If you are a reader of Marvel’s Hulk’s Adventures, you may already be familiar with the fact that Bruce Banner has family issues and not just with his abusive father. His extended family is not always on good terms with him—even his own multiple personalities can’t seem to tolerate each other. It’s complicated.
Dr. Robert Bruce Banner was introduced in Incredible Hulk #1 in 1962—and you can read a lot more about his origins in the article dedicated to his creation. Since then, his family has grown, he made new friends, and a lot of monsters appeared, some were totally normal family members and acquaintances at first, which can complicate things even further.
Anyway, after more than 60 years of smashing, Hulk’s family evolved and, today, we are taking a look at it, exploring Bruce Banner, Jennifer Walters, and others, plus their green (or red) monstrous alter egos.
The Hulk Family Tree
Bruce Banner, The Hulk
At that point, introducing Bruce Banner feels a bit unnecessary as we already covered his origins and proposed a long reading order for his monstrous adventures. But if you are somehow not familiar with him, he is the inventor of the Gamma Bomb. Bruce noticed a teenager named Rick Jones in the explosion zone during a regular test, so he decided to intervene to save Rick’s life. He succeeded and, as a result, he was exposed to gamma radiation, which changed him into the savage gray Hulk.
He soon became green, however, the skin color of the monster was not his primary problem. Bruce Banner may be a leading expert in nuclear physics and other related fields thanks to his intelligence, but these traits are lost when he transforms into the Hulk—who exists as a physical manifestation of his repressed rage and mental instability—leaving behind him a trail of destruction. Bruce tried to fight the monster in him and failed many times.
Jennifer Walters, She-Hulk
Like with Bruce, we already covered the origins of Jennifer Walters and offered a reading order of his legal and other types of savage adventures. Nevertheless, here is a short introduction. She first appeared in The Savage She-Hulk #1 (1979). In need of assistance, Bruce Banner went to see his young relative, Jennifer, who became a lawyer in Los Angeles. After criminals shoot Jen, Bruce gave her his own blood to rescue her. Nothing occurred at first, but when the hitmen arrived at the hospital to complete the job, Jennifer Walters grew large, deadly, and green.
Jennifer Walters assumed the name She-Hulk and chose to employ her newly discovered talents to become a crime-fighting attorney after realizing she could transform into a more powerful version of herself anytime she wished. Unlike her cousin, she has superhuman power when she is She-Hulk, but she still keeps her personality and intelligence.
Betty Ross, Red She-Hulk/Harpy
While working at the federal nuclear research facility at a missile base in the New Mexico desert where he became The Hulk, Bruce Banner was befriended by Betty Ross who, despite her father’s objections, took interest in the shy scientific. After the accident, she stayed by his side and the two finally married, but the Hulk was always between them.
Worse, the proximity to Bruce exposed her to gamma radiation and, in Incredible Hulk #168, she was transformed into the fearsome Harpy. This was only her first transformation. She was cured, killed, resurrected, and even became Red She-Hulk … then later the Red Harpy. No matter how many times Bety tried to get her own life together, next or far away from Bruce, her gamma-filed life never let her rest for so long.
General “Thunderbolt” Thaddeus Ross, Red Hulk
General Ross disliked Bruce Banner from the beginning and things didn’t get better once he started to hunt down the Hulk. In fact, this hunt became an obsession that led him beyond whatever anyone would have thought he was capable of. His downfall made him even more unstable. He finally saw the error of his ways … just before dying.
But that’s a particularity of the family, death, resurrection, monsters. He would eventually come back and at one point, he also changed into a monster, the Red Hulk.
Brian Banner
Brian Banner was Bruce’s father, but also a brilliant scientist in his own right. In fact, his expertise in nuclear research was what pushed him on a dark road. Brian had an obsession, he believed that his radiation experiments had transformed his son into a monster.
This led him down a destructive path with Rebecca, his wife, paying the ultimate price. His violent behavior left an indelible mark on Bruce’s psyche. And even in death, Brian found a way to torment Bruce.
Rick Jones
Rick Jones is the ultimate sidekick in the Marvel Universe. But before he joined forces with Captain America and Captain Marvel, his life tour a dramatic turn the day he ended up at the missile base during Banner’s test of his gamma bomb. Saved by Bruce Banner and realizing what the good doctor became because of his actions, he decided to help him as much as he could.
Rick soon became the bridge between Bruce and the Hulk. He didn’t always stay with the green monster, but he regularly came back and, at one point, was turned into the Hulk! Rick Jones certainly has a crazy life.
Lyra, the Second She-Hulk
For all we know, since becoming the Hulk, Bruce Banner had three children. Introduced in Hulk: Raging Thunder #1 (2008), Lyra is the Hulk’s daughter who comes from a dystopian future. Her mother was Thundra, a warrior from an alternate future Earth, who traveled through time to collect the Hulk’s DNA and used that genetic material to fertilize her own eggs artificially. As a result, Lyra was born with his father’s gamma-irradiated genetic traits.
Lyra also traveled to the past, her initial mission was to find Earth’s greatest hero to save the future. When she learned that her mission had been a success, she became a hero and an agent of A.R.M.O.R.! She eventually spent some time with her father and she even went to live with her aunt.
Skaar, Son of Hulk
First appearing in World War Hulk #5 (2008), Skaar is the son of the Hulk and Caiera the Oldstrong, an extraterrestrial native of the planet Sakaar. When he emerged from a cocoon, his father had left the planet. Skaar grew up quickly and had to face the coming of Galactus, in vain. Leaving behind him the ashes of his world, Skaar came to Earth to kill his father but soon realized that the Hulk he met was not the same as the one who came to Sakaar. A depowered Bruce Banner offered to mentor him and helped Skaar to become a hero.
Hiro-Kala
Introduced in Skaar: Son of Hulk #2 (2008), Hiro-Kala is Skaar’s twin brother and he led a different life, not having inherited his father’s powers, but his mother’s. Enslaved at a young age, he followed another road but also fought to save the people of Sakaar when Galactus came. That was only the beginning of the adventure for him, one that molded him into a villain whose desire to destroy Earth will lead to his downfall.
Amadeus Cho, the Totally Awesome Hulk
Amadeus Cho is a young Korean-American and the seventh-smartest person in the world, but he also became the Totally Awesome Hulk. At first, he was the Green Monster’s sidekick, then Hercules’s sidekick, but that didn’t last as he found a way to take over the Hulk’s power. He started chasing monsters, made mistakes, and began to learn from them as he realized that controlling his powers may be more difficult than he initially thought.
Eventually, Amadeus chose to be called Brawn in this new form and joined The Champions and Agents of Atlas. You can follow our reading order to read all of Amadeus Cho’s adventures.
Doc Samson
Leonard Skivorski Jr. is Doc Samson, a Gamma-powered psychiatrist who made his debut in The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #141 (1971). He was working with the Hulk when he exposed himself to the radiations that turned his hair green and gave him a lot of physical strength.
This development introduced complications to his relationship with the Hulk, but the two went on and, through the years, Doc Samson always tried to help his patient. He is, after all, a psychiatrist first, then a green-haired hero second.
Continue to explore Marvel Characters with our guide to the Spider-Verse, or the Spider-Man Family!
