Characters / Incredible Hulk: Central Rogues Gallery

The Incredible Hulk Main Character Index
Title Character
Bruce Banner/The Hulk
Supporting Characters
Supporting Characters
Rogues Gallery
Central Rogues Gallery | Rogues Gallery | Hulk-Centric Villainous Organizations

Central Rogues Gallery

Abomination

Abomination

Alter Ego: Emil Blonsky

Notable Aliases: Agent R-7, The Ravager of Worlds

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish Vol 1 #90 (April, 1967)

"You are beneath me, She-Hulk! You are all beneath me! For as long as your cousin is away... the Abomination is the strongest one there is!"

Craving for the power of a Hulk, Emil Blonsky purposely had himself infected with triple the amount of gamma that the Hulk originally had. However, it turned him into a monstrous amphibious reptoid originally more than twice the strength of the normal calm Hulk, at the cost of never being human again.

---

• Appropriated Appellation: His name comes from what Betty Ross said upon seeing the Gamma-transformed Blonsky for the first time, describing him as "some kind of... abomination!"
• Arch-Enemy: He was considered this to the Hulk for quite a long time and still largely shares the title with Leader and Ross.
• Back from the Dead:
  • He was atomized by MODOK during the 70s. He briefly got resurrected during the events of Secret Wars II, then reatomized, before the villain Tyrannus pulled those atoms back together so he could resurrect himself.
  • A shadow organization (later revealed to be the Ancient Order of the Shield) bent on gaining control of the Hulk harvests biological material from a mortally-wounded Bruce Banner. The organization uses this material to resurrect the Abomination under their control, leaving him "free of a mind or a conscience" and with an ability to seek out Banner/Hulk for retrieval. It didn't entirely take, but in Gamma Flight he returns again, possessing the body of Reginald Fortean.
• Blood Knight: He retains his intelligence when transformed, meaning all the destruction and battle he does has no Freudian Excuse and is purely for shits and giggles. While Emil hates the hideousness of his mutated form and the fact that he can't turn back to normal, he more than embraces the power it gives him and loves a good fight.
• Body Horror: He went from human to a giant muscular reptilian monstrosity, which already counted. Later on, Joe Fixit hurled Emil into some toxic waste barrels, which melted his epidermis and gave him an even worse appearance. And then his corpse gets used as a mindless bio-weapon bonded with a human host. Needless to say, the Abomination's career hasn't been a pleasant one.
• Dirty Communists: Basically was originally a Communist spy from Yugoslavia sabotaging key areas in the United States military defense with Gamma Base being one of them. For a while, he served the role of Hulk's Iron Curtain Evil Counterpart. As time went, however, he came to feel increasingly little loyalty or affection for his homeland, and before too long his feud with Bruce had become bitterly personal.
• The Dog Bites Back: After being unable to return to life for years due to his body being either used as a Revenant Zombie or a biotechnological battlesuit, Gamma Flight sees Abomination retake control of his body and wrecking vengeance on one of his tormentors, Fortean, by keeping him imprisoned with Blonsky within their now-shared body, cognizant of what's happening but unable to do anything, and manipulating Fortean's daughter as part of his scheme to rub salt in the wound.
• The Dragon: The physically mighty Abomination often played the Dragon to the intellectual, and somewhat frail, Leader's Big Bad.
• Dragon Ascendant: After coming back from the dead, Abomination decides he's done being a lackey and that he's going to be a Big Bad himself. He proceeds to recruit Doctor Alba and begins working on a scheme to turn an entire town into brainwashed gamma-charged super soldiers, coming startlingly close to actually pulling it off before Gamma Flight manages to stop him.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: The Abomination/Emil Blonsky generally has a default strength level that is greater than the Hulk's^note Roughly, Abomination has the strength to press 100 tons, while the Hulk, at his "default" anger/strength level, can press 80 tons, and also retains his human mind where Hulk could be reduced to his familiar Dumb Muscle whenever he transforms. However, Blonsky's main weakness in a fight is that his strength level is fixed, with the result that Hulk can theoretically beat Blonsky if a fight lasts long enough for him to get sufficiently angry and thus strong enough to beat his foe.
• Ear Fins: The Abomination has fins in place of his ears.
• Embodiment of Vice: The Abomination is typically portrayed as an embodiment of hubris.
• Evil Counterpart: Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination is a more traditional counterpart, having been bombarded with gamma radiation and survived like the good doctor thanks to a genetic factor in his body that saved him from being killed, at the cost of turning into a giant monster. However, unlike Bruce, who was horrified by his transformation, Blonsky was delighted and consciously abused his strength for evil purposes. Interestingly, Abomination still retains his normal intelligence, and therefore is that more dangerous.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His wife, Nadia. He kept his identity a secret from her, figuring it better that she assume him dead than to see him a monster.
• Flanderization: Would you really believe this guy was once an intelligent and empathetic brute who genuinely wanted his wife to be happy, and even protected the downtrodden of New York?
• Genius Bruiser: Blonsky is a Hulking gamma-powered beast, but unlike Hulk he still has his human personality and has shown to be quite articulate and cunning, fitting for a former spy. He even once took up a job as a writing teacher.
• Gollum Made Me Do It: Subverted. The Abomination is formed from Emil Blonsky's self-loathing, but Blonsky retains his normal mind and personality in his monstrous form; the Abomination is just a reflection of his inner torment rather than the cause of it.
• Green-Eyed Monster: One of his prime motivations. He's jealous that Hulk can have a normal life and family as Banner, while he's stuck as the abomination.
• Green Rocks: Gamma radiation turned the Abomination into what you'd expect.
• The Grotesque: Views himself as this, especially after taking a fall into toxic waste.
• Heel–Face Turn: In 1983, Blonsky was depowered, and tried to atone, even giving Bruce some information that saved Betty's life. It lasted three whole years, then he became Abomination again.
• Hidden Depths: Downplayed, but he's permanently stuck in his gamma form and his transformation is supposedly triggered by his self-loathing. He was also happily married to his wife before they divorced and still loves her.
• Humanoid Abomination: The Abomination received an upgrade, and turned into one of these.
• Husky Russkie: Emil Blonsky, The Abomination is this. A gamma-radiated one at that.
• It's Personal:
  • There was no love lost between Hulk and Abomination, but once Emil killed Betty, the two fights that occurred between them has Hulk literally caving his face in.
  • His death at the hands of the Red Hulk. Ross was enjoying the chance to cave in the face of the man who killed his daughter.
  • After Dr. McGowan ruins his first play at being a Big Bad, Abomination's only response is to glare at her for a moment before declaring that he'll remember her face, so she better watch her back from now on.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Even though they're divorced, Emil still deeply loves his ex-wife Nadia and goes to great lengths to prevent his life as a supervillain from affecting her because he doesn't want to hurt her.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After Gamma Flight foils his operation to turn an entire town into an army of super soldiers and the fight with them starts shifting out of his favor, Blonsky just expresses some mild irritation and declares that there's no point in wasting time on a lost cause and super-jumps away to scheme again another day.
• Master Actor: As a spy, he was a master at faking loyalty to whatever government he served under. A skill that comes very in handy when he needs to impersonate Fortean to manipulate the man's daughter into carrying out his bidding.
• The Mole: Started out like this before his transformation.
• Monster Modesty: Like Hulk.
• Mother Russia Makes You Strong: More like radiation made him strong, but he is from Russia.
• Names to Run Away From: The "Abomination", the Evil Counterpart of the Hulk.
• Never My Fault: He blamed Banner for his condition, never mind the fact that he exposed himself to gamma radiation in the first place.
• Noble Demon: Believe it or not, he was characterized as this as written by Peter David, and actually became a protector of the homeless for one arc. He even once teamed up with the X-Men against some Sentinels. Unfortunately, this part of him seems to have been completely forgotten nowadays, as he's typically written in both comics and adaptations as a violent asshole with no scruples.
• Power Incontinence: He follows this trope in a different manner. While he has full control of himself, he cannot change back to his human form. His gamma powers are always active. Since his transformation is fueled by his own self-loathing, that really says a lot about Blonsky.
• Professor Guinea Pig: Not a professor, but definitely has the "self-experimentation" factor in check.
• Soulless Shell: When his body is reanimated by an anti-Hulk organization, he is "free of a mind or conscience", meaning Blonsky is effectively gone, leaving only the rampaging Abomination. And later, his genetic material is combined with Rick Jones' corpse to create Subject B, a mindless, near-unstoppable husk of a beast that later fuses with General Fortean to serve as a sort of organic battlesuit. Through all this, Blonsky's soul remains trapped in the Below-Place, having been stuck there since he was killed by Ross because of his body being in constant use by others. Once Fortean is killed by the Hulks, Abomination is able to retake control and return to the land of the living.
• Super-Strength: He possesses vast superhuman strength. Enough that he often has the upper hand against the Hulk in some of their fights before Hulk starts to turn things in his favor. Notably, he's often been stronger than a calm Hulk and only loses when the Hulk gets angry or thinks of some clever way to turn the tables. Although the Abomination's strength surpasses that of certain classic incarnations of the Hulk such as Mr. Fixit or the Green Savage Hulk, his strength does not fluctuate like the Hulk's.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Unlike Banner, Blonsky can't turn back to his human form, a fact that he is endlessly bitter about.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Emil spent a few years acting as protector to some homeless people in New York, but then police being paid off by a Corrupt Corporate Executive shot several of them, inadvertently helped by the Hulk, causing Emil to decide he was done being nice, and resolved to just destroying everything to get at Hulk.
• Too Dumb to Live: The origin of the Abomination owes itself to this. See, Emil Blonsky was a Russian spy in General Ross's unit, when they'd just caught Banner messing with a strange machine, which unknown to them was a means of killing himself. Once everyone's gone, Blonksy decides to poke at the machine. Instead of dying horribly, he gets permanently turned into the Abomination. Many years later, Banner and Ross note that what Blonksy did should by all rights have killed him.
• Tragic Monster: One story arc has him hiding out in the sewers and befriending a group of homeless people, who see him as their guardian. He tries to live peacefully with them, but eventually, his obsession with Banner takes over.
• Two Beings, One Body: After taking back control of his body from Fortean, Abomination doesn't kick Fortean's soul out. He keeps Fortean along for the ride so he can exploit the man's memories and knowledge for his own ends (and also take revenge on Fortean for using his corpse like that). Blonsky is in full control of the body, but Fortean is fully aware of everything that happens to them while being unable to actually do anything about it.
• The Undead: Briefly during Chaos War, he is one of the many dead characters in the Underworld that Pluto liberated to help defend the Underworld from Amatsu-Mikaboshi.
• Worthy Opponent: Considers the Hulk this, which is partly why he constantly pursues him.
• The Worf Effect: Courtesy of the Red Hulk, aka General Ross, to establish how dangerous it is.
  • Worf Had the Flu: Apparently he's been a terror in Hell ever since he died and he is considered one of the Hulk's most dangerous foes for a reason.
• Villain Decay: Abomination has probably lost more bad boy status than almost any other. He started out up-powered even by the Hulk's standards, whomping him down in their first encounter. He then had some gamma power stripped, which was added to the Hulk, thus losing in their next encounter. He then suffered a series of beatdowns at the hands of the Hulk, leading to humiliating exposition as his character developed a fear of even encountering the Hulk anymore. But that was not the end of it. Over subsequent years, he became a chew toy to show how badass the lower bricks in the Marvel universe could be, taking solo beatdowns at the hands of both Wonder Man and She-Hulk, and even getting bested by Hawkeye of all people. Hercules even one-shot KO'd him with a traffic light once. Oh, true, they pulled out all the stops in their demonstration of badassery, but the Abomination just can't get any respect, in spite of still remaining perhaps the physically strongest character without some quasi-infinite trick up their sleeve. He got a slightly better treatment in the Chaos War Herc family crossover, where, after having been killed off a couple years ago by the Red Hulk, he comes back as a servant for the Big Bad Chaos King. After tearing through a team of Hulks, Doctor Strange states that he was "the Underworld's strongest prisoner". He's still dead again by the end of the story, but he definitely got some cred back. Immortal Hulk/Gamma Flight gives him even more cred by having him return from the dead completely and decide he's done playing lackey, making a game effort at becoming a Big Bad in his own right.
• Villainous Friendship: With the Leader. They partnered up often. The Leader was even sad when he died.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Emil Blonsky suppressed his self-hatred, so when he was exposed to Gamma radiation, he became the Abomination.

