The Hulk is often considered a monster but with his heart in the right place. However, when Banner has been "shut down" or removed from the Hulk he has often gone berserk and been unable to recognize friend from foe. This leads me into wondering, is the Hulk only good because he has Banner in him? Or is the Hulk a good guy with or without Banner, just more uncontrollable without him?

@cannotspellmyname:

The Hulk is Banner's inner rage. if Banner let himself run wild and do everything, even things that are completely wrong, then yes, he would be evil but he doesn't go completely crazy like that so he's not evil.

Even when the Hulk goes berserk he doesn't usually attack unless he's been attacked. Hulk doesn't strike out unprovoked. And of course, Hulk does not go out of his way to do evil acts. He tries to do good and when attacked prefers to run away so people can leave him alone.

People who bother the Hulk ruin his chance at happy life or they completely deny him the right to life. This doesn't make Hulk happy. Hulk gets mad. In a fight Hulk will go the extra mile, even letting his enemies think they are on control just so he can prove that he is, without a doubt, "the strongest there is" and make them think twice about messing with him the next time they cross paths.

The "leave me alone" thing doesn't always work since people never stop chasing him so he has to fight back at some point, and when decides to do so, he's really ticked off because he feels like the world is driving him into a corner. Nobody likes to having everything taken away from them and be faced with people violating and deny your right to life, threatening to kill to you or put you in cage and not allowing you to conduct your life as would like to, on a nonstop basis. Hulk gets into fights then tries to stay out of them but when he gets tired of people hounding him and wants them to stop, he is forced to fight them anyway. Wash, rinse and repeat. Its a vicious cycle. A cycle of rage, hurt and torment. Being the Hulk isn't all bad but its not a picnic either.

Hulk and Banner are the same person, true, but they are two different sides of that person. The Hulk is just the emotional side of Banner let loose, because Banner doesn't show his emotions, all of them, like anger, outwardly.

No, Hulk is not evil because Bruce Banner is not evil, and vice versa.

Is a bear evil?

Is a rattlesnake evil?

This.

The Hulk is emotion and instinct.

Rattlesnakes are totally evil. They always give me a glare. And I'm not a fan of poisonous things :P

But I agree. The Hulk is a manifestation of Banner's repressed emotions. He's a part of Banner, that much is for certain but he's far from evil.

By the way, how does this sound for a blog title "Sorry Snyder but I have to leave you now" :P

@lvenger: Are you breaking up with him?

"Sorry Snyder, you're a douche" is better :P

he is mindless without banner. nothing but an empty vessel.

I prefer to think of it as 'taking a break' from him. Snyder teased a Riddler story a while ago and I was looking forward to that. I guess it was superceded by Zero Year. Once that's over and Snyder starts writing current Batman, I'll go back to his series.

Once Zero Year starts, I have no interest reading a title that just rehashes old origin plot points with an early Bruce Wayne and a younger Batman. I'd rather my last few issues that I read of Batman before I have to cut back big time on my pull list actually had current, well written Batman in. Layman's run is supposed to be good so I'm giving that a try.

Is he without banner? Was WWH with or without banner? I do not even know xD

Knew you'd leap to Hulk's defense :P

@theacidskull: Eh I like a lot of what he's doing but at times he can lose the plot a bit.

Without Banner Hulk is pretty much a Super powered toddler, he wouldn't actually understand the concepts of good and evil

Pretty much.

No.He is a manifestation of Banner's emotions.

Yes.

For f**k's sake, yes.

Nope 616 Hulk is a hero at heart. Ultimate Hulk on the other hand....

The Hulk without Banner is just pure rage, without any sort of intelligence at all. This was discovered when Doc Samson separated the two. The Hulk went into a rage around MU, I believe Dr.Strange sent him to another realm, because there was no hope for the mindless Hulk.

There is actually another personality Hulk and Banner locked away a long time ago that was a sorta evil Hulk.

This is no longer the case, Dr. Doom's separation of the two resulted not only in a Hulk that spoke but Gravage Hulk who has higher intelligence than normal. Though I haven't reread the comic since around the time I first purchased it, IIRC this was because Doom did a better job of it (I may be wrong.)

I forgot, you're 100% right, I should have said originally.

Adding on to this, once they were separated it turned out banner was the worse of the two, and turned out to be a horrible man :P

Bump.

Lot of misunderstanding here.

Hulk is not a manifestation of Banner's emotions. This was explained in Jason Aaron's series, he is actually the one keeping Banner in check.

@berserkertron: Sounds like Aaron BS.

@rabumalal:

Not really. What Doom said makes sense.

Have no pictures, but he said this:

"You say Banner went insane. But I suspect you somply saw him at last for what he was all along. You saw what he would have been, were it not for you. Petty. Cruel. Obsessive. Damaged beyond all repair. Every bit his father's son. You were the only thing that kept him sliding irrevocably down that path. You were the outlet for his rage. You were his excuse. His supposed burden. The thing he could Always blame for holding him back. Once you were gone, well...I imagine he had no one to blame but himself."

Makes sense. Banner even admitted that the gamma bomb saved his Life when Hulk and Banner was back together.

No.

Hulk and Banner have been separated before and Hulk has been just fine. Certain incarnations of the Hulk (Devil Hulk) are evil.

Also you learn more what the Hulk is in Tempest Fugit and Planet Hulk.

And yeah, what Avenging X Bolt said. They've been separated a few times but Hulk wasn't evil, or even dumb,

Hulk even had nightmares about Banner in Planet Hulk, proving he is more than repressed anger.

Overreactive, sure, but not evil.

That would really depend on your philosophy. He's emotional, and violent, but not sadistic.

I remember how separated with Hulk Banner became evil, while Hulk just found home with some... moloids, iirc.

It's a split personality. Hulk and Bruce Banner are not different people, a new entity called 'the Hulk' wasn't magically birthed into existence when Bruce got hit with a gamma bomb. Hulk is Bruce, he just has split personality syndrome. That's why there are occasions where Bruce's mind has been able to control the Hulk body (Professor Hulk) and why other Hulk creatures (primarily Abomination) aren't any different from their human selves. Because Blonsky, for instance, is a relatively sane man without split personality syndrome. All he did was mutate. The Hulk is just a mutated Bruce Banner, but under a different mindset.

So Hulk isn't any more evil than Bruce. The reason Hulk seems evil when Bruce is separated from him is precisely because the Hulk is not an individual; he is Bruce. Removing Bruce is removing his only mind, making him a mindless monster.

No, he's emotional, reacts quickly, has a lot of power, and sometimes a bit slow,but not inherently evil

Banner is the evil one, Hulk is just an excuse for Banner to be destructive

Hulk is an empathic being. He's been both physically and mentally separated from Banner and his way of life hardly resembles that of someone intrinsically evil.

Is a tornado evil? Because that's what Hulk is without Banner. He's like a huge tornado that causes insane collateral damage.