1982’s DC and Marvel comics book smackdown Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk is not only a gripping Batman comic book story, but also one of the best tales ever told with the Hulk. DC and Marvel’s history of friendly rivalry always meant that a DC vs. Marvel crossover story was inevitable, and while that was eventually realized on an epic scale in 1996’s DC vs. Marvel story, comic book readers were given a couple of early glimpses at DC and Marvel superheroes meeting. 1976’s Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man got the DC-Marvel crossover ball rolling, while 1982’s Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk proved to be an equally fun follow-up.
Like Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk isn’t strictly set in the DC or Marvel Universes, per se, instead occupying an alternate reality where DC and Marvel characters have long co-existed. Despite sweeping any such concern for continuity under the rug, Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk makes the Dark Knight an unusual ray of hope in a story that, while not dark in any overt sense, really gets to the tragedy inherent in the Hulk’s backstory.
Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk opens with the status quo that Dr. Robert Bruce Banner often finds himself in – being in hiding and on the run while trying to find a way to reverse the Gamma radiation mutation that causes him to morph into the Hulk whenever he becomes angry. Bruce gets a job working at Wayne Enterprises, motivated by the company’s development of a Gamma gun that could potentially cure him. Unfortunately, the Joker and his henchmen arrive to steal the gun at the behest of a villain known as the Shaper of Worlds, who has the power to make a person’s dream into a reality. Facing a terminal illness that can potentially be cured by the Gamma gun, the Shaper offers to bring the Joker’s dreams to life in exchange for him retrieving the Gamma gun.
The Joker’s attack on Wayne Enterprises hits a snag when Bruce is caught in the middle trying to protect the Gamma gun, with the Joker’s henchmen attacking him and triggering his transformation into the Hulk. Batman then arrives on the scene to stop the Joker’s plot, only for Mr. J to convince the Hulk that Batman is his true enemy, causing the Hulk to attack the Dark Knight, with the Joker making off with the Gamma gun. With a combination of knock out gas and a strong kick to the gut, Batman manages to defeat the Hulk and turn him back into Bruce Banner. When he returns to the scene as Bruce Wayne, the sympathetic CEO of Wayne Enterprises offers Bruce Banner a job in constructing a replacement Gamma gun for the company, with the chapter ending on the two Bruce’s shaking hands as their superheroic alter egos do the same in silhouette.
Being released in the early ’80s, Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk isn’t by any means the darkest comic book tale told with either hero (the world was, after all, still four years removed from Frank Miller’s re-invigoration of Batman in The Dark Knight Returns.) Nonetheless, even with its colorful tone and sense of fun, Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk still centers itself on the tragedy inherent to Bruce Banner as a character. From the moment he first appears in the story, the Bruce Banner in Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk would fit right into an episode of The Incredible Hulk television series as a man tortured by the power he carries within him and desperate to free himself of it.
In turn, the Hulk himself is also a tragic figure in his own way in the story, with Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk really tackling that his life is entirely conditional on Bruce Banner getting angry. In one scene where the Hulk is held captive by the Joker’s gang, the Hulk declares that he “hates Banner most of all”, Banner being the one to “sends Hulk down into darkness” whenever he calms down and regains control of himself. It’s only a few quick lines on the Hulk’s part, but it reveals a lot about how much he has to be angry about in being a prisoner in Bruce Banner’s body only let free in intervals of anger that Bruce is trying to suppress. In the book’s final panel, Batman himself recognizes this when he admonishes Commissioner Gordon not to take the departing Banner into custody, empathizing with Bruce Banner being at the mercy of his own anger and the Hulk being unleashed by it, as Banner walks along solemnly with the Hulk’s shadow cast on the building behind him.
The level of tragedy Bruce Wayne has experienced in his life and into his career as Batman is well-known – the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce building himself into Batman to protect Gotham City even as it produces one tragedy and new murderous villain after another. As the superhero to most embody darkness as a theme of his own identity, all of this made Batman the ideal DC character to empathize with Bruce Banner’s plight.
From Batman’s perspective, even with all the tragedy he’s dealt with in his life, he still has plenty on his side from his decades of detective and martial arts training, his plethora of gadgets and tech, the support of his butler Alfred Pennyworth and his allies on the Bat family, and billions of dollars to his name. As seen in many comic book stories and in Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner has none of the above (his association with the Avengers notwithstanding), and his powers come a great cost to him living anything resembling a normal life. Batman understands tragedy and pain like few superheroes do, and recognizes the impact both have had on Bruce Banner. It might not be a dark comic book tale per se, but Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk gets to the heart of the darkness at the center of both hero’s stories, Bruce Wayne a man who harnessed his tragedy to become a hero as Batman and giving a helping hand to Bruce Banner to do the same as the Hulk.
1982’s DC and Marvel comics book smackdown Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk is not only a gripping Batman comic book story, but also one of the best tales ever told with the Hulk. DC and Marvel’s history of friendly rivalry always meant that a DC vs. Marvel crossover story was inevitable, and while that was Read More