It would not be overstating things to say that 1985's "Monster" from Incredible Hulk #312 was one of the most influential Hulk issues in the history of the character. However, over the years there has been a whole lot of controversy over how the issue actually came to be. We will take a look at it now.

The reason why Incredible Hulk #312 is so important is because it reconceptualized the origin of the Hulk. Bill Mantlo, Mike Mignola and Gerry Talaoac looked back to Bruce Banner's relationship with his father, Brian Banner, and we see that the abusive Brian Banner helped to, in effect, create the Hulk decades before the Hulk was literally born, by building up the abuses suffered by young Bruce.

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We see that Brian Banner was worried about the birth of his son and how it might endanger the life of his wife. He also worries about the radiation that he was exposed to during his atomic research and wonders if it might have an effect on his unborn son. We mostly see that Banner is an alcoholic jerk who only cares about his wife and not his unborn son.

Later, we see that Brian Banner is resentful over the attention that his wife gives to their son...

When he discovers that his young son is a genius, he assumes that the radiation caused him to be a mutant and he begins to abuse his son, which leads to young Bruce seeing his father as a fantastical monster...

Here is the main kicker in the issue. The idea that Brian Banner's abuse of his young son effectively created a sort of hidden monster within Bruce. This monster was then years later "unleashed" by the gamma radiation that Bruce was exposed to in the Gamma Bomb explosion...

A "temporary insane" Brian Banner later killed his wife, Rebecca, and tries to kill Bruce, as well, when Bruce was visiting her grave...

Messed up stuff. Peter David later retconned in that Bruce accidentally killed Brian in that fight at the graveside.

Peter David was heavily influenced by Mantlo's work in "Monster" in David's run on Incredible Hulk.

In the famous Incredible Hulk #377 (by Peter David, Dale Keown and Bob McLeod), Banner and the two competing Hulk personas live through Banner's memory of his abusive father...

When his mother is killed in front of him, young Bruce further shuts down. The older Bruce is haunted by his younger self's inability to react to the pain, but we see exactly what happened from bottling all of his emotions in for so long...

In the end, Bruce is able to confront his memories of his father and forgive himself, which allows him to temporarily merge with the other Hulk personas to form a single Hulk personality...

Obviously, David wasn't the only person to be influenced by this angle on the creation of the Hulk. Many writers since, including notably Paul Jenkins and Greg Pak, have revisited Mantlo's story. It is one of the most important Hulk issues ever.

Now, the question becomes, of course, whose idea was it to do that story?

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Barry Winsdsor-Smith discussed his July 1984 pitch for a Hulk one-shot story with Comic Book Artist...

Plot centers around Bruce Banner’s childhood. The Hulk relives a particularly harrowing day in his past.This is the story of Banner’s working-class, middle American childhood. In a mannered fantasy – Twilight Zone – tradition, The Hulk, when entering an abandoned house in refuge from a pressing military attack, relives the last days in his childhood home.

Thanksgiving Day 1950 was the day when his father, Tom Banner, a recent and embittered W.W. II veteran, turned on his family for the final irrevocable time.

Employing a battered and disconsolate childhood as the springboard for the modern-day Bruce Banner’s anti-social and violent attitudes, the story explores the damage caused by mismatched parenthood and effects of the Second World War on the heart and mind of the veteran Tom Banner. Bruce Banner, an 11 year old in 1950, is represented as the full grown, seven foot Hulk throughout this fantasy. The story is called Thanksgiving and details the tensions the Banner household suffers when it becomes apparent that the family dinner, planned with eight relatives in mind, falls apart as one by one, brothers, sisters and in-laws cancel the visit with feeble excuses.

The truth is that Tom Banner has alienated his family with his explosive, argumentative temper.

Windsor-Smith continues to note that he felt that the issue was important enough that he was going to do what he could to make sure the story could run as a single issue of Incredible Hulk – withOUT Comic Code Approval…

It is of considerable importance to point out that this somewhat extraordinary story requires the use of what the comic book publishing world might consider profanity.

The terms I need to use in the script (all spouting from the paranoiac and drunken Tom Banner) are actually mild when paralleled to other – perhaps more sophisticated – media such as film, print and (at this date) television.

To cut to the quick: I need to employ the following terms: Goddam Bitch Hall (as in “Like Hell you will”) Slut

These are comparatively mild terms, in my opinion. I’ve edited it down from stronger, more believable coinage. The upshot is that for this story to have IMPACT, it must be published in the standard format (The Incredible Hulk) and without any special fanfare (I brought what could have been a 30-odd page story down to 22 for this very reason). Approval – within Marvel and to the satisfaction of the Comics Code Authority – is paramount and I’m prepared to offer any raison d’etre if it isn’t apparent.

This story is about parent abuse and childhood trauma, which is an important issue. I believe that by sliding the topic into a regular comic book involving an established Marvel Comics character, a greater, more significant understanding of the idea can be achieved. This as opposed to (I feel inclined to suggest) the Spider-Man/Drugs issues of a decade ago that, due to their pre-publicity and etc., were ultimately regarded as hype for a medium that needed attention and was asking for recognition as a relevant form of art.

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When asked about the topic, Jim Shooter wrote on his own blog:

Barry came to me with a completely penciled and written graphic novel. It was the about the development of the “mighty, raging fury” inside Bruce Banner, who, he revealed, was the product of an abusive home. I looked it over. I thought it was brilliant, one of the best comics stories I’d ever seen. I offered Barry a contract and an advance. He turned me down — temporarily. He proposed to finish the thing — then, if I would agree to publish it as created, no alterations whatsoever, he would sign a contract and take the money. I was willing to agree to that in writing on the spot, but he said, no, when it’s finished. Okay. Fine by me. I already knew, from what he’d shown me, that there’d be no problem.

Barry showed the work around a bit to people in the office. I guess he allowed Al Milgrom or someone to make photocopies of it. Ask Al.

I was later given to understand that Al kept the copies in the Hulk drawer of his flat file.

Bill Mantlo, looking through the drawer to see what current Hulk artwork had come in, saw the copies. He then blatantly ripped the story off for a regular issue of the Hulk.

In those days, I was on the road a lot, spending time in Europe with the licensees, at our London office, in L.A., or on licensing trips elsewhere. The book went to press without my seeing it. How Al didn’t notice, or someone else didn’t notice, I don’t know.

Barry was furious. I don’t blame him. He, however, blames me, as of the last time I heard. Okay, the buck stops here, I suppose.

Now, is it possible that Bill Mantlo just coincidentally came up with the story on his own? Sure, it's possible. Mantlo also suffered a terrible brain injury decades ago, so he is not around to give his side of this story. That's an important aspect of this story. We are only seeing Barry Windsor-Smith and Jim Shooter's side of things.

Either way, it a strange little controversy.

Windsor-Smith took his story and has been expanding it for years with stand-in characters for the Hulk and his family. He has some sample pages on his site here, but he's had them up for years, so it is unclear when/if the project (which will be called Monsters) will come out.

Here is a little bit of it...

Whoever came up with the original idea, it really helped the character of the Hulk.