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goodoldfashionedengineer · 2 months

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I am watching Daisy Jones & the Six rn, a fictional band which was really popular in the 70s but had a fallout and no one answered why, until 20 years later when they interview the band members and people involved with them, a documentary of sorts.

And I love that sort of thing.

So, idea: Bruce was a brilliant scientist and one day, he disappeared from the face of the earth (on the day of the gamma bomb test). They make a documentary about Bruce Banner in the 80s/90s.

None of his still living family members wanted to participate.

They pull in some other people.

Elementary school teacher: "He was gifted from a young age. Always on top of his class. Could read before he was four years old. But he wasn't really sociable. He didn't have any friends, no. The other kids quickly saw him as a target and ganged up on him."

"It was usually his mom who picked him up. Brian Banner, his father, was known to... Not be a pleasant person. A very angry and also insecure man.”

Former neighbor, “The neighborhood wasn't really a community. Except for church services, maybe. But yeah, you could hear screams from the Banner house very often. Mr and Mrs Banner went out a lot and the boy stayed with the Nanny. Highly unpleasant person as well. You didn't see her often but you knew that you just didn't want to talk with her.”

Bartender, “Brian Banner was a regular. Nobody liked him because he got really aggressive when drunk. And loud. He would often complain about his son, making claims about him being a monster. It was at these moments I was glad he was at the bar instead of at home.”

Former neighbor: “Rebecca did sport a black eye every now and then, no amount of make-uo was going to conceal that. Plus she wore long-sleeved shirts even in summer. She was a good woman. She didn't deserve what happened to her. But yes, the clues that something like this could happen were there.”

Reporter: “What happened?”

Police Officer #1: “We got a call. An accident with one person dead. We arrived at the scene and we all knew that this was no accident.”

Police Officer #2: “He was still kneeling beside her bleeding body. His hands, his face, his clothes, they were all covered in blood. I gave him a blanket, guided him away to our car. He didn't show any signs of emotions. But tears were running down his face. Suddenly, he said ‘She didn’t slip. "He killed her’.”

Police Officer #3: “I remember him. I couldn't ever forget that case. I was with him at the station while we waited for his aunt. He was sitting there all alone, wrapped in a blanket so I decided to get him a hot chocolate. You could see that he had it tough in life. There were bruises on his arms, some handshapped. I brought the hot chocolate over to him and he was holding out his arm. Was muttering something along the lines of ‘I can't find it’. I never understood it.”

Reporter: “You were his middle school teacher?”

Teacher #1: “Yes, I was.”

Reporter: ��What do you remember about him?”

Teacher #1: “He was a real troublemaker. Not because of his grades, but he would cause scenes because he only ever wanted to work alone, which backfired multiple times. And his constant mumbling!”

Reporter: “Mumbling?”

Teacher: “Yes! He would talk to himself so often, even during class! And then he had the audacity to not even pay attention to the lesson!”

Schoolmate #1: “I was in the same class as him.”

“Ohh, yes, he mumbled to himself so often! Not even himself, his imaginary friend. Imaginary friend! We were teenagers and the guy still had an imaginary friend. Probably because no one else would willingly spend time with him.”

“Hulk. He always called him Hulk, yeah. Even wrote that name down in his notebook he always carried around.”

“He had this notebook and he would write in it whenever he could. Even during class.”

“I don't know what he wrote in it anymore. Some sort of equations.”

Carla, schoolmate: “He stepped in when Ken, the school bully, harrassed me. He didn't have to do that, but he did anyway.”

“Well, they… they beat him up. He had to go to the hospital. Broken ribs. But once he came back, he asked me if I was okay!”

“What I said? Erm, stuff I regret saying. I don't want to talk about it. We were teenagers and I had a lot to deal with already. I had my own insecurities and your reputation was really important back in school. It wasn't fair, yes, but I was just a girl.”

“He was a good person. Sure, he was weird, but he did not deserve to be bullied. Nobody does.”

Reporter: “How do you know Bruce Banner?”

Former college student #1: “We were roommates during college.”

Reporter: “What was he like?”

