The Incredible Hulk / Tropes H to M

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H

• Hair-Trigger Temper: The Hulk's entire existence basically hinges on this concept. It takes very little to piss him off, so you're basically walking on eggshells when he's in your presence for the entire time. Even if you do manage to get him to a calm state, he often assumes that someone is stealth insulting him or trying to tell him what to do, which either causes him to leave in a huff or just attempt to smash your ass. Or some dumbass will come along and provoke him again. While he's not exactly a bad guy, this is the reason he tends to get into so many battles with other superheroes.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Skaar and Hiro-Kala.
• Harping on About Harpies:
  • In World War Hulk's "Gamma Corps", the Hulk's old enemy the Clown was turned into the Griffin with Gamma technology, specifically based on Betty as the Harpy.
• Hates Being Touched: The Hulk occasionally exhibits this, as people touching him when he’s either The Hulk or Banner will often cause a strong reaction. Not too surprisingly given Bruce was terribly abused by his father Brian and developed the Hulk identity to cope with the trauma, he especially hates Brian touching him as an adult as seen in comics and Hulk (2003) where he literally curls up defensively at his dad entering his personal space. Hulk doesn’t have a problem with his friends and loved ones (such as Betty Ross) touching him though, he also lets Spider-Man climb on his back and take a ride on his shoulders.
• Headbutting Heroes: The Hulk REALLY has this in spades. He has loads of characters he'll never get along with. Amongst them, Thor is the one with whom he has the biggest rivalry. The Juggernaut, Wolverine and The Thing are also common rivals.
  • As far as the Hulk goes, he and Thor will occasionally get along perfectly well until one sets the other off, and a fight breaks out. Hulk and Ben also have mutual respect for each other. That being said, the Hulk does have a few heroes he absolutely hates, especially after the Planet Hulk / World War Hulk incidents. Reed Richards, Tony Stark, and Professor X being among them. Wolverine and Juggernaut, on the other hand, are purely antagonistic with the Hulk.
• Healing Factor: The Hulk has been at various times shown to have a healing factor that makes Wolverine's pale in comparison at times. (Including having all his skin ripped off and regrown in seconds — partly justified in that drawing mass and energy from another dimension is explicitly part of his powers.) More specifically, the Hulk's healing factor is much like his strength level in that it's tied into his emotional state. The Hulk not only gets stronger as he gets angrier, he also heals faster. Apparently, Hulk's healing is so fast that it took years for anybody to even notice it existed. He regenerates so quickly that nobody could tell that attacks could actually damage him to begin with.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Due to his simple and unstable psyche and tendency to go into blind rages, the Hulk has gone from hero to villain and back again his entire existence. For instance, Hulk will save a city one minute, then someone (typically his nemesis General Ross) will piss him off and he'll start ripping apart the city he just saved. In the end though, Hulk will usually end up doing the right thing, even if it's just by accident.
  • Speaking of Ross, he himself tends to go through the door over and over depending on how obsessive and what lengths he's willing to go to bring down Hulk that issue. Sometimes Ross is willing to help Banner be cured of the Hulk or leave him be for the moment if he does something good, other times he's been out to straight up murder Banner from the outset and nothing will deter him from it. He eventually joined The Avengers as Red Hulk, but left to form the new Thunderbolts after becoming dissatisfied with their methods.
• Henshin Hero: The Hulk is theoretically this; in human form Bruce Banner is just a regular guy (though fairly smart), while in Hulk form he's extremely strong and tough, but he's also really stupid (usually). Because the comic is called The Incredible Hulk instead of The Average Banner, he tends to spend about 90% of the time as the Hulk, with the writers before the 00s reverting him to human form to have him angst for a while. Since Planet Hulk and its follow up stories, Banner has been given more control/a partnership with Hulk's personality that allows them to transform back and forth at will, with Green Hulk taking on a more intelligent form of speech, making them more a classical version of the trope, though both still see each other as the "other guy" to some extent.
• Hero Antagonist: The U.S. military usually genuinely believe that the Hulk is a dangerous monster that they need to stop. Stan Lee commented in an interview that portraying them that way allowed him to get around The Comics Code's insistence that authority figures always be portrayed positively. Afterwards this changed, and there emerged a trend to portray General Ross, who usually commands the anti-Hulk military forces, as a General Ripper.
• Hero Insurance: The Hulk causes more property damage per capita than any other hero in the Marvel Universe, bar none. Oddly, he never causes casualties; the going theory in-universe is that Bruce's hyper-intelligence is subconsciously at work to ensure this.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: In fact, due to the damage he's caused in his career, it would be very hard to find someone in the Marvel Universe with worse publicity who could still be considered a hero. But you really can't blame anyone.
• Heroic Build: Bruce Banner is not particularly muscular or defined as himself (Bill Bixby, who played Banner in the TV show, was widely regarded as having the proper physique); how sculpted he becomes when he Hulks out depends on the artist.
• Heroic Neutral: The most iconic incarnation of the Hulk is the simple-minded green version; although he's quick to anger, left to his own devices both he and Banner just seek isolation, possibly making friends along the way. There's a reason "HULK JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE!" is one of the character's catchphrases. But if anything happens to either of their friends, the Hulk really gets angry, and whoever is at fault will get the worst of the rampage.
• Heroic RRoD:
  • The madder Red Hulk gets, the hotter he gets, until he overheats.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: This happens with the Hulk a lot, due to the fact that both his strength and his rate of recovery speed up the more he's angered. When he's down and seemingly out for the count he'll usually get mad enough to get his second wind. In the 2008 movie, he has a few just from seeing Betty Ross in danger (or apparent danger).
• He Who Fights Monsters: General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross. This is made especially clear in Hulk Gray, where many parallels between Ross and the Hulk are drawn and Ross grows more and more fanatical in his pursuit of the Hulk as time goes on. Eventually, in his pursuit to defeat him, he became what he hunted: a Hulk. He even lampshades it.
• Hey, You!: During the "Merged Hulk" period, in which the Hulk had Banner's psyche, he was a member of a group called "The Pantheon" whose other members were all related and were all named after Greek heroes. One (Paris) was an insufferable jerk who insisted on calling Doctor Robert Bruce Banner (who went by Hulk, Bruce, or Dr. Banner) "Bobby."
• Hoax Hogan: The Hulk easily defeated a wrestler who claimed to be the one, true Hulk and was a clear Expy of Hulk Hogan in Marvel Comics Presents #45.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The U-Foes seem to kill themselves off like this the first time they turn up — their newly gained powers are strong enough to potentially take down the Big Green Machine, but Power Incontinence kicks in. Vapour can turn herself into any gas... but soon cannot keep her molecules together. Ironclad can increase his mass... which keeps increasing so he cannot move and sinks into the ground. And their leader Vector, just like Unus above, can repel things — eventually he repels the air around him so he suffocates, then he repels Earth itself and shoots out into space. X-Ray's ability to manipulate radiation very nearly causes him to explode from absorbing too much energy. They come back.
