Chapter 15 The Incredible Hulk

AN: I wish there was a better Hulk movie for me to write about because Bruce deserves better, but the rights to the Hulk character are still tied up with Universal… I think. I'm not a legal-minded person. I have a very tiny mind and am the total opposite of Tony and Bruce. The 2008 Hulk film is a lot better than the 2003 one! I've decided to do this my own way because although I have the 2008 Hulk movie on DVD I don't want to have to write this and watch the movie at the same time like I did with the others. I decided to do something a little different with Bruce.

Bruce's point of view

"OK what's next?"
"The Incredible Hulk. The film is from 2008 and is technically part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe even though it's not on Disney+"
"WHAT? NO!"

"Sorry Bruce… we don't have a choice."
"This is exploitation and if Ross gets wind of this I'm toast"

"Don't worry. Ross won't get wind of it"

I let out a frustrated sigh and sat down to await my fate. Tony squeezed my shoulder.

"OK Serendipity will read the synopsis, then we'll start watching"

"Scientist Bruce Banner desperately seeks a cure for the gamma radiation that contaminated his cells and turned him into The Hulk. Cut off from his true love Betty Ross and forced to hide from his nemesis, Gen. Thunderbolt Ross Banner soon comes face-to-face with a new threat: a supremely powerful enemy known as The Abomination."

"Serendipity, do you think Bruce could… narrate his story?"

"Sure…"
"I wrote it as a graphic novel when I was in therapy as a teenager… and I gave copies to my adoptive parents as Christmas gifts."
"OK cool… we will turn the sound off"

Tony handed me a microphone

"Uh, hi… if you don't mind, I'd like to just… sit here for this. My full name is Robert Bruce Banner, I was born on December 18th 1969, to Brian and Rebekah Banner. I was raised a catholic. My father was a violent abusive drunken ex-scientist who hurt my mother and me regularly. Biologically speaking, I am an only child. I didn't grow up as an only child though."

The accident

I knew the reactor was about to explode, which is why I stepped in between it and the other two people in the room, firmly telling them to run.

Turning green

The radiation permeated my cells and I felt like I was a young child again. I could feel my father beating the crap out of me… I could see him hurting my mother.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Howard was sitting beside me.

"It's OK if you can't continue Bruce"
"I have to, it's about time the world knew the truth."

"OK… You got this"

"When my father was arrested and incarcerated for the murder of my mother, Howard and Peggy Stark adopted me and brought me up with their son Tony. I tried to fit in with Tony and the others… but I was used to being alone."

Uncontrollable rage

"I've always had a temper, but it was never short until the accident. The accident happened because I wasn't concentrating… The way I see it, The Hulk was born because of how I was treated by my father as a child. Money was always really tight before I was adopted. My mother did her best but my father made things very difficult. We tried to get him to go to rehab a couple of times but to no avail. He simply couldn't stop drinking."

I felt Howard's hand on my shoulder again. He could see the terror in my eyes and the decades of unexpressed emotions.

Trying to fix it

"I was fortunate to have a clever and capable adoptive father who knows science like the back of his hand and who could at least try to help me to resolve the problem I had after the accident. When he asked me what happened I said "My first instinct was to protect Betty and Tony. I absorbed the massive dose of Gamma Radiation. Something happened… I turned into this enormous green being… Betty tried to calm me down… she stayed close by and talked to me until my rage had subsided while Tony went to find help."

"You tried to do the right thing… We will handle this in house. We will let the world think that you've gone on the run, meanwhile you'll stay here and stay safe"

"I know what I did was stupid, but I didn't know what else to do, so I obeyed my first instinct"

On the run

"I ended up having to go on the run. Betty had moved to Washington DC with her father. He didn't like me. We were supposed to…" I let out a sigh "we were supposed to get married, but Betty's father forbade the union and took her far away from me. I thought I had found my soulmate when I met Nat, but it turns out the Gamma Radiation did a number on everything… I'm still trying to find my soulmate… Betty has moved on. She's married and has two young children. She's happy, so I had to let her go. I won't be the person who breaks up a family."

Whatever you do… DON'T make me angry

"After I became the Hulk for the first time, I avoided stress, especially anger."

Monitor

"Howard and I built a monitor for me, which tracked my heart rate… I figured the key to keeping the Hulk subdued was to keep my heart rate normal. Unfortunately, that didn't happen very easily"

A trap

"When I was at MIT, Ross, disguised as a professor, found me and had me arrested. I think he thought I would turn green again but I didn't"

The abomination

"They took me to The Raft and Ross finally succeeded in bringing the Hulk out. He forced me to fight The Abomination… I won the fight but I kind of… broke Harlem! I do my best nowadays to keep the monster within subdued"

What if I told you were putting together a team?

"When I graduated from MIT, Howard hired me, I helped Tony in the Research and Development department. When Howard and Peggy disappeared in 1991… Tony became the CEO and I went on Sabbatical for a bit, I became a missionary and went to the other side of the world. When I came back, I found out that Tony had become Iron Man… Unfortunately, I also discovered that Ross was sniffing around again… Tony dealt with him so that I didn't have to. I am grateful that by the time the accident happened my biological father had passed on from Liver Failure."

"All right, let's stretch our legs, fifteen minutes everyone. Then we're going to watch Iron Man 2."

"Oh no"