As part of Marvel's upcoming "Fresh Start," the publisher announced a new series by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett called The Immortal Hulk. The title will follow a resurrected Bruce Banner as part of a new, horror-inspired take on the character, with the revelation that while Banner can still die, the Hulk will simply resurrect him whenever it happens, making them, in effect, immortal.

This is a fairly bold new take on a classic Marvel hero, but as you might imagine for pretty much any character that has been around for nearly 60 years, the only thing that has been consistent about the Hulk over the years has been the fact that the character has been wildly inconsistent, burning through new incarnations faster than Dr. Bruce Banner goes through purple pants. So let's take a look back at the incredibly varied history of the Hulk's different incarnations.

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When Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (and inker Paul Reinman) introduced the Hulk in 1962's Incredible Hulk #1, the creature was not only gray, but his transformation occurred at night. This was in keeping with most monster transformation stories, which treated the night as if it were a unique time in which inhibitions were loosened.

The whole gray aspect of the Hulk was quickly dropped in the next issue (with Steve Ditko now inking Kirby), mostly due to Marvel's coloring processes of the time, as they could not control the consistency of the depiction of the color gray. So the Hulk now turned into a green monster, but otherwise stayed pretty much the same as he was from the first version of the character.

The first major change with the character occurred in Incredible Hulk #3 (with Kirby now inked by Dick Ayers), where the Hulk was exposed to radiation and was therefore trapped in his Hulk form, but while trapped in Hulk form he was also now susceptible to the commands of Rick Jones, the teenager whose life Bruce Banner had saved before the fateful explosion that transformed Banner into the Hulk in the first place. So Rick Jones briefly controlled the Hulk's every move!

This only worked while Rick was awake.

Incredible Hulk #4 introduced a new change to the character. Rick experimented with some of Banner's machines to inadvertently both cure the Hulk from being controlled by Rick but now also placing Banner's personality in control of the Hulk. Banner and Rick could now control Banner's transformation into the Hulk through a special gamma ray machine.

Of course, something that you will see pop up a number of times in the history of the Hulk is that whenever it seems like Banner has taken control of the Hulk, he never really takes control, as the Hulk side always ends up taking control of the situation. For instance, even in Incredible Hulk #4, within a few pages of Bruce Banner "taking control" of the Hulk personality, he was already talking more like the Hulk than himself.

By the end of the series (it is amazing how the original Hulk series was canceled after just six issues - the final issue was drawn by Steve Ditko), the transformations between Banner and Hulk were getting so difficult that during one transformation, Banner's head was on the Hulk's body, only with the Hulk completely in control!

At the close of the original series, Banner miraculously was able to transform back to himself and seemingly put the Hulk curse behind him (a happy ending now that the story was seemingly finished. Marvel was still new enough that when Stan Lee finished with a character, he could think that that was it for that character).

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However, his respite was a brief one, as he ended up turning back into the Hulk in time to go on a rampage in Avengers #1. He ended up joining the Avengers in that issue, as the Hulk's personality was still roughly a heroic one when he wasn't Banner. Things, though, went haywire in Avengers #3 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman), as Hulk took control of the split and decided he hated sharing his body with Banner...

This is the start of what we would term the classic "rampaging Hulk" era.

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In Tales to Astonish #59 (by Stan Lee, Dick Ayers and Paul Reinman), the Hulk joined the series, which, up until this point had been a Giant-Man and Wasp book. He first fought against his former Avengers comrades in the issue, which also established for the first time officially that the transformation between Banner and Hulk was caused by Banner getting angry (affecting his blood pressure). This seemed to be the case in a number of the earlier adventures, but it was never officially stated as such until this point.

The Hulk then became the co-lead of the series and as that happened, the character went through more transformations. The most notable one is that he stopped speaking in full sentences. The Hulk had always had his own personality and that personality tended to be a bit rougher than Bruce Banner, but he still sounded like a normal enough person. Just a thuggish type. By Tales to Astonish #66 (by Stan Lee, Bob Powell and Frank Giacoia), however, the Hulk was speaking in broken sentences. This would be the type of dialogue that would be associated with the Hulk for most of his comic book existence...

However, amusingly enough, just four issues later (in Tales to Astonish #70 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Mike Esposito), Banner gets shot. He survives by being trapped in his Hulk form, but Banner is now in control of the Hulk's form! However, there's that whole "has to remain as the Hulk to avoid dying from his bullet wound" problem to deal with....

He remained trapped in the Hulk's form for almost a year until finally he landed in a fountain of youth in Tales to Astonish #80 (by Lee, Kirby and Bill Everett), which healed Banner and returned the Hulk to Banner's form.

