4. Bruce Banner
Don't make him angry or he'll turn a deeper shade of green. It's Bruce Banner a.k.a. The Hulk. And into the world of radioactive mutations and aliens we trek.... The dynamic of the comic book personas are more simplistic systems but have nonetheless caught the imagination with equal fervour. The recent spate of Marvel and DC comic-lead Hollywood blockbusters prove they are alive and well. If anything, the supernatural nature of these characters render them more relatable. None of us (one hopes) are a Dexter or a White and are unlikely to be a Draper. However, the concept of an unassuming, ordinary scientist who when he becomes angry transforms into a creature who has the power conquer anything, is a child's dream. The ability to break away from ordinary inhibitions and deal with the problems in life with reckless abandon, which of course is not their fault, is a perfect escapist fantasy. Banner has oscillating levels of control over his inner demon. Again, the ability to control dark thoughts and anger is a universal question of the human condition. Bruce and Dexter share some ground here where they learn to understand who they are and develop ways to direct their destructive tendencies. Born in the 1960s in the imaginations of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, The Hulk was created when a gamma bomb explosion went wrong. 1962 was the height of fear of Cold War nuclear waepons. The character is therefore a very real product of the zeitgeist, just as Frankenstein and Jekyll/Hyde were in Victorian London. The fact that Ripper Street and Whitechapel return to our screens on the BBC shortly, reinforces the enduring power of The Ripper and of psyche. While a nuclear accident should have frightened those in the 1960s, instead it seemed to fascinate, it was a means to an end in creating a different indestructible monster that spends much of its time lying dormant. The human element to the construction of the character doubles the psychological complexity. According to the comics, Bruce's father Brian Banner abused his mother. Young Bruce grew up in a culture of fear and an impotence to do anything to help the situation. Latterly, he is in love with the daughter of the US Army general who seeks to destroy him. Betty (which is Don Draper's first wife's name) is his kryptonite, to corrupt a metaphor. She can sooth him out of his green state and proves Bruce can control his monster. Splitting psyches seem very much the product of nurture rather than nature. Hulk's synthetic mutation is an overwhelming foil to the true roots of identity.