Former college student #1: “Smart. Passionate. Awkward. He was great at what he did, a real favorite amongst teachers. He studied with Stoddard, another gamma scientist. Stoddard was always jealous of Banner, because he worked much harder but Banner was the one who got all the praise.”

“It wasn't that Banner was lazy, he was just a genius who just instantly understood everything it seemed. When he had a problem, he would immediately try to solve it.”

Reporter: “How do you know Bruce Banner?”

“We were friends during college.”

“We had a study group in college and we would spend the weekends together too sometimes.”

“We were all nerds, which is why it was so easy to talk together. The rest? They didn't understand us. But we understood each other.”

Former college student #3: “We had fun sharing our interests, sharing knowledge, getting into rambles, going into hypothetical scenarios.”

Former college student #2: *rubbing the back of his neck* “What we would do in our free time together? Ehh.”

Former college student #3: “Drugs.”

Former college student #2: “It was the 70s and burnt out college students. I’m sure that’s all that you need.”

Former college student #1: “Once, I hadn't seen him for three days. I didn't think much of it until he came back. He looked really shaken up and spaced-out. Told me he was at a cafe three towns over. Apparently he had no idea how he got there and just walked back.”

“If he went to parties? Usually not. Except when he did. See, most of the time he was really timid. He was sure of himself, but still introverted. But when he did go out? The guy went all the way. Would even ask me if I wanted to come with him, which I declined. He was like a completely different person.”

Former college student #2: “We had a great time together. Parties were so fun! He really knew how to charm the ladies. It was like Clark Kent and Superman, one second an unassuming guy, the next, he knew how to read the room and what to say to people to get what he wants as if he could read their minds.”

Former college student #3: “Sometimes we would drive to a casino, he would make some money and afterwards we would get something to eat.”

Former college student #2: “And sometimes… Sometimes it seemed more like possession than a superpower. I remember one time we were in the car, mentally not 100% present and he asked really panicked ‘Where am I? How did I get here?’. And that whole confident demeanor? It was gone.”

Former college student #1: “Yes, this was not the only occurrence. Sometimes he would become… childish? He would talk in a few word sentences. I blamed it on sleep deprivation but when I asked him about it, he told me he didn't remember.”

Journalist: “What happened after Dr. Banner’s college time is mostly speculation. What we do know is that he tried to get funding for his research but was declined. As to what his idea consisted of, we have no idea. Eventually he would join the government and this was the last officially known thing about him. His contact with friends and family members became less and less. Of course, he had co-workers that would probably know more, but even the ones working with him are mostly classified and the ones we do know of were unable to be contacted. Eventually a missing person report was filed - and immediately closed. Did he die? Is he held captive? Did he see something he was not supposed to see? As of now, we don't have the answers. But there is hope that we one day will.”

#bruce banner #marvel 616 #marvel #marvel comics #marvel fanfiction #the incredible hulk #incredible hulk #hulk #gamma system #brian banner #rebecca banner #tw blood mention #tw death #tw past abuse #marvel au #earth 616 #616 bruce banner

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moontheoretist · 2 years

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Hulk 2003 is just superior [obviously heavy spoilers to 2003 Hulk movie]

Opening Note

David Banner was a scientist that tried to create "super-immune systems by strengthening the human cellular response". The only issue I have with the start of 2003 Hulk movie is that Banner Senior was pursuing human regeneration and immortality with the passion of Dr Connors trying to get his hand back, which makes me in turn miss Dr Connors and his obsession to get his hand back, just a little bit. This movie actually shows some greening signs on infant Bruce’s skin when he is distressed before Bruce is even exposed to the Gamma in his lab, due to his father experimenting on himself.

