Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 265. Who is the Gray Hulk in Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 265. Who is the Gray Hulk in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

• 0:11
  Hello Marvel fans, comic geeks and non nerds in between.
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  My name is Megan and I'm here with another character breakdown
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  and it is a character that has been talked about quite a bit
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  ever since the leaked Spider Man Brand New Day trailer.
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  The actual Spider Man Brand New Day trailer was released, so I
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  want to talk to you about this character.
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  We're going to talk about the Gray Hulk.
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  Back in May of 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the
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  world to The Incredible Hulk #1 Lee's original idea was
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  basically what if Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde got blasted with
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  gamma radiation. He wanted Bruce Banner to
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  transform into the Hulk at night and do all things.
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  Bruce was way too shy, too nervous, too repressed to do
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  himself. Fun fact, Hulk was originally
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  supposed to be Gray, not green. The problem was that the 1960s
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  printing technology absolutely hated consistency. 1 issue Hulk
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  would look very Gray, the next he'd look like someone spilled
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  printer ink on him, that whole thing.
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  Eventually, Lee got tired of fighting the printing presses
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  and said fine, make him green, and comic book history was
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  changed forever. For years, most readers assumed
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  Gray Hulk and Green Hulk were just the same guy with a paint
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  job problem. Turns out, no, Gray Hulk is its
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  own thing entirely. The giant green rage monster
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  everyone knows is actually what's often called the Savage
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  Hulk. So the Incredible Hulk all that
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  the the green one? That is the Savage Hulk.
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  According to later comics and later arcs and later stories.
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  Especially in Immortal Hulk, Gray Hulk's origins go way
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  deeper than a coloring error. He actually started forming in
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  Bruce Banner's childhood as part of Bruce's dissociative coping
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  mechanisms. You see, Bruce Banner has
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  Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID.
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  His mind is split into different alters, like the Savage Hulk or
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  the Gray Hulk. After years of abuse from his
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  father, young Bruce basically decided he needed to become a
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  man who could protect himself. Gray Hulk was that childish idea
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  made in the flesh. Big, tough, fearless, completely
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  unwilling to take crap from anybody.
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  As the comics put it, he's essentially a child's idea of a
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  man. Compared to Greenhulk, Grayhulk
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  is less irritated and generally weaker.
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  Whenever the big green guy is around, Grayhulk usually gets
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  shoved into the backseat. Everyone is in the same car, but
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  one has the steering wheel, and that's basically how it is in
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  Bruce Banner's head. But every now and then, Bruce
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  gets cured of being the Hulk, which happens way more often
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  than you'd think. And that's when Gray Hulk gets a
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  chance to grab the steering wheel.
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  When he does appear, he often follows the old school Hulk rule
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  where transformations are tied to day and night.
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  Then things get even more weird because it wasn't already weird
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  during a major comic arc. I believe it was in The
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  Incredible Hulk #347 Greyholt gets hit by a nuclear explosion,
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  fakes his own death, and through a series of very comic book
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  reasons, ends up with incomplete control of their shared body for
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  about 3 months. Naturally, he immediately runs
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  off to Las Vegas. Because if you're a big giant
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  Gray superhuman with identity issues, where else are you going
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  to go? In Vegas, he falls in with a
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  casino owning mobster who takes him under his wing.
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  The Greyhulk gets a new name, Joe Fixit.
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  The Fixit part comes from his job as a fixer, basically hired
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  muscle who solves problems, usually by introducing them to
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  his fists. Despite acting like a mob
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  enforcer, he secretly retains a lot of Bruce Banner's
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  intelligence. In fact, a fight with the Thing,
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  Who's Ben Grimm, reveals he's surprisingly analytical and
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  incredibly good at thinking on his feet.
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  Later stories, especially, You know, Still Immortal Hulk, lean
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  even harder into the idea that Joe is way smarter than people
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  give him credit for. As for the name Joe, there's
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  some old media reference buried in there somewhere, but Joe's
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  mob boss mentor mostly says it's because Joe is his favorite grey
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  ape, which is surprisingly affectionate by Mafia standards.
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  Joe Fixit himself explains the difference best.
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  He isn't the Hulk most people know.
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  He's not the giant green rage baby.
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  He's the part of Bruce Banner that acts on selfish desires,
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  greed, lust, power, destruction, and all of the impulses Bruce
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  normally keeps locked up. But unlike Savage Hulk, Joe
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  isn't portrayed as dumb. Not even close.
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  In fact, Gray Hulk is one of the smartest Hulk personalities
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  around as Joe Fix It. He works as a Las Vegas mob
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  enforcer, gets into endless trouble, and throws down with
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  everyone from Spider Man to Wolverine and plenty of other
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  Marvel heavy hitters. Calling Joe a hero is generous.
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  He's usually somewhere between anti hero and outright villain.
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  Most of his good deeds happen because there's money or power
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  or freedom or some other personal benefit involved.
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  If saving the day helps Joe fix it, then sure, he might save the
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  day. Power wise, Joe still has the
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  standard Hulk package. Super strength, speed,
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  durability, and rage fueled power boosts.
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  His strength grows with anger too, but nowhere near as
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  dramatically as Savage Hulk's. He's weaker than the Savage Hulk
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  physically, but far smarter and much more calculating.
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  He also fully embraces the mob aesthetic, usually rocking a
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  pinstripe suit, fedora, and enough attitude to fill a
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  casino. So basically, he is a vibe.
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  Unlike many Hulk incarnations, Joe has absolutely no problem
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  with using guns if it gets the job done.
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  And despite being considered one of the weaker Hulks, Joe has a
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  habit of pulling off incredible feats anyways.
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  At one point the United States government hired him to stop an
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  asteroid headed straight towards Earth.
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  Not just any asteroid either, it was supposedly the twice the
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  size of Earth itself. Joe's solution?
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  One punch. The asteroid was gone, the
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  problem was fixed. And let's be clear, for a guy
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  named Joe Fixit, that's pretty much the most on brand thing
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  imaginable. So that is Joe Fixit.
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  That is the Gray Hulk. I'm sure many of you have seen
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  somewhere online where they're talking about the grey Hulk
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  being in the Spider Man brand new day trailer.
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  Who's who's to know. But if you're curious, I hope
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  this answered any questions for you.
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  So with that being said, I hope you liked this episode.
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  I hope you will like and subscribe, and I hope you have a
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  marvelous day.