Stan Lee’s Darkest Cameo Turned Hulk into a Murderer

Before he became a staple of the MCU,  Stan Lee made the occasional comic book cameo alongside Marvel characters he helped create and one of those cameos revealed the Hulk had murdered his father. One such instance saw Stan put on an unusual show for the Jade Giant, retelling previous events, but in doing so, he revealed they were false memories concocted by Bruce Banner to cover up the fact that he killed his father, an act of self-defense against the man who ruined his life way before he was ever the Hulk.

Bruce’s father Dr. Brian Banner came from a broken home where he and his siblings were physically and emotionally abused by their father. Despite his plans to never have children, Brian and his wife Rebecca gave birth to Bruce, a child Brian resented, leading him to continue the cycle of physical and emotional abuse his father began. After he killed Rebecca in a rage when he caught her and Bruce attempting to leave, Brian’s own ego was his downfall when he gloated about forcing Bruce to lie in his testimony, causing Bruce to retract his statements and ensuring his father was committed. Years later, Bruce’s visit to his mother’s grave on the anniversary of her death was interrupted by his father, who had been released after over a decade of treatment. Even after all that time, the father and son fought, with Brian still believing Bruce to be a monster, assaulting and then leaving his son on the ground as he walked away.

In Incredible Hulk # -1 by Peter David and Adam Kubert, the Hulk wakes up after his recent battle with Wolverine in the Savage Land in a cemetery. He finds a  ditch digger hard at work, revealed to be Stan Lee, who assembles a makeshift theater and actors to tell Hulk a story. The story treads familiar ground but reveals that the story Hulk and his readers know isn’t completely true, as parts of it were fabrications created by Bruce’s mind to cover up the painful truth. His father didn’t just appear at the cemetery, he had been staying with Bruce for a while after his release and he wasn’t killed by muggers, as was originally believed. Instead, Brian Banner had been killed by his son Bruce that very night.

Stan Lee’s larger-than-life personality was immortalized in comics with jokes and zany behavior, appearing as a figure of encouragement or hope to whomever he meets. His bizarre, whimsical nature adds to the belief that Hulk is dreaming, but it doesn’t make what Stan reveals any less dark or serious.  Stan’s narration tells the story of a broken scientist who begrudgingly tries to accept his father has been cured and yet notices signs that all is not well. Writer Peter David uses Stan to provide a soft retcon of the events seen in Incredible Hulk #312 where Brian and Bruce’s fight end with the latter fighting back, striking his father so hard that he dies on top of the grave he filled, making the founding future Avenger a murderer.

Both Bruce Banner and the Hulk’s lives were never easy as the Green Goliath breaks down, unable to hide from the truth any longer. Stan suggests that subconsciously his guilt over Brian’s death caused visions of his ghost, even created his ability to see spirits in case his father sought revenge from beyond the grave. Bruce’s relationship with his father and even Stan’s character would later appear in Immortal Hulk, tying their history with gamma radiation to the malevolent One Below All and even revealing that Bruce had help covering up his father’s murder. As one of the grandfathers of the Marvel universe, Stan Lee knows better than anyone that it’s time to leave Hulk alone to deal with the ramifications of the truth.

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