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The next issue, then, became surprisingly significant. Banner didn't know whether he would turn back into the Hulk after the fountain splash, but when he got angry, the good ol' fashioned Hulk transformation took place.

This, therefore, locked in the standard version of the Hulk. The one that lasted from 1966 through the early 1980s, with Banner transforming into the Hulk whenever he got angry.

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Even during this period, there were a few notable exceptions! After appearing in Tales to Astonish through issue #101 (from #70-onward, Namor replaced Giant-Man and the Wasp as Hulk's co-headliner in the series), the book became the Incredible Hulk with #102.

In Incredible Hulk #130 (by Roy Thomas and Herb Trimpe), an old scientist colleague of Bruce Banner tried to help cure Banner of being the Hulk, but instead split Banner and the Hulk into two beings.

However, injuries to either would still hurt the other person. They soon re-merged together.

Ten issues later, in a classic story plotted by Harlan Ellison (and scripted by Roy Thomas) with art by Sam Grainger and Herb Trimpe, the Hulk found himself in a microscopic world where he found a race of green beings who accepted him as their savior. They fixed the Hulk/Banner problem and Hulk lived with them peacefully until, well, you know how these things go - they were attacked and Hulk was torn from his people and the new love of his life, Queen Jarella.

This being comics, of course, Jarella ended up being killed eventually.

Following the Hulk's return to his normal status quo following his journey to Jarella's world led to the most consistent stretch of the Hulk's comic book career. While there were plenty of twists and turns (and attempts by Banner to cure himself) along the way, the basic status quo of the Hulk was maintained throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, all the way to Incredible Hulk #272 (by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema), where, following an influx of energy from an alien being, Bruce Banner was now fully in control of the Hulk's body!

(It is interesting to note that Alpha Flight's Sasquatch was present during this momentous occasion, as he is going to be part of the upcoming Immortal Hulk series)

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As we all know by now, however, is that whenever the Hulk gets too much of a good situation going in his life, it is bound to fall apart. The villainous Nightmare began messing with the Hulk's mind and Banner slowly lost control of the Hulk until finally, in Incredible Hulk #300 (by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema and Gerry Talaoc), the Hulk had no part of Banner controlling it - so it was consumed purely by rage! This, naturally, made it difficult to control for the world's superheroes.

Eventually, Doctor Strange (in a move that will sound familiar later) decided to just remove Hulk from Earth to protect the rest of the world. He sent the Hulk to another dimension. Hulk went on many adventures in other dimensions for the next year or so, with Banner's mind just sort of listing in the ether. Eventually, Banner was re-connected to the Hulk and they returned to Earth. This was just in time for Bill Mantlo and John Byrne to swap titles, with Byrne taking over Hulk and Mantlo taking over Alpha Flight. Byrne soon had Banner successfully return and split the Hulk from himself.

The mindless Hulk quickly escaped custody, though, so now Banner had to help other people hunt down his former shared being. This mindless Hulk took on the entire combined might of the East and West Coast Avengers in Incredible Hulk #321 (by Al Milgrom and Dell Barras)...

It soon became apparent, however, that Hulk and Banner could not live without each other. So they were re-merged together in Incredible Hulk #324 (by Al Milgrom and Dennis Janke), but shockingly the merged Hulk was now gray again!

Despite the merger, Banner was now fully in control. The gray Hulk only showed up when Banner wanted him to, which was effectively never. This was because during the process that returned Banner to the gray Hulk also inadveretently turned Rick Jones into a separate version of the Hulk. So most of the next year was dealing with the Rick Jones Hulk rather than Banner being the Gray Hulk.

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That changed in Peter David's first issue as the writer of Incredible Hulk, Incredible Hulk #331 (art by Todd McFarlane and Kim DeMulder). The gray Hulk subsconsciously pushed Banner into using his old gamma machines to turn himself back into the gray Hulk...

However, the set-up was now like the original days, so Banner and the Hulk shared bodies, with the Hulk in control at night.

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Hulk worked along with Banner, Rick Jones and rogue SHIELD agent Clay Quartermain to find a hidden reserve of Gamma Bombs that SHIELD was hiding. In the end, the Leader ended up detonating one of those bombs with the Hulk at ground zero. He was thought to be dead.

Instead, in Incredible Hulk #347 (by Peter David, Jeff Purves and Mike Gustovich), the Hulk showed up in Las Vegas where he was working as a mod enforcer under the name "Joe Fixit." The gray Hulk was now fully in control and could prevent himself from turning back into Banner.

