Help
by Nathan Shapiro
First off, let me start by saying that the Hulk, with 40+ years of written history by numerous authors, has gone through various changes through the years. There have been dumb Hulks, intelligent Hulks, green-skinned Hulks and even gray-skinned Hulks. In the first 3 issues alone, while the character was still being developed, the Hulk was a malevolent character that sometimes wanted to conquer the world. If you want to find out more about the changes the Hulk has gone through, see this pageat my website. If you want to browse around further, just click the link at the top-right of the page to restore the frames. Throughout my essay I have also added links to some pages I think might be useful. Due to the variations in the Hulk's character, I'm distilling this discussion down to the essentials of the character. For those unfamiliar with it, here is the basic gist of the Hulk Concept:
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Dr. Bruce Banner, during the initial test of his awesome nuclear weapon the "gamma bomb", rushes out to save a foolish teenager who has parked his jalopy right in the middle of the test site. After saving the boy by throwing him into a protective trench, Bruce Banner is bathed in the gamma rays of his own invention. The gamma rays mutate him, and as a result Bruce Banner finds himself transforming into a less intelligent "monster" in times of stress (or, in some cases, at nightfall). Being "The Hulk" leads to terrible suffering for Bruce Banner, perpetual unhappiness and finding himself hunted and hounded by the US government and super villains.
The Hulk was created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, but artist Steve Ditko, an objectivist himself, contributed greatly to later stories. Ditko "inked" issue #2, which means he tightened the artwork of Jack Kirby. He completely drew #5, and then drew the Hulk regularly in his second series "Tales to Astonish" for quite some time. In the early days of Marvel Comics, it was not unusual for the entire plot of a story to be made up by the artist (such as Ditko) and to have the writer (stan Lee) insert text later to make a cohesive story. Lee and Ditko had oppossing political viewpoints (Ditko an objectivist, especially later in life, and Lee a moderate liberal).
Let me begin by looking at the events that led up to Bruce Banner being exposed to the gamma rays. Had Rick Jones, the teenager, not managed to sneak onto the military base during the bomb's test, Bruce Banner would never have rushed out to save him. What, exactly, caused young Jones to do something so irrational as breaking into a military base? In his own words: "The kids bet me I wouldn't have nerve enough to sneak past those guards..." There we have it! Rick Jones did not do something out of his own rational interests, but because others, using peer-pressure, coerced him into acting against his own interests in order to remain part of the group.
Now, Bruce Banner did not have to rush out to save Rick Jones. Since he was on a military base, he could have simply ordered someone else to do it. Had he followed his own rational self-interest, looked out for preserving his own existence ahead of others, he would never have become the Hulk. What is ironic is that Bruce Banner is a scientist, a supposed genius, yet he does such a bone-headed thing (as we objectivists would tell him). This reflects the idea that the "geniuses" of our society, found in the colleges and universities, are undermining their own brilliance by attacking reason, or at the very least not relying on it as their foundation.
Banner's lack of rational self-interest comes into even greater focus once he reaches Rick Jones. He grabs Jones and races with him towards the protective trench. When they arrive, rather than leaping into the trench, Bruce Banner shoves Rick Jones in first, saying, "There! You're safe!" Only after Rick Jones is in the trench does he prepare to jump in, but it is too late. The bomb goes off and Banner is exposed to the gamma rays. Is there no clearer example of the dangers of altruism? Bruce Banner sacrificed his own life in order to put the interests of someone else, someone who was in danger due to his own irrational behavior, ahead of his own and the result was a life of suffering.
I want to mention why the bomb went off to begin with. Bruce Banner had told his co-worker, Igor, to halt the countdown. However, Igor was a soviet spy who wanted to kill Banner so that he could steal the secrets of his gamma ray formula. This gels nicely with the reality that the communist states, unable to produce themselves, are reduced to stealing the efforts of free nations in order to survive. In fact, communists provide the source of many of the Hulk's stories over the years, especially in the beginning. In the second story in issue #1, the Hulk faces a deformed, communist scientist who, upon hearing about the Hulk, wishes to "slay him, or bring him back as my prisoner, as a symbol of my might." The sentiment of the communist scientist, no longer a man (he is a deformed creature named The Gargoyle), reveals the immense importance of physical force and oppression in a society where productive genius is not valued. In issue #4, a group of Soviet soldiers attempt to capture the Hulk, to exploit the secrets of his biology in order to create an army of creatures to fight the west. Again, their success does not lie in their ability to create anything, but their desire to sacrifice an individual (Hulk) for the greater "good"(the spread of communism).
(As a very brief aside, in a story written 30 years later, Igor still doesn't learn the value of individual effort. When the Hulk, sharing Bruce Banner's mind in this form, confronts Igor, blaming Igor for turning him into the Hulk, Igor finally cracks up. Igor claims, despite all of Bruce Banner's personal suffering, that the Hulk has done a lot of good in the world and that he should deserve some degree of credit for it!)
Clearly, the Hulk can be viewed as an individual, struggling against the collectivists in the world who want to use him for their own purposes. In Tales to Astonish #64 (the Hulk's second series after his first was cancelled), drawn by objectivist Steve Ditko, Bruce Banner is actually trapped behind the iron curtain and placed in a forced labor camp. When Banner says they will never force him to work for their secret science projects, the soviet general in charge of the camp, tells Banner: "We are not tyrants! We do not force anyone! But, of course, if you wish to be fed...!" The important thing to note is, that despite claiming not to use the overt appearance of force (and it is just a baseless claim, we later see them brutally beat down other prisoners), there are other methods of physical force that are used to control an individual. By removing a person's freedom to voluntarily choose where to work, who to work for and doing what, it leaves them little choice but to do the government's bidding in order to obtain food.
