BEING A SLIGHT EXPLANATION OF THE REAL STORIES
OF SOME COMIC BOOK "SUPERHEROES" IN THE WNU

Part One
Marvelous, Fantastic Heroes

The Hulk

While in New York circa 1907-1909, in addition to being a thrill killer, Edward Hyde was also a serial rapist. In one of his earliest episodes He had also on an earlier separate occasion raped a young Norwegian house wife whom he had followed home from a bakery shop. Humiliated by the incident she never said anything to her husband. Their child was Daniel Grimm.

Later Hyde he broke into the home of a respectable boarding house for young women. In an orgy of lust the likes of which was not repeated until 1966, he raped five women. However unlike Richard Speck he left them alive, probably because this being the waning of the Victorian age, because they would suffer all the more from continuing to live with the effects of "a fate worse than death". This appealed more to his sense of cruelty.

Among the girls he raped were Constance Brodie, her friend, Alice Walters, The other three victims have no bearing on our history and so we will spare their descendants any possible embarrassment.

    Hyde's multiple rape at the girl's boarding house produced three offspring from two different women. One of his victims was Constance Brodie whose ancestor Deacon Brodie had oddly enough been an inspiration for Henry Jekyll's experiments. Constance was about to leave the boarding school and start a new life as a bride. Staying with her that night was her best friend and matron of honor, Martha Walters. Martha was a former resident of the boarding house. Three years older than Constance she had been married for two and already had one child.

    They were making final arrangements for the wedding, which was to take place in a week, and lost track of the time. They had not quite finished and Martha did not feel like finding a cab late at night so she sent a note to her husband she was staying the night with Constance and would return the following afternoon.

    When she did return she was badly bruised and in a shocked state. Martha told her husband that some she and Constance had been attacked by ruffians on the street.

    Hyde was correct in assuming that the women would bear the "shame" of their violation in silence. Neither Constance nor Martha ever told their husbands that they had been raped even when they suspected that the children they bore were from that incident.

    Constance Brodie married John Banner. Banner was a transplanted Southerner, his father had been a secret agent for the Confederacy during the Civil War and his family had a long history of serving in the Texas Rangers.(1)  John was however interested in pursuing a career in agricultural science and was studying at Columbia University for his bachelor of science degree. He and Constance were married shortly after his graduation and left to go to Ohio State University to study and work under Charles Thorne.(2) Constance blessed their union with a pair of twins almost nine months to the day that they were married, Francis and Brian Banner. Two years later she had a girl, named Martha.

John Banner eventually formed a company that specialized in making fertilizer. The identical twins,  Francis and Brian were rivals from the start, both exhibiting a disturbing tendency to solve their disputes with violence. Both were very good athletes and had an aptitude for the sciences. Yet they always chose to take the same sports and same classes this way they would put into competition with one another.  Neither one had much of an interest in the fertilizer business much to their father's regret. When it came to choosing their fields of expertise they did differ. Frank preferred the fields of chemical research and Brian the new field of radioactive research.

    Constance Banner was delighted when her friend Martha Walter's and her husband Alexander moved to Dayton to take charge of the Banner Fertilizer factory based there. The Walters and the Banners got together quite often.

    Brian and Francis became rivals for the affections of Rebecca Walters, who was a year their senior. When she chose Brian it caused an irreparable rift between the brothers. Rebecca and Brian were married in 1929 and they had a son, Robert Bruce Banner, born in 1930.

    Not to be out done, Francis also married to Nanette Sherwood and had a son David Bruce Banner, born in 1931.

    Brian was like many of the Jekyll's descendants highly sexed and with a hair trigger temper. His twin brother shared this characteristic. Both of them resented how their children seemed to take some of their spouses' affection away from them. More easily angered than ever before, both men began beating their wives and their children. When Robert Bruce Banner was ten years old he saw Brian Banner beat his wife to death over a political argument. Being a respected scientist and medical researcher Brian Banner was able to claim for two years that an intruder had killed his wife. However when his son kept being treated for injuries, authorities investigated.

    Brian Banner was convicted of manslaughter but found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was remanded to the custody of an asylum for the criminally insane. Robert Bruce Banner was placed in the custody of his Aunt Martha Drake, Brian and Francis' sister. She had taken Robert Bruce out of a sense of responsibility rather than any true compassion for her brother's child. In fact her brother's insanity colors her treatment of Robert Bruce, she kept him at a distance and is very aloof.

    Francis' marriage also broke up shortly after Rebecca Banner had died. Nanette Banner had a good idea of what had happened and feared for her own life and safety. Her divorce was not a pleasant one and her alimony did not cover her bills so she and David Bruce Banner lived a frugal existence.

    One the rare occasions that Francis exercised his parental responsibilities and spent time with his son, David would invariably return with a bruise or broken bone.

