The Hulk is Marvel Comic Book Universe’s brawniest superhero. In terms of raw, brutal strength, no one comes closer to the Jade Giant. His power coincides with the level of anger he has. His rage literally fuels his strength. So the angrier the Hulk gets, the stronger he becomes. With a regenerative healing factor that would put Wolverine’s to shame and a power that does not have a ceiling, the Hulk is unstoppable. The rage in Hulk is limitless so the mindless beast can never be stopped. But turns out we have been wrong all along. The source of the Incredible Hulk’s powers, as revealed by Marvel Comics, is not his rage.
It’s the Moon.
That’s right folks. The Hulk draws his power to Hulk out by sourcing the energy from moonlight. In a way, the Hulk’s transformation is even stronger than most lycanthropes. In simpler words, Bruce banner’s Hulk transformation puts Werewolves to shame.
It all started when Marvel Comics revealed that there are multiple personas of the Hulk in Bruce Banner’s fractured psyche. And over the course of his superhero career, Banner had found out there are a variety of factors that might lead him to Hulk out. Sometimes a mere adrenaline rush is enough. Radiation exposure and even magic could do the trick. Bruce Banner could at times Hulk out just by sheer willpower. One version of the Hulk, the Gray Hulk had a different method to come out of Banner. The Gray Hulk would come out every time after sunset and squirm inside Banner’s body before sunrise. In the issues following The Incredible Hulk #1, fans realized that the Gray Hulk’s powers were affected by the phases of the moon.
To be precise, the Hulk’s powers come in the exact opposite way the moon affects werewolves. How about that!! We will get into some nitty gritty details now. The Incredible Hulk #333 reveals a peculiar aspect to Bruce Banner’s powers. By this time, the Gray Hulk had become the dominant persona within banner’s psyche. It means every time Banner transformed, the behemoth that came about was the Gray Hulk, not the Green One.
The Gray Hulk was more amoral and evil than the normal Green Hulk. He was also smarter and way more shrewder in his tactics than banner could ever be. Whenever Banner hulked out, the Gray Hulk would try to retain his dominance over Banner’s body. After teaming up with long-time Hulk foe The Leader, the latter made a strange discovery. In a telepathic dream sequence, the Gray Hulk persona reveals to the Leader that the more moonlight there is, the more dominant the Bruce Banner persona is. So in a full moon night, the Gray Hulk is kind and generous. But if its a new moon night, the Gray Hulk is cruel and sinister. Gray Hulk’s kryptonite was sunlight. Since moonlight is basically reflected sunlight, the Gray Hulk persona became weaker during a full moon.
Under a new moon is when the Gray Hulk had absolute control and could make permanent changes to Bruce Banner’s mind.
The revelation was an interesting inversion to the way werewolves function. Under a full moon, they are at the peak of their power levels. When there’s a new moon, they have trouble accessing their max potential. In the Gray Hulk’s case, it functions in the literal opposite way. Using this knowledge to his advantage, the Hulk tried to subliminally affect Bruce Banner’s actions. When he was under a new moon, the Gray Hulk persona would be dominant and he would let loose, causing rampart destruction and chaos. But his time under the moon was short lived. Bruce Banner was soon summoned into the microscopic world of K’ai. The world wanted Banner’s Green Hulk to come out, who was once a great champion of the alien world.
There the Gray Hulk joined forces with some sorcerers to take over K’ai. As a reward, the sorcerers helped the Hulk totally suppress the Bruce Banner persona using sorcery. With the moonlight no longer hampering his abilities, the Gray Hulk was free to do as he wished. Sunlight was still something to worry about for him so he started wearing a full body suit. He then became an underground enforcer Joe Fixit. Bruce Banner would return back to the surface. The three personas – the Bruce Banner persona, the Gray Hulk, and the Savage Green Hulk persona, wrestled for control until all of them were merged to form one entity. The Professor Hulk would then become the dominant personality.
But for a time, the Hulk was like a werewolf, powered by the moon, not by rage.
