Talk:Hulk/bio
Please integrate this into Hulk (comics):
Later biographical history
[edit]The craftily intelligent Grey Hulk allied with the Leader to restore the Leader's intelligence by draining Rick Jones' gamma power, in return for the Leader making it possible to allow him to remain the Hulk in both day and night (since the Grey Hulk now appeared during the night, and Banner during the day). While the first step was accomplished, an explosion meant the Leader escaped without having to make good on his promise. Soon after, the Hulk apparently died in a Leader-induced gamma bomb explosion, but actually escaped and took a job as a Las Vegas casino enforcer named "Mr. Fixit," working for casino boss Michael Berengetti, with no Banner to trouble him. For a time, he lived a hedonistic life, including a brief relationship with Marlo Chandler. When Banner reemerged, however, "Joe Fixit"'s life began to fall apart, since he could no longer appear in the daytime—with his problems helped along by the well-meaning Glorian, whose desire to turn the Hulk into a "noble, self-sacrificing individual" led him to a deal with the being Cloot (actually the demon Satannish), and the destruction of the Hulk's life, terrifying Marlo into dumping him and Berengetti into firing him.
Finally, with the Hulk realizing that he'd go to the same Hell as Glorian was being dragged down to too, eventually, it boiled down to him and Cloot playing Craps for his and Glorian's souls: if the Hulk won, Cloot could never take him or Glorian. If he lost, Cloot got them both immediately. The Hulk rolled the pair of giant dice, over twice as tall as himself, and jumped to land as they bounced, to make them roll a double-6. As Cloot complained about the Hulk's "cheating" and tried to take Glorian anyway, Glorian's master, the Shaper of Worlds intervened, saying that with Cloot's deal broken, he had no power. Cloot vanished, swearing to get Glorian and the Hulk someday, and the Shaper warning the Hulk to think about his future life "and after."
Three dominant personalities had emerged over the years: the quiet intellectual Banner, the Grey Hulk which embodies his more antisocial cunning side, and the Savage Hulk which embodies his inner child and repressed rage. Doc Samson, with the assistance of the Ringmaster, managed to prompt the merger of Banner's personalities into one apparently healthy personality which embodied Banner's intellect and conscience, the Grey's cunning and confidence and the Savage's color and strength. (Doc Samson would later claim, when something resembling the Merged Hulk emerged alongside his apparent component parts, that this was just another personality released from Banner's mind, who became known as the "Professor." However, since it was shown at the time of the merger that Samson had little control over the process, exactly how much truth there is to this remains unknown.) This "Merged Hulk" shortly thereafter joined up with the group known as the Pantheon, all of whom took their names from Greco-Roman mythology. The immortal leader and patriarch of the family, Agamemnon (from whom all of the other members were descended to some degree), and Ulysses convinced the Hulk to join them between his desire to do good in the world, and his desire to stick it to the U.S. Government for years of hounding him by taking down a U.S.-supported government with an abominable human rights record, among other things. As he joined, however, Delphi, the Pantheon's prophetess, saw "violence, death and pain, and a soul no longer sane" in the future: the Hulk laughing maniacally, while covered in blood.
The Hulk spent some time with the Pantheon. The merger of personalities began to destabilize beginning with a battle with the Leader and the reanimated body of General Ross that led to both foes' deaths. As the Pantheon's home and headquarters, the Mount, crumbled around him and Delphi's vision of insane anger came true, the Savage Hulk came out in Banner's body, thanks to the Merged Hulk's feelings of helplessness, frustration, and rage. After this, the Hulk went into hiding for some time, hampered by the "Savage Banner" coming out whenever he got angry. Finally, in battle with the psychic creature Onslaught, he was once more physically separated into both Hulk and Banner. Banner went on to be teleported to the Heroes Reborn universe, and the Hulk left behind was not mindless but soulless, a mixture of the Fixit and Savage personae. The Hulk became a conduit of energy between the two universes, growing physically stronger, but coming ever closer to dying; meanwhile, Banner relived an altered version of his life, becoming a Hulk similar to the Savage Hulk again, in the other universe. Eventually Banner (along with the others who ended up in the other universe) returned home, and Banner was reunited with the soulless Hulk in the process, although the Hulk's personality was not significantly changed.
Finally, just as Banner looked like he was about to settle down with Betty, she died of gamma radiation poisoning. Although Banner and an again-resurrected General Ross believed the source of the poisoning to have been Betty's close relationship with Banner, it had actually been caused by the Abomination, who hated the Hulk for having kept him away from his estranged ex-wife. The Abomination was exposed and defeated in retaliation by the Hulk twice: first as the Professor, who saw reason to forgive the Abomination, and again as the Savage Hulk, who was manipulated by Ross into beating the Abomination nearly to death.