    Robert Bruce Banner learned to lock away all of his fear, anger and hurt. He was a bookish, introverted boy who became a bookish introverted adult. He had a brilliant mind and applied himself to his studies. He took an early doctorate at age 21 and quickly became involved in the development of atomic weapons. He fervently believed that atomic weaponry was the only chance America had to hold back the Russian Communist plan for world domination.

    By the time he was 25, Robert Bruce Banner was given the green light on a pet theory of his, a bomb using Radium X and a few other substances which would release the light energy rising out of gamma radiation. The bomb was given the misnomer of a gamma bomb although in reality it was more of a photon bomb.

    The story of how Dr. Robert Bruce Banner was irradiated by the "gamma radiation"  was very close to that popularized in comic books. On the day of the test some foolish teenager had gone onto the test site to win a bet. Doctor Banner took it upon himself to get the teenage boy out of danger, because if necessary, Dr. Banner was the only one who could quickly and safely disarm the bomb.

    Banner managed to push the teen-age boy into a trench and walked towards the bomb to disarm it when it went off. A faulty timer or sabotage was blamed. The full force of the blinding thyophite radiation caught Dr. Robert Bruce Banner full on, knocking him head over heels. As an offensive weapon however the gamma bomb was ruled a bust, the blast area was little wider than a normal explosive bomb, most of the bomb's energy was released in harmless light. (3)

    Banner was uninjured but for some minor flash burns. He was in the infirmary for two weeks. After he was released, the discovered that his project was being terminated, that the girl had he had a crush on became engaged to marry a pilot and that it looked very likely that his father was going to be released from the Insane asylum. All in all his frustrations and resentments were growing but he held them inside.

    The night of the full moon triggered his initial change. Robert Bruce Banner, the bookish, skinny and physically weak man transformed into a brute about a foot and a half taller than his six feet and having  almost two hundred more pounds of muscle. He also appeared to have gray skin. This was actually an optical illusion; he was covered in a pelt of grayish hair, very short and very fine.(4)

    The original Hulk was not as strong as either the simple Hulk or the savage Hulk, but he had about two-thirds the strength of Superman. The original Hulk could lift between 4 and 7.5 tons and leap 545 feet (5) Because of his peculiar theriomorphic heritage he was also practically invulnerable. He was also intelligent, uninhibited and prone to react with brute force.  The tales of his exploits are wildly exaggerated but often bits of the truth slip into the story lines.

    After his initial transformation, the Hulk, as Robert Bruce Banner's alter ego would come to be known, made a bee line for the residence that of a fellow scientist. The scientist, whose actual name is unknown, due to national security reasons, had always been a thorn in Banner's side. Besides being over curious about the inner working of the gamma bomb, he made snide comments about Banner's manhood and intellectual abilities. Like his father, Robert Bruce Banner was not one to take insults lightly, unlike his father however he internalized them and did nothing. Although he had no solid proof, he suspected that the scientist was either a Soviet plant or a double agent. Robert Bruce Banner did not have the nerve to accuse the other scientist, if he were wrong the humiliation would be too great for him to withstand. He also had a nagging suspicion that he had been the one that had sabotaged the gamma bomb.

    The Hulk on the other hand had no qualms either about confronting the other scientist or looking for proof of his treachery. He broke into the scientist's house and began ransacking it, looking for proof of treachery. The scientist awoke and confronted the Hulk with a gun.

    The Hulk told the scientist he knew he was a liar, a traitor and a bully to boot. The scientist emptied his gun into the Hulk. In comic book depictions of the Hulk's adventures bullets bounce off of his thick epidermis. In reality, they pierced his flesh and caused tissue damage but the damage was healed immediately through instantaneous tissue regeneration.

    The Hulk grabbed the gun and bent it out of shape. He then grabbed the scientist and bent him out of shape. His ransacking had uncovered several files of stolen material. He left them for the authorities to discover. The Police were nearing the house and the Hulk left in a hurry.

    Vigilant neighbors spotted him and gave a description to the authorities. As the sun rose, the Hulk faded into Banner.

    The Hulk as the newspapers termed the mysterious, large man was wanted for the murder of the scientist and for questioning in his involvement in the government agency. The head of the Gamma Project, General Ross put Banner in a jail cell, suspicious of his involvement with the other scientist.

    The next night when Banner turned into the Hulk he broke out of jail and made straight for the home of General Ross intending to inflict harm on him for what Banner perceived as treachery. Ross was not at home but his daughter Betty was. Robert Bruce Banner had always been infatuated with her and while she was friendly with him, was more romantically inclined towards military men. Banner for is part being seriously introverted, socially inept and shy around women hand never really pressed a suite.