David Banner

David Banner doesn't actively hate Bruce like Brian Banner from the comics did, but it is only because he is curious about what happened after his augmented DNA from his experiments that he conducted on himself got mixed with regular, non-augmented DNA and gave birth to a person. Bruce was his little science experiment, so he was nice to him and was playing with him and was generally a good dad, until he took out the needle and treated Bruce like his alive test subject to see what became of Bruce. And then when he “realized what Bruce is”, he went 180 on his kid, because he was "all he feared". When the military learned about his human blood samples, they removed him from the project and he in exchange triggered a gamma bomb. He was put away for 30 years and came back to stalk Bruce, because Bruce was his creation, and he treated him as his creation more than he did treat him as his son. To the point that he was willing to manipulate his son in order to get what he wanted - his power. When he learns that Betty's existence brought General Ross onto Bruce, he steals her scarf so then his mutated dogs could attack and kill her, because he wanted Bruce to change into Hulk. David treats Bruce and Hulk as his biggest success as a scientist. He also uses the tech that turned Bruce into the Hulk to turn himself into some... molecule kinda man that can "partake with the essence of all things". David describes his life as whole and complete when he was in love with his wife Edith, and Edith wanted a baby. But the moment she got pregnant, he knew he gave her a monster, something else entirely than the son he intended to give. He says that he didn't kill Bruce as an infant only because he was curious about what happened, what were the results of the experiment. He started feeling compassion only when he realized that Bruce will be a horror for everybody around him, or so he claims. He also claims that he wanted to cure Bruce, to save him from what he had done to him, but later it is clear that he never intended to save Bruce, or if he did, it was quickly abandoned for either killing him or using him for his own gain. When his lab was taken away he came back home with intention to kill Bruce, he saw it as a mercy from a father to a son, and ended accidentally killing his own wife - "taking away all that was precious to him", because Bruce was never that to him. He was just a curious experimental subject, not a son or family to him. David tricked Betty and the military to take him close to his son. And he doesn't mean Bruce by that. He means the Hulk. He sees the Hulk as his only and real son. He calls Bruce his son first, then he calls him "a superficial shell of consciousness", and then again calls him a son, as if he thought he could make him believe that lie. He wants the Hulk's strength, nothing more and he claims that it is all done to “cure Bruce”. That proves that neither of them was ever his son to him, despite what he claimed before, and they are seen by David as his salvation and his experiment, nothing more. He may try to claim that either of them is his son, but this is just a manipulation tactic. He then calls Bruce a little speck of human trash and tells him to stop crying, literally not long after he was all supportive of his son crying it all out. This is a manipulator at his most evil. The person who tries to gaslight you into believing him to care about you, even when you know for a fact he doesn't, because he showed and told you it to your face a five seconds earlier. His first transformation into the man made of electro energy reminds me of ZZazz from one of the 1996 The Incredible Hulk cartoon. He looks the same!

Edith Banner

Dies in the same circumstances as Rebecca Banner.

Bruce Banner

Bruce in this movie was a kid that even when hit with a stick would never hit back, standing there and shacking, and taking it all and boiling it all inside. Feeding the rage bubble that will one day need to be released. Then he witnessed his father killing his mum and suffered nightmares with what happened so long that they were afflicting him still when he was a teen living with his adoptive mum. While his father had become his personal demon, monster in his own mind for what he did to his mum. His adoptive mum had faith that there was greatness in Bruce that he will share with a whole world one day as a great scientist. He is Bruce Krenzler, not Banner in this movie due to adoption, but he is still a son of David Banner. Bruce in this universe saves Harper, his colleague from the lab, from gamma exposure, not Rick Jones like in the comics and cartoons. He also finds humor in the fact that he was healed with nanomeds to the point that even his old injuries are gone, so he never actually actively seeks the cure like Bruce from cartoons and comics. Betty doesn't find it funny. It is nice that in this movie it is an accident that he becomes the Hulk. An accident born from his father's experiments on himself and accident in the lab that is true to the source material, instead of Bruce using himself as a human experiment willingly like it was shown in 2008 movie (goddammit I hate that movie). He turns into a Hulk shortly after, but when he comes back, he doesn't remember anything other than what happened before the change. Bruce describes his transformation as a dream about rage, power and freedom. "Gamma released what was already there...me...it". He knows his father provoked him on purpose. Bruce says that what scares him the most is that he actually likes it when he loses control.

