Rick Jones

A reckless teenager who snuck onto a gamma bomb test site on a dare, Rick Jones survived the blast only because Bruce Banner pushed him to safety — absorbing the radiation himself and becoming the Hulk. That fateful act bound Rick to Banner's double life as his closest confidant.

Few characters in Marvel history have been woven so deeply into the fabric of the universe as Rick Jones — a Silver Age original who burst onto the scene in the very first issue of The Incredible Hulk in 1962, courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Over an extraordinary 64-year publishing span, Rick has kept some of the most legendary company in comics, sharing pages with Bruce Banner, the Hulk, Captain America, Steve Rogers, and Iron Man across titles like The Incredible Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Tales to Astonish. With formal ties to both the Avengers and the Pantheon, and 527 catalog appearances — 37 of them collector-recognized key issues — he's one of the most enduring supporting presences the House of Ideas has ever produced. If you want to understand the connective tissue of the Marvel Universe from the ground floor up, Rick Jones is absolutely essential reading.