Heartwarming / Immortal Hulk

Come on home. You didn't do anything wrong. You're a good girl.

• The Immortal Hulk’s Roaring Rampage of Revenge at the start was kickstarted by a thug going into a gas station and shooting everyone in there, a young girl, the cashier, and Bruce himself, dead. But when the Hulk emerges to exact revenge, it’s not Banner or the cashier’s death he’s most angry about as he brutalises the very same thug’s entire gang and has the perpetrator dead to rights while he stares him down in a Tranquil Fury, it’s the girl.
• The Hulk comforting a Death Seeker Banner at the end of issue 13, telling him that he protected him before any of the other Hulks came along, that he will always protect him, because he loves him.
  Devil Hulk: I know you locked me away for years. I know I scare you. What I do, what I am. But before any of the others... I was there. Protecting you. I'll always protect you...because I love you, you stupid kid. Somebody had to.
• Anytime Devil Hulk mentions that hurting Banner is something he "takes personal".
• A mild case with Brian Banner. While he still refuses to acknowledge that any of the bad things he did were entirely his fault, when he comes to believe that the Hulk was really a monster inside Bruce created by the One Below All he seems less angry at Bruce in general. While he first yells at Bruce for killing him at his wife's grave, he stops himself and claims it wasn't Bruce that did it. Almost like now that he believes Bruce wasn't the monster but instead had a monster in him, he can see Bruce more like a son and feel softer towards him. (That said, Ewing claims in a subsequent letters page that he doesn't see Brian as sympathetic in the slightest.)
  Brian Banner: And then you killed me! Your own father! At your mother's grave! In cold blood... no. No it wasn't you Bruce. I... I have to remember that. It was the monster who cast me down to hell.
• Devil Hulk warns Red Harpy to never hurt Savage Hulk ever again.
  • The same issue also shows that even in the Devil persona, the Hulk still loves Betty and mildly panics when he's unable to come to her aid.
• Namor and Banner's interaction in issue 26, with Banner even quoting what Hulk said the first time they met. Namor even made Bruce clam chowder. It's a completely contrast to how he blew off Xavier when he tried to recruit Namor.
  • Namor even mentions that the chowder is his human father’s recipe, which says a lot considering his feelings towards humanity as a whole.
• In Immortal Hulk Great Power Peter ends up becoming a Hulk because of a botched attempt by Loki to depower the regular Hulk. He comes to appreciate what Banner goes through, fading away uncontrollably when the Hulk takes over at night, which Banner appreciates. When they're about to initiate a plan to put the Hulk back in him, Peter offers to keep it so he doesn't have to live with it any more. Finally, Peter sees Banner off when night falls again so he doesn't have to be alone when he fades. When the Devil Hulk takes over, he's touched that Peter gave Banner the comfort in companionship he never could. Seeing how touched the Devil Hulk was just shows how much Spider-Man is The Heart of the Marvel Universe.
  Devil Hulk: You stayed to be with Banner?
  Spider-Man: Yeah.
  Devil Hulk: That's... that's something I can't do. Banner is my family. I'd do anything for him but I can't be with him. I'm glad you were. You're a good man Peter Parker. I'll try to remember that the next time we meet.
• Savage Hulk returns with a vengeance, but all throughout his rampage through Roxxon, he repeatedly refers to the others as his friends and it's rather clear that he's happy to be out and interacting with them again.
• Issue 38 has quiet a few of them. During the issue the Leader is doing his best to take out the good guys and control Bruce's mind. But his plans start to unravel as it's clear he underestimated his opposition, overestimated his ability, and never took into account their personalities and will.
  • While the leader had Savage/Child Hulk chained and drags him to Bruce and his other alters, Devil Hulk can only watch and think about how much they need him. That the Leader is hurting the "Big Guy" (his name for Bruce when he was little with Savage hulk being a representation of Bruce as a child) and Bruce being angry that he can't help them. As Savage Hulk is being dragged by he looks over to the prison that the Leader made to hold Devil Hulk and sorrowfully states how he needs Devil Hulk.
    Devil Hulk: He's hurting Bruce. Hurting the Big Guy. I take that personal.
    [...]
    Savage Hulk: H-hulk... Hulk want... want daddy.
