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Backstory Information
Jul. 11th, 2012 04:06 pmPLEASE NOTE: This is a mixture of the comics, The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, and personal headcanon. This is for my own personal Bruce, so take that as you will.
Bruce was raised under the hand of his father, Brian Banner, who firmly believed that Bruce had been 'tainted' in the womb. When Bruce started to show signs at a very young age of being vastly more intelligent than his young years, he knew it to be true. The abuse he was already laying on his wife, Rebecca, spread to his son, turning Bruce inward further and further from everyone other than his mother. When he was six, Brian's abuse turned darker than it ever had, resulting in the death of Bruce's mother before his own eyes. Brian scared his son into never telling a soul. It was here that Bruce began developing a split personality - the quiet, intelligent young man with a mind older than his years and the raging six year old who was angry, afraid, and ready to lash out.
When Bruce was thirteen, his father's abuse and his nightmarish, semi-repressed memories of his mother's death led him down a suicidal path. Bullied at school for his incredible intelligence, held back by his father into grades far below his intelligence to try and make Bruce 'normal', he was completely alone, lost, and at his end. He created a bomb with stolen parts from his father's lab and with every intent, tried to blow up his school.
The bomb ended up being a dud, and he was caught. It gained the attention of the Army, specifically one General Ross, who saved Bruce from either a mental institution or juvie by taking the child under his wing in a special operation. For the first time in his life, Bruce was given his freedom to learn, given praise for it, and he bloomed under it all. College at The Pennsylvania State University (yes, Penn State) was barely a forethought before he was working on earning his doctorate in nuclear physics, and once completed, Ross put him on the project he had been hoping for all along. Ross' daughter, Betty, becomes Bruce's first love outside of his work, though his pride grew as his work became more and more famed even at such a young age.
Along the way, Bruce read and kept a copy of Howard Stark's work, accessed through the Army's systems as he worked on what Ross declared was an attempt to make humans immune to gamma radiation. What Bruce didn't know was in reality, Ross was trying to find the secret to the 'vita-rays' supposedly used in the creation of the Super Soldier (Captain America). Unfortuntely, during a test experiment, there was a terrible failure. As Bruce tried to fix it, it all but imploded and exposed him to huge amounts of gamma radiation. It led to his first change into the Hulk in which he escaped from the Army, now determined to capture him, and went on the run considered a fugitive from the U.S. Military.
In an effort to learn to control and protect himself, Bruce spent years on the run. First down in Rio de Janeiro, where he learned to meditate and control the anger that sparked the change into 'the Other Guy'. Each time, Bruce would wake up in a new location, usually alone and surrounded by destruction, basically nude and with no idea how he had gotten there and where he was. One becomes an expert at stealing clothes and hitching rides quickly with that sort of initiative.
Unfortunately, after a drop of his blood ended up inside of a bottle in the bottling factory he worked in made someone incredibly sick, the Army discovered his location. It brought around another fight, another reason to run, but back to find the only person that ever made him feel calm - Betty. He discovered her dating another man, but when his foolishness gets him found again, he and Betty went on the run in a game of cat and mouse, trying together to figure out a solution to Bruce's terrible problem with Ross trying to capture Bruce as well as get back his daughter.
When Ross finally succeeded, samples were taken from Bruce - most importantly, more of his blood. Combined with remnents of his original work (Ross' plan for the super soldier serum), the mixture was injected into one of Ross' highest level officers who turned into the Abomination.
Many would know of the terrible battle that came afterward in which Bruce was the only hope of stopping the mutated creature, thus Ross was forced to let him go. It became his first successful - willing - change into the Hulk as the Hulk fought, and won, against the Abomination. Betty proved herself to be the only person the Hulk not only wouldn't harm, but would listen to, as she got him to stop from outright killing the Abomination. It left Harlem in a huge state of destruction, with lives paying the cost of the two behemoths fighting.
Then, he ran.
Since then, Bruce had done all he could to pay for the terrible crimes he believed himself to have commited - the ones of his science as well as the Hulk's damage. Under an alias, he returned to schooling and gained another doctorate, this time in the medical profession. This allowed him to not only help those who needed it most, but begin study into new vaccines, methods, and his current most focus, gene therapy and manipulation.
He actively followed the scientific community in the areas of the diseases and the X-Gene, listening to both the activists and protestors, the pros and cons, learning all he could. He had read and deeply respected the work of one Doctor Hank McCoy, and despite his own personal concerns that the work on the X-Gene could lead to terrible issues of morality (and eventually, he still has no doubt, more monsters of human creation), he found himself wanting to get involved but without a focus.
