By now you should already know that next year’s Captain America: Brave New World features Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson aka Captain America going up against a red version of The Hulk.
In the comics, Red Hulk is the hulked-out alter ego of Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross, played in Brave New World by Harrison Ford, who replaces the late WIlliam Hurt in the role.
While Thunderbolt Ross was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby when they created the initial green Hulk, Red Hulk was actually the brainchild of writer Jeph Loeb and artist Ed McGuinness when they were in charge of the Hulk title in 2008.
In the movie, Ross has been elected as the president of the United States, and in the trailer, shows animosity towards Wilson, claiming that he may be Captain America, but he’s “not Steve Rogers”. Nevertheless, Wilson gets caught in an international incident that, we assume, ends with Ross “Hulking” out.
This week, we put the spotlight on Red Hulk, and revisit the events that led to Ross becoming the big red behemoth.
The fight between Red Hulk and Hulk was ground-shaking.
First glimpse of red
In the comics, Red Hulk made his debut in 2008’s Hulk #1 (Vol 2), which starts off with the murder of Abomination in Russia, with the Avengers and Ross investigating the crime.
All the clues point to the Hulk being the murderer, but for one problem – after almost tearing the world apart in the World War Hulk event, Bruce Banner has been incarcerated in a government facility deep beneath the ground, unable to Hulk-out after Tony Stark used his satellites to bombard Hulk with cosmic energy during the event in order to stop him.
As first impressions go, it’s a fitting one for the Red Hulk, as Abomination had been a longtime adversary of the Hulk. So who could have bested and killed the villain who had given Hulk such a torrid time in the past?
According to Loeb, Red Hulk was created to be “the kind of Hulk we haven’t seen before – a thinking, calculating, brutal weapon-toting kind of Hulk. Everything the Green Hulk isn’t, the Red Hulk is”.
As far as powers and abilities go, Red Hulk has almost the same powers as green Hulk. There is one exception – instead of getting stronger when he gets angry, Red Hulk’s body gets hotter. In fact, his body temperature rises so high that at one point he even turns sand into glass with every step he takes. Also, Red Hulk does not turn back into his human form when unconscious.
Raging red rampage
The Red Hulk proved to be a powerful adversary, too much even for the Avengers to take down. The next couple of issues were then dedicated to the Red Hulk stamping his superiority. First, he infiltrated a SHIELD helicarrier, knocking out She-Hulk, and bringing it crashing down, much to the chagrin of Stark, who was director of SHIELD at the time.
Subsequently, Red Hulk went on to punch the lights out of the Watcher, and tried to kill A-Bomb (a blue version of Abomination who is actually Rock Jones) in the same way he did the original Abomination. But before he could do that, he was interrupted by none other than the actual Hulk himself!
Now that’s a lot of colourful muscles.
That first fight between Red Hulk and Hulk was an event in itself, as the two giants exchanged blows that shook the Earth, literally, as it triggered the San Andreas Fault and nearly caused the city of San Francisco to fall into the ocean!
Red Hulk eventually bested Hulk by putting him in a chokehold and making him pass out, something that would have been unheard off in the past. But before he could deliver the killing blow, Thor shows up, which starts another almighty fight that ends with Red Hulk using Mjolnir to fly to the moon and smashing the God Of Thunder into it.
Round Two of Green Versus Red ended better for the former – Thor shows up again halfway, mad as hell that Red Hulk touched Mjolnir and is on the verge of finishing Big Red off, before Hulk intervenes again and delivers the finishing blow.
Red herrings
Prior to the revelation that Ross is Red Hulk, the initial suspect was Leonard “Doc” Samson (who once used the Cathexis Ray to siphon off gamma rays from Banner in order to give himself powers). It didn’t help Samson’s case when he shoots Jones in the back right after the fight in Issue #6 to prevent him from revealing to Banner who the Red Hulk really is.
The true identity of Red Hulk was eventually revealed in Hulk #22, and was subsequently explained to greater detail in Hulk #23.
As it turns out, Ross had been working with the Leader and M.O.D.O.K, aka the Intelligencia, all along. When Stark bombarded the Hulk with cosmic energy in World War Hulk, the Intelligencia had secretly siphoned off the Hulk’s gamma energy and transferred it to Samson’s Cathexis Ray, which they then used to turn Ross into the Red Hulk, with a promise to bring his daughter, Betty Ross, back from the dead if he cooperated.
(Speaking of Betty, another twist was added into the mix when she shows up in Hulk (Vol.2) #15 – as Red She-Hulk.)
At one point, Red Hulk was also part of the anti-hero superteam the Thunderbolts.
Turning red
The Intelligencia eventually betrayed Ross in order to overthrow the US government, but Red Hulk double-crossed them, draining the Leader’s gamma-powered brain to leave him “ordinary”.
After the revelation of Ross as Red Hulk, everything would eventually come to a head in Hulk (Vol. 2) #24, with the climax of the epic World War Hulks story. Bruce and Ross get into a gargantuan battle that also saw She-Hulk reappear to lay the smackdown on Red She-Hulk. Bruce eventually won the battle with an thunderous Thunderclap, which underlined the fact that green is still the strongest there is.
Red Hulk will be getting a new solo title next year.
Red mist rising
After his initial ground-shaking villainous debut, Red Hulk has since become a bit more of an anti-hero. Following his defeat from Hulk in World War Hulks, Red Hulk was incarcerated in the same facility designed by Banner himself to imprison the Hulk.
However, Banner managed to strike a deal with Steve Rogers to let Red Hulk join the Avengers, and he subsequently redeemed himself by taking down the Intelligencia once and for all during the Scorched Earth storyline.
He has also been part of the Thunderbolts, and led the point at one point. Ross was apparently killed during the Secret Empire event (though he has recently turned up alive again, of course).
In February 2025, Red Hulk will be getting his own solo title when the upcoming One World Under Doom event kicks off.
In Red Hulk, the world-conquering Doctor Doom “imprisons Ross in Latveria in order to exploit his military expertise”, according to Marvel.com. But you can’t keep an angry Red Hulk down for long, and Ross soon breaks out to launch an offensive against Doom from within Latveria.
Between this new series and his live-action debut in Brave New World (and maybe, just maybe, a mention or a cameo in Thunderbolts?), it looks like Red Hulk will be absolutely smashing it in the coming year.
Who is the Red Hulk, the red-coloured giant making his debut in next year’s ‘Captain America: Brave New World?’ Read More