Part 3: The Incredible Hulk!

Many people find The Incredible Hulk, another iconic character from Marvel, to be the most fun superhero of all. He transforms when he’s angry, and the angrier he is, the stronger he is. It’s so satisfying to imagine! When a bully on the beach kicks sand in our face or the boss starts screaming, wouldn’t it be great to be seven feet tall and freakishly strong?

So who is this big green guy when he’s not running on a rampage? Comic book fans know this story by heart, but here goes: Like Spider-Man, the Hulk wasn’t born super — a lab accident made him that way. Dr. Bruce Banner is a slightly-built, mild-mannered physicist who is exposed to gamma rays while building a gamma bomb. As a consequence, any time Bruce experiences a surge of adrenaline due to anger or another strong emotion, boom! He transforms into a 7-foot-tall, 1500-pound green monster who’s strong enough to take out his anger on everyone and everything.

Now Bruce, the scientist, bears the burden of knowing that if he gets too emotionally involved with anyone, he risks setting off his transformation into the Hulk, who will then run amok and maybe harm the person Bruce cares about. Over the years, Bruce has worked his scientific genius to the bone trying to “cure” the Hulk side of himself, with all kinds of side effects but little success. As two warring sides of what amounts to a split personality, Hulk and Bruce have fought and made up through 50 years together, acquiring a human family (Bruce’s lover Betty Ross), and a wife and children for the Hulk.

Naturally the Hulk’s list of adversaries is endless, starting with General “Thunderbolt” Ross, who doesn’t approve of his daughter’s relationship with Bruce. On the super-enemy side, the Hulk faces off with Abomination, who’s twice as strong as he is; and the Leader, a super-genius who’s always trying to take over the world. There are many more, of course, including a whole storyline that takes place in the astral world.

Stan Lee, who co-created the Hulk with artist Jack Kirby, said that the character was meant to combine the stories of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. That formula has kept Hulk fans loyal since 1962, through comics, a TV series (remember Lou Ferrigno?) and lots of movies. The big green guy has been played by Eric Bana, Edward Norton and, in recent years, Mark Ruffalo, who will voice the character again in the upcoming Marvel animated series ‘What If…”

Fans today know the Hulk mostly through the Avengers. And (spoiler alert!) by the time we reached Avengers: Endgame, Bruce had actually found the solution he’d been seeking all these years: he’d discovered how to turn to the Hulk while hanging on to his Bruce-Banner intellect and discretion. The two warring personalities finally come together as Smart Hulk — a very happy ending.

After I created the Cockroach stories, it occurred to me that like Bruce Banner and the Hulk, the superhero Captain Nightmare has a similar relationship with his secret identity. Captain Nightmare arrives on planet Earth to escape the frigid cold of Pluto and wants to find a name that will blend in with the people on Earth. He watches a television show in which two of the characters are named Homer and Mr. Burns. Since they both seem like very important men, he thinks it is clever to combine their names and become Homer Burns.

Homer, who is very diligent and responsible, becomes a construction worker where his great strength is a huge asset. Unfortunately, Captain Nightmare undermines Homer by staying out very late, partying, spending Homer’s hard-earned money–and getting him fired. Desperate for cash, Homer gives in and lends Scrunchy Cereal Company the magic ring that belonged to Captain Nightmare’s brother when he was alive. After all, they only want it for one day to create toy copies for their Breakfast of Superheroes promotion. What could possibly go wrong in one day, right? But the ring disappears, and our story begins.

To read about Captain Nightmare, Cockroach, and other superheroes, order “Breakfast of Superheroes” and the “The Secrets of the Superhero’s Ring” on this website. Enjoy!