Hulk in other media


Since the 1960s, the Marvel Comics superhero the Hulk has appeared in many types of various media other than the comics, such as animated and live-action TV series, films, books, video games, comic strips, and stage shows.

Television

Animation

1960s

Hulk debuted in television in 1966 as part of Marvel Super Heroes animated series. It was produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation, which was headed by Grant Simmons, Ray Patterson and Robert Lawrence. The series is in stop-motion comic book form, with radio personality Max Ferguson voicing both the Hulk and Bruce Banner. The 39 seven-minute segment episodes were shown along with those featuring other characters from the series, including Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Namor the Sub-Mariner. They were all based on the early stories from The Incredible Hulk and Tales to Astonish comic book series from Marvel. The series shows Bruce Banner's origin of becoming the Hulk and struggling to keep his dual identity a secret from everyone, as well as trying to maintain his romance with Betty Ross, friendship with Rick Jones—the only one knowing that Banner and the Hulk are the same—and battling super-villains such as the Leader, Metal Master, Ringmaster, Chameleon, Boomerang, and Tyrannus. At the same time, he must avoid capture by the military headed by Betty's father Thunderbolt Ross with his right-hand man Glenn Talbot.

1980s

Hulk returns to television with the animated series The Incredible Hulk, voiced by Bob Holt as Hulk and Michael Bell as Bruce Banner. The series once again shows Bruce Banner transformed into Hulk by accident and struggling to keep it a secret from Betty Ross, and everyone else around him. Rick Jones is the one who shares his secret and helps control it while Bruce uses his powers to battle supervillains such as the Leader, Spymaster, Doctor Octopus, Hydra, and the Puppet Master; while fighting the military at the same time led by Betty's father General Thunderbolt Ross with Major Glenn Talbot whose first name had been changed to "Ned". This series features the first animated appearance of Bruce's cousin Jennifer, who becomes She-Hulk.
Hulk appears in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode "Spidey Goes Hollywood", with Peter Cullen voicing both Hulk and Bruce Banner.

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

  • The Hulk appears in Lego Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum, voiced again by James Blight.
  • The Hulk appears in Lego Marvel Avengers: Loki in Training, voiced again by James Blight.
  • The Hulk appears in Lego Marvel Avengers: Time Twisted, voiced again by James Blight.
  • The Hulk appears in Spidey and His Amazing Friends, voiced primarily by Armen Taylor, while Sami Sharkawy voices him as a child in the episode "Lil Hulk".
  • The Hulk appears in X-Men '97, voiced by J. P. Karliak, via Morph.
  • The Hulk appears in Lego Marvel Avengers: Mission Demolition, voiced again by Fred Tatasciore.
  • Hulk appears in Lego Marvel Avengers: Strange Tails, voiced again by Fred Tatasciore.

Film

Live-action

1970s

Hulk appeared in the 1978–1982 live action television series, The Incredible Hulk, and its subsequent television films. Created by Universal Studios, it starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as Hulk. Furthermore, vocal effects for the Hulk are provided by Ted Cassidy, with Charles Napier replacing him after Cassidy's death. In this series, David Banner becomes Hulk, is assumed dead and goes on the run while being pursued by tabloid investigative reporter Jack McGee who is bent on proving that the creature exists. The two-hour pilot movie, which established the Hulk's origins, aired on November 4, 1977. The series was originally broadcast by CBS from March 10, 1978, to June 2, 1982, with eighty-two episodes in five seasons, and later followed by three television films.

Bill Bixby / Lou Ferrigno TV films (1977–1990)

''Hulk''

The Hulk appears in a self-titled film, portrayed by director Ang Lee via voice and motion capture, while Bruce Banner is portrayed by Eric Bana. This version initially works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before being transformed into the Hulk after saving fellow employee Harper from a malfunctioning gammasphere, which combined with his mutations derived from his father's self-experimentation.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Comic strips

Fine arts

Starting with the Pop Art period and on a continuing basis since the 1960s, many comic book characters, including Hulk, have been "appropriated" by multiple visual artists and incorporated into contemporary artwork, most notably by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Dulce Pinzon, Jeff Koons, and others.

