10 Grim Realities Of Superhero Origins

7. The Hulk Would Be Burnt And Blind

The origin story: Bruce Banner was a brilliant physicist, possibly even one of the greatest minds of his generation. Whilst testing a gamma bomb of his own design he noticed a young kid, Rick Jones, had wandered onto the test site by accident. Banner managed to push Jones out of the way of the blast but was caught in it himself, altering his biology so that from that point forward, whenever he found himself under great stress or becoming angry, he transforms from his normal reserved self into the Incredible Hulk!

The Mr Hyde to his Dr Jekyll, the Hulk is everything Banner isn't: unintelligent, monosyllabic and destructive where he is smart, well spoken and mild-mannered. He's also indestructible, incredibly strong, and sometimes even fights greater monsters than himself to protect innocent people. Sometimes.

The grim reality: C'mon, now, this is pretty obvious, right? Standing in direct line of a nuclear bomb going off is not going to end well for you. And by not ending well we don't mean becoming a jolly green giant, we mean probably dying. Or at least being horribly burnt and probably blinded. The science explanation for the Hulk in the comics is that gamma radiation breaks down your DNA and, eventually, your body rebuilds it.

In theory, anyway. Much more likely when a human body is exposed to gamma rays is that you'd suffer localized damage, like burns to the skin, you'd probably get radiation sickness, and also your retinas would get destroyed too. So you'd be horribly burnt and sick but at least you wouldn't be able to see it!