When Bruce Banner goes green, there's very little in the known universe that can stop him. As the Incredible Hulk, all of Banner's most primal, animalistic urges are amplified exponentially. What this usually translates to is "smash, smash and more smashing," but that's not always where the destruction ends. The character of Hulk has been elaborated upon greatly since his introduction in 1962 -- Hulk has wants and needs, but they're filtered through a very specific, emerald-tinted lens. As a result, sometimes Hulk goes a little too far.
The issue of Hulk's cannibalistic tendencies came up recently in Thanos #15, which saw an enfeebled, broken version of the character reduced to nothing more than a household "dog" kept in the basement of a future version of Thanos. King Thanos has effectively conquered everything he has ever set out to dominate, including the Avengers. As the Cosmic Ghost Rider points out, Earth's Mightiest were fed to the Hulk long ago, and the green giant is forced to sleep in a bed of their bones as a reminder of his deeds.
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It's all a very grim, dramatic picture, but a cursory glance through history might have us asking if we should really feel that sorry for the Hulk. Alternate versions of the character argue that the inclination to go cannibal might be inextricably lashed to the Hulk's persona, and he very rarely engages in the act against his will. As it turns out, all it takes is for the winds of fortune to blow in a particularly unfavorable way and Hulk will gobble you up lickity-split.
The Ultimate, Man-Eating Hulk
One of the earliest examples of Hulk eating someone appears in the pages of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's The Ultimates, which ran from 2002 to 2004. The series is a modern take on the classic Avengers tale: A group of inherently flawed men and women come together to form a super group with the goal of saving the world.
Unfortunately, the Ultimates are very, very flawed people -- Bruce Banner chief among them. In a fit of inadequacy, Banner takes a serum that turns him into Grey Hulk. He embarks on a rampage that requires the combined efforts of the Ultimates to halt, though over 300 are left dead in the end. To his credit, Hulk doesn't eat anyone this time around, but the possibility is certainly alluded to.
It's not long before Hulk gets his, though. Ultimates concludes with an invasion by the Chitauri, a race of shapeshifters who have been gradually taking over key positions in Earth's various political and military organizations ever since the end of World War II. The highly unstable Hulk is unleashed to battle their leader, who has assumed the identity of the Nazi Herr Kleiser. As with most villains who opt to go up against the Hulk, the battle does not go well for Kleiser -- nor does the aftermath.
Still, Ultimates hasn’t yet delivered evidence of Hulk outright engaging in cannibalism, has it? It could be argued that Hulk eating Kleiser is an act of cannibalism, but Kleiser is merely an alien in disguise. While he might look human, he is anything but. Perhaps that explains Betty Ross's inexplicable takeaway from the gruesome events.
It's not until the Ultimate War storyline that we get confirmation about what really lies in the heart of Bruce Banner. Magneto attacks the Ultimate's base, the Triskelion, leaving the headquarters without power for the briefest moment. We don't get to see the carnage on the page, but we do get confirmation from Janet van Dyne that Banner turned into the Hulk during the attack, broke out of his holding cell (he had been on lockdown ever since the Grey Hulk incident) and ate six members of the nursing staff.
And with that, all doubt is wiped away. The Incredible Hulk is a man-eater. But don't worry. The horror is nowhere close to over.
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The Hulk Gang Comes Calling
It would be easy to forgive the Ultimates version of the Hulk for his… eccentricities… if it were a one-time deal. Ultimates does, after all, take place on an alternate version of Earth, and plenty of Marvel heroes have gone off their non-canonical rockers in the grand, all-encompassing scapegoat that is the Multiverse. But that's not the case with Hulk. No, he's got a history of eating people.
Hulk's next brush with cannibalism makes his Ultimates adventure look like a treatise on vegetarianism. Wolverine #66 in 2008 expanded upon one of Marvel's most endearing characters, Old Man Logan, an aged version of Wolverine who witnessed the fall of superheroes and has taken a vow of pacifism in an age where villains rule America. Logan opted to settle down in what was once California, but is now known as Hulkland. Apparently, when the supervillains took over, Bruce Banner went a little nuts. Well, more than a little.
Puny Banner went downright insane, actually. He wrested control of California from The Abomination, had a bunch of kids with his cousin, She-Hulk, and became the leader of the vicious Hulk Gang. Oh, and they're all flagrantly cannibalistic.
When the gang puts the squeeze on Logan and his family for rent money, he sets off on a whirlwind adventure with Hawkeye. When he returns, he finds the Hulk Gang hasn't kept up their end of the bargain. Instead, they've slaughtered his wife and kids. Logan's tryst with pacifism comes to an end and he confronts his former ally at his lair. Naturally, they fight. At first, it seems like Logan will come out ahead, but his attacks have only made Hulk angry. And we all know what happens when Hulk gets angry.
Hulk eats Logan, but, in a purely fable-like twist, the big green guy has forgotten all about Wolverine's healing factor. Logan heals inside his enemy's stomach and pops out like a jazz singer emerging from a wedding cake. There's no telling what this does to the definition of cannibalism, so let's not think about it too deeply.
So, Why is Hulk Eating People Now?
Hulk has always been a wildly complicated hero. As Bruce Banner, his intellect knows no bounds. As Hulk, he's nigh unstoppable. But the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde paradigm by which Banner is defined demands a certain amount of tit for tat. If Hulk can go on a rampage, beat the bad guys and never harm a single person as he throws down with cosmic terrors, then what's the point of Banner anyway?
By adding something truly heinous to the Hulk side of the equation, that's a way of communicating just how uncontrollable Banner's alter ego really is. He's the nuclear option, so the collateral damage should mirror that. Hulk's cannibalism reduces him to an animal, driven by the instinct to survive -- and sometimes survival demands it be you who ends up on the wrong side of Hulk's big, green gullet.