Absorbing Man

Absorbing Man

Alter Ego: Carl "Crusher" Creel

Notable Aliases: Rocky Davis, Lightningbolt, Greithoth: Breaker of Wills, Harold, Red Dog

First Appearance: Daredevil Vol 1 #1 (April, 1964) ^note As Rocky Davis; Journey into Mystery Vol 1 #114 (March, 1965) ^note As the Absorbing Man

"I ain't just Crusher Creel, an ordinary con anymore! I'm the Absorbing Man... the most dangerous guy in the world!!"

---

See The Mighty Thor: Enemies

Brian Banner

Brian Banner

Alter Ego: Dr. Brian David Banner

Notable Aliases: Devil Hulk

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 1, #267 (January, 1982)

"You did indeed take me all the way down... Past the country of Hell... To what lies below it. Hell actually seems quaint to me now. It had hierarchies and structures. Rulers and rules. It was only a place, like other places... And this is something else. Something deeper, at the bottom of reality, underneath everything... The concept of Hell. The foundation. The bedrock. The Below-Place."

Bruce's deceased father. The horrific abuse he gave him as a child, coupled with the violent murder of Bruce's mother, was responsible for fracturing Bruce's psyche and therefore the path that led him to become the Incredible Hulk. He was killed by Bruce (possibly by accident) during a confrontation, ironically on the anniversary of his mother's death. On a personal level, he is Bruce's very first enemy and remains one of his greatest foes even though he's long dead. Part of it is due to Bruce/Hulk's difficulty in dealing with the abuse he suffered at a young age. The fact that he actually does come back to plague him again doesn't help matters.

---

• Abusive Parents: In a class of his own. He'd been abused by his father, leading Brian to believe his father was a monster, that he had inherited the 'monster gene', and that any children he had would be monsters too. Brian initially chose to ignore Bruce, believing him to be a monster in the making. When it became apparent Bruce was a child genius, Brian saw his worst fears confirmed, and started beating both Bruce and his mother, Rebecca. After several years of abuse, Rebecca attempted to escape with Bruce, but Brian killed her and intimidated Bruce into saying Brian hadn't done anything to them. The truth only came out when Brian got drunk and boasted about what he'd done. Brian was locked up in a mental institution, and shortly after release got killed by a now-adult Bruce. End result? Bruce developed Multiple Personality Disorder - and after a certain accident with a gamma bomb, his personalities became the various Hulks.
• Adaptation Name Change: Hulk's father first appeared in The Incredible Hulk (1977), being named DW Banner. It's never stated what "DW" stands for, but it's certainly not "Brian". Curiously, in Ang Lee's film Hulk, it was once again changed, this time to "David", as a Mythology Gag to the TV series.
• Adaptational Villainy: Although DW Banner wasn't exactly a sympathetic guy, he wasn't a villain and he really cared about his son David. Brian, is a different story altogether.
• Alcoholic Parent: In the past, the stress of his job eventually led him to become an alcoholic and he began to develop anger problems, lashing out at others even when they tried to help him. While drunk on the job one day, Brian accidentally overloaded some machinery, causing an explosion that caused him to lose his job.
• Alcohol-Induced Stupidity: After murdering Rebecca for trying to leave him, Brian managed to escape justice by forcing Bruce to lie about it in court. He would have gotten away with this entirely, if he hadn't decided to go to his local bar in celebration - whereupon he got so drunk that he actually bragged to his fellow patrons about getting away with murder.
• Alliterative Name: Brian Banner.
• And I Must Scream: In Immortal Hulk issue 0, it turns out the Leader's been torturing Brian by making him relive his death over and over again. And a short time later, in issue 39, it turns out he ate Brian, who is still alive and conscious inside him.
• The Antichrist: Basically becomes this when he turns into the host of The One Below All.
• Archnemesis Dad: Does his best to hold the title of his son's archenemy, despite competition from the likes of General Ross, Nightmare, the Abomination, and the Leader.
• Asshole Victim: This man was an utter bastard. Even if it wasn't entirely an accident, no one in their right mind would hold it against Bruce for killing his father. When Bruce remembers the real events of his death, he's informed that the police didn't even try very hard to look into the circumstances because Brian was that disgusting.
• Ax-Crazy: He spent his married life terrorizing his wife and son, killing the former after she tried to leave him - which got him sent to a mental institution - and ultimately would attempt to murder Bruce himself later on in a crazed episode. Death has only made him worse in this regard, as he’s come back from the dead multiple times to launch more attempts on the life of his son, a major one of which was helping The One Below All cross into and destroy the Universe just to see his son suffer in the resulting carnage.
• Beard of Evil: Every bit as evil as he is.
• Blatant Lies: During Immortal Hulk, he claims his alliance with Amatsu-Mikaboshi was his attempt to protest the "injustice" of him being cast down into Hell.
• Cain and Abel: His sisters, Elaine and Susan, are entirely normal, nice people, though it has admittedly never been mentioned if they were subject to the same abuse as Brian.
• Canon Immigrant: As mentioned above, Hulk's father's first appearance was in The Incredible Hulk (1977), episode "Homecoming", which aired on November 1979. Brian's debut in comics was in Incredible Hulk #267, January 1982.
• Catchphrase: "Little monster."
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: His power level and powers rely entirely on how powerful Bruce believes him to be. When he was feared by Bruce, he was easily able to overpower the Hulk family and had green Playing with Fire powers.
• Commander Contrarian: He despised baby Bruce, seeing him as a monster, but at the same time would lose his temper (well, lose it more) at the thought of someone taking him away.
• Death by Irony: Bruce was visiting his mother's grave on the anniversary of her death, when Brian arrived and confronted him, accusing him of being a monster and intending to kill him. During the fight that occurred, Bruce defensively kicked Brian away from him, and he fell back and cracked his skull on his late wife's tombstone. Worth mentioning that Brian killed her himself many years before.
• Death Is Cheap: His death never sticks. Well, sort of. He is and has been, completely stone-dead since before Bruce ever became the Hulk, but that doesn't stop him popping up anyhow.
• Demon of Human Origin: As he's a truly evil human who came back from beyond as a malevolent presence that possesses living beings, is in service to an indescribable evil, and even manifests as a demonic monster at times, he certainly appears this way after death.
• Disproportionate Retribution: His entire motivation for starting, and continuing, his unceasing vendetta against his son, his friends, his associates and (sometimes) the entire human race is at least partially because he was jealous of Bruce for being showered with affection by his wife. The other reason is Insane Troll Logic cooked up by his twisted mind just to find an excuse to vent the hangups from his own abusive childhood upon Bruce.
• The Dreaded: Even the nastiest Hulks in Bruce's mind are scared of him. As he so eloquently puts it in Immortal Hulk:
  Hulk: It's not. Not you. Can't be.
  Brian: You can see ghosts. You can smell lies. You'd know if it weren't. I'm the father you killed, Bruce. Back through the Green Door. Back from death.
  Hulk: Stay back. Stay…
  Brian: Feel that. My claws in your gut? That's the proof! Who else could ever hurt you like this? Who else can make the monster scared?
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: By his own account, Rebecca had loved him once, an indescribable thing for someone who grew up convinced he was unworthy of love thanks to his own father. However, he blamed Bruce for being born for taking that from him. (Rebecca's side of it we don't know, whether she still loved Brian after he turned on her and Bruce. That said, apparently an apparition of her tends to visit him in Hell. She doesn't say anything, though.)
• Even Evil Has Standards: He became the avatar of the One Below All in a desperate bid to get out of the Below-Place, but appeared to realize that this was a horrible idea after being separated from it, going by how fearfully he speaks of it and its "terrible desires" during a conversation with the Leader, who contemptuously notes that Brian was not truly aware of the "scope" of the One Below All's plans and what it intended to do to the Multiverse. After the Leader usurps him as TOBA's avatar, Brian mocks him ("I tried to warn you") for thinking that the partnership would be equal or mutually beneficial as the Leader is overwhelmed and warped ("No! Please! No... Yes") by the One Below All, with it being implied that the same form of Demonic Possession had previously befallen Brian ("You devoured me. You became me. But you weren't the first").
• Evil Uncle: To Jennifer Walters.
• Freudian Excuse: Had an abusive father himself, and was convinced he'd inherited a "monster gene" that he'd pass on to his own children. This belief grew into obsession and paranoia after he suffered radiation exposure in an accident during his own work as a physicist, and then his wife became pregnant.
  • Immortal Hulk tweaks it a bit, his upbringing having convinced him that he'd break some kind of spell by having children. Then his research into gamma radiation gave him a glimpse of something through the Green Door, and soon afterward he discovered his wife was pregnant.
• Gollum Made Me Do It: Inverted. By the time of Immortal Hulk, Brian claims to have turned over a new leaf in regards to Bruce, that he doesn't hate him anymore, and that he's remorseful for what he did to Bruce… not because he thinks he was in the wrong, but because he's come to mentally divide Bruce and the Hulk as separate people and considers the Hulk to be the "monster gene" who "made" his son into a beast and that he was thus attacking the incorrect target. This is all, in case you haven't guessed, just Insane Troll Logic that Brian uses to justify his behavior.
• Greater-Scope Villain: While he's long dead in the present day, Brian's horrific abuse of his son is what ultimately shaped Bruce into becoming the Hulk, and forever casts a shadow over him.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He was partly motivated by jealousy of how much affection his wife gave the infant Bruce.
• Hate Sink: Brian is an absolutely horrifying depiction of what domestic abuse can do to a family, and the effects of the psychological damage of what he did to his son linger on throughout the comic's long run.
• It's All About Me: He's willing to align himself with the likes of Amatsu-Mikaboshi and the One Below All to escape Hell, not caring one bit that their plans will doom the rest of humanity.
• Jerkass: He's a real piece of work, alright. He beat his son simply because he was incredibly smart for his age, and when his wife tried to protect him from his wrath, he beat her as well. He later murdered her for trying to get away from him with Bruce, coerced his son into not testifying against the threat of Hell, and later after the trial went to a bar, and gloated about literally getting away with murder. His wife's murder. This act got him committed to an asylum. More assholery on his part got him killed when he pushed Bruce too far, and he was of age to do something about it. He also willingly joined forces with Mikaboshi to hurt Bruce. Even without these, he just tends to be an asshole about everyone and everything.
• Kick the Dog: Oh, yes. Bad enough he spent years physically and verbally abusing his wife and infant son, but smashing his wife's head open in front of Bruce, warning his son he would burn in Hell if he testified against him in court, and then later trying to murder Bruce on the anniversary of his wife's murder, at her gravesite was even worse. This man never stopped kicking this particular dog. Not even death stopped him from coming back to torment his son even more over the years, first as a ghost (or possibly just hallucinations) then as a Transhuman Abomination. Also, when he attacked the Hulk family, among them was Skaar, his own grandson. That didn't stop him from trying to murder the kid along with everyone else. Even worse is when he knowingly aligned himself with Mikaboshi to hurt Bruce (since Bruce's friend Marlo had something Mikaboshi needed to complete his plans, Brian agreed to go after Marlo).
• Killed Off for Real: At the end of Immortal Hulk his connection to the One Below All is severed, and the Hulk shuts down the Green Door, ensuring he won't be coming back. Hopefully. However, the ending of Hulk (2021) implies it may not have been as securely closed as previously thought.
• Laser-Guided Karma: How he died. He attacked the son he spent years heaping abuse on at his wife's grave on the anniversary of her murder at his hands, and wound up getting knocked over and smashing his skull (which was exactly how he killed her) on her tombstone. Unfortunately, that didn't keep him down forever.
• Mask of Sanity: Got let out of the hospital by pretending he'd gotten over the many, many things that got him committed in the first place, like the murderous insanity. It didn't take very long for that mask to slip.
• Moral Myopia: He's convinced he didn't deserve to be sent to Hell after his death, even though he murdered his own wife (then bragged about it) and tried to kill his son after years of abusing them both. And that's not considering the numerous times throughout the years that he's tried to kill his son, his other relatives, and even the entirety of humanity, while still having the gall to play the victim.
• Mouth of Sauron: Serves as the primary host the One Below All acts and speaks through in Immortal Hulk.
• Never My Fault: In his view, whenever he does something bad, it is always someone else (his father, Bruce, the Hulk, Rebecca, etc.) who is somehow responsible, which also means that he does not deserve any of the bad things that have happened to him as a result of his actions. Even when he's dead and in Hell, he refuses to acknowledge that it might be even partially his own fault, making himself out to be the victim. And the one time he admits that he was wrong in his treatment of Bruce, he just engages in Insane Troll Logic to make it out like he made an innocent mistake rather than abusing his family for no reason.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: The only way for Bruce to lower his power is for him to not perceive him as powerful in the first place. Unfortunately, this also applies with the Hulks, and that can be a problem for the childlike Savage Hulk.
• Offing the Offspring: Tried and failed several times. It was one such attempt that resulted in Bruce becoming a Patricide. This extended to his own grandson, Skaar, during Chaos War.
• Paper Tiger: What he really is. Whatever power he "acquires" is actually borrowed from outside and inside help from the likes of Amatsu-Mikaboshi and The One Below All. Take away the powers and you have an impotent, pathetic, sorry ass, one-trick pony of a ghost.
• The Paranoiac: The Leader explicitly labels him as having paranoia.
• Posthumous Character: Brian's ghost often continues to haunt Bruce's alter-ego, the Hulk, after his death, often appearing to taunt him, stating that Bruce is no better than himself; villains such as Mentallo, the Red Skull, Devil Hulk, and Guilt Hulk also use the image of Brian Banner against the Hulk in an attempt to weaken him. It's subverted in Chaos War, when he's revived and takes on a Devil Hulk-like form to do Mikaboshi's bidding, but played straight again when he returns in Immortal Hulk.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Having been a victim of abuse, it is clear he has the mindset of a child who has internalised his abuse. Not to mention a total lack of remorse and inability to take responsibility for his actions. This is also reflected in his enmity towards Bruce, where his reasons for hating him are either projected from his own troublesome childhood (his whole fixation with the "monster gene") or ridiculously petty (such as abusing baby Bruce because he was jealous of the affection his wife was giving him).
• Ret-Canon: Brian's Adaptation Name Change in Hulk to David was imported in House of M, albeit as his middle name.
• Retcon: Originally, Bill Mantlo's run said that Bruce and Brian's last meeting Brian had attacked Bruce and ran off into the night, to be killed by muggers. Several years later, Peter David established that actually, Bruce had killed Brian by accident, and he was the one who ran off into the night, blocking the memories out.
• Stupid Evil: After he got off scott-free with murdering his wife (by threatening his son in court, no less), he completely negates his victory by going to a bar, getting shitfaced and bragging about what he did to his fellow patrons. This act would see him thrown in an asylum for a good chunk of his life.
• The Sociopath: Whether he possessed any love for his family at one point or not is another story, but by the time of Bruce’s conception he’s a violent, intemperate sadist who abused his family and murdered his wife, is callous and unempathetic to the point that he boasted of killing her, and continued to torment his son from beyond the grave after his death. He also possesses impulse control issues given his alcoholism, anger issues, and the aforementioned gloating about killing his wife, was manipulative enough to bully his son into not testifying at his mother’s murder trial and is completely incapable of admitting guilt for his scummy, reprehensible acts to the point of painting his actions as just when not outright denying any responsibility whatsoever for them. All in all, while Bruce may look like a monster at times, his father all but outstrips him when it comes to lacking in moral decency, sanity, and even humanity.
• There Are No Psychiatrists: Well, there were, but they somehow got duped by Brian and decided it was a fine idea to let him out. Now he's dead, it's a little more academic, though in Immortal Hulk he offhandedly mentions that he's met Doc Samson in the Below Place, who tried giving him some therapy, but Brian just dismisses him as a quack. So no luck there.
• Tragic Villain: To an extent and no more. Brian's abuse of his family is inexcusable, but was also partly the result of him being a severely unbalanced man riddled with mental illness as a result of a horrifying childhood, and it's generally made clear that his treatment of Bruce was just the latest link in a long chain of familial abuse stretching back generations.
• Villainous Legacy: Even in the (blessed) intervals where he has the decency to stay dead, his legacy is still alive within Bruce and the green monster he becomes when he loses control of his emotions.