• Hoist Hero over Head: In one issue, Hulk does this to She-Hulk.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Thor and the Hulk have clashed many times through the years, with the majority of their fights ending in draws. Just before a memorable clash in Peter David's The Incredible Hulk run, Thor revealed that he had intentionally held back during all of those past encounters, as he was worried unleashing his full strength would cause him to lose control.
• Home-Run Hitter: Occurs in a standalone mini-series, where Doc Samson dares Hulk to hit him, offering him the first punch. The path his flying body describes could best be called a projectile arc...
• Hot-Blooded: There's a reason his catchphrase is "HULK SMASH!"
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The Hulk with basically any human-sized love interest. Even his Amazonian Beauty cousin She-Hulk (6'7) is only chest height to him. Some artist's renditions of the Hulk are capable and actually have held love interests clasped between his hands.
  • Part of the problem with the Hulk is that his size is incredibly inconsistent, to the point where it'll vary between panels on the same page. His third wife, Caiera (7'0"), was a hot amazon with similar proportions to his cousin. Some panels had them standing next to each other with only a few inches difference in height, while others have him absolutely dwarfing her. The Hulk's official height is less than eight feet tall, however some panels will have him pushing fifteen feet for dramatic effect.
  • This is not so much artist variation as an effect of his powers, part of his ability to get stronger as he gets madder is an increase in size, up to a maximum of twelve feet.
  • The size-changing thing is a handwave that may or may not be used Depending on the Writer. Most writers have his size remain consistent, though the artwork usually won't reflect this for dramatic purposes. This is why the Hulk won't always just get bigger as he gets angrier, he'll vary in either direction from one panel to another (even if they show the same moment in time or are separated by a matter of seconds).
  • Originally, Bruce Banner became the Hulk by saving an irresponsible teenager (5'9) from being caught in an atomic bomb blast and that said teenager became hulk's companion, which would make it another trope altogether.
  • Ultimate Hulk can be worse. Typically only around the 2.4 meter (7'10) mark, there's one storyline where he's somewhere in the neighborhood of six meters (19'8) tall and has a harem of dozens of normal-sized women.
• Hulk Speak: Obviously. Only the animated version and the "savage" version from the comics however. In the movies, Hulk only roars, with a single line in the first three (2003 movie version has him saying "Puny human" in Bruce Banner's dream sequence; in the 2008 movie, Hulk said "HULK... SMASH!" during the final fight scene with Abomination — because it had to be said at least once — and in The Avengers, given Loki called himself a god before being beaten, Hulk walks away saying "Puny God..."). For the most part, however, he speaks correct, if terse, English. In Thor: Ragnarok he finally starts talking extensively in classic Hulk speak.
  • The Hulk says "HULK SMASH!" pretty often in the comics, even in his more intelligent incarnations that are pretty smart and can actually speak perfectly fluent English. Then there was a partial subversion in Peter David's apocalyptic far-future Hulk story The Last Titan; the Hulk was given ample space for his thoughts, which while being in Hulk speak, were well-constructed and reasonable, though also mostly misanthropic and relating to various forms of violence.
  • This is a case of Characterization Marches On, as in the Hulk's earliest appearances, he was much smarter and had better grammar. Even when he did refer to himself in the third person, it was still usually in longer, complete sentences. Later writers retconned this smarter incarnation into one of several alternate personalities within the Hulk, explaining the inconsistency.
  • The Bixby/Ferrigno The Incredible Hulk TV series from the 1970s likewise averts this trope. Lou Ferrigno mostly stands there while he flexes, and Ted Cassidy provides voice-over growls.
  • Writing Hulk-related reviews or previews as if the hero did them occurs at times — and is mostly hilarious. You can also check out how it looks when Hulk wrote his own article in this very wiki.
  • This was averted in the early Marvel vs. Capcom games (Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2), where the Hulk used complete sentences and spoke in the first person. This is because all of the MVC games prior to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 used the Hulk's Merged Hulk/"The Professor" incarnation from The '90s, rather than his more well known Savage Hulk personality. When he did use Hulk Speak, it was usually as a joke:
  Hulk: HULK SMASH!!! Sorry. I just had to say it.
  • Deadpool showed up in the Hulk books with his thought narration written in Hulk speak.
  • Parody obviously has a field day, for example Marvel "What The" having a fight between Hulk and Thor, which essentially reduces to a fight Hulk Speak vs. Flowery Elizabethan English.
  • Immortal Hulk has a newer persona, who does not speak like this, unless pushed very far (or badly injured). It's just not smash he tends to say.
    Immortal Hulk: Hulk kill. Hulk kill EVERYTHING!
• Hulking Out: Trope Namer again, any time Bruce's stress level gets too high. Hulk SMASH!
• Humanoid Abomination: The Abomination received an upgrade, and turned into one of these.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: A running theme in the franchise is how the only forces worse than the Hulk are those who are hunting him and/or the people who wish to exploit his destructive power such as Ross.
• Hunk: Bruce Banner averts it, being short and skinny. His alter ego doesn't fare much better, as he is generally drawn as extremely muscular but troll-faced. However, during the 1990s, Bruce Banner and the Hulk were merged into a single persona and this new incarnation was drawn with the Hulk's body and Banner's face, creating a (green) hunk. Also, while Banner was initially skinny, he was vey fit, and the physical exertion caused by being years of being on the run caused him to develop muscle mass, leading to several comments on it.
• Husky Russkie: Mongu (Boris Monguski) subverted the stereotype by actually being a smaller man inside a set of Powered Armor that looked like a barbaric giant, which was ultimately trashed by the Hulk. Years later an actual barbarian named Mongu would show up, though as he hailed from another dimension he had no ties to Russia.
• Hypocrite:
  • General Ross' ultimate goal - and some would say obsession - is to bring the Hulk to justice, believing him a dangerous threat. While this view isn't uncommon, his eventual solution after years of failure is hypocrisy at its worst: He becomes the Red Hulk, a monster who, in many ways, is just as destructive as his foe is, possibly more so.
