Brian Banner

Superherobox|

caption = Brian Banner
comic_color = background:#ff8080
character_name = Brian Banner
publisher = Marvel Comics
debut = "Incredible Hulk" Vol. 2 #312
creators = Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola
full_name = Brian Banner
powers = Genius-level intellect

Brian Banner is a fictional villian from the Marvel Comics Universe; created by Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola, Brian Banner is the abusive father of Bruce Banner, the Incredible Hulk.

Fictional character history

As a child, Brian Banner and his mother were physically and emotionally abused by Brian's father; regarding his father as a monster and believing that he had inherited a "monster gene" from him, Brian promised himself that he would never have any children, for fear of bringing another Banner into the world. Cite comic
Writer = Peter David
Penciller = Adam Kubert
Inker = Mark Farmer
Story = Grave Matters
Title = Incredible Hulk
Volume = 2
Issue = -1
Date =
Publisher = Marvel Comics ]

In college, Brian meets Rebecca, with whom he falls in love and marries. Brian earns his PhD in physics and finds a job in Los Alamos working for the United States government on a project developing a clean way to create nuclear energy. The stress of his job eventually leads Brian to become an alcoholic and begin to develop anger problems, lashing out at others. While drunk at work one day, Brian accidentally overloads some machinery, causing an explosion that costs him his job. Even though his doctors concluded that the explosion caused him no permanent harm, Brian becomes convinced it affected him on the genetic level.

Despite his vow never to have children, Brian impregnates Rebecca, who gives birth to Bruce Banner. Brian believes Bruce has inherited both the "monster gene" and genetic defects due to the accident in Los Alamos, so he ignores him completely and attempts to keep Rebecca away from him. He frequently leaves Bruce in the care of the neglectful Nurse Meachum. When Bruce wakes up one Christmas morning and opens a present from his mother, a complex model, he assembles it easily despite his young age. This convinces Brian that his assumptions about Bruce were correct. He beats Bruce and, after she comes to her son's aid, Rebecca as well. Cite comic
Writer = Bill Mantlo
Penciller = Mike Mignola
Inker = Gerry Talaoc
Story = Monster
Title = Incredible Hulk
Volume = 2
Issue = 312
Date =
Publisher = Marvel Comics ] After enduring several years of frequent abuse from Brian, Rebecca attempts to escape from him with Bruce. Brian discovers his wife and son packing the car just before their escape, and he smashes Rebecca's head against the pavement, killing her in front of their young son. [ Cite comic
Writer = Peter David
Penciller = Dale Keown
Inker = Bob McLeod
Story = Honey, I Shrunk the Hulk
Title = Incredible Hulk
Volume = 2
Issue = 377
Date =
Publisher = Marvel Comics ] Brian manages to stop Bruce from testifying against him at his trial for Rebecca's murder, saying that if he did so, he would go to hell. Bruce lies to the courts out of fear, testifying that his father never abused him or Rebecca, stating that his mother tried to run away for no reason. [ Cite comic
Writer = Peter David
Penciller = Gary Frank
Inker = Cam Smith
Story = In Memory Yet Green
Title = Incredible Hulk
Volume = 2
Issue = 403
Date =
Publisher = Marvel Comics ] Brian escapes conviction due to lack of evidence, but is later arrested when he drunkenly boasts about beating the law by bullying his son. Brian is imprisoned and later placed in a mental institution. Cite comic
Writer = Peter David
Penciller = Adam Kubert
Inker = Mark Farmer
Story = Grave Matters
Title = Incredible Hulk
Volume = 2
Issue = -1
Date =
Publisher = Marvel Comics ]

After fifteen years of confinement, Brian, who is believed fit for reintroduction into society, is released into a reluctant Bruce's care. Living with Bruce causes Brian's delusions to begin again and, on the anniversary of Rebecca's death, Brian and Bruce engage in a verbal and later physical fight at Rebecca's grave on a stormy night. During the fight, Bruce accidentally kills Brian by knocking him headfirst into Rebecca's headstone. Cite comic
Writer = Peter David
Penciller = Adam Kubert
Inker = Mark Farmer
Story = Grave Matters
Title = Incredible Hulk
Volume = 2
Issue = -1
Date =
Publisher = Marvel Comics ] Bruce represses the memories of Brian's stay with him and his subsequent death, making himself believe that, as the two of them fought at Rebecca's grave, Brian had simply beat him and left, later being killed by muggers. Cite comic
Writer = Bill Mantlo
Penciller = Mike Mignola
Inker = Gerry Talaoc
Story = Monster
Title = Incredible Hulk
Volume = 2
Issue = 312
Date =
Publisher = Marvel Comics ]

Brian's ghost would continue to haunt Bruce's alter-ego, the Hulk, after his death, often appearing to taunt him, stating that Bruce was no better than he himself; villains such as Mentallo, the Red Skull, Devil Hulk, and Guilt Hulk would also use the image of Brian Banner against the Hulk in an attempt to weaken him.