We eventually learned that this was due to how he survived the explosion. He transported to Jarella's world in the explosion and they treated him like a god there. They gave him a sort of "mojo" that helped him ward off returning to Banner's form. After a few months, though, the effects wore off and the previous Hulk/Banner split returned in Incredible Hulk #352, with Banner getting days while Joe Fixit ran the night.

Things changed, however, when the green Hulk made his gruesome return in Incredible Hulk #372 (by Peter David, Dale Keown and Bob McLeod) during the daytime when he tore himself from Banner...

Then, in a major milestone, the Hulk used therapy to merge the personalities of the gray Hulk, the green Hulk and Bruce Banner into one being in Incredible Hulk #377, with Banner's mind in control, but a Banner whose mind now reflected his other sides of his personality.

The merged Hulk remained remarkably consistent during this era, which lasted for roughly 50 issues. During this time, however, the Hulk transported to the future where he saw a world where a tyrannical version of himself known as the Maestro ruled the world.

The Hulk was haunted by whether he would turn into this Maestro. He began to fear losing control. Eventually, in Incredible Hulk #425 (by Peter David, Liam Sharp and Robin Riggs), this fear became manifested when Hulk grew so angry that he turned into...a savage Bruce Banner!!

Yes, for the next year, the Hulk had to deal with the fact that when he lost control, he would turn into a mindless version of Bruce Banner. That went horribly wrong in Incredible Hulk #437 when a crazed Banner foolishly thought that a grenade wouldn't hurt him. It obviously did, and when he turned back into the Hulk in the following issue (by Peter David, Angel Medina and Robin Riggs), the Hulk "cured" Banner's injury but it clearly damaged his brain...

The Hulk became unstable and was slowly turning into the Maestro. The rest of the Marvel Universe stepped in, though, and took control of the situation when Onslaught attacked. The Hulk joined the other heroes in attacking Onslaught and the Hulk grew so angry and thus so powerful than he cracked Onslaught's armor! The release of energy was so strong that Hulk was split into two parts - Hulk and Banner. Banner then sacrificed himself with the other heroes to stop Onslaught by using their bodies to absorb his psionic energies (released when his armor was destroyed). In reality, though, they did not die, they ended up on an alternate version of Earth where Banner soon turned into the Hulk again...

Back on the real Earth, the remaining Hulk became its own being, who did not even recognize Betty Banner...

Eventually, the heroes returned from the other Earth and the Hulks were merged together again. However, soon, Betty Banner was killed and her death caused Banner and Hulk to snap, as you can see from Incredible Hulk #468 (the first issue after Peter David's epic run ended)....

The Hulk was now sort of like his classic form, as he would rampage. He wasn't the classic version in how he acted, however. Banner's mind was all over the place, so there was no "Hulk Smash!" stuff during this period. A new Hulk series was launched by John Byrne and Ron Garney and it saw the Hulk's mind controlled by the villainous Tyrannus, who made the world think that the Hulk was a violent threat to everyone.

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Paul Jenkins took over the series from John Byrne and Jenkins revealed that the "merged" Hulk from Peter David's run was not really a merged Hulk, but that the "merged" version was, himself, just one of Banner's multiple personalities. The various personalities teamed up to stop a violent "devil" personality from taking over the Hulk. So in Incredible Hulk #13 (Byrne's Hulk series re-launched as simply Hulk, but with the 12th issue, it went back to Incredible Hulk), the personalities agreed to share the Hulk's body, with them all getting control at different times...

Then Bruce Jones took over and everything was bit out of whack. The rules regarding the Hulk became nearly non-existent. He rampaged a bit, but sometimes had Banner in control, but sometimes didn't. It really didn't make a whole lot of sense. Here's a bit from Incredible Hulk #51 (by Bruce Jones and Mike Deodato)...

After Jones' run, it was revealed that Nightmare had been in control of Banner for much of this period, which served to essentially explain away any inconsistencies. However, even then, the Hulk's transformations were difficult to understand. The Hulk was exposed to extra radiation in the pages of J. Michael Straczynski and Mike McKone's Fantastic Four and he turned dark gray and went on a rampage in Las Vegas...

That wasn't really reflected in the Hulk's own title, however. He seemed to have some control over his own actions when he was the Hulk. In any event, the aforementioned rampage in Vegas led to Doctor Strange deciding to send the Hulk away again. This time, Strange worked with the other members of the secret superhero group known as the Illuminati to send the Hulk to another planet. They were distracted by Civil War, however, and didn't realize he landed on the wrong planet.

On the planet Sakaar (in the famed "Planet Hulk" storyline by Greg Pak and a variety of artists), Hulk grew into a new type of Hulk who was angry but controlled. He became a leader of men and the eventual ruler of the planet...