Bi-Beast

Bi-Beast I

Notable Aliases: Skull-Brother

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 1, #169 (November, 1973)

A giant two-headed android living on a floating island in the sky and containing the knowledge of the bird people that built it.

---

• Character Death: Dies in his first appearance.
• Genius Bruiser: His intellect is comparable to Bruce and his strength is at least comparable to the Hulks. Two heads certainly are better than just one.
• Mechanical Monster: Is an android given the form of a two-headed creature with Super-Strength and a monstrous appearance.
• Multiple Head Case: Has two conjoined heads one atop the other, the top head was given a knowledge of warfare while the bottom head was given a knowledge of culture.

Bi-Beast II

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 #214 (August, 1977)

---

• Backup Twin: A copy of the original, which was jettisoned just before the floating island was destroyed.
• Genius Bruiser: Just like the original, this Bi-Beast is both strong and intelligent.
• Logical Weakness: Squirrel Girl once took advantage of the fact that he has two noses to spread garbage around the area where he was fighting the Thing. Once the stench grew unbearable, he needed to use both hands to cover both noses, leaving him defenseless against the Thing's counterattack with his one free hand.
• Mechanical Monster: Might look organic but he's actually robotic.
• Multiple Head Case: Has two conjoined heads.
• Underwear of Power: Wears blue underwear.

Glenn Talbot

Glenn Talbot

Alter Ego: Major (later Colonel) Glenn Talbot

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish Vol. 1, #61

"That green-skinned gargoyle is a menace to the entire world! If I'm to destroy him, it must be here — and now!"

A soldier under General Ross's command, and Bruce's rival for Betty's affections. Even though he was an utter dick. Eventually killed in action trying to kill the Hulk, but he did score a crippling blow when he learned that Bruce Banner physically changed into the Hulk and told his superiors.

---

• Big Brother Bully: The Gamma Corps miniseries reveals that he has a younger brother named Brian whom he relentlessly tormented, forcing him into arduous training regiments and mocking him non-stop.
• Bullying a Dragon: Much like General Ross, he antagonized and chased the Hulk and Bruce relentlessly. Eventually, Talbot’s pursuit of the Hulk reaches its logical conclusion and he winds up killed in action after squaring off with the big green giant and, once again, coming up short.
• Death Equals Redemption: When he reappears in Chaos War he's calmer and admits that he was a terrible husband to Betty, helping fight Mikaboshi's forces.
• Jerkass: Extremely unpleasant and disrespectful. His abusive nature doesn’t help.
• Killed Off for Real: He was an ordinary human picking a fight with the freaking Hulk. He eventually gets killed thanks to his own arrogance and overconfidence. Really couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. And barring one or two fake outs, he's stayed dead for decades.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: A flashback in Immortal Hulk shows that many unpleasant qualities aside, Glenn is at least not as insane as Fortean.
• Smug Snake: Extremely smug and dickish.
• What Does She See in Him?: Betty actually considered this guy worth marrying at one point. Despite the total screaming lack of anything near likable about him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Hit Betty at least once.

Juggernaut

Juggernaut

Alter Ego: Cain Marko

Notable Aliases:

First Appearance: The X-Men Vol 1 #12 (July, 1965)

" I'm the Juggernaut! Ain't nothin' — ain't nobody — can beat me!"

---

See Juggernaut (Marvel Comics)

The Leader

The Leader

My name is Sam Sterns. I've spent my life becoming a God.

^{Click here to see as Red Leader}

Alter Ego: Samuel Sterns

Notable Aliases: Red Leader, Sam Sterns, John Doe

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish Vol 1 #62 (December, 1964)

"I imagined the army of superhumans scouring the planet had they known of the mental titans of this world convening, however sporadic. And this unparalleled brainpower could only have been brought together by a man with true vision. A Leader."

