Hulk....hurts.
- Finally face to face with the Hulk, the creature that destroyed her hometown when she was 15, the thing she had been terrified of ever since, Jackie can only bring herself to ask one question: "How do I get to be what you are?"
- The Avengers' Pyrrhic Victory over the Hulk in Issue 7.
- The only way to win is to activate a satellite based superweapon which destroys the entire town in which the fight happened. Though both Captains America and Marvel protest, Tony activates it after realizing there's no choice. No lives are lost, as the civilians have been evacuated, but as Marvel points out those people lost everything they had. It's driven home by the reactions of the civilians who witness the destruction from a safe position.
- Cap's reaction to Bruce's death. Despite everything that happened, despite almost dying at Hulk's hand, he still bitterly regrets having had to kill Bruce, mourning over his corpse. When Tony talks about the 'Devil Hulk', he sharply points out this was no devil, but a friend who needed help.
- Maybe even sadder is the fact that, at this point, Steve is the only person who is grieving for Hulk. The other Avengers who were Bruce's friends and comrades in arms show no reaction at having to kill him, simply seeing him as another threat to be disposed of at all costs.
- Jen's anger at Bruce for committing suicide by proxy - not only did he commit suicide, but he guilted Clint (the Avenger who had been closest to the Hulk) into killing him, knowing full well what it would do to both Clint and Hulk.
- Steve Rogers, despite his evident sympathy for Hulk, being forced to hand him over to General Ross, probably knowing well enough what kind of experimentation Hulk would be subjected to.
- In its own way, the fact Hulk rages at the qlippoth of General Ross not because of the way he hunted Bruce and the Hulks endlessly, but because he could have been a father figure to Bruce and never was. It gets worse with the reveal a few issues down the line of just where the Immortal Hulk personality comes from - Bruce's own screwed up dad issues. Even though he doesn't show it, this crueller Hulk is still the result of the pain of a kid who just wanted a father to love him.Devil Hulk: He needed a dad. Or someone like a dad. Someone who loved him. But he didn't know what love was.
- Doubling as Nightmare Fuel, the Devil Hulk's reaction to Brian Banner. The usually cold and violent giant is suddenly reduced to a scared little boy as soon as he lays eyes on his father for the first time in years.Devil Hulk:...Daddy?
- The Savage Hulk surfaces in issue 12, and gives us a heartbreaking glimpse into his mind:"Hulk hurts. All the time hurts. All the time always. <crying> Why? Why Hulk have to hurt so much?"
- Hulk's speech to Banner in issue 13 has him give an understanding of how he feels, and possibly figuring out one of the reasons he exists."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. ...'Cause I love you, you stupid kid. Somebody had to."
- Savage Hulk resurfaces again in issue 19, after Subject B's acid has melted away all four of his limbs and burned out his eyes. Then, through his pain, he hears Betty's voice. And as he tearfully begs her to help him, Red Harpy instead claws at his helpless body with her talons and devours his heart.
- In Issue 22, Bruce is speaking to Betty in her Red Harpy form. Betty has the ability to go back and forth at will, but does not want to do so when communicating with Bruce, something he's painfully aware of. Bruce is so disheartened and unable to cope that he immediately surrenders control to Joe Fixit. Both the ruined state of Bruce and Betty's relationship and how hurt Bruce is as a result is heartwrenching.
- Issue 28 takes a character type who has recently lost most of their sympathy- a cis, white, conservative security guard- and manages to make him into a truly tragic, pathetic, and sympathetic figure by telling the whole tale through his eyes. As politically unpopular as his views are both in-universe and outside, the man we see on the page is watching his American dream fall completely apart for reasons he can't understand. He puts on a smile for his family, but he can see the pain in his wife's eyes, and the only response from his daughter is a glare of pure icy hatred. He rants in internal monologue that the devil has gotten into his child somehow- obviously not the case (his daughter is heavily queer-coded) but instead of being an excuse for violence it comes across as actual delusion, possibly even a mental illness. Later on, while protecting his workplace from rioters, he thinks he sees his daughter amongst the Hulk-mask-wearing crowd of protesting teens, recognizing the hatred for him in her eyes behind the mask. Finally at his breaking point, he points his gun at the crowd, wrestling with vision after vison of what he wishes his life was like along with memories of happier times with his wife and daughter, and hears the violent rhetoric his bosses and the media drilled into him. Whether or not he would have pulled the trigger quickly becomes irrelevant, as that's when the Hulk lands, shaking the ground and causing the gun to go off in his hand accidentally. Horrified, he slumps limply down the wall, and his daughter stoically watches as the monster does... something to him off-panel, the hatred in her eyes never wavering. By the end, the portrait painted is one of a bigot, but thoroughly human and full of confusion about his own feelings and pain he doesn't understand, a man on the edge. In essence, he seems like a victim of his own failings, not unlike Bruce Banner himself. For anyone who has lost a loved one due to political polarization, or struggled with it themselves, this is likely to hit very close to home.
