Bruce Banner (The Hulk)

Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, also known as The Hulk, is one of the major characters from the Marvel Comics.

After being bombarded with a massive dose of gamma radiation while saving a young man's life during the testing of an experimental bomb, Bruce Banner was transformed into the Incredible Hulk: a green behemoth who is the living personification of rage and pure physical strength.

Personality
Banner suffered severe trauma as a child inflicted by his father, and repressed it in his subconsciousness. Because Banner's mind is incredibly complex, the original trauma associated with the event that triggered his transformation into the Hulk stimulated the emergence of various aspects of his personality, corresponding to the different stages of his life. Each fraction of his complex mind represents a peculiar archetype fragmentation of Banner's multifaceted psyche.

Because of that, Banner is often trying to hide his emotional damage, resulting predominantly in social isolation. And at the same time he is pursued by the destruction that Hulk causes, what culminates in more complications in his life. However, Bruce Banner is a self-sacrificing and heroic person. Endowed with a super-genius intellect, he is also one of the most brilliant and resourceful minds on Earth. Banner is constantly undertaken his career as a superhero while trying to find a cure for his condition. For a time Banner strategically acted in consonance with his Hulk persona, thus giving the Hulk a purpose. Banner has also stated that Hulk's reasoning and intelligence tend to fluctuate depending upon a number of factors at the moment of transformation. This results in the Hulk's standard persona varying from a raging monster to a more calculating fighter.

Physiology
The Hulk's gamma irradiated physiology allows Hulk to survive in space. Hulk/Banner's increase in gamma radiation in proportion to stress(caused by his own physical exertion/anger or outside forces), converting it to stronger cellular mass (stronger DNA which, in turn, produces stronger/denser organic tissues), negating what would be lethal force in order to survive. The growth of Hulk's gamma ray-fueled transmutation gives him potentially limitless strength extending to unparalleled abilities of regenerative healing, stamina, and durability.

Vast Superhuman Strength
Hulk is physically one of the strongest and most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. His limitless strength usually depends on his emotions, especially his rage. Possessed with infinite gamma rays/energies from every dimension/universe in existence, the Hulk is in the Class 100 ton strength range, meaning that he can easily lift over the 100 ton limit. Hulk has the potential to truly be "The strongest one there is".

However, this may vary depending on the incarnation/persona, and also how angry the Hulk is at a certain point. It is well known that the angrier Hulk gets, the more stronger and powerful he becomes. It is a well known fact that Bruce Banner has always suppressed the Hulk and his power, if only out of fear of harming others... especially those that both Banner and Hulk hold dear. But there has been a few times that neither Banner or Hulk could control their fury, thus the result have been quite devastating to say the least.

The Hulk's feats:

 * Catching and supporting a collapsing 150 billion ton mountain range using barely any leverage.
 * Tearing through a bunker designed to resist the explosion of a multi-kilo-ton weapon.
 * Matching the Super-Adaptoid, who had acquired strength and durability of over a hundred heroes like Iron Man and the Vision.
 * Closing the door of a nuclear core that the combined efforts of Thor and the Thing couldn't budge.
 * Redirected Gladiator's beams back to his eyes, instantly knocking him out. The blasts were said to be hotter than the sun.
 * Matching two Avengers teams during a prolonged period of time even though the Hulk was gradually weaker due to a physical separation from Banner.
 * Unleashing intense gamma energy shock waves from his body, Hulk almost destroyed the entire East Coast with a single footstep, while also threatening to destroy the entire planet... and even then he was revealed to be greatly holding back!.
 * Destroying the Crypto Man after its physical strength became superior to that of even Thor.
 * Overpowering Thor on several occasions.
 * Pushing two spheres of matter and antimatter apart.
 * Pulling and holding the tectonic plates of a planet together, a planet that's mass and gravity far exceed that of Earth.
 * overpowering sufficient force to change the orbit.
 * Destroying a planet and the surrounding planets/moons in the Dark Dimension, threatening the entire dimensional/universal realm.
 * Destroying an asteroid that's twice the size of Earth in a single blow.
 * Applying force to the space-time structure itself to prevent the Defenders from being absorbed into a fissure.
 * Smashing and crushing Adamantium with his bare hands.
 * Overpowering and shattering Onslaught's armor, whose power and armor were equal to those of a Celestial.
 * Sending concussive energy through countless dimensions after clashing with Ironclad.
 * Destroying Nightmare's Realm with his sheer power alone.
 * Crushing the enchanted uru hammer of Nul: Breaker of Worlds with his bare hands when The Serpent/Cul and his avatars known as The Worthy were at the height of their power.