Samuel Sterns was a worker in a chemical plant in a menial capacity until an accident working with radioactive material bombarded him with gamma radiation, turning his skin green and making his head grow, filling it with extreme knowledge. He became the one who men call The Leader, one of Hulk's greatest archenemies. 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 of the Hulk's arch-nemesis, opposing the Hulk continuously and viciously since the Silver Age.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: He almost became a being of "pure thought," but the metamorphosis didn't take and he used what was left of himself to try and perform a Grand Theft Me on the Hulk to replace his old body. Inverted in Immortal Hulk where it's revealed he descended to the Below Place and set himself up as the One Below All's new host.
• Assimilation Plot: More than once, his goal has been transforming most/all of the world's population into gamma beings.
• Back from the 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 more than one Leader is running around from alternate universes. Immortal Hulk gives the explanation that the One Below All keeps resurrecting him, for its own purposes.
• Beard of Evil: Usually a goatee, a marker of devious characters.
• Big Bad: Frequently, and of the Fall of the Hulks storyline and Immortal Hulk in particular. If somebody is masterminding a scheme to make Banner's life miserable, chances are it's The Leader.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With M.O.D.O.K. during the Fall of the Hulks.
• Blessed with Suck: His mutation granted him great intelligence, but also led to his entire body being covered in extremely painful gamma-induced bumps and boils. To combat this, his outfit has been cushioned and padded for maximum comfort.
• Body Horror: That time he ascended, his body bloated until it didn't look remotely human anymore. In his depiction in Immortal Hulk, his body proportions are just slightly off.
  • Taken even further in Immortal Hulk in the Below Place and in Banner's mindscape, where his human form splits into a xenomorph-like form: arachnid legs spout from him, and Leader's face splits open to reveal a fanged proboscis.
• Brains and Brawn: The brains, with various robots, or strong beings like Abomination as the brawn.
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: The brains in the equation, with the Hulk as the brawn.
• Cannibalism Superpower: The Leader absorbs Brian Banner's mind and gains the ability to transform into him after devouring his mind through a proboscis.
• Can't Take Criticism: Views any critiques or input on his plans as a direct insult to his intelligence, which is very bad for him as he suffers from chronic poor decision making.
• Catchphrase: "So says the Leader" in the 90s cartoon (where he is voiced by Matt Frewer).
• 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.
• Chrome Dome Psi: The Leader is telepathic and sometimes bald.
• Clashing Cousins: The final issue of Immortal Hulk reveals he and Bruce are a very distant version of this.
• Complexity Addiction: His ultimate scheme in Bruce Jones' run was to mentally and physically exhaust both Banner and the Hulk throughout forty issues through a labyrinth of conspiracies, grotesqueries, and deceptions to obfuscate his involvement with their woes and to condition them back into a state where they were easily controlled by his powers.
• Death Seeker: After his final defeat and depowering in Immortal Hulk, Sam begs for Hulk to just leave him to die because he's broken by both his experiences at the One Below All's hands and the guilt he feels for everything the Leader did.
• Demonic Possession: In Immortal Hulk, he figures out a way to hijack control of anyone who's been in the Below Place, starting with Rick Jones, then moving on to the Green Scar and Del Frye. However, after that, his attention starts slipping due to the four-way split.
• Depower: More than once, he's been turned back to regular old Samuel Sterns, but like with the Hulk, it never takes for long.
• Didn't Think This Through: A consistent character flaw is that despite being a genius he's also a total moron whose plans for world domination often fail because of painfully obvious oversights. Instigating The Hulk has literally never helped him but he keeps doing it. Giving Red Hulk the ability to absorb Gamma just meant he eventually drained Leader's Gamma turning him back into Sterns. He never makes any of his inventions accessible to anyone of normal IQ so when he's turned back Sterns doesn't know how to work any of it. Trying to hijack the violent dark side of the most powerful being in the cosmos ends with him begging for help and forgiveness. Or hell, he could just stop being a super-villain and try to make the world a better place the way Reed Richards and Tony Stark have. But he's too clueless to ever come to that conclusion.
  Sterns: All my plans failed because I was too smart to be smart. Too smart to get smarter. Too smart to learn.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: His endgame in Immortal Hulk is to hijack the power of the One Below All to rewrite reality to his desire.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Then after his aforementioned attempt to scam Cthulhu, it turns out he neglected to pay close enough attention to Brian Banner's explanation about how Brian's power comes from his connection to the One Below All before Sterns eats him (his soul since this is the non-living world) and that the One Below All digs in and wears his host's souls like a face or a mask. When the Leader had Banner spliced with the Devil Hulk into a macabre broadcasting tower to punch a hole between the Below Place and the living world, cue the spirit of Brian Banner appearing before Sterns to remind him what the One Below All does. The Leader only has a few moments of terror and begging Bruce (who is in no shape to help anyone) for help before the One Below All possesses Sterns and corrupts him.
• 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. Sam and Leader certainly speak of one another as if they're independent entities at times, with Sam being disturbed and guilt-stricken by many of Leader's evil deeds and Leader regularly speaking contemptuously of Sam as if he's a separate person.
• Evil Counterpart: He is the Hulk’s Evil Counterpart if the gamma radiation had the opposite reaction in Dr Banner. In laymen's terms, Bruce was smart and gamma radiation turned him into a child-like monster with infinite strength while Sterns was dumb and gamma radiation turned him into a monster with infinite intelligence. It’s essentially Brains Evil, Brawn Good.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Played with in regards to his older brother, Phil; Sam loves and looks up to him, but the Leader views him with contempt and ends up manipulating him into accidentally killing himself, an act that leaves Sam devastated and guilt-stricken when Leader is next depowered.
  • The Leader genuinely loves Dr. Alba and is disappointed when their relationship doesn't work out while still wishing her well. He also considers Abomination a dear friend and grieved deeply when Emil was murdered by Ross.
• Evil Genius: From his point of view, the evil genius.
• 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.
• Evil vs. Evil: In Peter David's Ghosts of the Past storyline, he gets in a turf war with Hydra. It doesn't end well for him.
• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Was fairly far below average intelligence before his accident, so any time he's in danger of losing his powers it's basically this. However, it's been noted that every time he's turned back to Samuel Sterns, Sterns becomes a little smarter than he was before.
• Foil: To the Hulk, contrasting the Hulk's raw strength with his enhanced intelligence.
• For Science!: He once blew up an inhabited city with a gamma bomb just to see if the radiation would produce useful minions. It produced five, out of a population of fifty-thousand (everyone else died). He has a history of much more ambitious schemes of the same type, with all of humanity acting as his lab rats.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Leader was originally a mentally handicapped janitor at a deserted army base.
• Genre Savvy: The Leader knows that for all his claims of wanting to be left alone, the Hulk relies on strong support networks: his teams, his friends, and his alternate personalities. So in Immortal Hulk, the Leader deliberately isolates the Hulk from these first.
• Godhood Seeker: Immortal Hulk reveals that Leader's ultimate plan is to use the One Below All to ascend gain ultimate knowledge by ascending to being a Deity of Human Origin, capable of rewriting reality in his own image.
• The Heavy: He has masterminded many plots throughout many titles.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: According to Immortal Hulk, when he learned the real truth about his constant resurrections, he had an understandable moment of horror, and tried reaching out to Bruce (around the time of the Jenkins Hulk run). But Bruce wasn't in any mood to talk, which the Leader took as rejection, so he doubled down on the evil dickery.
• Hidden Depths: Even before his intelligence boost he was shrewd enough to hide whatever he didn't want to be taken from him in multiple places and memorize where they were using a code.
• Hollywood Atheist: He was one prior to the accident that turned him into the Leader, which caused him to pass through the Green Door for the first time and quickly developed an obsession with trying to understand what he saw on the other side of death. Even after this he maintains a skeptical view to the supernatural until meeting Soul Man — a mutate with the power to literally summon souls from the afterlife — at which point he completely throws this trope out the window and begins actively studying the occult, paranormal, and religious just as gladly as science, and begins plotting to become a higher power himself.
• Insufferable Genius: For all his mental abilities, he can't help but not shut up about how brilliant he is. At one point, during Immortal Hulk, it turns out when he's Samuel Sterns even he thinks he's too full of himself (mainly because the so-called smartest mind on the planet didn't even think to make his tech user-friendly on the off chance he was turned back to Sam Sterns).
• Joker Immunity: He's died several times: Captain America knocked him into a volcano. He's been trapped in an exploding base more times than you can count. He's even been atomized and ascended to another plane of existence, but he always comes back eventually. Because the One Below All keeps resurrecting him each time he dies.
• Killer Robot: Is fond of making these. At one point, the Leader made a robot to kill the Hulk, which he titled... Hulk-Killer. Spoiler alert: It did not kill the Hulk.
• The Leader: Not only is it in his title, but he tends to act like this in supervillain collectives such as the Intelligencia.
• Logical Weakness: Sterns was granted his super-intelligence by a freak accident rather than studying or discipline. As a result, The Leader has serious trouble learning in the more general sense. Specifically he's really bad at learning from mistakes or seriously re-assessing his life choices, which keep him perpetually falling into life as a super-villain rather than ever improving himself. Even though he's been depowered multiple times he never tries to work on a back-up-plan in case it happens again, for instance. Offering suggestions doesn't help either. In the words of his unpowered self he's "too smart to get smarter."
• Mind over Matter: He has telekinesis, which is powerful enough to knock down or briefly restrain the Hulk.
• Mind Rape: Had to take his Charm Person power up a notch, with a healthy dose of Cold-Blooded Torture to get it to work on Red She-Hulk.
• My Brain Is Big: Depending upon the artist and how advanced his mental state is, may be exposed. Sometimes he has even worn external braces to help support his head upright. Once when he nearly lost his intellect and had to get it back, he instead wound up with a thick, gigantic cranium that made it look like he had a giant brain. In Immortal Hulk, when he takes over the Green Scar and Del Frye, their brains swell up to match him.
• My Skull Runneth Over:
  • In his very first appearance, he tried stealing some of the Watcher's tech to boost his intelligence. It apparently killed him.
  • In his stint on Ross' version of the Thunderbolts it's revealed that he has long ago reached the physical limit of his intellect, but it kept expanding. The only way he could survive was parceling it out on encrypted servers accessible by the internet. When he gives his brother full access his head expands until it bursts. His accessing of it gives him a profuse nosebleed.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: He uses pink, rubbery biological androids called Humanoids as Mecha-Mooks. They fall into the "made of rubber" category, being resilient and stretchy enough that punching them doesn't do any harm.
• Non-Action Big Bad: He's a schemer, not a fighter.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: The Intelligencia schemed to take over America, but the Leader was more interested in prodding around with gamma science and experimenting on Bruce's friends and family. He does intend to take over the world himself eventually, but he has his own mind-numbingly complex agenda that his brief alliance with the Intelligencia was just a minor part of.
• Post-Mortem Comeback: After the Leader died (circa #345) and before he came Back from the Dead, he implanted his memories into a loyal follower who had a similar gamma-induced mutation to him.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Besides his green skin, one of his most recognizable outfits is an orange jumpsuit.
• Smug Snake: The Leader is a textbook Insufferable Genius with an ego the size of a planet. Unlike many of the villains on this list he is capable of learning from his mistakes, and has been the Big Bad of multiple arcs, but his arrogance and obsession with the Hulk continue to undermine his plans, no matter how hard he tries to rectify that. He is in fact so convinced of his glory that he seriously believes that his own genius and willpower allow him to spontaneously return from death, blinding him to the One Below All's use of him.
• Split Personality: Samuel Sterns and the Leader have generally aligned goals, but they are different people. Sterns even criticizes the Leader as being too smart for his own good, and for failing to create a failsafe that would allow Sterns to help them both if depowered. Sterns is also significantly more sympathetic than the Leader, being regularly horrified and upset by Leader's more evil acts (like killing their brother, Phil), while Leader views Sterns as an unintelligent weakling and has no regard for his feelings or thoughts.
• Super-Intelligence: Probably the second smartest human, after the High Evolutionary, in terms of raw intelligence.
• Take Over the World: One of his primary goals and just a stepping stone to his real ultimate agenda of ascending to godhood so he can rewrite the entire multiverse to his design.
• Unexplained Recovery: The Leader died in an explosion in #400, showed up as part of the Home Base organization and died, which may have been a hallucination by Nightmare, showed up at a trial in She-Hulk, and escaped from Hell with no explanation. Much like Samson, his resurrection is finally given an explanation in Immortal Hulk.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Doctor Alba◊ in Hulkverines. The two eventually went their separate ways, but the split was apparently amicable, as the Leader is shown musing that he misses her while hoping that she is doing well, even saying, "I was sorry not to stay."
• Unknown Relative: The final issue of Immortal Hulk reveals that he and Bruce are distantly related to one another via a common ancestor, with the implication that their conflict may be just the latest expression of a blood feud and Cycle of Revenge between the Banner and Sterns families that goes back centuries.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Doesn't matter how many people end up in graves, he will have his perfect world.
• Villains Want Mercy: Is entirely lacking in empathy and has no trouble hurting anyone he feels like as long as he gets what he wants. Turn the tables on him and he's a simpering, blubbering wuss who begs his arch enemy for help (and takes simple unavailability as outright rejection).
• Visionary Villain: What he thinks he is. He has the brains, resources, and will, but lacks any qualities that would make him remotely sympathetic.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Leader is most often portrayed as this. He wants to conquer the world and solve all of its problems (in some cases, he doesn't even want to conquer the world, just set up his own utopia). Depending on the writer, he may or may not want to turn everyone in the world into a gamma monster like himself and the Hulk, as well.
• Worthy Opponent: While Leader absolutely despises Bruce in every way, he also carries some degree of respectful regard for him and thinks Bruce is the only person capable of understanding Leader's own situation.
• Would Hit a Girl: Would torture and mind-rape Betty Ross to turn her into the Red She-Hulk.

Madman

Madman

Alter Ego: Philip "Phil" Sterns

Notable Aliases: Phillip Sterns

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 #362 (November, 1989)

Phil Sterns — physician, scientist, and brother to Samuel Sterns, a.k.a. the Leader. Philip Sterns developed a deranged love/obsession with Banner's "career" as the Hulk. Sterns subjected himself to a multitude of experiments involving gamma-radiation to emulate his "hero". This resulted in Sterns turning into a distorted monstrosity, possessed of vast superhuman strength. He also developed multiple personality disorder. From this point on, a much stronger, arguably deranged, personality gave him 'orders' to carry out. Eventually became so completely unhinged that even Leader wants nothing to do with him.

