An unexpected journey through the interdimensional Crossroads brought Spider-Man face-to-face with an enraged Hulk, primordial perils, and Marvel's prehistoric superheroes. Every step of the trek was nothing short of thrilling, but one turn in particular introduced a horrifying element to the action. While the wall-crawler is busy catching up with Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy, his unwitting travel companion, Bruce Banner, became acquainted with Dinosaur World's greatest threat, and he unleashed the demonic Guilt Hulk to deal with it in Symbiote Spider-Man: Crossroads #3 (by Peter David, Greg Land, Frank D'Armata and VC's Joe Sabino).

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The Guilt Hulk Destroys Without Remorse

The Guilt Hulk asks Bruce Banner to set it free

The Crossroads were already a devastating sort of exile for the Hulk, and ending up in the dense, dangerous jungles of Dinosaur World certainly didn't help. Despite the Asgardian Norn Stone having embedded itself in his forehead, whatever power the artifact held reduced the Hulk to his human (and much weaker) form of Bruce Banner. This left him in a prime position to be captured by Dinosaur World's vicious and villainous Killer-Folk. These brutes have long been the bane of Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy, and they set out to make Bruce the latest living sacrifice to their towering, eight-legged deity. Thankfully, there was still a monster deep within Bruce Banner that wasn't willing to let him become a giant spider's next meal.

Introduced in 1991's Incredible Hulk #377 (by David and Dale Keown), the Guilt Hulk is the result of Bruce's abusive childhood at the hands of his father, Brian Banner. During his youth, Brian consistently tormented both Bruce and his mother Rebecca, leaving the boy deeply unsettled and with some serious issues regarding Brian's place in his life. During the villainous Guilt Hulk's first outing, it took the combined might of both the Green and Grey Hulks as well as Bruce Banner to subdue the beast. While the Guilt Hulk might only be a broken part of Bruce's psyche, this is no less unsettling than any other instance of Brian's visage being weaponized against his son. Bruce's rage might be what leads him to smash things up as the Hulk, but his misplaced guilt coupled with an inability to properly cope with his childhood suffering has made the Guilt Hulk into a truly murderous force of nature.

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The Brian Banner symbiote emerges for the first time and introduces itself

Where the Hulk has often been remorseful of his more devastating actions, the Guilt Hulk seeks only to destroy, and he thoroughly enjoys every moment of it. However, this is likely what Bruce Banner needed to survive his perilous trek through the Crossroads.