Professor Hulk is an alternate personality of Hulk/Bruce Banner. Hulk is a fictional character in Marvel Comics and movies.
Jack Kirby is the artist, Stan Lee is the writer, and Hulk first appeared in “The Incredible Hulk” comics in May 1962.
Moreover, in the comics, Hulk’s character is green. He is seen as a muscular man who is always hulking and has extreme physical strength. However, Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, Hulk’s alter ego, is physically weak, socially awkward, and reserved.
Professor Hulk Appearance
Professor Hulk Endgame height is 7 feet, and 6 inches or 228.6 cm, and Professor Hulk weight is 1,149.93 pounds or 521.6 kg. Moreover, like his skin color, his hair and eye color are green. Professor Hulk movie and comics power status (out of 100):
- Strength: 100/100
- Power: 90/100
- Intelligent: 90/100
- Durability: 85/100
- Combat: 80/100
- Speed: 50/100
- Tier: 50/100
Professor Hulk Personality
The main difference between Professor Hulk vs Hulk vs Dr. Bruce is their personality. In the MC2 (Marvel Comic 2) Universe, Professor Hulk has a mix of both Hulk and Dr. Bruce’s personalities.
Like Hulk, he has all the physical strength, and his intelligence is like Bruce Banner. However, he is not shy or awkward like Bruce.
Professor Hulk Endgame
The Avengers Endgame has adapted one of the famous incarnations of Hulk that is Professor Hulk. Moreover, Professor Hulk Marvel has brought out the best persona of both Bruce and Hulk.
The Marvel Studio had made a 3-movie character arc for Dr. Bruce/Hulk. First, he appeared in the movie Thor: Ragnarok, then Avengers: Infinity War, and then built the climate in Avenger Endgame, released in 2019.
Professor Hulk’s character in the 3 films
At the beginning of the movie, Bruce Banner and Hulk are separated into two different individuals. When Hulk speaks in Thor: Ragnarok, it is the start of the separation of these two identities.
Moreover, it is said that Bruce suffered from dissociative identity disorder (DID). He has 2 minds which are trapped in a single body.
In the human form, Bruce Banner controls himself, but when he transforms, Hulk takes charge.
Furthermore, in Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), they treated Hulk and Bruce as distinct individuals. We have seen Bruce referring to Hulk as “the other man.”
Bruce could not understand Hulk until all the events that took place in The Avengers. It was the first time Bruce started to understand Hulk and that he is truly his person rather than a raging monster.
Also, when Hulk did not want to redirect his fall from S.H.I.E.L.D so that innocent people’s lives were not in danger, Bruch realized that Hulk could sympathize.
Even though Bruce did not completely trust Hulk, that’s why he started to work with Tony Stark so that they could build the Hulk Buster armor. However, the later we have seen Bruce did let his Hulk persona out sometimes.
Professor Hulk Shang-Chi
After “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Bruce is not the Smart Hulk anymore.” However, it is unclear why and how the MCU reversed Bruce’s transformation.
For more than a decade, they have shown Hulk as the raged-filled and mindless monster. But in Avengers Endgame, they changed his characters drastically.
The Hulk’s strength and Bruce Banner’s intelligence were combined to make Smart Hulk. Smart Hulk was the one who reversed Thanos’ snap, and then he brought back more than half of life in the universe. Moreover, it was expected that this would be his ultimate form in the future.
After Avengers Endgame, Marvel Studio confirmed that Hulk would return in the Disney+ series called She-Hulk. However, the fans could not wait to see their favorite green giant.
So, in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, there is a cameo of Mark Ruffalo, who plays Bruce Banner.
In the mid-credit scene in Shan-Chi, Bruce appeared alongside Wong (Benedict Wong) and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). They were trying to find out the origin of Ten Rings.
Moreover, fans were even more shocked as Mark did not return as Smart Hulk. Bruce Banner has returned on screen, and his arm is still in a sling from what has happened in the Avengers Endgame.
Interesting Facts about Professor Hulk
#1 New Personality
Professor Hulk comics was born when there was a fight between all Hulk personas. It was becoming too much for Bruce to handle. So to solve this problem, he went to Dr. Samson, a famous psychiatrist, and his friend.
Hence, Bruce starts to work with Samson to find a way to merge all of the personas of Hulk in just one form. Moreover, this merged personality was meant to stop his split personality disorder, which Bruce struggled with for a long time. Thus, in the end, Professor Hulk was born.
#2 Weaker Than Other Personalities
If you do not know, then Hulk’s true strength is not because of his quick healing technique, neither cause of super strong and impenetrable skin nor because of his muscles. His true strength comes from his rage.
The angrier Hulk gets more powerful he becomes. Moreover, if he gets extremely angry, he can even lift a whole star just with his bare hands.
However, to become that mad, one needs to have the mentality of a monster. But Professor Hulk’s mind is of Bruce, who is very calm and level-headed.
Hence, he can’t become that furious no matter what happens. In that sense, Professor Hulk is weaker than other personas.
#3 He uses guns and other weapons
We know that Professor Hulk is not as powerful as the raging Hulk. But he is still a superhero, and his enemies will not mercy him just because he is weaker than other personas. His enemies will try to take Hulk down no matter what.