---

• Always Someone Better: While a capable scientist in his own right, Phil's achievements paled in comparison to Bruce Banner's.
• Ax-Crazy: Fully willing to kill people without remorse and even seems to enjoy it.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He does call himself "Madman" after all, so it is pretty clear he knows he is not a good person.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Crazy with and without his multiple personality disorder, and even before his powers.
• Evil Counterpart: He's even crazier than Hulk himself, and with no conscience or morality whatsoever to keep it in check.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Very evil and gave himself powers.
• Faux Affably Evil: Speaks like someone you might want to grab a beer with, but beneath this is utterly unhinged and deranged to everyone.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Similar to his more infamous brother.
• Gollum Made Me Do It: Madman is an example of this. He tried to give himself powers like the Hulk. Since gamma radiation's ability to grant powers is based off of the person's personality (e.g. the Hulk represents Bruce Banner's anger and abuse as a child, Doc Samson's powers are a reflection of a desire to live up to his biblical namesake, the Abomination is formed from Emil Blonsky's self-loathing), the Powered form took on its own personality, making the original form his slave.
• Green-Eyed Monster: His whole motivation for mutating himself was the envy of Banner's academic success and the Hulk's power.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Sterns subjects himself to a multitude of experiments involving gamma radiation to emulate his "hero.". This results in Sterns turning into a distorted monstrosity with vast superhuman strength and developing multiple personality disorder.
• In Name Only: In the 2003 video game Hulk (which served as a sequel to the Ang Lee movie), virtually nothing of his character remained from the comics other than his name, strength, and appearance. 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.
• Insane Troll Logic: Everything he does in some way in another.
• Loony Fan: Phil was so obsessed with Bruce that he tried to emulate him in every way - including exposing himself to gamma radiation.
• Mad Artist: His shapechanging.
• Mad Scientist: Flat out crazy, and has the scientific expertise to do something about it.
• Mood-Swinger: He can be composed and polite, then utterly insane in the next moment.
• My Skull Runneth Over: He attempted to access his brother's store of knowledge. It proved too much for him, causing his head to expand and explode.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The dude calls himself "Madman" and lives up to it.
• Power Born of Madness: His power comes from gamma experiments that lead him to go insane.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He still can’t get over the fact that both Bruce and the Hulk are better than him. He has lashed out in his inability to accept the fact he is not as good as he thinks.
• Stalker with a Crush: A former schoolmate of Bruce Banner, Sterns develops a deranged love/obsession with Banner's "career" as the Hulk.
• Super-Strength: Unlike the Hulk, Madman is unable to become stronger as he becomes angrier, but he is capable of creating significant boosts in his size, density, and power, being able to reach at least twice the "calm strength level" of most incarnations.
• Talkative Loon: A crazy bastard who will not shut up.
• Troll: The other half of his motivation to harass the Hulk is that he finds it hilarious to be extremely annoying.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He has claimed to be able to assume many different appearances, including the scientist spying on the "New World Order".

Maestro

Maestro

Alter Ego: Dr. Robert Bruce Banner

Notable Aliases: The Hulk

First Appearance: Hulk: Future Imperfect Vol 1 #1 (December, 1992) ^note Historically; Maestro Vol 1 #1 (October, 2020) ^note Chronologically

"You're fighting against the inevitable, Hulk. I'm simply the final product of natural selection. The strong survive. I'm the strongest. I survived."

---

See Marvel Comics: Bruce Banner

Mercy

Mercy

Alter Ego: Abigail Mercy Wright

Notable Aliases: Angel of Mercy, Kali

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 #338 (December, 1987)

A missionary of extraterrestrial origin who has taken it upon herself to kill those who don't have the strength to commit suicide out of despair, thinking she's doing them a favor.

---

• Be Careful What You Wish For: Especially if it's a death wish.
• Combo Platter Powers: Super strength and durability, telepathy, energy manipulation, shapeshifting, flight, and teleportation.
• Depending on the Writer / Multiple-Choice Past: Very different assigned origins and motivations, from an alien to an angel of mercy, to artificial mutate. One moment she will turn into a giant monster, and the next help a soul to the afterlife. Lampshaded in that she has mentioned that she is simply very fickle.
• The Empath: She possesses telepathic powers that allow her to read the thoughts of others and to sense their emotions.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles
• The Fair Folk: Maybe, maybe not. She's worn this hat here and there, and she definitely acts the part.
• Femme Fatalons: Usually when she shape-shifts.
• Flight: Mercy can levitate and propel herself through the air at unknown speeds.
• God Guise: She appeared as the goddess Kali before pilgrims in a temple.
• 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.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Can apparently do virtually anything on a limited scale.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Alien, shapeshifter, and suicide assistant.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: She looks like some kind of fairy, and can still give the Hulk a good run for his money.
• Super-Strength: Mercy possesses an undefined level of superhuman strength. She was at least strong enough to break the Punisher's hand simply by squeezing.
• Super-Toughness: Mercy is more resistant to harm than an ordinary person. The upper limits for her durability are unknown, though she was able to withstand automatic gunfire with no injury.
• Tautological Templar: She kills people with a death wish, but also expands this to people who she deems deserve to die, even if they resist. She may even actively enjoy it, as she kills scores of people? And what's her moral justification for all of this? She's an "angel of mercy".
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Mercy can change her form, and duplicate a person both in appearance and personality.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Giver her M.O., she's almost certainly this. She has a loose interpretation of the term "assisted suicide", to the point that she adds "people who can't accept that they're better off dead". As this judgment is entirely her own is where most problems arise. A Thunderbolts issue even implies that this is merely a justification for the fact that she enjoys killing people.

Mister Hyde

Mister Hyde

Alter Ego: Calvin Zabo

Notable Aliases: Edward, Jack the Ripper, Edward Hyde

First Appearance: Journey into Mystery Vol 1 #99 (December, 1963)

"I am Hyde. I've fought the likes of Thor, Hercules, and the Hulk — do you expect me to believe that a motorcycle riding freak could hurt me more than they could?"

---

See The Mighty Thor: Enemies

The One Below All

The One Below All

Alter Ego:

Notable Aliases: The Devil, Satan, Cosmic Satan, Brian Banner

First Appearance: Immortal Hulk Vol 1 #4 (October, 2018)

---

See Marvel Comics: Cosmic Entities

Red King

Red King

Alter Ego: Angmo-Asan II

Notable Aliases: Angmo II, Lord Emperor of Sakaar, the Hero Protector, Crown Prince, Deliverer of the People

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 2 #92 (April, 2006)

"Always satisfying, cleaning house, isn't it? Now then, Elloe Kaifi, highblood traitor of the empire...do you prefer incineration or decapitation?"

The emperor of the planet Sakaar.

---

• Alliterative Name: Angmo-Asan.
• Archnemesis Dad: Even his own daughter Omaka hates him for trying to kill her so she wouldn't threaten his rule.
• Bald of Evil: His head has no hair and has no morals.
• Bread and Circuses: This is how he kept control of Sakaar, with wars engineered by him and Gladiator Games.
• The Caligula: The guy is a terrible ruler, vain, child-like and an unrepentant bastard with no morals.
• The Emperor: While only styling himself as a king, he definitely rules like an insane emperor.
• Enfant Terrible: Even when he was only a young prince, he was a sociopath with no regard for the lives of others.
• The Evil Prince: Even when he was a prince, he was totally evil.
• Hate Sink: He's easily one of the Hulk's most despicable villains, with no redeeming qualities, at least until his Heel–Face Turn.
• Heel–Face Turn: After he was deposed by the Hulk, the Red King was saved from the brink of death by Wildebots, who helped him turn over a new leaf, with the Red King becoming the protector of Okini, and a loyal follower of the Hulk's son, Skaar, and then his own daughter, Princess Omaka. Also counts as Redemption Equals Death, as he does not appear to have been among those who survived Sakaar being devoured by Galactus.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Unlike his father Angmo I, who was a warlord that unified and saved the planet of Sakaar during the Spike War, he's a Royal Brat with desires for power and glory.
• Offing the Offspring: Had his infant son killed and while his daughter Omaka survived the murder attempt, her arms had to be replaced with cybernetics.
• Powered Armor: His fancy golden armor that allows him to match the Hulk.
• Redemption Equals Death: He was revealed in Skaar: Son of Hulk to have been rehabilitated... shortly before Sakaar was eaten by Galactus.

Reginald Fortean

Reginald Fortean

^{Click here to see Spoiler}

Alter Ego: General Reginald Fortean

Notable Aliases: Abomination

First Appearance: Hulk Vol 2 #30.1 (May, 2011) ^note As General Fortean; Immortal Hulk Vol 1 #21 (September, 2019) ^note As Abomination

"My name is Reginald James Fortean. I'm 42 years old. I was once a Major General in the United States Air Force. For my country, I have become something else—something divorced from all conventional military structure. A commander of shadows. But even in the shadows, there must be an order. I am that order."

A general who was originally one of Ross's proteges and served under him in the past. After believing Red Hulk killed General Ross, he vows to hunt down and kill Red Hulk. He later clashes with Betty Ross as the Red She-Hulk and is one of the main antagonists of the Immortal Hulk series.

---

• And I Must Scream: After his death, Abomination hijacks his corpse to return to the world of the living. Fortean is still aware, but unable to assert any control over his body, even as Abomination experiments on his daughter.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Due to being too close to the still-living Gamma-activated tissue, he is assimilated by it, becoming a Gamma mutate himself in Immortal Hulk to the point of going to the Below-Place upon death like other such mutates do.
• Bad Boss: By the time of Immortal Hulk, he's an awful person to work for, snubbing or sneering at any show of humanity from his subordinates, or threatening them with going back to jail for not doing as he says. It eventually gets to the point that he kills two mooks for walking in the middle of a fight with the Hulk, and says it's still not his fault. This is what finally prompts everyone at Shadow Base to leave him to his fate.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Fortean claims that he wants to stop the chaos and bring order. But in reality, he wants control, and to dominate. Unlike Ross, it was never about helping make the world a better place. It was always about control and he used other members of the military under the pretext of getting revenge for Ross' death to acquire the resources to pursue his own goals. Once he had his resources and people he started doing whatever it took to gain power and exert control over what he calls the shadows or chaos but really just wanted to set himself up as the one in charge behind the shadows. It's even stated that they have no interest in destroying the Hulk and the aim of Fortean's organization is to weaponize gamma mutation.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Hulks are bad. Anything that opposes them is good and right, even when that involves murder and desecrating corpses to make more gamma mutants. Fortean's insanity in this regard is so great he'll chide and threaten his underlings just for showing basic human decency about the horrible things he makes them do.
• Control Freak: What Fortean actually is. It started in his childhood when he heard stories about how god imposed order on the world by giving it structure. It's implied that Fortean wanted to be the one to impose order and stand on high as God. In the flashbacks, each defining incident for him was just another step on his road to his own brand of order to the world.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: A flashback in Immortal Hulk shows him during his days working under Ross seeing the aftermath of a Hulk rampage. Ross and Talbot use the example of a young Jackie McGee as a reminder of what they're supposed to be fighting for, protecting people from harm. Reginald takes this as justification to shove down any qualms he might feel in the name of the Greater Good.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He has a daughter, who he is unsurprisingly estranged from, and who has a mess of dad issues because of it.
• Everyone Has Standards: Only just. He refrains from sending thugs after Betty on the day of her father's funeral, but only then. Once he finds out she's Red Harpy, he's got no compunction ordering her death as well.
• Eviler than Thou: Ross may be a Jerkass, but he has at least a few redeeming qualities, like his love for his daughter and the fact that he does what he does because he believes it will help and protect people. He would also never endanger or sacrifice innocent people if he could at all help it and there are some lines even he won't cross. Fortean on the other hand is The Unfettered and sees rules, laws, and morality as obstacles to his missions. His sole focus is to destroy the monsters and he couldn't care less about the regular people who get caught up in the mess. He used to have a few scruples about it, apologizing to someone he thought was caught up in his mission against Red Hulk, but got worse over time.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: He had Rick Jones' (probably) dead body dug up and turned into a monstrous new Abomination to try and kill the Hulk. Then he tried recovering the leftovers after the Hulk was done with it, and it merges with him. When the Devil Hulk kills him, it turns out this exposure is enough to drag him down to Hell.
• General Ripper: He is even more unreasonable and uncompromising than Thunderbolt Ross in this regard, and Ross is the page image for this trope.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Big time. Fortean is willing to do some really, really horrible stuff to take down the Hulk and does it without batting an eye. Taken to its logical conclusion in Immortal Hulk when his shortsightedness and overall behavior turns him into a quasi-Gamma mutate himself, though admittedly he did not become this on purpose.
• In Love with Your Carnage: His reaction to seeing Betty as Red Harpy is stunned awe.
• Kick the Dog:
  • While attending General Ross' second funeral, he announces that he always thought of the general as being like a father to him - while standing right in front of Betty Ross, the general's actual offspring.
  • By the time of Immortal Hulk issue 20, he's got no problem ordering the murder of as many civilians as needed in the name of "collateral damage".
• Meaningful Name: "Fortean" shares a root with the Latin word "Fortis", meaning strong, fitting for a man fighting "the strongest one there is" and trying to be stronger than him. "Fortean" is also used to refer to followers of the paranormal researcher Charles Fort, and Fortean doe end up applying to that side of things as well given his frequent dwellings in the supernatural.
• My God, What Have I Done?: It's only at the end when he finds himself in the Below-Place facing Brian Banner and the One Below All does he realize where his pursuit of the Hulk and weaponizing gamma mutation has led him. When he realizes that he's damned himself and that he's been the unwitting pawn of the One Below All, he is horrified at the realization before Joe Fixit kills him for good.
  "No. No. I... I don't want this… I'd never have... This is... my soul."
• Necessarily Evil: How he sees himself and how he justifies his actions. In truth, he's more of a Knight Templar.
• Neck Snap: Joe Fixit snaps his neck while he's in Hell, and distracted by his horror at being in Hell at all.
• Never My Fault: He's practically a champion at shifting blame and responsibility onto other people, provided it's something to take the blame for. He claims he's proud to "make the hard decisions", but when people start calling him out on the actions he takes, he'll refuse to take any ownership for that. Dr. McGowan is forced to dig up Rick Jone's corpse and turn it into an abomination on his orders? Her fault. Said abomination starts killing people? Needed to be done. He melts two loyal soldiers for no reason? Friendly fire.
• Remember the New Guy?: He was introduced in 2011, with Ross remembering him as having been around during his crusade against the Hulk; later, it got extended back to having been around since before the Hulk's creation.
• Revenge: His motive for pursuing Red Hulk, believing he'd killed Ross.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: He's moved from Hulk to Hulk in his time, going from General Ross to Betty to Bruce.
• Villainous BSoD: Freezes up when he realizes he is in Hell after dying, resulting in Joe Fixit breaking his neck to make it permanent.
• Volumetric Mouth: In the Subject B suit his mouth stretches long when he vomits up acid. The gullet is lined with teeth.