  • General Fortean, Ross’s protégé from Immortal Hulk is just as bad when it comes to hypocrisy if not even more so. He and his cronies at Shadow Base hunt Bruce/Hulk relentlessly as he blames him for every Hulk-related tragedy as well as the death of Ross, but while pursuing vengeance commits a ton of atrocities and causes heaps of destruction which he and his people write off as collateral damage. Not only does Fortean get his mentor’s daughter Betty Ross shot in the head (she gets better) while attempting to assassinate Bruce but he also weaponises gamma mutation himself and before the end lets himself get turned into the monstrous Abomination. Also when Fortean accidentally kills some of his men with his new powers, he manically rambles that it was their fault for not clearing the area at which his Number Two relieved him of command and then Hulk put him down.
    • The supreme irony is that Fortean even to the very end was blissfully unaware that Ross was Red Hulk meaning he was serving a Broken Pedestal the whole time. Then it is revealed Fortean did know Red Hulk's true identity and simply choose to ignore the truth but continued to blame Banner anyway which makes his actions in Immortal Hulk even more hypocritical.
  • In the same run, the Avengers themselves thanks to being the Conflict Ball against Hulk, are staggering hypocrites in issues 6#, 7# and 47#. Carol despite having painstaking learned in Civil War II that attacking people based on mere potential threat is wrong, still tries to forcibly arrest Bruce with the obvious result of Hulking Out, later Carol actually advises Iron Man against using a Kill Sat when things go out of control even though she instigated the conflict in the first place. Tony himself despite fighting so hard against Carol using Ulysses in Civil War II and the immorality of targeting people before they’ve committed crimes — still attacks Hulk for just resisting arrest and fries him with a laser. Cap himself has a moment of this in 47# when arguing with McGee as to why Hulk needs to be captured, reasoning that he causes too much damage and “it’s a tough call but he has to be contained” is the exact same Super Registration Act spiel Steve strove against back in Civil War.

I

• I Got a Rock: In one issue, Professor Hulk studies his officially licensed Avengers action figure. He comments that while everybody else has some cool accessory (Captain America's shield, etc.), but "I got a rock."
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk, a destructive monster, and (usually) has no control over his own actions when he does so. Even worse, thanks to retcons, there are several Hulks inside him, all fighting with him and between themselves to take control. When he gets back to normal, he can be in the middle of nowhere, unsure of what he did while Hulked out, if he destroyed something or killed someone, with his clothes ravaged by the change... And even if he manages to avoid turning into the Hulk for some time, he would still have to live on the run, with the military on his back trying to capture him, kill him, clone him, experiment with him and kill him again. The very idea of being "normal" is just a far away vague dream.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: It's obvious that the Hulk honestly does in a way want people he can call friend, it's just that he's been betrayed or seemingly betrayed so many times...
• I See Dead People: The Hulk, although given some of the revelations of the Immortal Hulk run, perhaps it's not that surprising.
• I Warned You: Far too many fools to count have heard "Leave Hulk alone" or "Hulk just wants to be left alone" and decided not to listen, continuing to mess with him until he inevitably got angry.
• I Work Alone: ...he constantly tries to convince himself that he's better off without them.
• Iconic Outfit: The Hulk's most usual clothing, purple pants (that resist everything!).
• I'm Going to Disney World!: Speedfreek, upon his introduction, used various football metaphors left and right, and threw in the line about Disneyland as he was congratulating himself for killing a mobster.
• Immune to Bullets: He is immune to bullets, and grenades, and everything short of a nuke, as the military, General Ross and others seem to forget in most portrayals. Though even special rounds don't do much either, Ross once shot an Adamantium Bullet straight into Hulk's eye◊ and it did little more than piss off the Jolly Green Giant.
• Immune to Mind Control: The Hulk normally can't be mind-controlled due to the abundance of rage within him. The multiple personality disorder he suffers from has also helped. For this reason, his "Professor" incarnation, originally touted as a "merger" of all the other minds and lacking the others' rage, was vulnerable to mind control for these very reasons. In its quest to codify the Hulk's alternate personality system, Immortal Hulk has implied that the Savage Hulk — the raging brute who speaks in broken sentences — is the only alter that's fully immune to mind control.
• Immunity Disability: In one storyline, the Hulk gets poisoned and has to give a blood sample; however, the needles can't penetrate his tough skin. He resorts to hitting himself over and over again till he bleeds enough to fill a test tube.
• Improbable Weapon User: While his fists serve him perfectly well, the Hulk can and will use any number of handy tools to help him in a fight:
  • Construction girders;
  • Tree trunks;
  • Really big rocks;
  • A car as boxing gloves.
• Improbably High I.Q.: Bruce Banner actually averts this. His IQ is stated by a school psychiatrist in a flashback as being "too high to measure", which is quite possible as standard IQ tests aren't very helpful when measuring superintelligent people.
• In a Single Bound: The Hulk's primary method of getting from place to place is using his immense strength to leap miles at at time through the air. He is stated to be able to leap 3 miles, typically in an arc so low that it often looks like he's flying in transit in some panels. But then, the guy can also throw tanks.
  • Hulk can also jump to the moon.
    • Given that Hulk's super leaping is a simple application of his strength, and his strength is inherently variable based on how angry he is at the moment, piss him off enough and he can jump as far as he feels like.
    • Which is quite clever if you think about it. The further Hulk gets from the thing that makes him angry, the calmer he'll be. So he'll be jumping less and less distance each time. Then the army or SHIELD or whoever is chasing him will catch up, piss him off again, and the whole cycle repeats.
• Informed Judaism: During his long run as writer on the series, Peter David decided that long-time supporting character Doc Samson is Jewish, although it had never been mentioned before. He may have been influenced by the fact that the name "Samson" is rarely used by anyone but Jews these days (and even then pretty rarely), despite it being an In-Series Nickname.
• Inspiration Nod:
  • Writer Peter David called these his Pink Bunny Slippers after an example of one of his storylines. He realised that there are parallels between between his The Incredible Hulk story line and this other movie, Real Genius. There are similar plot points, so he makes a reference to it that doesn't involve using any more of the pre-existing connection but just throws in this shot of pink bunny slippers (as worn by both the University President and Val Kilmer in the movie) to lampshade it to anyone else who might have also spotted the similarities.
  • The Incredible Hulk vs Fin Fang Foom story "The Fin From Outer Space!" is about the titular dragon creature possessing the members of an Antarctic research team and and leaving corpses behind, creating a paranoid atmosphere. The team leader is called Dr Campbell, the first victim is called Dr Carpenter, and one of the other researchers has the first name Howard. Another scientist snaps "Who Goes There?" at Bruce Banner. There's also a poster for The Thing from Another World on the wall of the base in one scene.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Bruce Banner built a robot assistant called the Recordasphere that looked like a little flying silver sphere. He never expected it to be fully sentient, but she turned out that way, fell in love with him, and became homicidally jealous of his girlfriend. Nonetheless, the Recordasphere did die heroically to save Bruce's life.