    The Hulk broke into the Ross home and abducted Betty Ross. He carried her off to the desert. Being bound less by morals or social convention, the Hulk's primary motive was to cause General Ross anguish by raping his daughter, the fact that the girl was also an object of his secret infatuation was gravy. He tore her clothes off but was stopped before he could go any further by Banner's consciousness. Banner was so horrified by this turn of events that he was able to exert control over the Hulk. He ran away from the girl. This of course would lead one to believe that Banner could have always controlled the Hulk if he had wished to, something Dr. Leonard Samson would assert years later.

    Robert Bruce Banner stopped the Hulk's rape of Betty Ross primarily because of his mother. Having seen his mother brutalized and finally murdered by his father the very idea sickened him to the core of his being. The knowledge that he would be just like father also played an important role. Robert Bruce Banner hated his father and had attempted to be the exact opposite of him. Robert Bruce Banner's affection for Betty Ross also played a role but not as much as you might think.

    Betty Ross was found half-naked and in near hysterics as she stumbled back towards the Army base. Robert Bruce Banner's abduction of Betty Ross was a fatal act for Robert Bruce Banner and the Hulk. It would lead to General Ross becoming the Hulk's implacable enemy bringing national attention of to the Hulk's existence (6) that in turn would lead to Robert Bruce Banner being exposed as the Hulk. Robert Bruce Banner would then be a fugitive constantly on the run.

    Although an introverted child without many friends, Robert Bruce Banner did not grow up entirely insular. His closest childhood companions were his cousin, David Bruce Banner, born six months later than he and his younger cousin Jennifer Walters.

    David unconsciously recreated his and Bruce's father's long standing rivalries and competition. In doing so he came across as second best, David did not react to his parents' separation as Bruce did to his family tragedy by becoming focused, single minded seemingly dispassionate. David became unfocused, undisciplined and combative. While brilliant, he lacked the discipline to achieve the necessary grades to "beat" Robert. '

    Lack of resources may have had something to do with it as well. The Banners, Drakes and Walters were all well off due to the success of the Banner Fertilizer Company. However due to the stingy alimony accorded to David Bruce Banner's mother, he and his mother were in the lower bottom of the lower middle class. His mother had very little money for materials that would have help her son out academically, reference books, chemistry sets, etc. His being the "poor" relation caused a great deal of resentment in David, while playing up to Robert and their aunt, he secretly hated them.

    As it turns out this hatred was fostered by his father, who beat David every time he came in second best to Robert.

    Jennifer Walters was the daughter of Morris Walters and Becky Bryan. Morris Walters was the son of Martha Walters and her unfortunate encounter with Edward Hyde. Having a nice stable environment with loving parents did much to check the violent temper and sexual tension that often accompanied those of Morris' heritage. Because neither of the Banner twins had any interest in running the family business, John Banner made Alexander Walters his business partner. The Banner children Brian, Francis and Martha each inherited 15% of the Banner company, after the unfortunate demise of John and Constance Banner.

Alexander Walters received the rest of the stock and had a controlling interest in the business. He had it renamed to Walter's Fertilizers, primarily for business reasons.

    Morris Walters also went into the fertilizer business.

David Bruce Banner was able, after threats of jail time and the absence of his cousin Robert, who had gone away to college,  to settle down and improve his grades, his father offered him a partial scholarship if he would pursue a career in chemistry. David agreed.

    When Robert Bruce Banner received his doctorate while David Bruce was still an undergraduate, Francis took David Bruce with him to visit his brother's grave. Upon getting out from the insane asylum, Brian Banner had discovered that his family and society in general had turned their backs on Brian Banner. His son refused to allow Brian to live with him while he could get his bearings. Unable to find steady work, Brian drank and became a local legend for his prowess in capacity and in fighting ability in bar room brawls.

    One morning out of the blue, he committed suicide.

    After his routine of spitting on his brother's grave, Francis informed David of Robert's earning of his doctorate. He then began screaming at him and punching at him. David decided not to tolerate this any longer and fought back. His father stumbled and slammed into the headstone, breaking his neck.

    David Bruce Banner told everyone that his father had slipped in the mud. The police investigated but could find no evidence of foul play. Because of the location of the death and because of David Bruce Banner's strong resemblance to his cousin, after Robert Bruce Banner's public exposure of being the Hulk,  the story became twisted so that most people believed that Robert Bruce Banner had killed his father.

    David Bruce Banner was working in medical research searching for new applications of radiation therapy. He married a fellow researcher and it seemed that all of his misplaced rage and jealousies were put to rest. He did feel a flash of envy hearing that his cousin's "gamma" bomb was going to be tested by the army. He also felt a thrill at hearing that the test was a failure.

    David Bruce Banner was returning from the lab with his wife one rainy night why he heard the radio announcement that Dr. Robert Bruce Banner had been exposed at the so called Hulk. David lost control of the car and it went off of the road down a steep embankment and rolled. The gas tank had ruptured and the car was engulfed in flames. David Bruce Banner managed to get his door open with a surge of strength but could not open his wife's door. The flames grew too intense driving him back a few steps just before the car exploded.