Hulk

This movie just like 2008 one too makes Hulk mostly silent. Just screaming in rage, not responding to Betty at all. However, what I like about the portrayal of the Hulk in this movie is that he is mostly shown as a stoic figure that reacts in rage occasionally, but interacts with people without screaming in rage at all. Hulk seems to only have access to very early memories of Bruce, the ones with his trauma, his mother being murdered in front of his eyes by his own father. But he doesn't attack his father even when he meets him for the first time, despite recognizing him. Just gets agitated and runs away from him. I suspect that he was scared of him, of what he did to his mum and what he could do to him, without realizing that there was very little that man could do to him when he is the Hulk. When he looks at his father and Betty he just looks like a big confused puppy at times. In comparison to 2008 Hulk that had always that angry expression, this Hulk is always just confused or curious whenever he is not raging around, and he doesn't seem to like scaring people he cares about with his rage, which is shown in his face when Betty sees him kill that one mutated dog just in front of her, and she looks terrified and Hulk feels bad about causing it. Hulk yelled at the helicopter that he put down once in the entire movie as if he was saying "and stay down". Trying to intimidate and scare the thing to stop attacking him, without understanding that the pilot cannot attack him anymore without the chopper. This is one of very few instances when he intimidates people, as like I said he tries to avoid it. Hulk cannot be put to sleep by the gas in this movie, which is neat. He just sneezes, lol. He tries to avoid hurting people, but he sometimes does it accidentally. He purposefully shakes the tank’s cockpit chamber to make humans fall off, so he would not hurt them. The military wants to stop Hulk in his tracks without realizing that if they stopped pursuing him, he would just stay in empty silent places and enjoy the nature, because that's who Hulk is. When it comes to his battle style, he runs around to avoid being hit by the artillery, and on top of that smacks the missiles as if they were just bugs on his way. And in all of this, he manages to not kill the soldiers from the choppers that he punched out of the sky. He prefers avoidance and only charges when he feels like he is trapped and has no other choice than to go through people instead of turn around and run. This includes being targeted by tanks, as he felt he cannot move anywhere with them firing at every place he turned to, so he naturally had to dispose of them. He got close and personal with the tanks, scaring the soldiers shitless and destroying the tanks as if they were very big plastic toys. Some of those Choppers vs Hulk scenes feel like taken straight out of 1996 cartoon and I love it. Hulk is also attacked by more advanced aircrafts and saves one of his attackers when they cannot pull up. If Hulk didn't jump onto the aircraft, it would hit the busy bridge road full of civilians. Hulk stops attacking when he sees Betty. He calms down a bit thanks to that. When he gets surrounded by police and military, he doesn’t resist, just looks resigned. He looks sad and a bit guilty when he sees Betty come to him. Like a kid. He probably doesn't like what he had done to protect himself.

Window / mirror scene with Bruce and Hulk was short, but nice AND HE SPOKE! HE CALLED BANNER “PUNY HUMAN”! FINALLY A GODDAMN WORD! But sadly it is the only thing he says in the whole movie. He never even says “Betty” or anything which I always associate Hulk with. Like “Hulk smash” or “Hulk hurt” or anything other that describes how he feels or in what condition he is or what he wants. Which is seriously a shame, especially considering that this movie goes to such lenghts to portray Hulk accurately.

Glenn Talbot

Glenn Talbot is no longer a military man in this universe. He is a lead of the science lab called Atheon and wants soldiers that can self-heal on the battlefield. Bruce and Betty want to create a cure for injuries that would serve EVERYONE, not only the privileged few, so they don’t agree to join his lab, even when Talbot tries to take over their lab forcefully. Talbot goes around General Ross to secure Bruce, he wants to get samples from him, analyze them and patent him to get rich out of the potential his power and his genome can bring. Talbot is blonde blue eyed cruel man. Kinda reminds me of the Nazis. He has no nuance, he is just purely evil manipulative guy that wants to get rich. He happy tortures Bruce and tells him that he would have killed him himself, because then he would be able to make an autopsy on his corpse, which is part of a lie he tells him to rile him up and change. He then realized that Bruce can control his change conciously, but not subconciously and trapps him in a water tank, attaches his brain to some technology and induces nightmares to force him to change. The nightmares were created from Bruce's represessed memories and due to that he started changing. Talbot and his lab could not drill through Bruce's skin to get the Hulk's samples. He didn't want to kill him, disagreed with neutralization, because he would not get anything from "goop". He orders lockdown and ignores General's order for full evacuation of the base. And funnily he accidentally killed himself when he tried to hurt the Hulk with M2 weapon that bounced off of Hulk's peck like a very fast flying fly, or any mere bug lol. That's so hilarious. I do not know much about the original Talbot, so I cannot even compare the accuracy or lack thereof, but I never liked him anyway, so who cares.

