10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About The Hulk

2. The Three Previous Failed Hulks

Stan Lee isn't a wasteful man. Many of the early superheroes he created for Marvel reused names he had given to characters during the publishers previous penchant for horror comics (before capes took off again readers apparently really dug monsters), with The Thing and Groot both appearing in Marvel Comics pre-sixties boom.

Meanwhile The Hulk was a name shared by three separate failed attempts of Lee's to create a new, iconic monster that would live on through pop culture. The first was was a huge suit of robot armour (called Grutan in modern reprints), another a huge, orange, slimy monster (which has been changed to Glop in collected editions).

Then there was Xemnu the Living Hulk, a huge, furry alien monster first appearing in 1960's Journey Into Mystery #62. He actually became a Marvel Universe mainstay, but is now referred to as Xemnu The Titan, with no Hulk connection. That's a lot of Hulks, before you consider the new one that's apparently replacing Bruce Banner.