    After David Bruce Banner recovered from his injuries, he became  obsessed with learning the key to the hidden strength that all humans possess but only demonstrate in situations of extreme stress. With his long-time friend and colleague Elaine Marks, David interviews a number of subjects who demonstrated superhuman strength in situations similar to the accident that claimed the life of his wife. One night, he discovers that all of his subjects demonstrated this enhanced strength during times when the moon was in its fullest period, although many of the incidents had taken place during the day time hours.

    His studies lead him to the theories of Dr. Hackensaw, which theorized that the asteroid belt consisted of a collapsed planet, which was highly radioactive. The moon had been bombarded with these rocks over the eons when the moon was at its fullest, sunlight interacted with the irradiated rocks, sending streamers of radioactive light to the earth. This radiation did not normally affect most people but did affect certain people's hormones, causing a variety of behavioral changes, giving rise to the idea of werewolves or lunatics. Furthermore Dr. Hackensaw theorized that the rare element Radium X was in fact from this same asteroid belt.

    Most of the Radium X owned by the United States had been used in Dr. Robert Bruce Banner's experimental gamma bomb. The only known source of Radium X was a small African kingdom which having learned of the United State's attempts to make a radium x bomb, refused to export it even for medical research. (7)

    Renowned radiation expert Dr. Otto Octavian had synthesized a quantity of radium x but had died in a laboratory explosion taking the secret with him. The synthetic radium x was less powerful than the original and deemed useless for military applications and was ear marked for medical research. It had a very short half-life and the existing stock would be gone within two decades so it was used sparingly. David Banner's request for a quantity of synthetic radium x was denied as he had suspected it would be. His cousin's research and subsequent criminal behavior had made any one with that name a serious security risk. Like most people he thought the idea that his cousin transformed into some type of a monster to be absurd. One tabloid journalist made a career following the "Hulk" around however this journalist whose name was McGee did not believe that Banner was the Hulk.

    David Banner stole a sample of it from a medical laboratory and substituted it with some radioactive mud. His device machine projected the correct amount of radiation to cause the hormonal spike. Or so he thought. Several attempts ended in failure.  The experiment seemed to have no effect whatsoever on his physical condition.

   One evening, however, he finds himself with a flat tire on the side of a road. While changing the tire the jack slips and the tire iron cuts into his hand. His pain, frustration and long buried rage burst forth. David Banner is transformed into a seven foot tall, heavily muscled man with gray skin (actually he has a similar pelt as the Hulk). He smashes the car and pushes it into a ditch. Unlike many of the theriomorph's David Banner does not suffer from an ego loss, he is aware of who he is, he does however lose most of his inhibitions.  David Banner's sees that his transformed state is a smaller version of the one his cousin supposedly transformed into. He must have subconsciously believed it after all. However his Hulk creature is not as invulnerable, it will sustain discernable wounds, however he does heal quite rapidly. For some reason his Hulk is also mute.

    After a few hours the transformation wears off. He and his fellow researcher begin to search for the trigger. He discovers that fear or rage will trigger the transformation but he convinces Dr. Marks that he cannot control the actions of his alter ego. He needs to find a way to control the transformation.

    A day after people had fearfully sited the Hulk in the area. Reporter Jack McGee shows up, working as a stringer for several tabloids. McGee finds the presence of another Banner very interesting. He interviews the rather brusque Dr. Banner and tells him he should be careful, the thinks that the Hulk has something against the Banner family

    At night the Hulk indulges in a wave of destruction against the homes of several of Banner's colleagues.

    Elaine Marks accidentally discovers that David Banner is in fact aware of everything that transpires during his transformation into his Hyde, his Hulk. She starts to call the police with the information. Banner rips the phone out of the wall. Dr. Marks tries to force he way past him, raking his face with her nails when he attempts to stop her. Enraged he transforms into his version of the Hulk and begins slamming her about. Their struggle causes some burners to fall over and ignite several combustibles. The laboratory is engulfed in flames. Banner grabs Dr. Marks, not so much to save her but to have a little fun with her before he kills her.

    Jack McGee sees the hulk creature leave the burning wreck of Banner's laboratory carrying the corpse of Dr. Marks.

    Dr. Marks is indeed dead; she suffered a broken neck when Banner was slamming her around.

    McGee and the world thinks that Dr. David Banner is also dead.

    McGee follows the trail of this Hulk for a few months, hoping that this will propel him back into a legitimate journalistic career. He would never again follow a lead given to him by Kolchak, the story of that rock star group with superpowers had made him into a laughing stock.(8)

    McGee is traveling back to Cleveland in a chartered plane. The latest hulk siting had been a bust. Among the passengers is a man who was in a recent car accident that burned his face, his face is swathed in bandages. The plane crashes in a wooded area, the only survivors are McGee who is injured and the bandaged man.

