Hulk, later renamed The Incredible Hulk from issue #12, is a 1999 series by Marvel Comics.
This run spans a large number of story arcs, most notably Planet Hulk.
Hulk (1999) provides examples of:
- All Just a Dream: Most of Bruce Jones' run on the series was retconned as being a dream induced by Nightmare. Although the story introducing this twist left ambiguous what had been real or not, most future writers considered that none of it happened.
- Ambiguous Clone Ending: An odd case occurs in the Split Decisions story arc where the Hulk is cloned. The final confrontation follows all the conventions of the Ambiguous Clone Ending: Banner and the Clone face each other alone, the fight itself isn't shown, and the scene skips to Banner returning to his friends telling them the clone is dead. It seems like we're meant to be unsure that the real Hulk won... except that the clone was heavily modified, and in Hulk form looks unmistakably different from the real Hulk. Since we see the Hulk looking perfectly normal the very next storyline, he's clearly the original... so why does the narrative go through all the plot points associated with this trope?
- Ambiguous Situation: In the Tempest Fugit arc, it was revealed that the Hulk was originally an imaginary friend of Bruce Banner's, and implied that the Hulk was really an alternate personality. One day after Bruce was bullied at school, the Hulk took over his body and planted a bomb at his school. Bruce stopped the bomb but was expelled from school. Thaddeus Ross, impressed with how advanced the bomb was, offered to guide Bruce through his education. The end of the arc revealed Nightmare has been plaguing the Hulk for years with hallucinations, misdirections, and manipulations of reality. It is thus left ambiguous on whether the flashback we saw was real or fake.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: One issue of Bruce Jones's controversial run on The Incredible Hulk involving X-Files type shenanigans with Gray-style aliens has the Hulk casually dismiss the idea, saying he doesn't believe in aliens. Needless to say, the Marvel Universe in general and the Hulk's life in particular are always up to their eyeballs in aliens, and he knows that perfectly well.
- Child by Rape: In issue #77 of The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2, Betty has a daughter, the benevolent mystical entity Daydream, due to being raped by Nightmare, but although the demon keeps up his creepy "children fathered through rape" tendency with Trauma and Dreamqueen, nobody has had an interest in reintroducing her yet.
- Downer Ending: The volume ends by leading into World War Hulk, which concludes with Banner being imprisoned by the military for invading Earth with the Warbound.
- Eye Scream: Kaare Andrews' cover to Issue #44 depicts an eye being threatened by a worryingly close scalpel
◊. - It Only Works Once: In The Incredible Hulk Vol 2, when Bruce was suffering from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, he eventually received a cure from the Leader. However, this cure was only possible with gene sequences taken from Brian Banner and inserted into the Hulk's genetic structure by Scott Lang under the direction of Reed Richards, these new genes being integrated into Banner's physiology during the energy surge when the Hulk returned to Banner, making it clear that this cure would only work for Banner.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: In Paul Jenkins' run, Bruce Banner travels into his own mind to try and strike a deal with his Hulk personalities, each of which represents a different aspect of Bruce. Due to the psychology-themed nature of the character, this trope has cropped up repeatedly over the years, but Jenkins's use of it stands out as the most notable. Other examples include the time the Hulk made physical contact with the Watcher's "Ultimate Machine," which sent him on a sort of vision quest to come to terms with Betty's death; the depiction of his psychiatric session with Doc Samson that resulted in his personalities being merged; the appearance of his three childhood imaginary friends during the Crossroads Saga, who helped Banner find his way back from psychic oblivion; and various dream sequences over the years in which he has come into physical conflict with one or more of his Hulk personae.
- Modesty Towel: In The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2, minor villainess Sandra Verdugo gets to wear a towel several times, one time she even threw it at her partner's face while teaching him about how her The Vamp routine works.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Issue #34 (from 2002, despite the low number), written by Bruce Jones, does a masterful job of this. We see Banner, but never the Hulk, other than Banner's eyes turning green as he's about to change. The results of the Hulk's actions, seen afterwards, have far more impact than seeing him in action.
- Perma-Shave: Averted in Peace in our Time. After living in the wilderness for a while, Bruce sports a long beard, so the Hulk has one as well.