Thus, while fighting with villains, Professor Hulk needs to use other things to make up for their strength. In the comics, we have seen Hulk using huge firearms.
The use of guns and other weapons make up for his lost strength.
#4 Appearance is very different than other forms
We know Hulk never really cared for his dressing etiquettes and all he did was fight the enemies. Also, he did not care if he wore just jeans to do the job.
However, this is not the case for Professor Hulk. Since he has the mind of Bruce Banner, he knows how to dress and present himself.
Moreover, he started to wear clothes that were not just ripped jeans that covered his thigh area only.
Professor Hulk started to wear glasses, a shirt, a jacket, and full pants. He sometimes even wears an apron, but it depends on the work and the day. Also, now Hulk looks like a gentleman.
Furthermore, in the comic book, he also color-coded his entire wardrobe. This is to make sure he does not wear the same clothes twice a week.
#5 Fail-Safe
A fail-safe is installed inside the mind of Banner in case ever Professor Hulk loses his mind. Since the other versions of Hulk have always been chaotic, uncontrollable, and violent. Bruce Banner could never trust Professor Hulk’s personality completely.
Hence Banner took essential precautions to control this persona if needed. So if he is in a situation where Professor Hulk goes berserk, he has the right to control and lock out this persona permanently in his mind.
#6 Professor Hulk Is What Bruce Always Wanted to Be
Bruce always wanted to change his life because he fought his demons and ran from the government. Neither he had a peaceful childhood, nor his love life was good in the past.
Also, his career is not going well as the government painted a big bulls-eye on Bruce’s back. When all this chaos was happening, Professor Hulk came to rescue him.
This persona changed him into the ideal version that he sees himself. Bruce was no longer weak or awkward; neither was he a mindless beast.
He started to idolize Professor Hulk. In the movie Avenger Endgame, we see him content with himself once he turns into Professor Hulk.
#7 Professor Hulk can lift hundred tons
Like Savage Hulk, Professor Hulk can also lift 100 tons. Comparing him with other personas, Grey Hulk can lift 75 tons, whereas Bruce cannot lift anything.
Also, his body type is similar to Savage hulk – that is, unrealistic muscles, huge height, huge, and he can smash through a wall with his fist.
But his face looks like Bruce, but most of his physical form has come from Savage Hulk.
It is stated that Peter David (author of The Incredible Hulk comic series) wanted to give Professor Hulk the same strength as the original Hulk as fans are very familiar with that. Fans wanted to Hulk smashing things and beating the villains. Hence without Savage Hulk, it was impossible to achieve.
#8 He is Confident
Even though Professor Hulk does not have a lot of similarities with Grey Hulk. But both the personas have one thing in common, and that is their self-confidence.
Grey Hulk can do a lot of things that Bruce Banner is sacred to try. Professor Hulk also has a similar confidence level to the Grey Hulk. In the comics, we see that he does many things outside his comfort zone.
In the #435 issue, we see him playing baseball, which Bruce never dreams of. Also, in #412, we see Jennifer (Bruce’s cousin) has noticed how Bruce is different now – both personality and physically.
The quiet and shy guy that she knew had suddenly changed into a pleasant and confident person.
#9 Tragic Past of Bruce
All the fans know how Bruce became Hulk but a lot probably are not familiar with how traumatic his past is. When he was a kid, Bruce’s father was an abusive man who used to abuse his wife physically and mentally very frequently. Later he even killed her.
With the help of Samson, he discovered that this tragic past event is the reason behind Bruce’s split personality. Professor Hulk was established in such a way that brings Bruce some peace and helps him to deal with his traumatic past.
#10 Not A Professor
In the Incredible Hulk, he has done many things. He worked as a mechanic, fought with numerous villains, and even made an impact to stop the epidemic. But we have never seen to go on a university campus.
“Professor Hulk” this name was made later to define this persona of Hulk. It might be disappointing for some fans, but he is not a real professor.
Moreover, fans created this name because it represents both his beastly side and Bruce’s intelligence. Even though it is not the perfect name for this version of Hulk but everyone agreed on it.
Also, Marvel Studios has named him Professor Hulk, it means it is the official name for this version.
#11 Male version of She-Hulk
Even though Peter David has not confirmed this, many fans can see that he is the male counterpart of She-Hulk.
Jennifer Walters, Bruce’s cousin, aka the She-Hulk, after using Bruce’s blood one time, has transformed into Hulk.
Although she wears a purple costume and has green skin similar to her cousin, that’s the only similarity they have. Jennifer has learned to control the Hulk form, unlike Bruce.
Exactly like her, Professor Hulk maybe look like the Hulk, but he is also very rational and thinks before he acts.
Moreover, both of them wear proper clothes and have self-confidence. In issue #412, when Jenifer visited Bruce, we see that they look almost identical. Even their skin tone is the same shade of green.
Final thoughts
Professor Hulk is one of the versions of Hulk. But he is intelligent like Bruce and strong like Hulk. He is the ideal person that Bruce has idolized to become.
Rather than fighting like a mindless beast, this version thinks before he does anything. Not only does he use his physical strength but also his intelligence during a fight.