    During the process of saving McGee's life by transporting him overland, the man transforms into the Hulk to fight a bear. When the man returns to human form, McGee sees that it is indeed Robert Bruce Banner. He tells McGee how he had been visiting David Banner hoping that he could be cured but the machinery had been overloaded by the radiation trapped in his body. His cousin David and his assistant had died in the explosion. He told McGee how he had been living as a fugitive while trying to curb his rage spawned monster. Over all he had helped more people than he had harmed them. McGee was told a series of stories about the various people that Banner had helped.

    McGee makes a deal with devil, although it does not seem like it at the time. Since Banner had saved McGee's life he wished for McGee to write a series of articles describing the good that Banner had done as the Hulk. Banner wished turn himself in and he thought the good press would go a long way towards alleviating his situation.

    Jack McGee agreed reluctantly. As he recovered from his injuries he wrote a series of articles based on Banner's accounts and sent them to various tabloids. In a couple of months he realized he had been seriously duped for Banner never turned himself in, a Dr. Richard Kimball sued him for libel and slander stating that most of the incidents that Jack McGee had described had actually happened to him. Then there was the incident of the two Hulks. According to one fairly legitimate paper, the Daily Bugle there was a battle observed between two beings that both bore a resemblance to the Hulk, although there was pretty much confusion as to what had actually taken place.

    The battle had taken place at a top secret military installation in the Colorado Mountain. The installation had been destroyed and the survivors had conflicting stories, some said that Robert Banner's friend, the teen age boy he had saved from being fried by the gamma bomb had been turned into a Hulk, others said that it had been General Ross. The young man, now in his twenties, had been paralyzed and General Ross was dead.

    McGee had no hard proof but he was fairly certain he knew who the second Hulk was. By talking with Dr. Richard Kimble he discovered that Dr. Kimble had treated a man answering the description of Dr. David Banner. Dr. Kimble had recognized the signs of a man on the run from the law. The man had not given his name but had told him how he had been accused of killing his wife but that it had been his no good cousin that had done so. Dr. Kimble gave the man several tips on how to elude the law while gathering evidence to eventually exonerate yourself. The man had asked for a good plastic surgeon that would ask no questions.

Dr. Kimble became suspicious at that and refused to give him the name of one. Kimble supposed that the unknown man had found a plastic surgeon, hence his face being all covered with bandages when McGee had seen him. Kimble discovered that the mystery man had stolen money Kimble had been collecting for Christmas presents for underprivileged children.

    McGee managed to settle his lawsuit with Dr. Kimble by agreeing to leave journalism, after printing a retraction in which he described how he had been duped. McGee went into television writing, writing for several inane shows under a variety of pseudonyms. In the mid seventies a producer came to him with a proposal, he wanted to turn McGee's articles about the good Hulk into a television series. They would of course have to change the Hulk's name, since they did not want the real Hulk to sue them.

    McGee contacted Dr. Richard Kimble and told him he thought he had a way to smoke out from hiding the mystery man that had deceived them both. McGee asked for a few more incidences of his life as a fugitive that had not made it into the television series based on his life. Kimble readily agreed.

      Jack McGee wrote a television program in which he was a crusading and relentless reporter following the trail of the Hulk, who he wrote to be David Bruce Banner. He intended to slowly make the character go bad as the rage and fury overcame him. However, according to his diary he received a phone call from David Banner. He told McGee he was on notice. David Banner had wished that he be remembered as a martyr to the Hulk, the evil Robert Bruce Banner. David Banner had undergone plastic surgery to look like his cousin, so that when David went on his rampages, Robert Bruce would get the blame.

    McGee had ruined all of that. He told McGee that as long as he remained a good guy on the show, McGee would live. If show ended McGee's life would end. Jack McGee became a changed man and took to drinking excessively, although he remained diligent about writing the television show. When the show was canceled, Jack McGee went on a drinking binge and fell from his home's deck, breaking his neck. Neighbors remarked that they might have seen the large actor who played the monster on the television show in the vicinity of McGee's house but the actor in question had a solid alibi.

   Robert Bruce Banner tried several methods of controlling his nightly transformations but as with many of his relatives, he discovered that once the latent theriomorphic talents became active, it was hard to stop them. Soon it he only needed an emotional trigger to change form. Robert Bruce Banner  lacked the necessary self control and harmony of mind needed to control his alters. Robert Bruce Banner's abusive childhood had given him Multiple Personality Disorder, although like many that suffer from it his condition was not readily apparent. His condition probably would not have been diagnosed if he had not manifested three main variations of the Hulk. Most of his associates who knew of his transformations into various aspects of the Hulk thought the personality shifts were consequences from Robert Bruce Banner's attempts to eradicate the Hulk.