Betty Ross

Betty in this movie is very snarky like and playfully mean. She and Bruce were together before and now she sometimes makes a little fun of him when they talk and this is like their thing as ex-couple. And what is the most important to me: SHE IS SHOWN WORKING IN A LAB. And not in just quick montage scene to show the Hulk. Just in general. She is shown AS A SCIENTIST THAT HAS A CARRIER AND RESEARCH AND LAB AND DOING THEIR SHIT. She and Bruce were working on a healing technology using nanomeds and gamma radiation as inducer of cells replication. When Talbot appears, she cuts through his charade, straight to the meaty gritty point and then shows him the door. Sassy little lady. Who doesn't speak to her father unless she has a business for him. I really like how Bruce and Betty speak about something else than Bruce all the time. It feels like they both are independent humans. Betty is very much not happy though that Bruce finds his unique situation funny. She saw him throw himself at the gamma radiation releasing machine and she knew it will kill him, that she will have to watch him die. She doesn't want to loose him even if they are not together anymore. Because she already lost everybody else. She lost her father, because she feels that he never is there for her, never wants to just see her, without any funny buisness attached. She has trauma over being left alone, because he was summoned when she was on an outing with him as a kid and was left alone at a restaurant due to him having to go and manage the gamma bomb explosion. She is so worried about Bruce she invites herself to his house using her keys, which she still has for some reason. And then she is very not happy that Bruce lied that he was not at the lab at night and then not happy that she needed to leave him alone with her father, but left. She is though a cunning little detective who instead of sitting on her ass when her dad forbade her to visit Bruce, goes to investigate the mysterious new janitor. Betty's first meeting with the Hulk is in much calmer setting than in 2008 movie. They just have a quiet moment together before they get attacked. Then after the attack Betty is scared after what happened. Betty suspects that Bruce's anger triggers nanomeds. They should react only on physical damage, but Betty says that emotional damage can manifest physically as well, like serious trauma does in the form of repressed memories. Betty says that physical damage is finite, but emotional one can fester and keep going and create a chain reaction. Betty called her father on Bruce, who gets sedated by General Ross people. She believes she protects him this way. She wants to take him somewhere safe, but she is tricked by her father, who wants to keep Bruce sedated till he dies of natural causes. Betty thought he will keep Bruce safe and she feels betrayed once again, when her father says she can trust him to do what he thinks is right, but not what she asked him to do. She just wants her father to help Bruce. Betty is a scientist and she knows that she can help him, while she also knows that the army sees him as a weapon to be either studied and replicated or pacified and used. This is such a beautiful scene (in a grittty way) between Betty and her father. Has a lot of vibes from the 1996 cartoon minus Betty knowingly manipulating her father in the cartoon to get equipment and funding to help Bruce. Betty manages to convince her father and takes Bruce to his old home to help him remember and deal with his trauma. The imagery of Betty swinging on a swing in a nuclear wasteland is so NICE. The contrast of her beign alive and doing a thing that is associated with being lively in a place that is dead. After that she loses access to Bruce, because NSA gave the authority to study him to Atheon - the research lab that Talbot is in charge of and where he wanted to force Betty to work. When Hulk gets out and military targets him she is first to realize that Hulk is getting stronger with rage. The more mad he is the stronger he will become. She manages to convince her father to let her go and calm the Hulk. Betty cries when Bruce changes back. Probably because she can see him again. And then she cries more when she realizes that he will be taken away once more, that they cannot just be together. She suddenly goes very quiet when Bruce is captured again. Not reacting to any orders her father gives. Nothing. And then when the Gamma missile is levelled at Bruce and David, she just puts her hand on her father's shoulder. I don't like that. She should be angry at what they had done to him. Then 1 year later she seems to have a good contact with her father despite him murdering the man she still loved but was not dating at the time it happened, and I don't buy it that maybe she thought he killed him with heavy heart or smth. General’s heart was not heavy at all. Anyway, she still admits she would not tell him if Bruce called if he was still alive, and pointedly reminds her father that her phone and tech are bugged, so she doesn't really have to tell him, because he is spying on her 24/7 and would know it anyway. THE AUDACITY. THE SASS.