The longer he lived with the Other Guy in his mind, the better his control became. By the time he was roughly forty, he found himself living in Calcutta, India, among the poorest sections of the city. With a small office set up, he provided free care to those who came to him. For over two years, he found his own sort of peace enough to have his longest time without a change into the Hulk. His work, done under his current alias of Doctor David Bixby, started to ease some of the guilt on his soul.
Until SHIELD, more specifically the Black Widow, found him and forced him, one way or another, to help them. Being forced to help another government agency, even if to help the world, did not sit right with Bruce.
On the SHIELD helicarrier, he met the first person since Betty that not only knew what he was, but wasn't afraid of him - Tony Stark. Hard not to know about the billionaire, 'Iron Man', even out in Calcutta. There was an instant, mutual respect that let Bruce work willingly with him as they tried to track down the Tesseract, stolen by the Asgardian Loki. It also led to Stark offering him a place to go when they were done, to come back to Stark Tower after the 'mission'.
However, while on board, he learned that SHIELD was 'prepared' to deal with the Hulk by any means necessary, earning Bruce's further, buried anger against the organization. Saving the Earth from Loki's attempt at domination was more important, but it set up what was to come.
It was Loki's work, along with the new stressors of new 'allies' - Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Agent Coulson - that led to Bruce's first change in years - one that left Bruce completely blacked out to the world as the Hulk turned on his allies. The resulting fight sent the Hulk flying off the helicarrier and slamming into the ground several miles outside of New York City.
When Bruce came to, he was in a huge, abandoned warehouse now partly destroyed thanks to the Hulk crashing through it. Able to piece together what most likely had happened, everything in Bruce was ready for him to run away, go back on the run as he had been every time the Hulk did some new, terrible thing. This time, though, an old guard spoke some sense into his head, enough to give him the courage (and the motorcycle) to return to the city just in time to help the newly formed Avengers.
Unlike his only willing change into the Hulk against the Abomination, Bruce found that his change, standing there on a destroyed street ready to face down a huge alien worm, was no complete black out but allowed him to 'watch' through the Hulk's eyes in flashes, giving some form of guidance to the brute. It also resulted in him learning something he would never had suspected - that the Hulk actually liked Tony Stark enough to save him, enough to feel something like sadness when the Hulk thought him dead.
After the battle, Bruce did return to Stark Tower with Tony. The longer they spent together, the greater their friendship grew. He needed to return to Calcutta to wrap up his things there before he turned to stay.
Currently, he can be located living in the Tower on his own personal floor, either working with Tony or as the head of newly created Stark Medical. He remains under the alias of David Bixby, unconvinced that the Army will ever stop trying to get their hands on him as well as not wanting to connect himself to the green Giant that New Yorkers saw during the battle. He has become friends with Doctor McCoy, as Tony and the Professor know each other well, and actively enjoys going out to the Institute whenever possible. He studies the X-Gene, working with McCoy (as well as working on the creation of new, cheap vaccines for many common diseases still rampant in third world countries), hoping one day he will find a cure for himself and finally be free of his fear the Change.
Bruce was raised under the hand of his father, Brian Banner, who firmly believed that Bruce had been 'tainted' in the womb. When Bruce started to show signs at a very young age of being vastly more intelligent than his young years, he knew it to be true. The abuse he was already laying on his wife, Rebecca, spread to his son, turning Bruce inward further and further from everyone other than his mother. When he was six, Brian's abuse turned darker than it ever had, resulting in the death of Bruce's mother before his own eyes. Brian scared his son into never telling a soul. It was here that Bruce began developing a split personality - the quiet, intelligent young man with a mind older than his years and the raging six year old who was angry, afraid, and ready to lash out.
When Bruce was thirteen, his father's abuse and his nightmarish, semi-repressed memories of his mother's death led him down a suicidal path. Bullied at school for his incredible intelligence, held back by his father into grades far below his intelligence to try and make Bruce 'normal', he was completely alone, lost, and at his end. He created a bomb with stolen parts from his father's lab and with every intent, tried to blow up his school.