• Insufferable Genius: As Doc Green.
• Insult of Endearment: As The Nicknamer, Hulk tends to do this with his enemies-who-become-friends when in his Hulk Speak mode. Examples:
  • Doctor Strange: Dumb Magician
  • Namor the Sub-Mariner: Fish-Man
  • Spider-Man: Bug Man
  • Nighthawk: Bird-Nose
  • Valkyrie: Sword-Girl; Angry Girl in Thor: Ragnarok
  • Iceman: Ice Man... Oh, Wait!.
  • Thor: Red Cape in the comics; Goldilocks in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes & Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
  • Superman: Cape Man
  • Batman: Pointy Ears
  • Examples specific to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 take this further:
    • Dormammu: Flamehead
    • Wolverine: Little Man (also gave him this name in Hulk Vs.)
    • Morrigan: Goth Girl
    • Hawkeye: Birdy
    • Iron Fist: Punching Man
    • Shuma-Gorath: Starfish
• Interpretative Character: The series is all over this: is the Hulk an aspect of Banner's psyche brought to life? A completely separate individual? A psychological child (emotionally innocent but easily angered)? Really kind of dumb, of at least average intelligence using Hulk Speak as a verbal tic, or using it to deliberately downplay his intelligence? All of these have been used. Adding to the fun is the fact that the Hulk sometimes manifests as a Genius Bruiser with a ponytail, a Barbarian Hero, or a grey-skinned, morally flexible thug, and the same or similar questions play out.
• Interrupted Suicide: Bruce Banner's tried to kill himself a few times in the past; Hulk will always force a transformation to prevent it, however. Even when Banner finally manages to arrange a successful mercy kill in Civil War II, he still gets brought back again and again... and then discovers he'll always come back.
• Interspecies Romance: The Hulk (gamma-irradiated human) with Jarella (from K'ai) and Caiera (Shadow Person). He had two sons from his relationship with Caiera.
• Invisible to Normals:
  • Hulk foe Mercy's whimsical explanation of her Invisibility.
    Mercy: Give it up, Doctor. I can only be seen by people subjected to gamma rays. Or by people subjected to any intense radiation. Or by the nearly dead. Or those who are very sick. Or... anyone I feel like seeing me, really.
  • The Hulk also has the ability to see astral forms.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Bruce Banner is the poster child (and Trope Namer) for Hulking Out, due to his transformations being involuntarily triggered by anger or stress. At a couple of different points he becomes more stable, either locked into a particular form for a stretch or able to take control over his emotions to the point that he can mostly suppress or evoke the change as desired. Initially his transformation occurred at night, and later he would transform into his Grey Hulk (AKA Mr. Fixit) form at night, as well.
• Irrational Hatred: General Ross's initial obsession with hunting down The Hulk. His motivations are a combination of his overprotectiveness of his daughter Betty, and a deep down envy of Hulk's might and power.
• It Can Think: The greatest folly one can have when facing Hulk is to assume that he's completely mindless and dumb. He really, really is not, and can be quite cunning when facing against an opponent he can't immediately pulverize.
• It Only Works Once: A 2003 storyline in focused on Bruce Banner learning that he was suffering from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which would leave him forced to remain the Hulk once his body became so badly afflicted by the disease that he couldn't continue as Banner, until he eventually received a cure from the Leader. However, this cure was only possible with gene sequences taken from the corpse of Brian Banner (Bruce's long-dead father) and inserted into the Hulk's genetic structure by Scott Lang under the direction of Reed Richards, these new genes being integrated into Banner's physiology during the energy surge when the Hulk returned to Banner, making it clear that this cure would only work for Banner
• It's Personal: The Hulk is usually one of the Marvel heroes most averse to killing anybody. HOWEVER,
  • The demon Nightmare, however, is an exception. What did the villain do you ask? Well, in order, he drove Hulk mad and exiled him from humanity after finally being accepted; later killed his unborn child and raped his wife; later still turned his existence into nightmarish reality-distortions for years. Hulk's response? He ripped off Nightmare's head and stuck it on a spear.

J

• Jekyll & Hyde: Bruce Banner and his more famous dark side the Hulk. This has been played with many times over the years, with Hulk varying from a brutal monster to an innocent savage. For a while between World War Hulk and Indestructible Hulk, Banner was portrayed as Hulk's dark side, since unlike Hulk, he'd actually killed someone. And in the Marvel 1602 Elseworld, David Banner gets transformed into the Incredible Hulk. Lord Banner works as an enforcer for James VI of Scotland and I of England, and is evil, sadistic and altogether not a nice bloke at all. Follow-ups reveal that the Hulk, on the other hand, is noble and intelligent. (And his influence eventually redeems Banner.)
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Again, this varies from personality to personality, but at the least the Savage Hulk is usually gentle, helpful, and compassionate when not provoked, and won't bother you if you don't bother him. Joe Fixit is the exception, being a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk.
• The Juggernaut:
  • The Hulk can go into Juggernaut mode if you really piss him off.
  • Immortal Hulk introduces The Breaker-Apart, a Bad Future version of The Hulk that takes Hulk's unlimited capacity for rage and becoming bigger and stronger to its logical extreme. This Hulk is a Cosmic Entity in his own right that breaks apart entire universes. He's even able to kill beings with Complete Immortality like Mr. Immortal. Nothing can stop this Hulk from destroying everything in existence. Even worse, all traces of Bruce Banner and the Hulks were consumed and replaced by Marvel's resident Antigod The-One-Below-All, meaning the Breaker-Apart wants to destroy everything.

K

• Kind Restraints: This happens to the Hulk from time to time. In early stories, Bruce Banner had a bunker under the sea which he had Rick Jones lock him into at night for when he turned into the Hulk.
• Klaatu Barada Nikto: Klaatu was named after Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still.
• Knight in Sour Armor: This is really highlighted in his Chaos War tie in, when Doctor Strange tells him that the world needs his help;
  Hulk: The world'll get it. Like it always does. But you can go to hell.
• Knockout Gas:
  • One of the most consistent ways of defeating the Hulk, at least on those occasions when he doesn't remember that he can hold his breath for hours. As the Hulk isn't all that bright, this is not infrequent. However, if he gets too angry his metabolism will dispel it completely.
• Knotty Tentacles:
  • Hulk has at least once defeated Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four by tying him in knots.
  • He also tied Doc Ock's arms into knots in retaliation for the beating he received in a Sinister Six storyline.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: The Metal Master has the psychic power to control any metal, but he suffers a Villainous BSoD if he comes to believe his powers are failing him. The Hulk (during one of his early "smart" incarnations) tricked him with a huge wooden gun painted to look like metal; while the villain panicked, the Hulk finally got close enough to grab him. Metal Master suffered an even bigger emotional breakdown when he realized Rom Spaceknight's armor was made of an alien metal he legitimately couldn't control.
