How Was 'Professor Hulk' Created in Original Comics?
Professor Hulk is one of a few alternate personas of Bruce Banner, but the creation of Professor Hulk is entirely unique compared to the other versions of the Hulk. Banner’s exposure to the gamma radiation that gave life to the Hulk fractured the scientist's mind and created multiple personalities living in one body. Bruce Banner, the Hulk, and Mr. Fixit (or Grey Hulk) all reside inside Banner’s mindscape, but the persona of Professor Hulk is unique in that his creation was in an effort to heal Banner’s fractured psyche.
Many fans became familiar with Professor Hulk after he took the center stage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s ambitious crossover event Avengers: Endgame, and overall the film’s interpretation was fairly comic accurate. Each MCU installment involving the Hulk delved deeper into the internal struggle between Hulk and Banner with every passing film. Their mental unrest came to a head in Avengers: Infinity War, made evident after the Hulk refused to manifest in their battle against Thanos’ army. It wasn’t until Avengers: Endgame that Hulk and Banner came to an understanding in the form of a shared body and consciousness, resulting in Professor Hulk.
The MCU’s version isn’t too far off from the original comic book's origin of Professor Hulk, though the comics offer a greater psychological insight into the merging of Bruce Banner’s personas. In Incredible Hulk #377, Professor Hulk made his first appearance with the help of Leonard Samson, a gamma radiated psychiatrist and longtime Hulk frenemy, and a lesser known character called the Ringmaster. The Ringmaster used his powers of hypnosis, along with the psychiatric guidance of Dr. Samson, to enter the mind of Bruce Banner in an effort to uncover the hidden demons in Banner’s past and help the scientist regain his grip on his mind. During their treatments, Samson guides Banner and his other personalities, Hulk and Joe Fixit, through Bruce’s repressed memories of his childhood. After reaching into Banner’s past, they discover Banner's memories of trauma and abuse, including the murder of Bruce’s mother by the hands of his father.
The group discovers that Bruce manifested the personalities of the Hulk and Joe Fixit when he was a boy as a defense mechanism against his traumatic experiences, revealing the other two personalities inside Bruce’s mind weren’t created with the exposure to gamma radiation but were simply brought to the physical world after the accident. Upon the realization, the three personas merged into one person. The physical body and strength of the Hulk, the intellectual cunning of Fixit, and the humanity and scientific brilliance of Banner all came together to create Professor Hulk.
While the MCU primarily focused on the internal conflict with Hulk and Banner as the catalyst for the birth of Professor Hulk, the films are an oversimplification when compared to their comic book counterpart. Other than in the 2003 film Hulk, which is not connected to the MCU, Marvel films do not address the abuse Bruce Banner faced from his father, which is not only a key aspect to the creation of Professor Hulk, but also to Banner as a character. The comics do not shy away from Banner’s traumatic past and in fact incorporate it into the storyline of Professor Hulk’s creation. The origin story of Professor Hulk is one of a traumatized man cursed by the sins of his father, with people in his life working to help him recover from the abuses he suffered, showing readers that healing, growth, and acceptance is how Professor Hulk was created in the original comics.
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