    As Robert Bruce Banner's problems mounted from his association with the legendary Hulk type creature, from his guilt over the actions of his monstrous alters, he began to disassociate himself even more and so remained in his Hulk forms longer and longer.

    The three main forms were the original hulk, the seven and a half-foot version, the other was the child-like Hulk,  who was eight feet tall and massively muscled. He however had the temperament and intellect of a five-year-old child. Dr. Leonard Samson would later theorize that this was the original alter personality, whom Robert would become at times of being beaten by his father. The child like personality manifested a super strong body so that he could not be hurt. This form of the Hulk was very close to being as strong as Superman but could not leap half as far because of his great bulk. This form was most adopted by Banner after his exposure as he had done as a child, he moved away from being The last form of the Hulk was the Savage Hulk, this was the embodiment of Banner's incoherent rage, his unfocused and unbridled anger. With hardly any guiding intellect this was the most dangerous of Banner's personalities for it was like a temper tantrum with the power of a tornado. Fortunately, it manifested very rarely and like a temper tantrum, the physical and emotional outburst would burn itself out rather quickly.(9)

    After Robert Bruce Banner's exposure of being the Hulk, although as stated most people believed he used some type of device, prosthetic or costume to achieve his looks and power,  like most of the villains who had fought against Doc Savage, the Spider etc. He was going to be tried for the Savage Hulk's rampage in Palmdale, California which had caused major damage to two aeronautics companies, destroyed a good four block area of a residential neighborhood and injured over fifty people, some quite seriously. Two deaths due to shock or heart failure were also attributed as consequences of the rampage.

    Banner had been working under an assumed name as a chemical engineer at one of the top aircraft companies. A sharp-eyed test pilot named Jordan or Gordon recognized Banner despite his beard. Banner had attempted to escape but the test pilot and a corps of employees had chased and surrounded him. When he fought back in his attempt to escape, they broke his arm.

    The Savage Hulk had emerged and began tossing aviation employees away from him like they were attacking dogs. He picked up heavy pieces of equipment and used it to smash walls, structures and planes. Like a destructive whirlwind he stormed through the small community of Palmdale, ignoring the gunshots of the Palmdale police and security officers as if they were annoying bee stings. The tear gas that the police used made visual confirmation of what he was doing difficult. After two hours the Hulk stiffened and fell over lost in the mists of the tear gas surrounding him.

    Robert Bruce Banner stood up and was arrested by the Palmdale police and California State Troopers.

    His cousin Jennifer Walters is a criminal defense attorney located in California. Jennifer was a small demure woman who was cute rather than pretty. It became rather well publicized that she was going to represent her cousin as his attorney. As she left the courthouse one night a gunman with a grudge against the Hulk opened fire upon her.

    Jennifer had lost a lot of blood by the time she had reached the hospital. The only person with her blood type was Robert Bruce Banner, Doctor's were at first reluctant to perform a transfusion because of his legendary radioactive blood. They could find no traces of radiation in his blood serum however and transfused some of Banner's blood into her.

    Despite the transfusion Jennifer Walters nearly died, she went into cardiac arrest on the operating table but shortly thereafter made a miraculously rapid recovery. Some people who were opposed to the Hulk getting any sort of a trial or representation infiltrated her hospital room and attempted to kill her by smothering her with a pillow. Jennifer Walter's latent theriomorphic talents were stimulated by Robert Bruce Banner's blood and by her anger.

    She grew from a five foot five petite with dishwater brown hair to a six foot two athletically muscled yet curvaceously shaped woman with striking gray hair. She promptly tossed the would-be assassins out in the hall and called the police. Jennifer Walters had unconsciously molded her hyde form on two of her "heroes"  The body was based in a large part on her Aunt Jennifer, her namesake. Jennifer Walters nee Marshall was a former model who had married Alexander Winters. Jennifer was very shapely built but also had a mind and a will to succeed. She had formed her own cosmetics company and was an early feminist.(10)

    The other person Jennifer Walters had shaped her hyde form on was the mystery woman known as Wonder Woman whose adventures in the forties had been churned into comic book fare that was still popular when Jennifer was a young girl.

    Jennifer's hyde form was with the exception of extremely beautiful and curvaceous and being taller than most females, more muscular than most females of that era and having a mane of thick wavy gray hair nothing that would turn most peoples heads, more than three or four times anyway. She retained all of her intelligence and personality, if a bit less inhibited in this form. She changed shape at first only when extremely angered or fearful. Yet as she desired to be more and more in the hyde form, she subconsciously taught herself how to shape change and retain one form for long periods of time.

    Unlike her comic book counterpart, Jennifer did not give up being a practicing attorney and she retained her original form for professional reasons, quickly discovering many clients, juries and even judges were intimidated by an extremely tall and beautiful woman lawyer. Her other form she used for her private life finding it more suitable for romance, adventuring and sports. Most people did not believe that she and the other Jennifer Walters were the same person but rather that there were two women who bore the same name. Although she never became a full-fledged adventurer she did on occasion work with the Four when they needed an extra hand or two.