• Kung-Fu Sonic Boom:
  • The Hulk has been known to do this deliberately to stun or deafen weak or evasive enemies, by slapping his own hands together.
  • More than once, the Hulk has collided with an enemy possessing a comparable level of strength with enough force to wreck surrounding buildings. Notable instances include him clashing with Iron Man (wearing a Hulkbuster suit) in mid-air, blowing out the windows in every building for blocks in the World War Hulk storyline and a fight against Red She-Hulk that was causing tremors for miles around.
  • Also from World War Hulk, Green Scar vs the Sentry. The impacts destroyed most of the surrounding buildings. And indeed, about half of Manhattan.
  • Perhaps the most glorious post-WWH example is in Immortal Hulk where the eponymous rage monster produces a Shockwave Clap so powerful it blows away his Archnemesis Dad and The One Below All.
• Kung-Shui: Anything happening in the same county with the Hulk. The understatedly-powerful Ferrigno version busted a lot of barrooms. The comics, movie and video game versions bust a lot of buildings and military equipment.

L

• Last-Name Basis: With more intelligent versions of the Hulk, he tends to be on this with people he doesn't nickname. This is especially common with The Thing, who he calls Grimm, and General Ross, his own father-in-law. In World War Hulk, he was on Last-Name Basis with everybody except the Sentry. He also generally calls Wolverine "Logan".
• Last-Second Word Swap: In a special issue of Peter David's run, the moment where a frustrated Hulk shouts "Aw, sh-" is interrupted by another scene; when we get back to him he ends his exclamation with "-oot!"
• The Law of Power Proportionate to Effort: The Hulk's power typically comes from his lack of control. As the epitome of Unstoppable Rage, the more berserk the Hulk is, the stronger he is. There have been times in which he's gained a greater "base strength" while in control^note Notably, The Maestro and the Green Scar., but even then getting angrier makes him scarier. Other characters have attempted to control the Hulk Out and keep their mental faculties, such as the Abomination, Red Hulk, She-Hulk, and Amadeus Cho, but they've all hit a limit to their strength—except when the latter two get mad.
• Leave Me Alone!: Inverted numerous times when the Hulk, and later Banner, tell the other heroes to leave him alone, and it turns out that they should have left him alone. Doc Samson even told them "The Hulk keeps telling you to leave him alone. I suggest you do exactly that." It's a given that if the Hulk was left to his own devices, he'd wander into a wilderness area far from any human encroachment and just stay there.
• Let's You and Him Fight: The series can usually pull these off repeatedly due to the Hulk's unstable mental nature. One day he's a giant with the mind of Bruce Banner, the next an unthinking ball of green rage. Getting these fights to stop usually involves a Cooldown Hug and the inevitable Hulk's Cooldown Hug Corollary to avoid a change in the Status Quo. Various heroes have been unlucky enough to cross the Hulk's path, including Spider-Man, Daredevil, Iron Man and the heroes who make up part of his regular rogues' gallery (see below). It's not an experience any of the other guys would care to repeat.
  • Lampshaded by the Hulk (in Smart/Banner/Merged Hulk form at the time) during the Marvel Knights crossover storyline, when he accidentally bumps into Ghost Rider while strolling through the park at knight. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the reader, Ghost Rider, currently fully possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance and only seeing the (accidental, collateral) pain Hulk has caused, is not having any of it and doesn't go along with the plan.
  Hulk: Alright, I get it. This is the obligatory "good guy meets good guy, they have an obligatory fight based on misunderstanding, then team up to fight the REAL bad guy. Can we just skip it?"
  • Wolverine got started as a character created to be a Canadian hero sent to fight the Hulk.
• Lie Detector: In one story, General Ross tried to get Doc Sampson to take a lie detector test regarding his knowledge of the Hulk's whereabouts, forgetting that as a psychologist, Sampson would be perfectly capable of deceiving it. Sampson's response was to threaten to cram it into one of Ross's orifices.
• Lighter and Softer: For roughly half of the 90s.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Hulk is not only the strongest one there is and nigh-invulnerable, but he's also extremely fast.
  • Hulk’s cousin She-Hulk is no slouch herself being to toss dinosaurs around, lift greater weights than the Thing can, move fast enough to dodge Iron Man’s attacks and tank getting smashed through entire cities and even attacks from her bigger cousin Bruce. Shulkie’s Arch-Enemy Titania is of similar mold being strong, fast and tough enough to give Jen a hard time and sometimes beat her outright.
  • A lot of Hulk’s villains and allies such as Abomination, Red Hulk, Doc Samson, A-Bomb and Skaar (his son) can move and react at high speeds despite their massive sizes as well as match Hulk in strength and toughness.
  • Lyra who despite lacking the muscle mass of the aforementioned Hulk characters, is still incredibly strong, incredibly fast and incredibly tough. She once gracefully dodged Ares (a Physical God)'s axe attack and brought him down with a single backhand punch.
• Like Brother and Sister: With She-Hulk. They're cousins, but they treat each other as siblings, and they're pretty protective of each other.
• Literal Split Personality:
  • This has happened to the Hulk on occasion, usually separating Bruce Banner and the Savage Hulk, commonly reducing the Hulk to a rampaging 'beast' without Banner's intellect to keep him in check. Paul Jenkins' run saw a number of journeys into Banner's mind with various Hulks showing up representing different aspects of Banner's psyche.
  • Jason Aaron's run on The Incredible Hulk (2011) kicks off with the Green Scar Hulk (a smarter version of the Savage) getting himself split from Banner. Banner doesn't take it at all well, to the point that Banner irradiates an entire island trying to turn himself back into a Hulk.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Rick Jones to the Hulk. Also Betty Banner and (on a good day) Doc Samson.
• Logical Weakness: Many.
  • Averted in terms of being a Mighty Glacier. Despite the extra size and mass of the Hulk's body, his muscle and physical tissues over-compensate for it, meaning that he gets faster and his overall body performance improves regardless of how much more muscle and power he gains.
  • Hulking out does increase his weight, which is a weakness that can be exploited if one can compromise his physical power, which otherwise compensates for the increased mass.
  • The Hulk's abilities are based on body performance, which means that anything which disrupts this (cutting off his oxygen, paralysis, major injury, etc.) can defeat him. However, there's a two-fold problem with this. First, the amount of dosage or time needed to exploit such a weakness is on a scale that isn't easy to implement. Second, Hulk's body heals and adapts to such problems, meaning that any injury sufficient to hurt him will disappear in seconds and any gas which worked only minutes ago likely won't work a second time.