  • When the Leader grabs Bruce to take him away, Joe shouts out to "Leave him alone!" showing that deep down, Joe cares about Bruce.
  • When Sterns goes to far and tried to throw Bruce through the green door to the below place, Devil Hulk gets so angry that he breaks free of the prison and leaps over to Bruce's aid. The leader can only stare in stunned terror as Devil Hulk towers over him.
    Bruce: No! No please!...Let me go!... Help me! Somebody help me!
    I hear you kid. I love you.
    The Leader: ...What... What is that?
    Joe: ...Heh. You don't know? For a genius, you're an idiot, Sterns.
    I'll always be here for you.
    The Leader: ...No. It's not possible. In the mind, I'm the strongest there is. I sealed you away... I buried you! I buried you!
    Devil Hulk: Yeah. Buried me and left me to rot. But you made a mistake. I've been buried before and it got me mad. But only so mad. But then... then you hurt the big guy. And you hurt Banner. You Hurt Banner Sterns.
    The Leader: I... Stay back!
    Devil Hulk: And when you hurt Banner... I take that real personal.
• It's small but the Leader describes the Hulks as Bruce's support system. Ranging from Devil's Papa Wolf protectiveness to Joe's brief sincere concern for his safety, the Leader basically confirms in technical terms that for all their destructive and personal clashes the Hulks do indeed care about Bruce. It's Truth in Television in regards to Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is usually a person's coping mechanism for trauma.
• Joe stops the fight between Savage Hulk and Ben Grimm and calls Ben out for hurting Hulk. After Joe stops the fight, the two share a snack in a diner. It ends with Ben letting Joe go while the latter is amused that he continuously calls him "Hulk".
  Joe: He's a kid! He's a kid, you piece of crap! You're beating up on a kid!
• Similarly, the King in Black tie-in had Joe kill the symbiote monster that was harassing Savage Hulk and then take Savage to a toy store. Savage Hulk is just having fun at the toy store playing with toys. You would like him when he's not angry; after all, he's only a Manchild who's chill enough when his anger issues are subdued.
• Issue 48 has Joe and Betty sleeping together, with the ensuing conversation focused primarily on Bruce's faults and how he had refused to accept Betty as Red Harpy. Despite that, once Joe explains what's happened to Bruce:
  Betty (transforming into Red Harpy): You left Bruce in Hell?
  • Joe and Betty are an emotional rollercoaster throughout the whole issue, leading to Joe Fixit, of all people showing vulnerability, admitting he was born as an abused child's idea of an adult, and stating he doesn't want to just be that tough callous mask anymore. And then he tells Betty he loves her.
  Joe: I don't wanna not say it anymore. I'm sick of not saying it. It was always you, Betts. For me? It was always you. Always and always.
• Issue 49 has the Fantastic Four coming in to stop the collected heroes from attacking Joe, with the Thing even putting his arm around Joe’s Hulk and letting him know he’s okay. This is also a Call-Back to the fight between the two earlier in the series, as Ben — believing that the Joe in Hulk-form is still the child-like Savage Hulk — lays into the Avengers for attacking him.
• Issue 50. Vague though The One Above All’s wisdom might have been, but the remaining Hulk alters manage to reconcile among themselves, including Bruce, and forgive the now powerless Samuel Sterns, starting a path ahead for a more self assured, and perhaps even happier, Bruce Banner, ending the run on an uplifting note.
  • It's worth noting that's it's Savage Hulk - the most child-like of all of them - who ultimately shows unexpected mercy and forgives Sam Sterns, tying into the theme that everyone has flaws and everyone has a Hulk:
  Savage Hulk: You...hurt Hulk. Hurt Hulk a lot. But if Hulk left you here...left anyone here...it would hurt Hulk worse. Hurt...Hulk inside. Hurt who Hulk is. So. Hulk forgive you. You...you are Hulk too. Same as Hulk. Hulks should forgive Hulks. Someone has to.
• The story behind the page picture. Rebecca Green was an ordinary girl until she strayed too close to a farm that was experimenting with gamma radiation in crop growth; the radiation turned her into a mindless monster that rampaged through her hometown. When Bruce Banner arrives, his gamma signature catches the monster's attention, and eventually the two face each other. And the Hulk immediately realizes that inside the monster there's just a scared little girl. He talks her down, and by absorbing the gamma radiation from her, turns her back into her original self, comforting her the entire time.

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