    Despite Jennifer's efforts, and the rumors of another Hulk causing damage in  various parts of the nation, Robert Bruce Banner was sentenced to several years in the federal penitentiary. He escaped enroute to prison and was a fugitive for several years.

    The court had appointed a psychiatrist to evaluate Robert Bruce Banner's competency to stand trial. This psychiatrist was Leonard Samson. As with most folks he was skeptical of Robert Bruce Banner's ability to turn into a Hulk. While Banner was jailed he was given sedatives which made him becoming the Hulk less likely. Through therapy, Samson discovered Banner's reluctance to talk about his family, especially his parent. Samson dug up as much information on Robert Bruce Banner's background as he could.

    Dr. Samson became almost positive that Brian Banner had abused his son with constant physical punishment. The Hulk persona could stem from this. He was not able to do much therapy in with Robert Bruce Banner, the government was not interested in curing him at that moment but making certain he stood trial.

Dr. Samson accompanied the bus to Lompoc Federal Penitentiary. He saw the bus stop, one of its windows break out and the emergency door on the side fly from its hinges and a grayish man about seven feet tall burst out of the bus and go bounding across the California landscape. Other prisoners also scattered, freed of their chains. In addition to Robert Bruce Banner, the bus had also been transporting the terrorist Victor Marton (11)some of his cohorts had planted operatives among the guards and prisoners to effect his escape. Robert Bruce Banner was wounded and became the Hulk. The Hulk escaped and was blamed for the entire incident.

    Having seen the transformation, Dr. Samson began to wonder at the possibilities. Neither Bruce Banner nor Doctor Samson learned until quite recently that they were in fact cousins. I will not go into the coincidence of them having met since odds defying coincidence happens all the time in the Wold Newton Universe. Leonard Samson was the natural child of Daniel Grimm jr. and Francine Flegenheimer, a prostitute and possible cousin or daughter of criminal Dutch Schultz: Francine was never too clear on this point. Francine was a twenty year old prostitute who had found herself pregnant in 1939. She went into a home for unwed mothers mainly to get steady meals and a bed and put the child up for adoption.

    The baby boy was adopted a few days after his birth by a middle-aged couple of moderate means from Tulsa, Oklahoma. They had adopted out of state because they did not wish anyone to know that this child was not their natural child. Robert Samson was a bookseller and a book collector. Leonard Samson grew up surrounded by books and learned to read at an early age. His imagination was fired by the exploits of his father's treasured collection of pulp magazines and science fiction magazines. His main inspiration was Doc Savage (12). Although Leonard's slim frame would not bulk up like Doc's he did study various martial arts, read everything he could get his hands on in various disciplines and would eventually go to medical school in emulation of his hero. After medical school Leonard Samson became a psychiatrist but also did well in other scientific disciplines.

    Dr. Samson remained intrigued by the Robert Bruce Banner case and began research on the correlation between his personality change, the influence of radiation and the physical transformation while remaining a government consultant and while becoming a University Professor. He believed that the radiation having caused the mutation that caused Banner to transform (being a man of science he did not even consider the notion of a theriomorphic heritage) it could be used to cure him under controlled situations. He needed to bring out Banner's personalities and get them to fuse into one non-hysterical personality, the core Banner. He read all the literature on Multiple personality disorder, including Thigpen treatment of "Eve", Wilbur's treatment of "Sybil and Shea's treatment of "Alvin".

    When Banner was recaptured in late 1970, Dr. Leonard Samson saw his chance. He told Banner's lawyer Jennifer Walters and the various government agencies that he might be able to effect a cure on Banner. He was given the go ahead because as he was Banner was a menace, not only because of his monstrous attacks but also because of his very existence. Banner as a monster represented to some people that the government lied to its people and that fantastic things unknown to science were in fact true. This inspired people to question the government and pry into things best left alone. The government hoped to show by exhibiting a cured Banner that the stories of the Hulk were a hoax and that the government had nothing to hide in its desert military installations.

    Samson used a gamma ray (Radium X)  projector, a design later copied David Banner, to facilitate Banner's transformations into his monstrous alter personalities. Things were going well at first. Banner and the Hulks responded to therapy, (due no doubt to Banner's desire to be cured).

    However when Robert Bruce Banner's old friend, Betty Ross Talbot came to visit Banner the therapy became difficult. Betty Ross was going through some marital troubles and wished to get away from them. She wished to visit Robert Bruce Banner because she still had some feelings for him and she hoped to give him some moral support.

    Betty mentioned her marital troubles to Doctor Samson and he counseled her in a few sessions. Robert Bruce Banner misinterpreted these as romantic encounters and when he saw Betty embrace Dr. Samson in a hug, he became extremely jealous. As Doctor Samson was preparing for a session with Banner, he took his eyes off of Banner while he adjusted the projector. He looked up to see the original Hulk sitting in Banner's chair and their guard lying unconscious on the floor.