Novels

Pocket Books published two mass market paperback solo novels starring the character, The Incredible Hulk: Stalker From the Stars in 1978 and The Incredible Hulk: Cry of the Beast in 1979. The Hulk has appeared in the following novels:
TitleAuthorPublisherISBNRelease DateNotes
The Incredible Hulk: Stalker From the StarsLen Wein
Marv Wolfman
Joseph Silva		Pocket Books / October 1978Pocket Books series #2
The Incredible Hulk: Cry of the BeastRichard S. MeyersPocket Books / March 1979Pocket Books series #3
The Marvel SuperheroesLen Wein
Marv Wolfman
Pocket Books / August 1979Pocket Books series #9; short story collection; includes stories featuring the Avengers, Daredevil, the X-Men, and the Hulk
The Hulk and Spider-Man: MurdermoonPaul KupperbergPocket Books / October 1979Pocket Books series #11
The Incredible Hulk: What Savage BeastPeter DavidPutnam/BPMC
Berkley Boulevard/BPMC 		/
/ 		July 1995
July 1996
Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk: Doom's Day Book One: RampageDanny Fingeroth
Eric Fein		Berkley Boulevard/BPMC / September 1996First in Doom's Day trilogy; is followed by Spider-Man and Iron Man: Doom's Day Book Two: Sabotage
The Incredible Hulk: AbominationsJason HendersonBerkley Boulevard/BPMC / July 1997
The Ultimate HulkStan Lee
Peter David
Berkley Boulevard/BPMC / October 1998Short story collection
HulkPeter DavidDel Rey Books / April 2003Novelization of the 2003 Hulk movie
The Incredible HulkPeter DavidDel Rey Books / May 2008Novelization of the 2008 The Incredible Hulk movie

Video games

The Hulk's first appearance in a video game was the 1984 graphic adventure computer game Questprobe featuring The Hulk, and the character began making appearances on home and handheld consoles a decade later. An earlier game was originally planned by Parker Brothers for the Atari 2600 in 1983, but was canceled in the midst of the video game crash. Several companies have developed games based on the Hulk, including Adventure International, Probe Entertainment, Attention to Detail, Radical Entertainment, Edge of Reality, and Amaze Entertainment. The Hulk's standalone titles are often action games that pit the Hulk against supervillains in a beat 'em up format, with Bruce Banner occasionally appearing for stealth or puzzle elements. Apart from his standalone titles, the Hulk also appears in several other Marvel titles within an ensemble cast; in these appearances, he is occasionally accompanied by members of his own supporting cast, such as Abomination and She-Hulk.

Podcasts

An Old Man Logan version of Hulk appears in Marvel's Wastelanders, voiced by Blake Morris in the "Star-Lord" segment and by Danny Burstein in the "Doom" segment.

Live performances

Miscellaneous

  • The Hulk appeared in an LP produced by Power Records in 1974, entitled The Incredible Hulk at Bay!, an audio dramatisation of Incredible Hulk #171.
  • The Planet Hulk storyline was adapted from the novelisation as a dramatised audiobook by GraphicAudio.

