Quickcheck: Was the original Incredible Hulk green?


ANYONE with the slightest pop culture knowledge is familiar with The Incredible Hulk.

When Dr Bruce Banner gets angry, he transforms himself into this iconic green rage beast who can smash just about anything and anyone.

But usually, when we get angry, our face would turn into... any other hue but green. So has Hulk always been green?

Verdict:

FALSE

It's not easy being green.

For Hulk, it takes him several printing issues before his creators finally settle on giving him the iconic green skin.

In the debut appearance of the Jade Giant in 1962, the one who likes to smash things actually had grey skin - way before the Grey Hulk was even thought of.

Following the success of Fantastic Four and its core member, The Thing, Marvel wanted to capitalise by making Hulk a misunderstood monster.

To make sure the Incredible Hulk had a mass appeal, Lee wanted the Hulk to have grey skin, to not have him be identified with any one ethnicity.

However, the colourist had trouble producing the hue consistently, resulting in the grey colouring appearing as green.

The Incredible Hulk was initially grey but was made green later due to colouring issues. - Marvel Comics.The Incredible Hulk was initially grey but was made green later due to colouring issues. - Marvel Comics.

But writer Stan Lee ended up liking the green and it stuck. So Lee and artist Jack Kirby made him green in the second issue.

So in the comics, narratively, the explanation for the shift to green was that it was due to continued gamma exposure.

After some time, it was revealed that Grey Hulk was another gamma-radiated personality of Bruce Banner.

While Green Hulk was angry, savage and more simple-minded, Grey Hulk was able to retain some more of Banner's intelligence.

And it doesn't end there. To date, there are 11 different colour variants of the Hulk including a Skin-Tone Hulk!

But that's a story for another time.

Who would've thought that a simple colouring issue would create such an iconic element to the Hulk's overall look?

Guess smashing a problem can sometimes be the best way to solve it!

References:

1. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/575457/why-the-incredible-hulk-is-green

2. https://collider.com/why-does-the-hulk-change-colors/

3. https://screenrant.com/hulk-grey-secret-original-version/

4. https://screenrant.com/hulk-green-colors-explained-grey-red-blue-list/

COMPLI

TRUE OR NOT

Keywords: StarVerified, True or Not, QuickCheck, The Hulk, Pop Culture, History, Comics

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