    Doctor Samson yelled for help but the original Hulk laughed. Dr. Samson turned on the projector thinking that he might be able to forcibly change the Hulk. The Hulk grabbed Samson and held him in front of the ray and then tossed aside like an old rag.

The Hulk using his genius level intelligence stealthily slipped out of the minimum security facility and became a fugitive once more.

    Leonard Samson awoke angry and felt a strange shiver come over his body. He noticed that his hands were larger and more muscular. Looking in a mirror he laughed with delight. His exposure to the radiation had brought about his subconscious desire, to be Doc Savage. He was now about six foot eight and two hundred and seventy pounds. He resembled the pictures of Doc Savage to such a degree that they could have been brothers, the only differences were that his eyes had remained blue and  while his skin had taken on a bronze tint, his hair was a closely cropped gray. It brought to his mind a wolf's pelt. He did not understand the subconscious desire for that added bit but was not about to worry about it.

    Leonard Samson had about the same strength and athletic abilities as Doc Savage had at least according to the stories about him. He did this without having to go through the two hour work out that Doc Savage did every day. He shape changed according to hormonal levels in his body. He eventually learned like Jennifer Walters to maintain one form for as long as he wished. Once he had achieved conscious theriomorphism,  he remained in the Doc Savage form permanently.

    Doc Samson as he called himself became something of an adventurer as well as remaining a government consultant. He was instrumental in re-capturing Banner, although he would escape time and again. Because of the similarities of their names and their appearance, Doc Samson because of his gray hair was often mistaken for an older version of Doc Savage. It was in fact Doc Samson that Benjamin Grimm and the Spider teamed up with on a couple of occasions that were, as usual, wildly fictionalized by one of the comic book companies. (13)

    NOTES

1 John Banner was the secret agent seen in Faster Guitar Alive. MGM 1967 After the Civil War he became a Federal Marshal and one of his adventures was portrayed in Son of Paleface, Paramount 1952. Although his name had been altered by the producers of the film for no apparent reason. Some of Banner's Texas Ranger relatives can be seen in The Gallant Legion, Republic 1948.

2. For on Charles Thorne and his seminal work in Agriculture please visit A Brief History of OARDC

3. Despite Dr. Banner's failure, his research on the gamma bomb was utilized about a century later as the basis for the photon torpedo. Banner had the correct ideas but his era's technology and science were just not up to the task.

4. This trait of gray hair was something that showed up in many of the theriomorph offspring of Edward Hyde. Only Benjamin Grimm did not have it. It may have been a trait peculiar to Edward Hyde because his bestial nature brought out more of the dominant lycanthropic characteristics.

Gamma radiation or thyophite radiation mutations did not have green skin, that was a creation of the comic book artists to set their characters readily apart from most of humanity. What they did possess was gray hair, or fur. The original form of the hulk had a pelt of fine gray hairs. The hairs were so fine and so short it appeared that he had gray skin. Doc Samson possessed grey hair as did Jennifer Walters.

5. These figures are derived in part from Super-Powers in the Wold Newton Universe -- Explained! by Matthew Baugh

6. When Robert Bruce Banner was exposed as the Hulk his less scrupulous cousin David Bruce Banner would take advantage of it in a most creative if insidious manner. After David Banner's wife had died in a auto accident David Banner needed quite a bit of money to carry on his research into hormones and gamma radiation. Pretending to be Robert Bruce Banner and even forging is signature. He made a deal with one of the major comic book publishers, a pretty standard deal in which they would pay him royalties for the use of his name and bonus for any stories he might divulge to the editors.

7. This was probably Wakanda down in the Belgian Congo area as mentioned in the Edgar Rice Burroughs book Man-Eater and elsewhere.

8. This was possibly later written by McGee as the television film, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, Hanna-Barbara, 1978.

9. The idea that Banner became stronger and stronger the angrier he became was one of those ideas that were overly exaggerated by the comic books. It is true that he did become stronger as all persons do when angry but there was an upper limit to his strength and despite having a regenerative body, it still fatigued.

10. For more on Jennifer Marshall see Lost in the Realms of Madness and Hyde and Hair pt. 3

11. Marton was the Thrush agent in The Man From Uncle Episode 33. The Foxes and Hounds Affair Original airdate: October 8, 1965

12. Doc Savage was a pulp character based on the life of James Clarke Wildman jr.
See Philip Jose Farmer's Doc Savage An Apocalyptic Life for more of an explanation.

13.The idea that Samson's strength waxed and waned as a result of the length of his hair was merely an interesting fiction created by the comic book author due to the similarity of Samson's name to the Biblical character.

Created 7-30-01

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