  • Since Hulk's powers are fueled by mood, adrenaline and radiation, removing any one of these fuels will rapidly deplete his power levels.
• Loners Are Freaks: Played with in the cases of both Bruce and the Hulk. Both personalities are loners who feel they're best left to their own devices, but for different reasons. While they do have friends in the Marvel-verse, many characters consider them both freaks of nature and ostracize them.
• Look Behind You: Used during a "inside Bruce Banner's brain" sequence, as the gray Hulk distracts the green Hulk by saying, "Look! It's Lou Ferrigno!" before locking that aspect of Banner's mind away again.
  • Subverted in another issue of Hulk saw the eponymous hero facing down his arch nemesis The Leader, only for the villain to warn him, "Rock's heading your way." This of course is met with extreme skepticism by the Hulk, who doesn't turn, and is summarily skewered by The Rock, once of the Leader's henchmen wearing a powerful shapeshifting battlesuit.
• The Lost Lenore: Betty Ross becomes this to her husband Bruce Banner until she's Back from the Dead. There's also Jarella and Caiera.
• Lotus-Eater Machine:
  • In an attempt to take control of his body and manifest in the real world, the Devil Hulk once traps Bruce Banner in a perfect fantasy land that exists only in his head. Bruce is married to Betty, has kids and is best friends with his father and General Ross.
  • During Fall of the Hulks, the Intelligencia traps Bruce — and the other seven smartest men in the world — in a Lotus-Eater Machine in order to drain their intellects. Not all that surprisingly, Bruce is married to Betty, has kids, and has killed the Hulk.
• Love Transcends Spacetime: Jarella
• Loves My Alter Ego: Happens to the Hulk, believe it or not. Betty preferred Bruce Banner, Jarella preferred Hulk and Caiera loves both.
  • That Betty loved the integrated Hulk shows her consistency; she loved him for his mind rather than his body in all incarnations.
• Ludicrous Precision:
  • Greg Pak likes to demonstrate Bruce Banner's intelligence by having him spout random math problems and ridiculously precise probabilities in his speech.
    Banner: From the beginning, I figured there was an 83.7 percent chance that during the course of the battle, I'd turn back into the Hulk.
  • Amadeus Cho always talks like that. The one thing he can do is work out the exact probability of pretty much anything, so he likes to do so. He can also use said ability for Improbable Aiming Skills by calculating in an instant bullet ricochet, etc. During the Chaos War crossover, when almost the entire population of Earth was put into trance, Cho warned that at least 32451 people could die due to things such as being in speeding vehicles or in the middle of surgery.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Hiro-Kala knew that he was the son of the Hulk. He didn't know that Bruce Banner was the Hulk. So when they first met, the following exchange happened:
  Hiro-Kala: Who are you?
  Banner: Your... your father.
  Hiro-Kala: Hmp. I don't think so.
  Banner: Yeah, I'm not too happy about it either.
• Luke, You Are My Father: The Hulk has his son Skaar, who was still in his mother's womb when she died, as well as Lyra, his daughter by Thundra from a divergent future. There's also Skaar's twin, Hiro-Kala. Carmilla Black, the new Scorpion, is the daughter of villainess Monica Rappaccini, and the supposed daughter of Brucer Banner.

M

• The Mafia: Joe Fixit worked for a mafioso casino owner at one point, serving as his bouncer and all-around enforcer.
• Mad Scientist: Bruce Banner usually isn’t this, but without the Hulk as an outlet, he can start to lose it as all his anger and darker impulses build up.
• Magic Pants: The most obvious example is the Hulk, who seems to always wind up wearing those purple pants regardless of what Banner was wearing before the transformation:
  • In the live-action series, Ferrigno usually wound up wearing the same kind of pants that Bixby had on when he "Hulked Out". This led to amusing scenes in which the transformation would shred shirts, destroy heavy leather work boots, and even, in one case, crack open a motorcycle helmet — and yet those Magic Pants remained intact. One speculates that this was why the Hulk was so angry.
  • In contrast, the 1980s Incredible Hulk animated series had not only magic pants, but an entire magic outfit that was virtually the only thing Banner ever wore (with the occasional addition of a lab coat), presumably so that the same Stock Footage transformation sequences could be used in every situation. No matter how many times that khaki shirt and red tie were torn off and the patent leather shoes burst apart during transformations (as well as the tearing of the obligatory purple pants, though tinted much closer to red in this version), the bare-chested, barefoot Hulk would always revert to a fully-dressed Bruce Banner.
  • One issue of The Ultimates, an Alternate Continuity version of The Avengers, plays on this, claiming that the Hulk, who was out of control, "murdered a fat guy and stole his pants" off screen after he transformed. Much of the time, he's just naked with Scenery Censor.
  • In Hulk Vs., the Hulk is separated from Banner at one point, and both of them wind up with the Hulk's purple pants (the ones on Banner properly fitting him.) Huh?
  • Stan Lee once commented that he liked to work "science" (read: Technobabble) into all of his stories, and that Hulk's pants were the only time he never had a clue how the exact science behind it worked.
    • Another time he said that Mr. Fantastic (see below) gave Banner a pair of super-stretchy pants.
  • Also used in She-Hulk comics: magic pants and a magic top, although this was probably to escape the censors.
    • During the John Byrne run of She-Hulk, it was established that Jen's underwear never shreds during her transformations and fights because they were tagged approved by the comic book code (thanks to the No Fourth Wall nature of Byrne's take on the character). So no wardrobe malfunctions allowed here!
    • In the early She-Hulk comics, her top was apparently extra-magical. It would tear and get all tattered (but not fall off) when she hulked out... and then magically repair itself when she transformed back into Jennifer!
  • This even led Deadpool to believe there was some sort of power in the Hulk's pants, calling out "HULK PANTS, ACTIVATE!" while being held aloft by the Rhino. But, then again, Deadpool is a Cloud Cuckoolander.
  • Parodied in a billboard in Alan Moore's Top 10. "Super Stretchy Gamma Pants. You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Naked."
  • A possible parody is the giant green dragon Fin Fang Foom, also in the Marvel universe, who wears purple pants.
  • However, this is subverted in the Ang Lee film, where there does come a point (after several stacking annoyances to Mr. Banner) where the Hulk is apparently completely naked. However, by this time he is largely shadow-clad.
  • In The Incredible Hulk film, Bruce Banner is shown buying extremely stretchy pants several sizes too big. Presumably he has quite a collection of belts.