Superhuman Speed
Hulk has always been noted to have great superhuman speed despite his size due to the power of his gamma-charged body.

Hulk can easily exceed the speed of sound with his punches (as it's made evident with the air-shock waves he produces) and super-leaps.

Hulk can run up to 300 miles per hour, and jump so high and fast he can achieve stable orbit.

He's also caught fighter jets and missiles through the use of super-leaps or reaching out to them with his bare hands.

Hulk usually jumps rather than runs to travel because once he reaches a certain anger level he is unable to run because he breaks apart the ground underneath him, giving him no friction to run on.

Hulk can resist gravity. He went up against Graviton

who was making it literally impossible for anyone to move a muscle. While the Likes of Iron Man, Wasp and Thor lay pinned to the ground, Hulk was moving despite Graviton putting tons of extra weight on him on top of the containers he was throwing to stop Hulk from moving. This is the most likely reason why Hulk is incredibly fast. He can defy gravity.

Vast Superhuman Durability
Hulk's skin is extremely durable, his skin can easily resist a Ground Zero explosion, Human Torch's Nova Blast, planet-Shattering impacts, and a blast from Galactus. Hulks durability also increases with his rage. Hulk has also been able to take a blast which Ultron used to soften and manipulate adamantium.

Healing Factor
In proportion to stress, Hulk can instantly renew and augment the atomic-molecular structure of the most basic biological component, the DNA/amino acids, from which all the various uniquely tasked proteins, categorized by cell type and multiplied into tissues and organs, are formed. Hulk's healing factor is superior to that of Wolverine's because it is not limited in the energy necessary to maintain this core foundation.

Adaptation
Hulk is capable of adapting to inhospitable environments when ever it becomes necessary. There were many occasions where Hulk not only survived in airless areas, but has also spoken in them. Same as his healing factor and strength, the angrier hulk gets, the faster he adapts. In the early comics, Hulk also had the ability of flight.

Self Sustenance
Hulk's physiology allows him to survive for a long period of time without food, water or air after he has adapted.

Astral Form Perception
The Hulk has the unique ability of being able to see "astral forms"--or ghosts. Hulk is able to see Dr strange astral form when no one can, which comes in handy when working with his fellow defender strange. The reason for hulk developing this ability could be because of the fact that banner feared his fathers ghost would come back and hunt him. however, hulks astral from perception has not shown it's limitations yet, seeing as how he once experienced a whole town in the middle of the desert until it faded away. while it is possible that this was merely a mirage, it is also credible that hulk witnessed a town that didn't exist in our reality. there was a case during world war hulk when hulk broke Dr strange's hands while he was in his astral form.

Vast Superhuman Stamina
Hulks stamina is also very high, in a normal calm state, he can go on for several days before he even begins to feel tired. Hulk's stamina increase with his anger.

Energy Projection/Absorption
When sufficiently enraged The Hulk emits omnidirectional bursts of Gamma rays, to hugely destructive effect. These Gamma shockwaves were capable of utterly annihilating Fin Fang Foom and Arm'Chedon.

The Hulk's body soaks in radiation like a sponge, using it to empower himself. Increasing not just his usual abilities but also on occasion his size.