Popular culture references

  • 1979 to 2019: Saturday Night Live
  • *season 4, episode 15 sketch called "Superhero Party" has John Belushi playing the Hulk when Superman and Lois Lane are married and having a dinner party.
  • *season 18, episode 8 sketch called "Superman's Funeral", where the Hulk is one of the speakers.
  • *season 20, episode 9 sketch called "The Incredible Hulk", where the Hulk gets bored at a repetitive sketch.
  • *season 40, episode 16 sketch called "The Rock Obama", where the Hulk is called the Rock Obama.
  • *season 44, episode 15 sketch called "The Impossible Hulk", where Dr. Banner transforms into a raging white woman due to a "failed gamma ray experiment" above a Tory Burch.
  • 1990: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes episode – "Tomato from the Black Lagoon", Chad Finletter sees a man getting angry and impatient while waiting for a plane, then the man starts to turn into a green muscular monster as he gets angry.
  • 1991: Taz-Mania – episode "Dr. Wendal and Mr. Taz", Wendal is irradiated in an "Ultra gamma ray testing booth", mistaking it for a tanning booth, causing him to transform into a giant, violent monster whenever he is made upset.
  • 1996: Adventures of Ricardo short – originally seen on MTV's Cartoon Sushi and available on The Animation Show DVD, the title character professes his love of the character, renamed "The Incwedibul Hunk" here due to Ricardo's speech impediment
  • 1996: Dexter's Laboratory – a purple-skinned parody of the Hulk named "The Infraggable Krunk" made a few appearances in season one and shared a segment called "The Justice Friends" with Major Glory and Valhallen. Additionally, the episode "Hunger Strikes" has Dexter transform into a Hulk-like monster whenever he does not eat vegetables, complete with a parody of the "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" line.
  • 1998, 2004: MADtv
  • *season 3, episode 17 skit showed a man becoming a miniature version of the Hulk, and a
  • *season 9, episode 19 skit has Bruce Banner attempt to create a serum that will prevent him from becoming the Hulk. The serum, however, backfires and causes him to turn into a homosexual pink colored version of the Hulk.
  • 1999–2011: Family Guy
  • *episode "Chitty Chitty Death Bang", a part in Peter Griffin's obviously made-up story to Lois Griffin has him turning into the Hulk to attack the devilish manager of the place he is supposed to have Stewie's birthday
  • *The end credits for the episode "Wasted Talent" are run while Joe Harnell's "The Lonely Man" plays in homage to The Incredible Hulk; it shows Stewie hitchhiking along the side of the freeway á la David Banner
  • *episode "A Fish out of Water", Peter buys a fishing boat and gives it the name of "S.S. More Powerful Than Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and The Incredible Hulk put it together"
  • *episode "Emission Impossible", Peter asks Lois's sister if he can have her husband's shirts so that he can imitate Hulk ripping his shirt off throughout; And the 2011
  • *episode: "And I'm Joyce Kinney", replaces the regular Family Guy opening with a spoof of the Hulk TV series opening, placing Stewie as David Banner, Peter as the Hulk and Tom Tucker as Jack McGee
  • 2001: On the song "Some L.A. Niggaz", rapper King T compares the marijuana he smokes to the Hulk, with the line, "Smoke big green, call it Bruce Banner"
  • 2002: Scrubs – episode "My Student", after the medical student assigned to J.D. made numerous mistakes, J.D. gets angry and transforms into the Hulk
  • 2002/08: The Simpsons
  • *episode "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes", a Hulk-parody character, called the "Mulk", is shown fighting another ingenious Marvel parody, "The Thung"
  • *episode "I Am Furious (Yellow)", Homer turns into the Hulk
  • 2005–21: The character appears in the Robot Chicken episodes: "The Deep End", "Badunkadunk", "Two Weeks Without Food", "Maurice Was Caught", "Executed by the State", "Collateral Damage in Gang Turf War", "Eaten by Cats", "Ants on a Hamburger", "Hey I Found Another Sock!", "What Can You Tell Me About Butt Rashes?", "May Cause Light Cannibalism"
  • 2006: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – Lil' Bow Wow has a Hulk-themed car.
  • 2007: The Hulk appears in the South Park episode trilogy "Imaginationland"
  • 2008: In the parody film Disaster Movie, the character is played by Roland Kickinger
  • 2010: Castle – episode "Tick, Tick, Tick...", Martha Rodgers watches a video of the pilot episode of The Incredible Hulk, where she plays Dr. Elaina Marks
  • 2016: Bruce Banner and The Hulk appear in an episode of Epic Rap Battles of History, rap battling against Bruce and Caitlyn Jenner respectively. He also appeared in the 69th episode of the popular online show from ScrewAttack, Death Battle, where he fought Doomsday from DC Comics in a hypothetical battle to the death and lost. He also fought and lost against Broly from Dragon Ball Z in a One Minute Melee, then later fought the Dragon Ball Super version of Broly in a Death Battle and again lost. He returned for the 199th episode of Death Battle, where he fought and defeated Godzilla.
  • 2018: The Hulk appeared in the 47th episode of DBX, a spin-off of Death Battle, in which he defeated the Juggernaut.
  • Several Twitter accounts exist that parody the Hulk, including Feminist Hulk, Drunk Hulk, and Film Crit Hulk.