    • In The Avengers, Banner is shown naked after transforming back into his human form ^note Which is somewhat odd, the Hulk had been wearing pants in the scene previous, but the night watchman claims he was naked when he fell out of the sky. A kindly old night watchman ends up providing him with a new set of threads.
    • In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Banner is explicitly shown to wear specially designed pants that can stretch to fit his Hulk physique. Naturally, they're purple.
    • In Thor: Ragnarok, Banner has to make do with a pair of pants that belong to Tony Stark, which are way too tight for Banner's liking, and he spends many of his scenes struggling to walk in them, or adjusting the pants in an unseemly way. Despite this, they still stretch when he transforms into Hulk, subtly poking fun at the concept.
  • During Peter David's Hulk run, there was a gag where Banner found a line of purple pants similar to those worn by the Hulk. The clerk at the store mentioned that the pants were very popular with the obese due to their stretchy fabric.
  • Also lampshaded in an early issue of Wolverine. Hulk, in his "Joe Fixit" gray Hulk persona, has shown up in Madripoor. Wolverine, being a longtime foe of the Hulk, recognizes him immediately. In an attempt to scare Hulk off and play a gag on him, Wolverine breaks into Hulk's hotel room, steals his expensive custom-made Hulk-sized Mafia suits, and replaces them with many, many pairs of large, ripped up, purple pants. (Hulk then goes to a tailor he knows who does excellent rush work, and shows up at Wolverine's place fully decked-out in a white linen three-piece suit.)
  • Lampshaded and averted simultaneously in the Crisis Crossover The Infinity Crusade. Due to experiencing atmospheric re-entry, all of the Hulk's clothes burn off, plus he passes out due to the stress (though being Nigh-Invulnerable, he was otherwise unharmed). After he lands on an opponent, a new hero unfamiliar with the Hulk wonders "if he always goes into battle in such a... natural state."
  • The Hulk's son Skaar has a magic loincloth, which shrinks to fit his human alter-ego.
  • Hulk's pants have been destroyed on rare occasion. In one instance revealing that he wore orange and yellow boxers that were apparently even more invulnerable.
  • One assumes the reason Bruce keeps buying this same brand of hideous purple pants is that they're so stretchy. Though why, in all these years, he's never asked Reed for some unstable molecule trousers is anybody's guess.
    • He did get a full tuxedo made of unstable molecules for a 2011 storyline that parodied about as many spy tropes as possible. The tux was destroyed by the end of the storyline.
    • In another comic set in the Ultimate Marvel universe (which usually averts this trope), Tony Stark gives Bruce Banner an unstable molecule suit in preparation for some experiments on the Hulk. When Bruce hulks out, the top half rips off entirely while the pants only tatter a bit, acting just like Bruce's normal clothes in the main universe. In yet another storyline, Reed Richards gives Banner an unstable molecule suit that grows and expands around his body whenever he transforms.
  • According to Al Ewing's Immortal Hulk, Bruce started buying these pants long before he ever became the Hulk — in college he bought ten identical suits, which all came with purple pants, in the expectation they'd only become more fashionable.
• Magikarp Power: In human form, Bruce Banner's just a nerdy human scientist with no obvious special abilities and a near phobia of losing his temper... and with good reason.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Really, Bruce Banner's troubles with his Hulk condition could have been avoided from the beginning if he simply sent guards at the base to get Rick Jones out of the Gamma Bomb blast zone in the first place instead of going himself. That way, Banner could have kept an eye on the detonation process and held it until the guards and trespasser was clear.
• Mall Santa: In issue #378 (by Peter David), Rhino (a supervillain) becomes a Mall Santa. He gives this advice to kids: "Give! Give! Give! You want everything handed to you! Why not do what I do? Take stuff! See it? Want it? Take it!"
• Mama Bear: Bruce's mother Rebecca Banner was this to Bruce she even died attempting to free her son and herself from her abusive subhuman scumbag husband Brian. In Chaos War Rebecca reppears and reuintes with her son - still trying to protect him◊ - despite him being a 8-foot green powerhouse at this point, naturally the roles are switched with Bruce protecting from her Brian in his snake-like Devil Hulk form.
• Manchild: The Savage Hulk in usual appearances is childlike and innocent. He is prone to violent fits of rage and causes lots of collateral damage when someone attacks him, but all he wants is to have friends and be liked. Painfully justified since the Hulk was born from the trumatic childhood Bruce Banner endured at the hands of his scumbag dad. Contrast this to how She-Hulk is with Jennifer Walters, who was born from the latter's desire to be confident and outgoing as a young adult.
• Man of Kryptonite: X-Ray of the U-Foes can shoot off "anti-gamma radiation", which can depower or outright kill the Hulk. Fortunately, X-Ray's not terribly bright, so he doesn't have much of a chance to utilize this.
• The Master: It's not the exact name, but The Leader has pretty much the same vibe. And in his appearance in the Dan Slott She-Hulk series, he was drawn as Roger Delgado with hydrocephalus.
  • Also, the evil future Hulk calls himself the Maestro.
• May Contain Evil: In Annual #18, "Spelling Made Easy" is a best-selling book about necromancy aimed at the layman. Reading it aloud turns you into a demon.
• Mayfly–December Friendship: The Hulk and all his various friendships if Hulk: The End is to be believed. He is the last sentient being on the entire planet Earth. Even Banner dies, and the Hulk is finally alone, as he has always requested.
• Merchandise-Driven: One issue featured mattresses from Sleepy's.
• Middle Name Basis: The Secret Identity of the Hulk is Robert Bruce Banner, known exclusively to everyone who knows him as "Bruce" (unless he goes by an alias to hide). This is a result of Serendipity Writes the Plot, as Stan Lee often used to forget the character's name and alternated between calling him "Bruce Banner" and "Bob Banner". After realizing the mistake, the name we know as was established as his real full name.
• Mirror Scare:
  • Often Bruce Banner will stare into a mirror and be terrified at the sight of Hulk his alter ego looking back at him. It's so iconic it made it into the Ang Lee movie during a Nightmare Sequence.
  • In Immortal Hulk, Hulk is stricken to see his father Brian appearing to him in a reflection of a window while fighting Sasquatch.
• Mirthless Laughter: In issue #159, after learning from the Hulk that he spent two years in a coma before his Healing Factor restored him from their last fight, when he fell to Earth from orbit, the Abomination begins alternatively ranting about the situation and laughing at it. The Hulk tells him to stop laughing, because it sounds all wrong, and then finally sucker-punches the Abomination to leave him out cold and stop the laughter.
