The Incredible Hulk #1

History

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby co-created the Hulk in early 1962, with Lee later stating the character was inspired by a combination of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, while Kirby traced his own visual inspiration to witnessing a mother lift a car to free her trapped child — an image of extreme, instinctive physical power. Publisher Martin Goodman green-lit the title as a standalone launch rather than testing the concept in an existing anthology, likely encouraged by reader response to comparable monster-transformation stories Kirby had already produced. A notable production quirk shaped the character's look for generations: Lee chose gray for the Hulk's skin specifically because he wanted a color that would not suggest any particular ethnic group, but colorist Stan Goldberg struggled to reproduce a consistent gray on the printing technology of the day, resulting in uneven hues across the issue; after seeing the printed result, Lee switched to green starting with issue #2. For roughly two decades, reprints of this issue were recolored green to match the now-standard look, until the original gray coloring was restored in reprints beginning around the mid-1980s.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance and origin of the Hulk (Bruce Banner): physicist Dr. Bruce Banner is caught in the detonation of his own experimental gamma bomb while saving teenager Rick Jones, and begins transforming nightly into a massive gray-skinned creature.
• First appearances of the entire core supporting cast in one issue: Rick Jones, General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, Betty Ross, Igor Drenkov (Soviet spy embedded as Banner's lab assistant), and the Gargoyle (Yuri Topolov).
• The Gargoyle (Yuri Topolov) is both introduced and killed within this single issue — the first supervillain the Hulk ever faced — a deformed Soviet scientist who, after Banner cures his condition, turns against the Soviet state and destroys himself along with his base.
• In this debut issue, the Hulk's transformation is triggered by nightfall/darkness rather than by anger — a mechanic that was quickly abandoned in later issues.
• The Hulk was originally depicted with gray skin; a printing consistency problem led Stan Lee to change the color to green beginning with issue #2, and for roughly two decades reprints recolored the character green until the original gray was restored in mid-1980s reprints.
• Written by Stan Lee, penciled by Jack Kirby, and inked by Paul Reinman; the story is structured in five titled chapters. Two different letterers worked the issue — Ray Holloway on the first two chapters, Art Simek on the remainder — suggesting the opening section may have been produced separately from the rest.
• The issue was part of a short-lived solo run that lasted only six issues (May 1962 – March 1963) before cancellation; Kirby penciled the first five issues and Steve Ditko handled the sixth.
• The origin story has been reprinted extensively, including in Stan Lee's 1974 book Origins of Marvel Comics (Simon and Schuster), multiple Marvel Masterworks editions, an Incredible Hulk Omnibus, and a Marvel Facsimile Edition, and was adapted as a motion comic.

Cast · 8 characters

Full credits

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