his schemes would have worked... if he chose not to preemptively involve the Hulk, who would have in all likelihood, ignored him. But his petty grudge against the not-so-jolly green giant prevents him from leaving the Hulk out of his plans, thus shooting himself in the foot.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Although in this case the well-intentioned part is likely mostly in his own head.
Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide" / Evilutionary Biologist: He once blew up an inhabited city just to see if the radiation would produce useful minions. He has a history of much more ambitious schemes of the same type, with all of humanity acting as his lab rats.
Would Hit a Girl: Would torture and mind rape Betty Ross to turn her into the Red She-Hulk.
Madman
The Leader's brother, but so completely unhinged that Leader wants nothing to do with him.
In Name Only: In the 2003 video game Hulk(which served as a sequal to the Ang Lee movie), virtually nothing of his character remained from the comics. He was a Stalker with a Crush to Betty, rather than the Hulk, and his obsession with the Hulk (which was rather mild) boiled down to wanting to prove he was stronger. His shape/size changing powers were also left out.
A corrupt, more powerful version of the Hulk from a possible Bad Future where most of humanity was decimated by nuclear war. He built a city with radiation shielding which he named Dystopia, where he rules over the surviving humans like an Emperor.
Future Badass: Believe it or not, he fits this since the extra radiation made him even stronger than the Hulk in the present. For this reason and the fact that because he could anticipate any move his past self could make meant Hulk was no match for him.
Gratuitous Rape: He has one of his slaves do this to a paralyzed Hulk.
Depending on the Writer: Very different assigned origins and motivations, from alien, to angel of mercy, to artificial mutate. One moment she will turn into a giant monster, and the next help a soul to the afterlife. Lamp Shaded in that she has mentioned that she is simply very fickle.
Mercy Kill: Her shtick, usually. Sometimes it's less about people who actively want to die and more about people she feels would be better off dead, hence her battles with the Hulk.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Hulk destroyed Onslaught's physical form, the entity turned into an incorporeal energy state. Still, all the other heroes of the Marvel Universe combined were helpless before it, whereas Hulk excels at raw power (and not much else), and somehow made it vulnerable to (admittedly contrived) alternative approaches afterwards.
Evil Counterpart: To the Fantastic Four. Oddly, they've never actually fought the Fantastic Four. This was also completely intentional on their part; they got their powers deliberately through the same method as the FF.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: Sure, they don't have much of a street cred, but Vector can repell the magic of Doctor Strange, hurl planets, blast the Hulk into a walking skeleton, and rip apart reality itself. Also, they think nothing of blowing up thousands as long as they get paid.
If one takes time to examine their powers, they're actually considerably more powerful than the Fantastic Four(they were exposed to considerably more cosmic rays). Unfortunately they aren't nearly as smart as the FF, which is probably the main thing holding them back from being major villains.
Possibly the Hulk's most dangerous "adversary", Onslaught and Galaxy Master included. A billions of years old higher-dimensional energy being, and occasional ruler of her own magical universe, fully capable of beating up cosmic entities or rewriting entire realities to suit her whims, and by far exceeding virtually any known arch devils or pantheon godheads in existence. Basically the most evil and powerful woman in the Marvel Universe. She finds the Hulk extremely attractive as a potential trophy husband, due to the upper limits of his raw power, destructive potential, and easily manipulated nature.
Demon Lords and Archdevils: But unlike other virtually omnipotent demonic entities Zom isn't very clever, and although apparently more powerful as such than any of them, he cannot use it for a lot of versatile purposes.
Godzilla Threshold: Strange only pulls him out of the bag when he feels the situation has crossed this. The first time was against Umar. The second was against Hulk.
Physical God: When you require a goddamn MULTIVERSAL JUDGE to stop your rampage, you've more than earned this title.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Up to Eleven. It took the combined efforts of Eternity, Dormammu, and assorted other mystical entities to seal him up. When fighting Hulk the second time it stated that it was only due to Doctor Strange restraining its full power that allowed Hulk to win the first battle, and this was a Hulk angry enough to overcome the full multiversal-scale power of The Sentry. (Hulk later stated that he still held back though.)