I LOVE THIS WOMAN. Despite her behavior at the end of the movie she is so much more well rounded character than 2008 Betty.

General Ross

General Ross in this movie is not obsessed maniac. He is a man who tries and continuously fails to connect with his daughter. He always does something she doesn't approve of and that drives them further and further apart. He is also angry that he is indepted to Bruce for saving Betty, especially after he told him to keep distance from his daughter (very controlling dad behavior, not nice and not cute). He thinks Bruce and Hulk are dangerous, because Hulk put 3 people in a hospital and Talbot barely can walk after his encounter with him. The issue is that General doesn't know that Hulk treats like this only people that attack him, never innocent bystanders. Though on the other hand police officers would probably get into hospital too if they ever shoot at Hulk, though Hulk still prefers avoidance tactics and only attacks people if they are in his direct path of escape. He never attacks when he has a choice to turn any other way and run. So he needs to be backed into a corner to attack people in his way, whom he doesn't know and only sees as his assailants. Ross thinks that Bruce is the same as his father David. That he is dangerous man that fooled his daughter. That he is manipulator and liar and psychopath willing to hurt others, even people he loves. This is also the reason why General wanted him to keep his distance from Betty at all cost. He is angry that NSA took away his authority over Bruce, because he is a military man and he doesn't make policies of higher ups and still has to follow their orders as a General. He is furious that Talbot went around him to secure Bruce for himself. He thinks studying Bruce can bring a lot of interested people a lot of money. He was still willing to let Betty say goodbye to Bruce, but the decision was taken out of his hands, so he could not give her permission to do it even if he wanted to. he also mercilessly LEVELED WHAT WAS LEFT OF BRUCE'S CHILDHOOD HOME! Still, this general is definitely better when it comes to civilian casualties. He tries to avoid them, not like the Thadeus Ross from 2008 movie. After Hulk’s escape from the lab he was kept by Atheon, General is all set on destroying Bruce to protect Betty from him. He believes that the Hulk is heading straight for his daughter and like overprotective patriarchal father he sets himself into protection mode even if she doesn't want him to do so, because he will just make everything worse. When Betty's presence calms the Hulk, Ross orders to hold the fire in the end. He doesn't want to make him angry again and stronger than before and wreck more havoc than he already did. When they capture Bruce again, General is ready to incinerate Bruce if he moves just a little. He claims that he is doing it for Betty's sake and that he is preparing for the worst case. Then after the battle and “killing” Bruce, General admits he is sorry, but I do not buy it. He is not sorry that he “killed” Bruce, he is sorry that he hurt Betty. He couldn't care less about Bruce. He only cares if he lives or dies, because it would cause Betty even more pain.

Things I dislike apart from Hulk being silent:

- Random murder of a black man. - That Ross is purposefully darker skinned than white to show he is the bad guy. But what I like is that he is nuanced at least. - Betty going silent at the end and not protesting at all what was happening. She was bargaining all this time for Bruce's sake and now suddenly she stopped. That's just too weird and kind of OOC. - I don't get the point of that whole dream Betty had that Bruce will choke her one day, and then the follow up scene when he grabs her by the troat for real after he comes back to his senses after he killed the dogs. As Hulk he was able to not hurt her, but as Bruce, when he talks how he killed the dogs, he suddenly cannot control what he is doing? That's just weird. Andrenaline rush, or what?

#hulk 2003 #hulk #the incredible hulk #the incredible hulk 1996 #the incredible hulk 2008 #hulk 2003 spoilers #bruce banner #elizabeth ross #thaddeus ross #glenn talbot #brian banner #david banner #edith banner

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