Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Bruce Banner, popularly known as the Hulk, made his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962). Scientist Bruce Banner was developing a bomb that used a high concentration of gamma radiation when a teenager named Rick Jones wondered into the test field just when Banner had started the countdown for the detonation. Banner rushed to warn the boy but the test went according to schedule and Banner was bathed in gamma radiation. Against all odds, the scientist survived, but not without consequences. This is a comic book origin story, after all, so when a terrible accident happens people tend to walk out of it better off most of the time. For Bruce Banner, this meant that he now had the ability to transform into a giant green monstrosity dubbed the "hulk".
The Hulk is one of Marvel Comics' most well-known characters and one of the core members of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. On the screen, Hulk has had a number of iterations, both on TV and in movies. Currently, the character is portrayed by Mark Ruffalo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hulk is one of the most popular Marvel heroes as well as a very popular fan art subject of various artists. Because he has such a unique physique, artists often decided to fuse the Hulk with comic book, cartoon, anime, movie, and video game characters. We spent way too much time looking at all kinds of hilarious, scary, disturbing and adorable versions of the Hulk and now we present to you the 25 most amazing characters re-imagined as Hulks.
25 THE INCREDIBLE HULKEYE
When faced with the opportunity to fuse two Avengers together, artist Michael Dashow decided to make Hawkeye and the Hulk the focus of his work. He combined the two and created a beautiful purple-green monstrosity with enough anger, raw power and arrows to take down any threat.
Please note how incredibly tiny the bow and arrows look in Hulk’s massive hands. It’s as if he’s playing with toys. Also, if you pay attention to the background, you’ll see three more mashup characters -- Captain Thor, Iron Witch, and Captain Vision.
24 JIGGLYHULK
The adorable Jigglypuff is a Pokemon that evolves from Igglybuff when it reaches a certain point of happiness and evolves into Wigglytuff when exposed to a Moon Stone. The name Jigglypuff is a reference to its jelly-like appearance.
This fluffy little Balloon Pokemon doesn’t have a single thing in common with the Hulk. Unlike Igglybuff, Bruce Banner “evolves” when he gets angry, not happy. Plus, you know, he’s huge and green, and scary. Nevertheless, RipZythm created this marvelous Hulk version of Jigglypuff. According to the artist, Jigglyhulk is always angry because everyone keeps falling asleep when she sings.
23 I AM HULK
On the surface, this seems like a bit of an odd pairing. Hulk is a massive, muscular, green beast-like being, while Groot is a tree-like, skinny-looking alien. The two couldn’t be less alike if they tried. However, Olena Minko found a way to reconcile their differences and create a cool mashup hero.
Groot looks amazing with his branches mixed in with green skin. The ripped shorts are a nice touch. But what puzzles us the most is that tiny little creature in his pocket? Is that supposed to be Rocket? Or perhaps a substitute for Rocket?
22 HULKVERINE
Titled “The Savage”, J. Hunter’s piece depicts the mutant Wolverine as the Incredible Hulk. Well, he sure got the name right. Apart, these two are mighty forces of nature. It scares us to even imagine what a combination of these two heroes could do.
Not only do both of them possess immense strength and durability, but they’re also known for having a very short temper. Their savage rampage could definitely cause a lot of damage to everything and everyone in the vicinity.
21 EMERALD SPEEDSTER
While the notion of a speedster Hulk is exciting, to say the least, we’re not so sure that giving such immense strength and anger issues to a guy who’s known to accidentally screw up time is the best idea. Don’t get us wrong, this unusual combination certainly looks insanely cool. However, the consequences could be dire.
Imagine the earthquake the Hulk would create if he were to run as fast as Barry, not to mention the colossal damage to public property that he would leave in his wake. This hulking creature came from the mind of doubleleaf.
20 HULK RIDER
From time to time, we all like to imagine what a fusion between our favorite heroes would look like. Fortunately, some of us have the talent and skill to actually put their crazy ideas on paper. Spanish artist Sergio Villullas made one of his creations come to life.
Sergio chose to merge two Marvel Comics heroes -- Ghost Rider and the Hulk. The Hulk Rider, as Sergio has christened him, looks absolutely scary, which is totally appropriate for a Ghost Rider and Hulk mashup.
19 THE DARK HULK
This artist claims to have found “the answer to any argument”. Mike Lyon fused one of the most feared heroes in the DC Universe, Gotham’s very own Caped Crusader -- Batman, and arguably the strongest Avenger -- Hulk in order to create the ultimate weapon for any argument.
Bruce Wayne and Bruce Banner combined and we got this incredible mashup hero? It's a character who looks just about ready to start beating people up. For the first time, we feel sorry for Gotham’s criminals.
18 HULK MAUL
Star Wars prequel trilogy is a common target of criticism for a myriad of reasons. However, it’s important to remember, that it wasn’t all bad. One good thing to come out of the prequels is Darth Maul. The wielder of the double-bladed lightsaber is an iconic Star Wars character and with good reason. He proved to be quite the master with a lightsaber, taking on Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon simultaneously.
Mickael Vermosen decided to combine Darth Maul with that big green guy who runs with the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes -- Hulk, supposedly, is his name. What a remarkable creature he created.
17 THE INCREDIBLE SUPERMAN
Superman hardly seems like the guy who’d need to "borrow" someone else’s powers to win a fight. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t imagine fun Supes mashups. Patrick Hennings entered a Marvel/DC amalgam contest with this excellent creation that fuses Superman and the Hulk.