When Bruce Banner and the Hulk are fused back together after the events of "Heroes Return", Bruce finds himself in Hell, where he meets several former adversaries, including his father, Brian. Bruce is terrorized by Brian, Leader, and Maestro. He eventually stands up to his father, attacking and strangling him before being returned to Earth by the spirit of his deceased wife, Betty Ross. Cite comic
Writer = Peter David
Penciller = Adam Kubert
Inker = Mark Farmer
Story = Homecoming
Title = Incredible Hulk
Volume = 2
Issue = 460
Date =
Publisher = Marvel Comics ] Having faced his father, Bruce's haunting by him cease.

When the Hulk began to suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease, Mr. Fantastic, in order to cure him, has Brian Banner's grave dug up and his corpse exhumed, so as to collect some of his DNA. With it, Mr. Fantastic manages to successfully cure the Hulk. After this incident, Bruce Banner visits his father's grave and laments his confusion over his feelings for his father. [ Cite comic
Writer = Paul Jenkinsand Sean McKeever
Penciller = Joe Bennett
Inker = Tom Palmer
Story = Spiral Staircase (Part Three)
Title = Incredible Hulk
Volume = 3
Issue = 32
Date =
Publisher = Marvel Comics ]

In "", the mutant hero Trauma, who has the power to change into an opponent's worst fear, adopts the guise of Brian Banner to use against the Hulk.

Other versions

In the "House of M" timeline created by the Scarlet Witch, Dr. Brian D. Banner believes Bruce to be a mutant created through the radiation he experimented with and attempts to kill him; murdering Rebecca when she gets in his way, Brian, before he can harm the young Bruce, is shot to death by police who arrive at the scene. This is very similar to the scenario involving in the Hulk film (see below). [ [http://www.marvel.com/universe/Hulk_(House_of_M) Hulk (House of M) - Marvel Universe: The definitive online source for Marvel super hero bios] ]

In other media

Television

In "The Incredible Hulk" television series, John Marley plays Brian, renamed D.W. Banner. D.W is a simple farmer whose wife died, leaving him to raise David (as Bruce Banner was called on the show) and his daughter Helen. D.W. is depicted as having a strained relationship with David and, in a flashback, an argument between the two culminates in D.W. telling David when he leaves home "You can go anywhere you want to. You can go to hell for all I care!"

In the episode in which he appears, D.W., after David returns home, begins attempting to rekindle his relationship with his son, who continually avoids his father due his ability to unexpectedly transform into the Hulk. While flying on a plane, D.W. discovers David is the Hulk after being saved by him when the plane malfunctions due to being sabotaged. Realizing David has to leave, D.W., when reporter Jack McGee appears searching for the Hulk, distracts him long enough to allow David to flee unnoticed.

Film

In the 2003 "Hulk" film, Brian, renamed David Banner (a reference to the TV series), appears as the main antagonist in the film and is portrayed by Nick Nolte, and Paul Kersey in the film's prologue and subsequent flashbacks. The character's antagonist name, as stated by Ang Lee, is simply called The Father.

In the film, David is a genetics researcher who, in his quest to improve on humanity, experiments on himself; after his wife, Edith Banner gives birth to Bruce, David, seeing that Bruce is not normal, barely showing emotion and gaining patches of green skin when he does, feels that he is responsible, realizing that his experiments on himself have affected Bruce. Trying to find a cure for Bruce's condition, David has his research shut down by General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross; going into a rage over the loss of his work and the hopelessness of Bruce's situation, David accidentally destroys his laboratory and tried to murder Bruce (believing he would mutate out of control), only ending up killing Edith when she tried to stop him. While Bruce is taken into foster care, with the memories of his mother's death blocked out, David is confined to a mental institution.

Years later, after being released from the institution and after Bruce becomes the Hulk, David, believing the Hulk to be his "true son" tests him several times before attempting to replicate his powers, which results in David giving himself Absorbing Man-like abilities. After both he and Bruce are captured by the military, David engages the Hulk in a fight, which ends when David attempts to absorb the Hulk's power. Unable to contain this newly acquired power, David swells into an energy bubble, which is destroyed by General Ross with a Gamma Charge Bomb. Bruce survives the explosion, but David dies in it. [ cite video|people = Ang Lee (Director) |title = Hulk |medium = DVD |location = United States |publisher = Universal Pictures|year = 2003 ]

References