Rhino

Rhino

Alter Ego: Alexei Systevich

Notable Aliases: Aleksei Popov, Alex, Alex O'Hirn, Big Horn Guy, Mecha-Rhino, Mr. Hornman, Ryan O'Smith, Tubby

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #41 (October, 1966)

"I'm Rhino. I knock things down. That's what I do. That's who I am."

A Rhinoceros-themed Russian villain primarily known as a foe of Spider-Man, but between his first few appearances and the early eighties he almost exclusively battled the green goliath. He also derives his strength from gamma rays.

---

See Spider-Man: Rogues Gallery, I to Z

Ringmaster

Ringmaster

Alter Ego: Maynard Tiboldt

Notable Aliases: Martin Thraller, Dr. Arnold Quaid, Dr. Roland Grand

First Appearance: Incredible Hulk #3 (September, 1962)

"The crowd questions your presence in the center-ring, Dr. Banner! They don't understand that you belong here as much as Dragon-Man! After all, you're both wild animals who exist only to be tamed. Freaks, who exist only to be exhibted! Transform yourself, Dr. Banner! Show these good people what a monster you really are!"

---

See Marvel Comics: Circus Of Crime

Thunderbolt Ross/Red Hulk

Thunderbolt Ross

Alter Ego: General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross

Notable Aliases: Circle of Four, Ghost Rider, Hulk, Redeemer, Red Hulk, Red King, Red Man, Rulk/Rulky, Thunder Thighs Ross, Venom, Zzzax,

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 #1 (May, 1962) ^note As General Ross; Hulk Vol 2 #1 (March, 2008) ^note As Red Hulk

"I've trashed my military career, I'm constantly being attacked by my supposed allies, my family won't talk to me... and the only place I can be human is on a secret base with the one man I can't stand.
I'm doing great."

— General Ross

A United States military officer and the father of Betty Ross, as head of the Gamma Bomb Project, he was overseeing the testing of the gamma bomb when Bruce Banner raced out onto the testing grounds to save teenager Rick Jones. For Banner's pains, he was blasted with gamma radiation, turning him into the Hulk.

After the creation of the Hulk, Ross pursued the beast, initially because of the Hulk's attacks against the U.S. Army; as time passed, it developed into something more personal, an obsession. Even as Ross sought to bring the Hulk down, he envied and coveted the power the Hulk possessed, and after learning that Banner and the Hulk are one and the same.

In the end, the death of Ross' daughter Betty at the hands of the Abomination, the Hulk's betrayal by the Illuminati, and the assassination of Captain America plunged Ross into the depths of despair, where the Intelligencia, a cabal of Mad Scientist supervillains, found him. They made Ross an offer: the power to "rescue" America, and the chance to have Betty brought Back from the Dead. He accepted, and by combining cosmic energy with gamma radiation siphoned off from the Hulk, the Intelligencia transformed him into the Red Hulk.

The Red Hulk's first mission was killing the Abomination, and from there he proceeded to run amok across the MU, kicking a lot of dogs and getting on the bad side of a lot of major players - culminating in his stripping Banner of the Hulk.

Finally, his treatment at the Intelligencia's hands led him to break ranks with them, teaming with the Hulkless Bruce Banner to bring them down in Fall of the Hulks. However, believing he'd been let down by both sides, he made his own bid for power - only to be stopped and de-powered by a re-Hulkified Banner.

Ross has made frequent appearances in other Hulk-related media. The Red Hulk made his cross-media debut in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and is part of the main cast in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.. The Red Hulk is also available as an alternate skin for the Hulk in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and as his own playable character in Marvel: Avengers Alliance. He also appears as a free-roam boss fight and unlockable character in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. Red Hulk was added as a playable character to the roster of Marvel: Future Fight during the Ant-Man game update.

General Ross appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow, Captain America: New World Order, and Thunderbolts, initially played by the late William Hurt, and afterwards by Harrison Ford starting with New World Order.

