One Hulk, Two Hulk, Green Hulk, Red Hulk Or Wait, Why is the Hulk Red?

With the release of Captain America: New World Order, We — as a comicbook aficionado, historian, journalist, and creator for over 60 years — have been repeatedly asked by several of our non-comics friends and family this very same question, “Wait, why is the Hulk red? (and when did he become red?)” Well funny story about all that, This didn’t just happen with this film, but the seeds of which were planted way back in the early 2000s (circa 2007 or thereabouts) Audrey Loeb and Chris Giarrusso began a running strip in the Marvel Bullpen pages called Bullpen Bits with little cartoon characters of the various Marvel characters (Giarrusso described it as Marvel done “Peanuts style”. This strip eventually morphed into Mini Marvels before graduating into a series of full-sized one-shot comics and trade paperbacks.

In addition to the regular Marvel characters that were being spoofed in that strip, Audrey, Chris Giarrusso and later Paul Tobin, Sean McKeever, and Marc Sumerak, all contributed to the Mini Marvels run of stories. Needless to say, the very concept of different colored Hulks apparently garnered enough traction amongst the Marvel staff that they made their way into the mainstream Marvel books. Still, it is important to understand that when Hulk first appeared in Incredible Hulk #1 (1962) co-created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby he was in fact gray. According to Marvel Lore, when that book appeared in print the actual coloring process of comics wasn’t sophisticated enough to maintain the same gray hue throughout (causing the Hulk to range in color from light to dark gray, to purple to blue to green, so the decision was made to color him green going forward).

Thus, it wasn’t until the second issue that the Hulk appeared as “normal” green self (Incredible Hulk #2, May 1962). Therefore, it was a green Hulk that existed in comics (with him later appearing from 1977–1982 on our TV screens in the form of Lou Ferrigno (with Bill Bixby portraying his alter ego of David Bruce Banner. Then, back in the comicbooks, in February of 1980, Bruce Banner’s Cousin, Jennifer Walters, was involved in a near fatal accident and received a transfusion of Bruce’s irradiated blood which transformed her into the Savage She-Hulk. (In 2022 She Hulk also got her own TV series on Disney+ with Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer and Malia Arrayah She-Hulk.

Interestingly enough, when the series was announced there were some conservative newsreaders who bemoaned the “Woke agenda” of a female hulk, without realizing that the character had been created some 40 years earlier, and not so much as an attempt to create a progressive character, but as a way for Marvel to protect their copyright on the name “Hulk” as a superhero.) In fact, during the run of The Incredible Hulk TV series, in a recorded interview, a journalist even asked Bill Bixby if there had been any talk of a female Hulk showing up, which Bixby thought was a good idea, but never actually occurred in the show.

Back in the Marvel comics, in 2015 the character, Amadeus Cho, also became a green Hulk, (The Totally Awesome Hulk #1), after being exposed to a concentrated dose of gamma radiation while attempting to save his friends from a villainous attack, essentially mirroring the origin story of Bruce Banner, this radiation triggered a similar transformation within Cho’s body, allowing him to turn into a powerful, green Hulk-like form. Two other gamma-irradiated characters (villains, actually) in the Hulk mythos are the Abomination (Emil Blonsky (1967), played by Tim Roth in The Incredible Hulk, 2008 and She-Hulk ‘22) and The Leader (Samuel Sterns, 1967) played by Tim Blake Nelson in both The Incredible Hulk (2008), and Captain America Brave New World (2025)

The Gray Hulk eventually reappeared in Incredible Hulk #324 (July 1986) while Peter David was writing the series. In this incarnation, Gray Hulk wasn’t so much of raging monster, as he was a Vegas crime boss named “Mr. Joe Fixit”. It wasn’t until the mid-to-late 2000s that Hulks began to take on more of a variety of rainbow hues. As noted, before, this began in a humorous strip entitled Bullpen Bits that appeared in various Marvel comics on the Bullpen Bulletins Page, written by Audrey Loeb, Chris Giarrusso, Marc Sumerak, Sean McKeever, and Paul Tobin (and which Giarrusso drew) it was in that strip that tiny red and blue Hulks were introduced.

In January of 2008 Jeph Loeb (Audrey’s father) and Ed McGuinness introduced Red Hulk in a new volume of Hulk comic. At first the actual identity of Red Hulk was unknown, but two years after his introduction, he was revealed to be General Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross. (This came as something of a surprise to everyone, as the character of Thunderbolt Ross had been killed some 20 years earlier. No explanation was given for this resurrection. This was, of course, followed in 2009 by the appearance of Red She-Hulk in Hulk (Vol. 2 #15) who turned out to be General Ross’ daughter, Betty, who ultimately morphed into Red Harpy (2019 in Immortal Hulk #16). Betty had been previously transformed into a Green Harpy way back in Incredible Hulk #168 (July 1973).