The Incredible Superman almost tore his entire costume apart when he hulked out. The red and blue spandex is still breaking off, while Superman’s eyes glow with rage. Suddenly, we’re no longer sure this guy is still a hero.
16 SUPER SMASH BROS
Breaking news: Mario meets Hulk in a bizarre new world! Rattasat Pinnate must have some wild imagination to have come up with this idea. Combining the beloved video game character Mario and the beloved Marvel hero the Hulk may seem crazy, but it worked.
Pinnate managed to mash these two very different characters into a hell of an interesting original creation. Having Hulk’s strength would certainly help Mario in his endless adventures and efforts to save Princess Peach. It's-a me Hulk.
15 BEAUTY AND THE HULK
Whenever you have a love story between a beastly type of fellow and a regular human girl a comparison with the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast is inevitable. It’s a tale as old as time (sorry, the opportunity was simply too good to pass it up).
Betty Ross and Bruce Banner (or Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner) could certainly be seen as the beauty and the beast. Perhaps that inspired Isaiah Stephens to draw Beast as the Hulk for his Disney Halloween project.
14 THE INCREDIBLE TAZ
The ferocious and dim-witted Tasmanian devil known simply as Taz is notorious for having an extremely short temper and little to no patience. Though he’s quite devilish most of the time, he can also be really sweet when he wants to. This omnivore will eat anything in his path while communicating mostly in growls and grunts.
Hmm… short fuse, anger issues, ferocity, limited verbal communication -- this sure sounds familiar. We may as well have been describing the Hulk. Alberto Arni recognized the similarities between the two and re-imagined Taz as the Hulk.
13 HULK OF THE CARIBBEAN
Pirates of the Caribbean is one of the biggest movie franchises. It’s generated five movies, with the sixth one reportedly in development, grossed over $4 billion dollars, and, most importantly, it gave us Captain Jack Sparrow.
Johnny Depp has received high praise for his portrayal of the now-notorious pirate. Fun fact, Depp was also up for the role of Bruce Banner in Ang Lee’s Hulk. Now put these two characters together and you’ll get Rocky Davies’ Hulk of the Caribbean.
12 PIKA SMASH
Without a doubt, one of the most unusual and unexpected creations we’ve encountered is Pikachu Hulk. The creature from the beloved anime Pokemon looks nothing like its normal utterly adorable self. Gone is the cute little smile, replaced by a sly grin.
This gigantic Pikachu was created by Australian artist Geoff Johnstone for an Instagram contest. It’s an incredible and scary design that we can’t help but love. Even though, something’s telling us that this thing will haunt our dreams.
11 HULKY MOUSE
Though Hulk has severe anger issues, he’s essentially a teddy bear. After all, Bruce Banner is a self-sacrificing and heroic person. He’s a good guy. So, perhaps the idea to combine the big green monster-like creature with the symbol of Disney isn’t that farfetched.
Martin Kovachki participated in a challenge that called for a mashup of two existing characters and he decided to combine Mickey Mouse and the Hulk. The result is this hilarious creation guaranteed to put a smile on anyone’s face.
10 INDIANA JONES AND PLANET HULK
The beloved '80s action hero Indiana Jones remains a fan-favorite even now almost forty years after his first glory days. Like many other beloved classics, Indiana Jones got a reboot of sorts for the new age. Sadly, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, while having decent reviews from the critics, failed to satisfy the fans.
Perhaps, Lucasfilm would have been better off if they went with Rocky Davies’ silly concept and re-vamped Indy completely. This way at least we’d have known right off the bat not to take this film seriously.
9 SAILOR SMASH
Whether you’re an anime fan or not, you’ve probably heard of Sailor Moon. One of the many shows about magical girls fighting to save the world. The main characters, aside from Sailor Moon, got their names from planets in the Solar System. Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Neptune and so on. Those are all pretty well-known characters, but have you heard of Sailor Smash?
The brand-new magical girl joining the team to fight evil forces from all across the galaxy, Sailor Smash, was created by Paul Rigg. We have no idea what inspired this creation, but we sure are glad it exists.
8 HULK SPLASH!
The King of Atlantis often ends up a laughing stock and his powers reduced to “that guy who talks to fish”. However, DC Comics fans know full well just how incredibly powerful this underwater hero is. Still, Sebastien Minatchy has found a way to make Aquaman even more formidable.
This amazing artist re-imagined Aquaman as the Hulk and it’s one of the most mesmerizing pieces of Hulk fan art we’ve found. We must give special praise to the wonderfully designed lavish armor and trident.
7 DON'T GET ME ANGRY!
Overwatch is an extremely popular game and since its release, it has spawned heaps and heaps of fan art. Original skins, shipping, mashups, genderbending -- you name it, someone’s done it. And yes, indeed, there’s even a Hulk version of the lovable gorilla scientist Winston.
Patipat Lekratar used his creativity to give us this amazing re-envisioning of the beloved Overwatch hero. This is a very good look for Winston. Kudos to the artist. Patipat Lekratar’s gallery includes a couple of other Overwatch/Avengers crossovers, namely Iron Pharah and Black Widowmaker.
6 SENSATIONAL WONDER WOMAN
Wonder Woman’s already made her big screen live-action debut portrayed by the incredible Gal Gadot. However, we’re still waiting on She-Hulk to appear in the MCU. The fans have been clamoring for Jennifer Walters' debut for quite some time, especially now that the MCU is focusing more on female characters.
Hopefully, She-Hulk is on her way. Until then, here’s a fun take on She-Hulk and Wonder Women by Matthew Leo. Thanks to Matthew now we know what Wonder Woman would look like as She-Hulk. She'd still look amazing.