Incredible Hulk #2 in Jason Aaron’s relaunch of the Incredible Hulk builds on the story that Banner is obsessed by the fact that the Hulk is no longer part of him. Even his love for Betty is secondary to Banners drive to get the Hulk back. The mad scientist role of Bruce Banner is a aspect of the character unlike any story line written before. Bruce Banner is considered one of the greatest minds on Earth. He has developed expertise in the fields of biology, chemistry, engineering, and physiology, and holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. He possesses “a mind so brilliant it cannot be measured on any known intelligence test.”
With Banners ability to create Gamma powerful animals that follow his commands and the fact he is no longer thinking in a rational manner it makes him a very dangerous so the Hulk is recruited by the government by Commander Amanda Von Doom to hunt down Banner. The Hulk reluctantly goes with the government agents on a large carrier and they are attacked by gamma radiated sharks. At the end the Hulk refuses to help but Dr. banner has already sent two of his Gamma powerful bores to destroy the subterranean creatures that admire the Hulk for what and who he is which will probably force the hulk to deal with Banner personally.
Reviewing the history and past reading of the Hulk I don’t think Marvel has ever separated Banner from the Hulk before and because of the unstable childhood of Bruce Banner writer Peter David established and others have illuminated about, he could be experiencing a serious mental brake down. Even when Banner could no longer turn into the Hulk in Incredible Hulk 600 when the Red Hulk absorbed Hulk’s radiation and claimed Banner can never turn into the Hulk again. He was fairly rational at that time not turning into a mad scientist wanting to be the Hulk again. So there must be something about the Hulk’s personality that has a stabilizing effect on Banner which he lost when they where separated. I always thought by what I have read about the Banner/Hulk relationship that the stabilizing part of his psychic was Banner but that apparently is not the fact.
The art work of this issue by Mark Silvestri, Joe Weems, Jay Leisten, Don Ho, and Sunny Cho is good. And writer Jason Aaron is a story teller that can think out of the box and created different ideas about a character we thought we knew. I for one will want to see the culmination of this story arc and what is to becomes of Banner and the Hulk. Stay tuned comic faithful for more. 🙂 Walt
I will have to check out some of Jason Aaron stories in the comics.