Then the ship he had arrived in exploded, killing his new Sakaarian wife. Hulk thought that it was sabotage by the heroes who sent him to Sakaar, so he traveled back to Earth for revenge. This was the most powerful version of the Hulk yet, as he was self-aware, but also so driven by rage that the rage fueled his strength to obscene levels.

When he learned that it was one of his own comrade from Sakaar who had sabotaged the ship (as he feared that the Hulk would stop wanting to fight now that their original war was over), Hulk turned back into Bruce Banner and allowed the heroes to arrest him.

Banner was freed, however, when a new red Hulk showed up in a new Hulk series by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness! He turned back to the classic Green Hulk version of the Hulk to fight against the Red Hulk...

However, the Red Hulk's ability to absorb radiation caused him to be able to defeat the Green Hulk.

With his energy depleted, however, the Green Hulk returned to become just Bruce Banner again. This was lucky timing, as the Hulk has a Sakaarian son and he wanted revenge on his father. Banner convinced him to wait until he turned back into the Green Hulk. They began to work together and obviously, eventually, the son grew to not want to murder Banner when he eventually did return to his Green Hulk form.

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The Green Hulk had a rematch with the Red Hulk. This time, though, the Green Hulk was so strong and giving off so much energy that it was too much for the Red Hulk to control.

The Green Hulk then formed a team of various versions of the Hulk (himself, his son, She-Hulk plus Betty Ross had been turned into a Red She-Hulk and Rick Jones had been turned into A-Bomb)....

This version of Hulk was able to control himself fairly well. Then, during Fear Itself, Odin's older brother escaped the prison his brother had trapped him in millennia ago. Odin's brother, known as the Serpent, had his own hammers that sought out beings that they found to be worthy in their own twisted way and when the Hulk picked up one of them, he was transformed into Nul, the breaker of worlds...

When that event ended, the Hulk was shaken up, so he cut a deal with Doctor Doom where Doom would separate Hulk and Banner, with Banner getting his own new cloned body. The process, though, drove Banner insane (this took place in a series by Jason Aaron and a bunch of artists)...

Hulk had to eventually re-merge with Banner to save Banner's sanity, but not before the two engaged in a fascinating battle against each other during the times when each one was in control.

The cured Banner then decided that he should cut a deal with SHIELD where he agreed to have the Hulk smash for them while Banner was able to get access to SHIELD labs for important scientific work while he was not the Hulk (this took place in a new series, Indestructible Hulk, by Mark Waid and a bunch of artists)...

That lasted for a while. During this period, the Hulk was briefly "inverted" by a spell that affected a large group of Marvel heroes and villains. The spell turned the villains into heroes and the heroes into villains. The Hulk was transformed into the Hulk version of the Hulk, known as Kluh...

Luckily, the spell was soon reversed.

Sadly for Banner, while he was doing good work in his new role at SHIELD, there was a group that did not trust him and they shot him in the head to try to keep him from continuing his work. Tony Stark decided to use his Extremis virus to save Banner's life, but the process had an unusual result, with Banner/Hulk becoming a new being known as "Doc Green" just in time for Gerry Duggan to take over the series (Mark Bagley had previously launched the title with writer Mark Waid)...

Doc Green was a super-smart version of the Hulk, but he soon saw his theories lead to him deciding to remove the Gamma powers of the various other Hulks around. He slowly saw himself headed down a path to become the Maestro, so in the final issue of the Gerry Duggan/Mark Bagley Hulk run, Doc Green allowed himself to fade away to prevent the Maestro becoming a reality. He said goodbye to She-Hulk before the change took effect...

So we got the traditional Banner/Hulk set-up again. The Hulk, though, was then exposed to a shocking amount of gamma radiation. Amaadeus Cho helped save his life by absorbing the radiation into himself, which effectively "cured" Banner and turned Cho into a new (totally awesome) Hulk.

However, during Civil War II, when a young Inhuman gained the ability to see the future, Captain Marvel and the world's superheroes soon began to act on the information they received from the Inhuman. So when he saw the Banner Hulk on a rampage, they went to confront the "cured" Banner and when he seemed about to change, Hawkeye killed Banner in Civil War II #3 (by Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez) ...

Since his death, the Hulk was resurrected by the Hand briefly in Uncanny Avengers #16 (by Gerry Duggan and Pepe Larraz)...

and by Hydra during Secret Empire #6 (by Nick Spencer and Leinil Yu, who designed the Hulk's armor for the aforementioned Indestructible Hulk series)...

But both times, he went back to being dead, which is where he is right now...but with the Immortal Hulk coming soon, we know that that will not last!