- After flashing back to a memory of he and his daughter holding hands at the amusement park: "— I just want it back... It's not fair. Our world was good. It could have been— what was so wrong with that?"
- Issue 33 has the Savage Hulk and Green Scar in the mindscape finding Bruce's personality turned into a child, surrounded by toys, junk food, television and other items. Savage Hulk's response again brings to mind how screwed up Bruce's childhood was:"Toys everywhere. Hulk never had toys..."
- Issue 35 has plenty of scenes where Savage Hulk vents his frustrations about his treatment at the hands of Banner and the other Avengers, who he yells that even though they claim to be his friends, they keep hurting him. Said issue ends with The Leader causing him to [violently explode while masquerading as Rick Jones.
- Issue 38 shows us how Devil Hulk manifested: Brian Banner lashed out at a three year old Bruce for reading Paradise Lost and in the process convinced young Bruce that a father like him was necessary. Thus, Devil Hulk manifested while looking like a humanoid version of the snake from Paradise Lost's artwork, trying to comfort Bruce and the recently manifested Savage Hulk. Bruce and Savage Hulk's torment at Brian's hands make them tearfully wary of the Devil Hulk in spite of him obviously being sincere about his love for the two of them and desperately trying to be everything a true father should be. The damage has been done, and Brian Banner has forever tainted the idea of fathers for Bruce and the Hulks.Devil Hulk: He's not your dad. Not a good dad. A dad can't hurt you and be a good dad.
- Issue 39 expands on this and makes it even more heart-wrenching; the reason Bruce and Savage Hulk were always so scared of Devil Hulk is not because of his scary appearance, but because he kept promising to kill Brian to protect them... and Bruce didn't want his father to die. He still loved his dad despite all the abuse, and just wanted Brian to love him back. In the present day, the Leader proceeds to exploit this by taking Brian's form and manipulating Savage Hulk into tripping up Devil Hulk just long enough for Leader to win the mental battle between the two, maiming Devil Hulk and kidnapping the consciousnesses of both him and Bruce. As the poor Savage Hulk begins sobbing that this isn't want he wanted and that he doesn't want anyone to get hurt, Leader decides to rub salt in the wounds by mockingly mimicking Brian again just to sarcastically say 'I love you'.
- Devil Hulk's reaction to Savage Hulk admitting to still wanting Brian to love them. Devil Hulk just seems to deflate in defeat as he realizes that no matter how much he loves Bruce and is willing to show that love, he will never ever be able to overcome their desire for Brian's undeserved approval.Savage Hulk: Hulk... not want that. Never wanted that... Not Daddy dead. Just... just to love Hulk. Please. Just love Hulk.
Devil Hulk: ...Oh, kid. No. - We later see that Devil Hulk is indeed Killed Off for Real (at least in this run), meaning he dies believing that all his efforts to protect Bruce and Savage Hulk were All for Nothing.
- The rematch between the Thing and Hulk doesn't go as expected. Keeping with Savage Hulk's characterization, their fight quickly devolves into Savage tearfully begging for Ben to stop hurting him. When Joe takes over to stop the fight, he angrily calls Ben out for beating up a child. Making matters worse is that this is a Savage Hulk who's been largely depowered by what the Leader did to him, causing him to shrink from his typical mountain of muscles to an emaciated, shriveled, visibly weak and puny iteration of himself.
- Ben recounting the story of Job, the parable of a pious, good-hearted man who finds his life in ruins as part of a cosmic test by Lucifer the Accuser. When Job asks why God has allowed this, the answer is simply a tiny glimpse of how much he doesn't know and how much he can't understand. One can clearly see the parallel that Ben is drawing by telling this story to Joe and Savage Hulk.
- Issue 48 reveals to us how Joe Fixit manifested: a battered and bloody child Bruce Banner would watch old gangster films and form an idea of what a real man was on that archetype. Joe comes to admit with a level of self awareness that he's ultimately just an abused kid's idea of what a man should be; a brutal thug enacting violence on others and liking it.
- In Issue 49, while opening a portal to the multiverse, we see a glimpse of an alternate universe where Bruce Banner and his friends, rather then Reed and his family, took the rocket trip that made them into the Fantastic Four. It's Bruce, Betty, Rick and Ross as a heroic, loving family of superheroes, going on wonderful adventures. The Hulk, surrounded by people who hate him and descending into hell, simply stares silently... but Jackie notes that it's the first time his stubborn determination seems to falter.
- The final issue shows the implied beginning of all the torment suffered by the Banners and Sterns, and it is depressingly mundane. A scientist betraying his pastor brother in a moment of weakness by sleeping with his sister-in-law, causing the preacher to succumb to anger and jealousy by murdering his brother before kicking his pregnant wife out into the snow. The brothers are the ancestors of Samuel Sterns, the wife is the ancestor of Bruce Banner, and this moment is the point where the once great family was destroyed and split into two. All this horror born out of simple human failings, descendants paying the price for there forefathers' sins.