Bruce Banner then witnesses an attempted revolt by another captured scientist, who proclaims the value of death over slavery. Bruce Banner, eventually turning into the Hulk, helps topple the leaders of the gulag. In the course of their uprising, his fellow prisoner ends up dying in order to save the Hulk's life by lunging in front of a ray gun blast declaring "You'll never defeat free men! Never! Never!" However, this death is not considered a sacrifice by the scientist because he realizes that the Hulk is the only one capable of continuing the fight for freedom. The dying scientist, in fact, thanks Hulk because with his help he will be able to die a free man and not a slave. The scientist made a rational decision based on his values. Freedom was more valuable than slavery, dying free was more valuable than living as a slave.
I want to switch gears back to the Hulk's earliest tales to further show how that Hulk is an individual fighting against a world that wishes to control him and make him a slave. After the Gamma Bomb, Bruce Banner is sealed in a room with Rick Jones. When night falls and Bruce Banner first becomes the Hulk, the Hulk's first question is: "Where am I? Why am I locked in here? I want to get out!" And the Hulk smashes through a brick wall like cardboard. The Hulk's overwhelming desire is not for destruction, but for freedom. When the Gargoyle attempts to use a pellet gun that saps an individuals will, the Hulk proudly shouts "The Hulk is no man's slave!" And when the Hulk barges in on Igor trying to find Banner's hidden gamma ray formula, Igor shoots the Hulk. Hulk grabs the gun and crushes it, asking "So! This is what the puny humans fear!" The gun, and the force it represents, has been used (either by criminals, OR governments) to control men. However, the Hulk is a creature that cannot be hurt by the threat of force, who does not fear looking into a barrel of a gun. He has the power to break the control of force over his life to be independent. Perhaps that is why the military, and other authorities, lash out at him. He is something they cannot control.
It could be argued that the Hulk's key to freedom is his overwhelming reliance on force, rather than reason. The Hulk primarily deals with others through physical violence, rather than discussion, which is not objectivism but anarchy. This is, to a degree, true. However, you have to overlook an important facet of the Hulk's character over the years in order to completely argue this position: The Hulk primarily uses force in a retaliatory fashion. Unlike other superheroes, the Hulk does not put on a cape and run around fighting bad guys (or as Ayn Rand put it in Ethics of Emergencies: "[spending] his life sailing the seven seas in search of shipwreck victims to save"). The Hulk, typically, shows up only after Bruce Banner has been provoked into becoming the Hulk, and he only fights those who attack him (occasionally, there is collateral damage, but as Ayn Rand noted the blame for such incidents is placed on those who initiate the use of force). The Hulk's mantra over the years was: "leave Hulk alone!" Essentially, Hulk just wanted the right to his own life, which others were determined to deny him.
I've touched on the Hulk's relationship with reason, which is arguably the least objectivist trait of the character. When Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk, it is usually coupled with some decrease in intelligence. The green, Savage Hulk is often depicted as having a child-like level of intelligence, whereas the crafty Gray Hulk actually has a normal intelligence. The Hulk often found his mind muddled and confused (particularly the less intelligent versions), making it difficult for him to make informed decisions or to understand why something was happening to him.
The main question is, does the decrease in intelligence from Banner to the Hulk necessarily mean a decrease in reason? After all, as mentioned earlier, Bruce Banner was a brilliant scientist but made several miserable decisions by not using his reason and pursuing his rational self interest. In contrast, even the dumbest Hulks seem to know what they want in order to achieve happiness and act in the way they best see fit to pursue those goals.
To jump ahead about 25 years, in the mid-80's there was a story line where the crafty Gray Hulk became dominant and Bruce Banner disappeared for several months. During this period, the Hulk established a life for himself as an enforcer in Las Vegas. He had a job, a home and a girlfriend and was happy by pursuing his own self interest. All of which demonstrates that the Hulk (at least this version) is very capable, when given the chance, to pursue a rational, self-interested course in life.
The Hulk's new life in Vegas was ultimately destroyed, in part, by the resurfacing of the Banner personality. Bruce Banner did not want the life the Hulk established, he wanted to return to his own wife and pursue his own interests. This demonstrates the truth of objectivism through a negative example (meaning, an anti-objectivist trait in the character revealing to the audience the value of objectivism). The Hulk, or Bruce Banner, cannot pursue their own values because they are sacrificial animals. It's not the intent of Banner or the Hulk to be altruistic, but they are forced, by their biological situation, to give up their values when the other takes over their single body. Neither of them can be happy because neither of them are free to pursue their own interests and must constantly live under the threat that anything they work to achieve can be taken away or destroyed by the other. This is no different than how, in a dictatorship, a person cannot use reason and pursue happiness because the threat of force against their individual rights makes it impossible for them to create any sort of long-term plans to secure happiness.
This ultimately reveals an interesting dichotomy in the Hulk's character: He represents both the individual, struggling against the collectivists to pursue his own rational self interests as well as being a creature whose very nature prevents him from using reason in the pursuit of happiness.
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I know posting this must reveal me to be quite a geek, but it really was an interesting topic I wanted to share with some people that I share a similar philosophy with. Feel free to critique, or laugh, or whatever at it.
This post has been edited by Captain Nate: 13 June 2005 - 08:59 AM
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) I never saw Hulk in these terms before. I have examined characters like Spiderman (just added a post on a thread about the movie), Fantastic Four and X-Men Vs. The Brotherhood, but Hulk always seemed too simple to me. In my defense the grey intelligent hulk occurred during one of my non-comic periods. 