  Abomination: A-ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha haaaaa! "Nothing can hurt the Abomination", I said! Not even falling out of space! It may put me in a coma — but when I wake up, I don't even know know about it! ''How wonderful to be a freak! I can lose whole sections of my life! Isn't that funny, Hulk? Isn't that just hilarious?! Ha ha ha ha haaaa
  Hulk: Do not laugh! Hulk does not like your laugh! Sounds like crying.
• Misblamed: In-Universe, the Hulk is frequently blamed for the damage his fights cause, even though he's rarely the one who started it.
• Misplaced Retribution: Most of the Gamma Corps hunted the Hulk because they wrongly believed he was responsible for their personal tragedies. To their credit, they stop hunting the Hulk once they realize this.
  • Mess' child was killed during a battle between the Hulk and the Abomination and she was led to believe that the Hulk threw the bus that killed him. It was actually the Abomination who did it, which was even more galling to Mess because she let the government alter the left half of her body to be Abomination-like.
  • Gideon blamed the Hulk for his son Jim Wilson's death just because Jim was a friend of the Hulk's when he died. Jim actually died of AIDS (which, to be clear, he did not contract from the Hulk). The Hulk pointed this out to Gideon. The Hulk then mentioned that Jim never told him his father was still alive, and he asked Gideon why Jim was a runaway pretending to be an orphan in the first place.
  • Prodigy's parents claimed that he suffered birth defects because of the Hulk. Prodigy became a Leader-like Gamma mutant and joined the Corps for payback. He later discovered that his parents blamed the Hulk to hide the real reason for his birth defects- their heroin addiction.
  • The only members who don't fit this are Grey and Griffin. Grey actually hated his brother Glenn Talbot and just wants to prove himself more capable than his brother by beating the Hulk. Griffin just wants someone to hate.
• Momma's Boy'': Bruce Banner was this to his mother Rebecca due to Brian Banner being a psychotic abusive asshole as while Brian hated his son, Rebecca adored Bruce and lost her life protecting him from Brian. In a Battle in the Center of the Mind, Rebecca again tries defend her son but Bruce, being the goddamn Hulk, assures his dear mom that nothing can hurt him now◊.
• Monster Modesty: Hulk is the main offender but many of his enemies (Abomination) or his allies (Skaar) utilize this trope.
• The Most Wanted: The Hulk usually becomes the most wanted, especially in his beginnings when he was an uncontrollable monster that only made havoc and before he converted into a superhero by joining The Avengers and other hero groups.
• Mother Russia Makes You Strong: The Abomination plays this straight.
• Mr. Fanservice: Well, the Hulk is a large, super muscular male prone to running around shirtless.
  • The Merged/Professor Hulk and Bruce Banner especially, since the Hulk's attractiveness always depends on the artist, but these two personas are always drawn as considerably good-looking and in good shape, with Banner being left shirtless due to the transformations. Banner has been acknowledged in-universe to be quite attractive by several woman, and the Hulk has has multiple admirers in alien worlds.
• Mr. Vice Guy:
  • The Hulk has Wrath down pat—without it, he's just a scientist, rather than a superhero.
  • The Joe Fixit, or Gray Hulk, personality is a straighter example of this, he wears fine, personally tailored suits, eats the finest food (and a lot of it), and of course, heaping helpings of pleasurable company, but is shown to have a certain honor, mostly taught to him by his former employer, Mr. Berengetti.
  • Recent interpretations of the character have indicated that Banner is just as much Wrath as the Hulk. The difference is that Banner's is much more focused, and therefore even more dangerous, with characters thinking that of the two Banner is the more dangerous. This gets backed up by the fact that the Hulk is scariest when he's closest to Banner in personality and intellect.
  • A side trait of Ultimate Hulk as well, due to his Banner's unrestrained Id. Most notably, when Wolverine tracks him down in Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk, he's surrounded by a huge harem of scantily-clad Tibetan women and makes it obvious he's been having sex with them.
• Mugging the Monster: Naturally, this has happened to Bruce Banner a few times, as sometimes the Asshole Victims don't recognize Bruce Banner until it's too late...
  • And as many found out to their misery, Bruce Banner isn't helpless either.
  • In one instance the Grey Hulk was nearly mugged, which is odd considering he's taller than most people and almost as wide.
  • The moment where Bruce Banner is nearly raped by two men in the shower of the YMCA takes the cake. It's an aversion, though, as when Banner threatens to turn into the Hulk, they doubt him but decide not to risk it.
• Multiple Head Case: Bi-Beast. Justified, since he's an android.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: This is almost the entire plot for the Hulk, as any character's superpower can be easily identified by which body part is the largest (The Leader, the Abomination, etc.) The Hulk is among the strongest individuals in the Marvel Universe, and is ripped as hell.
• Muscles Are Meaningless:
  • In Planet Hulk, Hulk's wife Caiera is a slim alien woman (smaller than both Green and Red She-Hulks) yet thanks to the Old Power she can enough channel super strength to lift well over 100 tons match her husband in strength.
  • Hulk himself dips into this in Immortal Hulk as he one point gets his muscles taken away by Absorbing Man and loses barely a margin of his strength. At another point, he’s changed back into Bruce Banner but has Joe Fixit (Grey Hulk)’s persona and is still strong enough to overpower Psycho for Hire Bushwhacker. Although it’s still made clear he is far stronger with his Hulk-physique.
• My Brain Is Big:
  • Yuri Topolov, a Soviet scientist, was mutated into a big-headed dwarf and, becoming an Evil Genius, called himself the Gargoyle. Bruce actually managed to cure him, though, and a grateful Topolov sacrificed himself to ensure Banner's safe return to America.
  • Yuri's son Kondrati, who inherited his father's deformity (and capacity for Evil Genius), chose to blame the Hulk for his father's death, and became the villainous Gremlin. As the second Titanium Man, he died during Iron Man's Armor Wars rampage.
    • The Leader, whose Ultimate Marvel version combines this with a totally useless body. Sometimes, he is even shown needing a metal frame to keep his head from snapping his neck. While other gamma-radiation mutated characters had their physical strength enhanced, the Leader instead was given Super-Intelligence.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: It's revealed in a flashback in Skaar Son Of Hulk that Caiera's obedience disk was removed when she was still a child; her oath to be the tyrannical Red King's shadow was all that bound her to his service.
• My Skull Runneth Over: In his first appearance, The Leader was after an Ultimate Machine containing all the knowledge in the Universe. When he obtained it and downloaded the information into his mind, this proved too much even for his super brain and killed him. Seemingly.
• Mythology Gag: In Ultimate Marvel, Betty Ross becoming the Ultimate She-Hulk could be seen as this, given Betty had a brief stint as a gamma-powered monster called the Harpy before her Comic Book Death and is now the Red She-Hulk in the mainstream universe.