---

• Aesop Amnesia: On occasion, Ross would mellow out on his Hulk hate... but sooner or later, he'd be back to form, hating Banner and Hulk alike.
• Alien Blood: Following his initial transformation, Ross now has glowing yellow blood in both forms.
• Always Someone Better: The Green Hulk of course. Banner even calls himself "the alpha," as in alpha Hulk of the other Hulks, at one point.
• Anti-Hero: Red Hulk is violent, almost sociopathic and trigger-happy.
• Anti-Hero Substitute: For both Hulk (2008) and New Avengers after he stopped being a straightforward villain, acting as a temporary replacement for Banner in both books.
• Archenemy: Probably the closest thing the The Incredible Hulk has to one.
• Artistic License – History: Word of God from Jeff Parker, supported later in the comic, is that the Army Air Force being currently active was intentional (in Real Life, it was abolished in 1947, replaced by the Air Force as an entirely separate arm of the military).
• Back from the Dead: Twice, both before he ever became the Red Hulk.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: He viewed the Hulk as a monster yet became a Hulk himself. He also ends up being hunted across the world as a fugitive the same way he relentlessly pursued Banner.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Ross always wanted to be the Hulk. Then he got Mode Lock.
• Berserk Button: Gruff but reasonable (if capable of harsh and sometimes shortsighted pragmatism) when he's interacting with the rest of the Marvel universe, just hearing Bruce Banner's name can bring out the worst in him.
• Brought Down to Normal: At the end of the Omega Hulk storyline, the "Doc Green" Hulk removes his Red Hulk powers. Coates' run on Captain America sees Ross regain his Red Hulk powers.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • He never could get it into his head that if he just left the Hulk alone, there'd be far less collateral damage.
  • Provoking Galactus did not end well for him either.
• Butt-Monkey: Jeff Parker did his best to give Rulk what was coming to him for all the behavior of the early issues - effectively dropping Ross' Karma Houdini Warranty. Unfortunately, this was not good news for anyone around Rulk...
• Came Back Wrong: When Ross was brought back the first time, the Leader hadn't quite perfected the requisite technology... Originally, he came back as a Soulless Shell, which was later retconned as And I Must Scream.
• Catchphrase: Under Loeb, Red Hulk was prone to yelling "I'm my own man, my own monster!"
• Create Your Own Villain/Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bad idea disconnecting the scientist trying to stop the Synthegraft subjects before she was done, Ross; now she's been transformed into supervillain Zero/One.
  • Ross has impeded and even outright stopped Banner's attempts to cure himself of the Hulk many, many times, usually unwittingly.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: He delivered lots of these to other heroes, before Galactus brought his winning streak to an end. After this, Rulk was on the receiving end of many.
• Darkest Hour: During Bill Mantlo's run on Incredible Hulk, Ross was faced with either owning up to releasing the Abomination against the Hulk in defiance of a Presidential pardon and being charged with treason, or committing suicide. He opted to own up. The full implications of this were overlooked by later writers, as he eventually returned to military service. Jeph Loeb eventually explained Ross' return to service by revealing the charges had been dropped as part of the Intelligencia's schemes.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Ross has never been happy with Betty's relationship with Banner, even before he learned Bruce was the Hulk.
• Deal with the Devil: Has a distinct tendency to end up making these. He made one with one with MODOK, which made him the Red Hulk in the first place, then another with MODOK and Leader to resurrect his daughter. In Thunderbolts, he makes one with Mephisto on behalf of the team.
• Death Faked for You: During his plot against the Intelligencia, he and Banner make it look like the Red Hulk killed him. He later does it again during Ta-Nehisi Coates's Captain America run as part of his investigation into Alexa Lukin.
• Determinator: Say what else you like about him, but Ross doesn't give up till the bitter end.
• Dishonored Dead: Downplayed in Immortal Hulk, where he gets what is on the surface a respectful funeral, but everyone is going through the motions and nobody is really sorry to see him go. He’s buried at West Point, but only because that's the only cemetery that would take his body; it's attended by his daughter and some former colleagues who are mostly there out of a sense of obligation; and the eulogy is delivered by Tony Stark, who is only there because Ross was briefly an Avenger, and gives a very short, awkward and carefully worded speech and generally clearly doesn’t want to be there (and keeps eyeing the casket as if expecting someone to pop out of it). It's even further downplayed as it's later revealed he didn't even die at all, just used an LMD to fake his death.
• Death Is Cheap: He's seemingly killed during Coates's Captain America run. "Seemingly" as it later turns out he faked his death with an LMD. However, this trope actually gets explored over in Immortal Hulk. After the last two near-misses, his funeral's not exactly swarming with mourners, and Iron Man (who gives a half-hearted eulogy) keeps glancing at the coffin in case anything happens. While nothing did, the LMD soon got hijacked by Carnage and Grendel during Absolute Carnage.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In Age of Ultron, he brutally kills Taskmaster for attempting to escape with the parts of the Ultron drones the group acquired. It gets even worse when you realize that Taskmaster didn't have any means of fighting the Ultron drones, was shaken after witnessing Black Panther's sudden death, and the fact that his job was to escape with the Ultron parts!
• Distaff Counterpart: Much to Ross' dismay, when the Intelligencia resurrected Betty, they turned her into the Red She-Hulk.
• Dramatic Irony: General Fortean believes the Red Hulk killed Ross, and wants him dead. As such, he's unaware that the Red Hulk is Ross, or the extent to which he's following in Ross's footsteps. Ross, on the other hand, is all too aware of the irony.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Quite apart from the Red Hulk, there was the time Ross took over the body of energy being Zzzax. Or the time he was given the Redeemer armor.
• Enemy Mine: Banner and Ross have teamed up on occasion.
• Energy Absorption: Can absorb various forms of energy, including gamma radiation and cosmic energy, to boost his strength. He's even able to use this on living beings, allowing him to permanently rob gamma mutates of their powers.
• Everyone Has Standards: On occasion.
  • Ross can be a General Ripper on his bad days, but even he thinks Brian Banner is a piece of human-shaped scum. ... of course, he follows up on this by hating Bruce even more for being unable to stand up to the man.
  • After his de-powering by Doc Omega, Ross swears off hunting Banner because he feels they're too similar. But this means the job is left to Fortean, who has absolutely none of Ross's restraint or qualms.
• Evil Counterpart: As the Red Hulk, to the Hulk, initially.
• Faking the Dead: As far as most of the world's concerned, Thunderbolt Ross is dead (in truth, it was a Life Model Decoy). Ta-Nehisi Coates's Captain America run sees him do this again.
• Faustian Rebellion: Against the Intelligencia.
• Four-Star Badass: Ross himself. General Fortean also counts, although he's only two-star.
  Ross: Son, I didn't get these stars by being somewhere else when the spit hit the fan!
• Gathering Steam: Averted. Unlike Banner, getting angry causes the Red Hulk to overheat and collapse.
• General Ripper: Depending on the Writer, went between this and Inspector Javert.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: As Red Hulk, Ross has glowing yellow eyes.
• Gosh Dangit To Heck: Starting off, it was because The Comics Code Authority prevented the use of strong language, or even the hint of strong language, so the hardened military man was prone to letting out curses such as "blankety blank". Even after the CCA lost its teeth, Ross's propensity for old-timey swears remained.
• Hair Reboot: His mustache, as mentioned above.
• Hammerspace: Mark Waid has put forth the suggestion that Ross' mustache goes into the Negative Zone when he transforms. It has its own adventures there. According to Thunderbolts Volume 2 issue 21, it goes to Mephisto's realm of Hell. Some of the Thunderbolts have a fight with it, turned enormous.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Ross just doesn't get that he's worse than the Hulk now that he has his powers, owing to his lack of restraint and even less compulsions about beating up whoever got in his way.
• Healing Factor: When he sleeps or transforms.
• Heel–Face Turn: He served as an Avenger for a time.
• Henshin Hero: Well, Anti-Hero.
• Hero Antagonist: He was originally portrayed as this since he was trying to stop the Hulk. Over time, Ross became more of a General Ripper, however, as he caused more harm than good, and the comics began to emphasize how wrong he was in his methods. He was still ultimately a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
  Hulk: All Hulk ever wants is to be left alone!!
  Red Hulk: Right. You wanted to be left alone when you went to war with the entire planet? Trashed half of New York City! I'll see to it that you're left alone — in a graveyard!
• Heroic Red Ring of Death: The angrier Red Hulk gets, the hotter he gets, until he overheats.
• Home Base: Where Banner has a number of hidden bases, Ross has only one so far: Gamma Base.
• Hot-Blooded: Literally.
• Hulking Out: He normally chooses when to change and keeps his own mind, but when the general is poisoned it causes him to immediately hulk out and go on an unstoppable rampage.
• Hulk Speak: Unlike the original Hulk, this is noticeably averted.
• In Another Man's Shoes: In Jeff Parker's run. Transformed into a Hulk, hunted by the U.S. Army, unable to convince them of his good intentions... Ross has finally found out what Banner was going through when Ross was leading the hunt. Whether he's actually figured that out yet is another matter - seeing the other person's perspective has never been one of his strong suits.
• In Name Only: His team of Thunderbolts seemingly has no relation to previous Thunderbolts team. But then again, "Thunderbolt" is his nickname to begin with.
• In a Single Bound: Thanks to his super strength.
• In-Series Nickname: Ross was nicknamed 'Thunderbolt' by his troops because he 'struck like a thunderbolt' against their enemies.
• The Insomniac: Type D, superpowered. Red Hulk is able to go for long stretches without sleep... but even he needs to sleep eventually. It's very bad news when Fortean infected him with nanites that would kill him if he turned human, which he does whenever he sleeps. Ironically, this prevented Ross from taking the opportunity to show Fortean that Rulk and Ross are one and the same.
• Inspector Javert: Towards the Hulk, right from the off. Back then, there was an element of reasonableness about it, since the Hulk was intelligent and downright malicious, often planning attacks against mankind as a whole for no reason. Less so as the Hulk's persona changed from "kill all puny humans" to "LEAVE HULK ALONE".
• Interrupted Cooldown Hug: Was often the reason for this. Doesn't apply to him, though, since his anger usually shorts him out.
• Jerkass: Ross was never Mr. Nice Guy before. Getting the super powers he so craved didn't help his disposition.
• Kick the Dog: When he and Banner first met, Ross accidentally destroyed Bruce's childhood doll. And the jerkward didn't even bother apologizing for it.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Abomination most certainly had his fate coming, as weirdly-written as it may have been.
• Lampshade Hanging: Hulk #30.1, "The Whale", points out Ross and Fortean's similarities to Captain Ahab, and to each other. Ross is aware of the parallels; Fortean isn't.
• Laser-Guided Karma: For decades, he has ruined Bruce's/Hulk's life. And after becoming the Red Hulk, it was Bruce who gave him a taste of his own medicine by making the public believe Ross had died as a hero. Because of this, Rulk can't ever be Ross again in public and live a normal life, or he would (like Hulk said) hang for treason for his crimes as Rulk — only to be pardoned after he helped fight against HYDRA in Secret Empire.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Ross and Banner, following the Compound Hulk incident.
• Magic Pants: Although Ross' are black, rather than purple.
• Military Brat: Ross' family has been in the military at least since the American Civil War.
• Never My Fault: Ross will often refuse to take any accountability for the train wreck his obsessions make of his life, or his relationship with his daughter. Sooner or later, he'll warp it around to be Banner or the Hulk's fault.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Banner's reputation may have never recovered after leading an alien invasion of Earth during World War Hulk had Ross and the Intelligencia not made him look like a saint by comparison with their schemes.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: At one point, gets briefly possessed by both the Venom symbiote and the Spirit of Vengeance, turning him into a gamma-mutated symbiotic red colored Four-Star Badass. It looks every bit as awesome as it sounds.
  • He then manages to combine all three voice tics into one epic line.
  Venom Rulk Rider "Wwe am smassh for venggeance!"
• Not So Stoic: When it comes to his family.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Became the Red Hulk for the Intelligencia when they promised they would resurrect his daughter Betty, but while he never stopped wanting that throughout Loeb's run, he was clearly enjoying making Banner's life as miserable as possible.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Briefly did this very early on as Rulk, but it didn't work because Iron Man pointed out a stupid, mindless Hulk doesn't use a gun.
• Old Soldier: A rare officer version.
• One Degree of Separation: As revealed in the miniseries Captain America: Patriot, his aunt was Betsy Ross aka Golden Girl, his uncle by marriage was Jeffery Mace the third Captain America, and he was friends with Franklin Storm, father of Susan and Johnny Storm, when they were kids.
• Papa Wolf: For all Ross' faults, he's fiercely protective of his daughter Betty. One of the reasons he hunted the Hulk so obsessively is because he felt Betty's relationship with Banner would endanger her... and he was arguably right. Not to mention that right after becoming the Red Hulk, he tracked down the Abomination, who had killed her, and murdered him.
• Pet the Dog: Even Ross is not entirely without his positive traits. In an early issue of Hulk, he tells a despondent Rick the best thing the kid can do is go back to school and get an education, because that's something the world needs.
• Playing with Fire: When he starts to overheat, it's quite literal, as his body puts out a extreme amount of heat hot enough to melt some of the sand in a desert he was in.
• Pride: Probably Ross's defining feature, for better and worse.
• Psycho Rangers: Headed up the Offenders, an Evil Counterpart team to The Defenders.
• Radiation-Immune Mutants: In fact, he gains his powers from it.
• Radiation-Induced Superpowers: Gamma radiation + cosmic energy = Red Hulk.
• Red Baron: Known as "thunderbolt" to many.
• Red Is Violent: As Red Hulk, being even more ravaging than Hulk himself.
• Reluctant Retiree: All Ross has known has been military service. Once he was unable to go back, he was at a loss for what to do with himself. Always somewhat unhappy about superheroes and super-teams, he joined the Avengers, probably because it was the closest thing to military service he can do now.
• Remember the New Guy?: General Fortean, who used to be one of Ross' subordinates in his Hulk-hunting days.
• Revenge: Ross has been on both sides of this, but perhaps the most impressive example is Uatu the Watcher retaliating for Ross punching him in the face by launching what may be the most passive-aggressive revenge schemes ever, courtesy of the Alien Non-Interference Clause.
• Revenge Before Reason: Ross' desire to take down the Hulk took him down some very dark paths in the past.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: The Life Model Decoys at Gamma Base, who are aware of their nature, and serve as Ross's supporting cast.
• Sanity Slippage: During the 80s, his Hulk hatred go so bad he went insane and was institutionalized. He managed to sneak out within about an issue, and then SHIELD figured it was a good idea to spring the crazy man out themselves.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Inverted, along with Primary-Color Champion. The green and purple original Hulk is the hero, while Red Hulk is the villain.
• Secret Identity: If Ross ever tries pulling a Back from the Dead, Banner will publicly reveal he's the Red Hulk... and given that he tore up the White House, that isn't going to go down well.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Red Hulk's Energy Absorption abilities are set to force this sooner or later. General Fortean implanted him with nano-mines set to go off when he turned human, but he managed to get them deactivated.
• Shockwave Clap: Comes with the Hulk territory.
• Shooting Superman: When it came to the Hulk, this was generally his Plan A.
• Smug Super: Again, getting Hulk powers did not do the man's ego any favors.
• Split Personality: Averted, Ross retains his identity in both forms.
• The Stoic: Ross allows himself few displays of emotion beyond anger. The Red Hulk's a different matter.
• Strong and Skilled: He's at his most dangerous as the Red Hulk when he's able to reign in his rage (which doesn't necessarily make him stronger like it does Bruce) to make full use of his energy abilities and enhanced physicality in combination with his fighting skills and whatever weaponry his enlarged hands can properly grasp. When Ross regains this form near the end of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Captain America run, he swiftly destroys a squadron of the Red Skull's fighter jets with ludicrous speed and precision, managing to avoid the Winter Soldier and Falcon who were also up in the air.
• Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious: Vampires love snacking on his blood.
• Super-Senses: Able to see various forms of energy, including gamma radiation and cosmic energy
• Super-Strength: Though he can't reach the levels Banner can.
• Two Beings, One Body: The Compound Hulk in Hulk #30.
• Two First Names: His first name is Thaddeus — a name relatively popular in America during the 1970s — and his last name is Ross.
• Villain Ball: Does this a fair amount as an antagonist, though his biggest moment happened after his first fight with Banner in Loeb's run where he actually choked the Hulk unconscious. But instead of finishing him off then and there, he dragged him to the Golden Gate Bridge so he could gun him down in public the moment he woke up. For his troubles, the Hulk bit his pistol in half and then gave him a superpowered kick in the groin.
• Villain Protagonist: Shared the spotlight with Banner for most of Loeb's Hulk run, briefly performed a Hostile Show Takeover when he temporarily depowered him, and then stayed on as the protagonist after his Hazy-Feel Turn until the volume concluded under Jeff Parker's pen.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Typically has full control over his transformation, though he sometimes reverts when he sleeps.
• Weaponized Exhaust: When he starts overheating, the heat is extreme enough to melt sand, let alone the effects it can have on his opponent.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ross has always been one of these.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Ross is rather uncomfortable with the Life Model Decoys' nature; on the other, they're human enough he often acts as he would around flesh-and-blood humans. It turns out these LMDs dissolve when they're destroyed; they can't be repaired. Like humans, they only have one life. Taken further when Ross eventually enters a relationship with Annie.