Other Hulks have included a Purple Hulk who first appeared in Avengers #24 (March 2012) created by Brian Michael Bendis and Daniel Acuna, who turned out to be Norman Osborn (formerly The Green Goblin, one of Spider-Man’s most notorious foes). Norman was given Super Adaptoid technology which he used to absorb all the powers of the Avengers at once, Hulk included… and nearly killing himself in the process. Outside of the comics, Happy Hogan became a purple Hulk during the events of the What If…? animated series.

While an Orange Hulk originally appeared as a playable character in the videogame Marvel vs. Capcom, this Hulk was not given any significance storyline but played slightly different from the standard Hulk later an Orange Hulk was introduced to the comics by Rick Remender and Mark Brooks Uncanny X-Force #12 (July 2011). This “Solar Hulk” was from Earth-295 (the Main Marvel Earth is 616). Orange Hulk seems to have gained his powers from solar radiation in the same way that Bruce Banner traditionally gained his through gamma radiation. It is also implied that he is stronger during daylight hours.

Blue Hulk who became Captain Universe in Incredible Hulk #1 (November 2005) was created by Jay Faerber and Carlos Magno. However, someone else who could well deserve the title of the Blue Hulk is Rick Jones. When Rick was exposed to gamma radiation by the Intelligencia in Hulk (Vol. 2) #2, he became a new type of Abomination, christening himself the ‘A-Bomb’ Hulk. As to why he became blue instead of green, it was assumed that since the Gamma radiation had been combined with other forms of radiation, it altered his skin tone to blue rather than green. He was later cured of the radiation and returned to his human form.

There was also a Brown Hulk who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2 #13, February 2000). This “Devil Hulk” (which was created by Paul Jenkins and Ron Garney was actually less of a physical monster and more of an inner demon for Bruce Banner to wrestle with intellectually rather than physically.

Then there was a Black Hulk from Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #4 (November 2014) by Rick Remender and Leinil Francis Yu who was the character Kluh (this Hulk was linked to yet another incarnation of a greenish, deformed Hulk, referred to as “Guilt Hulk” who was just one of several split personalities of Banner formed by his abuse by his father Brian Banner.

Next is Yellow Hulk (this one enhanced by the villainous scientific group A.I.M.) who was introduced in Matthew K. Manning and Marcio Fiorito’s Marvel Action: Avengers #9 in 2018. The Yellow Hulk is a result of the godlike Nightmare messing with Captain America’s mind. Nightmare brought Steve Rogers’ nightmares to life, creating a pocket reality where his Avengers allies had been corrupted by the terrorist group Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) The Yellow Hulk is seemingly identical to the Savage Hulk in power and personality, but now A.I.M.’s signature shade of yellow.

Apparently, there is also another individual who is a yellow Hulk, and that is Jackson Lenard who is a character created by the gaming company Legend but eventually used in the Marvel Universe. He is a friend of Dr. Banners who was trying to find a cure for the Hulk but was turned into one himself!

Silver Hulk (otherwise known as Galactus’ Herald was designed by Ron Lim, and appeared in the one-shot comic What If...? Galactus Transformed Hulk? #1 (2025). The story sees Galactus choosing Bruce Banner as his new herald, imbuing him with the Power Cosmic.

Finally, there is actually a White Hulk (a Hulk clone) which appeared in James Kochalka’s story Hulk Squad, Smash! from Strange Tales Volume 5 #1, (September 2, 2009). The White Hulk was essentially written as a joke character in the anthology of weird and wild stories. Needless to say, given the nature of Marvel’s multiverse it means this character does officially exist in Marvel canon, and he’s described as part of a team of experimental Hulk clones created by the government.

Actually, there is “technically” one more Hulk-like character, and that is a “Skin-Tone Hulk” (Doc Samson), a psychiatrist who attempted to steal Hulk’s powers. While Samson became incredibly muscular, only his hair turned green. In the past, Bruce Banner has shown the rare ability to use his Hulk strength when still in human form (see Bruce Jones and Mike Deodato’s Jr.’s Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #50, 2003), suggesting he too qualifies for the ‘skin-tone Hulk’ title.

As a postscript to all of this, our friend, Ray Felix has independently developed a Red Hulk-type character that he wound up using in his own Bronx Heroes comic series A World Without Superheroes. That character eventually came to be known as Rampage. and went on to appear in Bronx Villains #1 from Ray’s production company Bronx Heroes.