Trivia

 * Years before Hulk became a part of the Defenders with Namor, Stan Lee considered merging their solo features in Tales to Astonish by making them form a team called "the Invaders." The idea was dropped, and years later, the name of the Invaders was used by Roy Thomas when he pitched the idea of a team of superheroes set during WWII.
 * The Merged Hulk was briefly renamed "The Professor" during writer Paul Jenkins' run, as a "revelation" that the Merged Hulk was not actually a merger of the three personalities but rather a separate personality altogether. Unlike the Merged Hulk, the Professor was physically distinguished by having a pony tail, which the Merged Hulk did not. However, these parts of Jenkins' run and Bruce Jones' entire run on the book, including "The Professor", "The Guilt Hulk", and "The Devil Hulk", were later retconned into hallucinations created by Nightmare, when writer Peter David returned to the title.
 * According to him, the "Hulk loves puppies." S.H.I.E.L.D. once used a bunch of them to transform him back to Banner after a mission. Similarly, the Hulk has claimed his favorite animals are dogs.
 * When asked by Iron Man why build the gamma bomb, he said he wanted gamma energy to power the world, but got no funds and had to transform it into a weapon to get government funds.
 * An hour of his Hulk persona being in control equals to 7.3 hours of sleep to his Bruce Banner persona.[489]
 * The Hulk was ranked as 9th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in 2011.
 * The Hulk was also ranked as 4th in "The Top 50 Avengers."
 * Stan Lee revealed that the Hulk went from gray to green because at the time, Marvel had ink problems, causing the strips to look weird. So when Lee was asked to change the Hulk's color, it became green, because it looked like a monster the most. He revealed this in the 2003 movie's bonuses.
 * In Hulk: The Incredible Guide and the 2003 movie, Stan Lee revealed the Hulk was based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Frankenstein.
 * Australian actor Eric Bana portrayed Bruce Banner, the Hulk in the 2003 film version directed by Ang Lee. Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner in the 2008 reboot of The Incredible Hulk directed by Louis Leterrier.
 * Ang Lee actually played the action scenes with the Incredible Hulk in motion capture, while Eric Bana is used to model the green behemoth's face.
 * Lou Ferrigno starred in the 1970s television series of the same name as the character -- from Universal Studios and not Marvel Comics -- opposite Bill Bixby, who portrayed the David Banner persona instead of the true version; however, this did not follow the original plot from the comics. In the television series, Banner's first name was changed from Robert to David and he was never called by his middle name Bruce, only David. On the DVD commentary of the pilot, series developer and executive producer Kenneth Johnson explained that it was a way to honor his late son David. Also, according to Stan Lee, Universal changed the name because "Bruce" sounded, in the eyes of the network, like a "gay" name, and David sounded much better.[citation needed] "Bruce" ultimately became the TV Banner's middle name, as it had been in the comics, visible on Banner's tombstone at the end of the pilot episode.
 * Stan Lee never intended The Hulk's identity to be Robert Bruce Banner. Stan ran the first issues with Bruce Banner, then mistakenly ran some more with Bob Banner. Notified of his mistake, he announced the name of the Hulk's alter ego was Robert Bruce Banner.
 * While the Hulk was intended to be the physically strongest character in Marvel, at the time Stan Lee created Thor in 1963, he intended to make a character who was "stronger than the Hulk, and smarter than Reed Richards, in a godly wisdom aspect." However, it should be noted that the above was simply Stan's intention in 1963, and whereas the Hulk has continuously grown in power since then, Thor has not. Under Stan Lee's watch, 10 years later during the 1970s, the Hulk stalemated Thor in strength, and during the late 1980s Stan wrote a Thor issue in which the title character was clearly outmatched against the Hulk without using Mjolnir. His current, 2013, view on the topic, is that it simply depends on if the writer is a Hulk fan or a Thor fan. The subject over which titular hero is the strongest is the source of many debates between comicbook fans.