Tyrannus

Tyrannus

Alter Ego: Romulus Augustulus

Notable Aliases: Romulus Augustilus, Des, Dr. Tyrone, Abomination, Romulus Augustus

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 #5 (January, 1963)

"Fool! Do you think to prevail against Tyrannus—Who embodies the might of ancient Rome—?"

A former Roman Emperor who tried to take over Camelot during Arthurian times, but was defeated and exiled by Merlin in the underground world of Subterranea. There, he ended up becoming the leader of a species of orange-skinned, semi-humanoid creatures, and a fountain of youth he used to become immortal. He now aspires to conquer the surface world using all the things he has acquired.

---

• Been There, Shaped History: For instance, he was the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, got banished by Merlin (given how many Merlins there are in the Marvel Universe, it's anyone's guess who that was), and discovered the Fountain of Youth.
• Beneath the Earth: Merlin found Romulus and banished him beneath the Earth to the realm known as Subterranea.
• Betty and Veronica: There's a rather strange love triangle going on between Marvel's subterranean overlord characters. Tyrannus is the Veronica, Kala is the Archie, and Mole Man is the Betty (she chooses Veronica after stringing Betty along).
• Emperor Scientist: He was the king of the Tyrannoids, a subterranean race of semi-humanoids, in addition to being an accomplished scientist. He was also the last Emperor of the Roman Empire.
• Faux Affably Evil: Speaks politely, but is willing to cause massive atrocities on a whim.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: He's apparently the Roman emperor Romulus Augustus, who was in real life a 16-year-old puppet king whose rule lasted about a year, not a suave world-conquering scientific genius.
• Immortality: Thanks to a fountain of youth he owns in Subterranea, he can stay young and not die from old age.
• Magic from Technology: He claims to be a "sorcerer", but he actually is a scientist far ahead of his time, using technology recovered from the Deviants. Though he does know some real sorcery as well, it's just very limited.
• Magitek: Mixes magic and technology quite nicely, often using it for his weapons.
• Neglectful Precursors: Like the Mole Man, he discovered a Servant Race and a bunch of technology created by the Deviants that had been conveniently abandoned, just waiting for somebody to come in and take control of them.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Rarely starts anything unnecessary and doesn’t focus on petty grudges.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: His belief that justifies his methods.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He just wants to make a better world for his people.

Wendigo

Wendigo

Alter Ego: Francois Lartigue, Georges Baptiste, Jean-Pierre Beaubier, Larry Brackett, Luc Lemay, Michael Fleet, Paul Cartier, Phillips Waggoner, Numerous Others

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 #162 (April, 1973)

"Hulk is Hulk — not Wendigo. Hulk doesn't even know what Wendigo is. And Hulk doesn't hurt people who don't hurt him."

A mythological Hulking beast that roams the Canadian wilderness, attacking and ingesting those unlucky enough to cross its path.

---

• I'm a Humanitarian: Eating human flesh in the Canadian wilderness is what triggers the curse of the Wendigo.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The eyes of the Wendigo glow red.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Introduced as an Incredible Hulk enemy, the Wendigo has fought Wolverine, Alpha Flight, and even the Red Hulk.
• White Hair, Black Heart: The fur of the Wendigo is white, and they're dangerous, flesh-eating monsters at their basest.

Xemnu

Xemnu

Alter Ego: Xemnu

Notable Aliases: Living Hulk, Xemnu the Titan, Richmond Wagner, Amos Moses

First Appearance: Journey into Mystery Vol 1 #62 (November, 1960)

"Television in your home, television on your phone, television by your bed… television in your head. Don't you remember?"

Xemnu is an alien who has attempted to conquer the Earth several times. He can mind-control others to do his tasks.

---

• A Kind of One: Decades are his introduction, Xemnu's species were named in guide books. Calling them Xem raises the question if his name would be the equivalent of Humanuel...
• Aliens Are Bastards: Xemnu was a criminal on his own planet, so much so they kicked him off of it. On Earth, his plans generally consist of brainwashing people to serve him.
• Assimilation Plot: Sometimes plans to convert humanity into more of him. In Immortal Hulk he's integrated the machinery for this into his body which has the added effect of feeding him. And by feeding, he also converts his "meals" into brainless cyborg monsters that attack his enemies.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He looks like a giant Muppet, but he's a powerful psychic who can go toe-to-toe with the Hulk in physical combat.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: His superficial resemblance to the Yeti has been lampshaded, though it is superficial. Xemnu is an alien, completely unrelated to the Yeti.
• Body Horror: Xemnu's Immortal Hulk body is a hollow shell of flesh and cybernetics that opens up to consume humans.
• Body Surf: How Xemnu can survive his death - he can take over someone's body, and turn it into a new Xemnu.
• Depraved Kids' Show Host: As the mascot of The Astro-Nuts and The Magic Planet. He plays himself up as a lovable Nice Guy and Friend to All Children, but of course, the real Xemnu is a ruthless and cutthroat supervillain.
• Death Is Cheap: His first appearance ended with him dying, and the Green Scar killed him at the end of his Immortal Hulk appearances. It didn't stick. This is justified, as he canonically is capable of surfing into other prebuilt bodies whenever he is fatally damaged.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Roxxon CEO Dario Agger figured Xemnu was a good tool to throw at the Hulk. It's only when the Hulk comes crashing into Agger's penthouse he learns Xemnu's been playing him, and gets eaten.
  Xemnu: Business demands winners and losers, Mister Agger. You know how the sausage is made.
• Fake Memories: His hypnosis is strong enough to replace people's memories, though the effect only lasts as long as Xemnu is keeping it up. When he's rendered incapable of maintaining his psychic field, everyone's memories go back to normal. In an especially cruel example, he gives Dario Agger a false memory of being shielded from his powers.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: During Immortal Hulk, Xemnu uses Roxxon's media empire to amplify his powers to new heights and edit everyone's memories to swap out him and the Hulk's places in history; while the spell is underway, Xemnu is the famous superhero and beloved founding member of the Avengers, while Bruce Banner is the evil supervillain out to Take Over the World.
• Friend to All Children: This is his shtick/persona he plays up when he brainwashes people on Earth. To them, he's the heroic Xemnu from the Magic planet. It's an act, of course, — Xemnu is dismissive at best of all humans, children included — but influencing people into viewing him as a benevolent figure makes his plans easier. Summed up well with this line here:
  Xemnu: All right, boys and girls! This is for all of you! Avengers Assemble!
• Genius Bruiser: Make no mistake, Xemnu is huge and muscular but possesses an extraordinary intellect, and on Earth, he would be considered a genius in the fields of cybernetics, robotics, and aerospace engineering.
• Human Disguise: Xemnu's body hopping lets him take human form at will. He can apparently still use his psychic powers in this form.
• Last of His Kind: The rest of Xemnu's species died years ago. Many of his schemes revolve around him trying to recreate his species- by stealing humans, usually children.
• Mass Hypnosis: Xemnu is capable of enthralling entire worlds under the right circumstances. Only the Hulk is immune (and even then, only some Hulks.)
• Mind-Control Conspiracy: As Xemnu notes in Immortal Hulk, his powers get stronger when filtered through "culture" (hence his classic scheme of posing as a children's show mascot; hosting a public access edutainment show gave him an easily affected and readily available audience of victims) — and thus when it's paired with Roxxon's media empire and the omnipresence of smartphones and television in modern society, he's able to manipulate the minds of everyone on the planet.
• Nice Character, Mean Actor: In his role on "Astro-Nuts" and "The Magic Planet", he portrays himself as a silly and lovable Big Bird-esque Friend to All Children. The real Xemnu is an unrepentant murderer and conqueror who wants to subjugate the planet for his own selfish ends.
• Nostalgia Filter: Invoked. In his Immortal Hulk appearances, he enjoys talking about how people should remember the days of their youth, when everything was simple, and how he takes people back to those days as part of his More than Mind Control gimmick.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: With his superficially ridiculous design and the way some of his schemes sound, you'd think that he's a joke character, right? Wrong. Xemnu is a terrifyingly powerful psychic — one of the strongest in the Marvel Universe — and a ruthless villain capable of rewriting memories and mentally influencing people in truly frightening ways. Those ridiculous plots of influencing people through television are because Xemnu's powers are amplified when filtered through media, meaning he's just working his way deeper into your brain by appearing as a cutesy children's show mascot. He spells it out to Dario Agger that he's learnt to use this to his advantage, deliberately pretending to be harmless. That's all without getting into his… eating habits.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He adopts a few traits from his children's show persona when pretending to be harmless that give this vibe, using phrases like 'vewy hungwy' and 'oh me, oh my'. When he starts using it ironically, it's clear it's an act. He's just as cold, calculating and intelligent as ever.
• Super Power Lottery: let's see, Super-Strength and Super-Toughness that allows him to go toe-to-toe with beings like Hulk, Thor, She-Hulk and Valkyrie, Telepathy powerful enough to communicate with the whole planet, Telekinesis, force fields, Super-Intelligence and finally Resurrective Immortality via Demonic Possession, Puppeteer Parasite, and Clone by Conversion
• To Serve Man: By the time of Immortal Hulk he has internalised his conversion process, and feeds humans into a terrifying apparatus in his stomach. On top of nourishing him, it transforms humans into mouthless pseudo-Xem .
• Verbal Tic: In Immortal Hulk, he has both "oh me, oh my" and "don't you remember?". When he talks about feeling hungry, he always says it as "I'm vewy hungwy" the way a cartoon character might say it. All of these feed into his harmless act.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Immortal Hulk sees Xemnu brainwash Earth's population into believing that he is Earth's mightiest hero, the Incredible Hulk. In the process, he "overwrites" several other heroes, including Daredevil, Spider-Man, Captain America, Mr. Fantastic, Wonder Man, Havok, and Ms. Marvel.
• White Hair, Black Heart: His fur is white and is a dangerous alien that brainwashes people and even consumes them.

Zzzax

Zzzax

Alter Ego: Zzzax

Notable Aliases: The Living Dynamo, Rozzz

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 #166 (August, 1973)

"Zzzax—Me! Can think with energy from humanzz brainzz! Muzzt havee MORE! MUZZT!"

A humanoid creature entirely made of electricity created accidentally after an attempt to sabotage a nuclear power plant in New York City. Aside from insanely powerful electric powers, Zzzax can feed on brain electricity, killing his victims and temporarily taking on their personality traits in the process.

---

• Demonic Possession: In one story arc, S.H.I.E.L.D. attempted to infuse Thunderbolt Ross with Zzzax's electricity powers, but Zzzax flipped the table on them and devoured Ross's mind instead (leaving the man functionally brain-dead for a time). However, Ross's hatred for the Hulk was so intense that his mind overtook Zzzax instead, making Zzzax believe he was Ross on a hunt to kill Bruce. Later on, in the same story, Zzzax was able to possess a Hulkified Rick Jones and force him to hurt himself in an attempt to kill him.
• Energy Beings: Made of energy.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Eats people for brainpower. Or rather he feeds on ''brain'' electricity.
• Shock and Awe: A being of pure sentient electricity.
• Sssssnake Talk: Zzzax zzzpeakz with an electric crackle verzzzion of thizzz trope.
• Super-Strength: Maybe through electromagnetism.
• Technopathy: His control over electricity allows him to control nearly any form of technology that relies on electricity to work.

---