The bomb ended up being a dud, and he was caught. It gained the attention of the Army, specifically one General Ross, who saved Bruce from either a mental institution or juvie by taking the child under his wing in a special operation. For the first time in his life, Bruce was given his freedom to learn, given praise for it, and he bloomed under it all. College at The Pennsylvania State University (yes, Penn State) was barely a forethought before he was working on earning his doctorate in nuclear physics, and once completed, Ross put him on the project he had been hoping for all along. Ross' daughter, Betty, becomes Bruce's first love outside of his work, though his pride grew as his work became more and more famed even at such a young age.
Along the way, Bruce read and kept a copy of Howard Stark's work, accessed through the Army's systems as he worked on what Ross declared was an attempt to make humans immune to gamma radiation. What Bruce didn't know was in reality, Ross was trying to find the secret to the 'vita-rays' supposedly used in the creation of the Super Soldier (Captain America). Unfortuntely, during a test experiment, there was a terrible failure. As Bruce tried to fix it, it all but imploded and exposed him to huge amounts of gamma radiation. It led to his first change into the Hulk in which he escaped from the Army, now determined to capture him, and went on the run considered a fugitive from the U.S. Military.
In an effort to learn to control and protect himself, Bruce spent years on the run. First down in Rio de Janeiro, where he learned to meditate and control the anger that sparked the change into 'the Other Guy'. Each time, Bruce would wake up in a new location, usually alone and surrounded by destruction, basically nude and with no idea how he had gotten there and where he was. One becomes an expert at stealing clothes and hitching rides quickly with that sort of initiative.
Unfortunately, after a drop of his blood ended up inside of a bottle in the bottling factory he worked in made someone incredibly sick, the Army discovered his location. It brought around another fight, another reason to run, but back to find the only person that ever made him feel calm - Betty. He discovered her dating another man, but when his foolishness gets him found again, he and Betty went on the run in a game of cat and mouse, trying together to figure out a solution to Bruce's terrible problem with Ross trying to capture Bruce as well as get back his daughter.
When Ross finally succeeded, samples were taken from Bruce - most importantly, more of his blood. Combined with remnents of his original work (Ross' plan for the super soldier serum), the mixture was injected into one of Ross' highest level officers who turned into the Abomination.
Many would know of the terrible battle that came afterward in which Bruce was the only hope of stopping the mutated creature, thus Ross was forced to let him go. It became his first successful - willing - change into the Hulk as the Hulk fought, and won, against the Abomination. Betty proved herself to be the only person the Hulk not only wouldn't harm, but would listen to, as she got him to stop from outright killing the Abomination. It left Harlem in a huge state of destruction, with lives paying the cost of the two behemoths fighting.
Then, he ran.
Since then, Bruce had done all he could to pay for the terrible crimes he believed himself to have commited - the ones of his science as well as the Hulk's damage. Under an alias, he returned to schooling and gained another doctorate, this time in the medical profession. This allowed him to not only help those who needed it most, but begin study into new vaccines, methods, and his current most focus, gene therapy and manipulation.
He actively followed the scientific community in the areas of the diseases and the X-Gene, listening to both the activists and protestors, the pros and cons, learning all he could. He had read and deeply respected the work of one Doctor Hank McCoy, and despite his own personal concerns that the work on the X-Gene could lead to terrible issues of morality (and eventually, he still has no doubt, more monsters of human creation), he found himself wanting to get involved but without a focus.
The longer he lived with the Other Guy in his mind, the better his control became. By the time he was roughly forty, he found himself living in Calcutta, India, among the poorest sections of the city. With a small office set up, he provided free care to those who came to him. For over two years, he found his own sort of peace enough to have his longest time without a change into the Hulk. His work, done under his current alias of Doctor David Bixby, started to ease some of the guilt on his soul.
Until SHIELD, more specifically the Black Widow, found him and forced him, one way or another, to help them. Being forced to help another government agency, even if to help the world, did not sit right with Bruce.
On the SHIELD helicarrier, he met the first person since Betty that not only knew what he was, but wasn't afraid of him - Tony Stark. Hard not to know about the billionaire, 'Iron Man', even out in Calcutta. There was an instant, mutual respect that let Bruce work willingly with him as they tried to track down the Tesseract, stolen by the Asgardian Loki. It also led to Stark offering him a place to go when they were done, to come back to Stark Tower after the 'mission'.
However, while on board, he learned that SHIELD was 'prepared' to deal with the Hulk by any means necessary, earning Bruce's further, buried anger against the organization. Saving the Earth from Loki's attempt at domination was more important, but it set up what was to come.
It was Loki's work, along with the new stressors of new 'allies' - Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Agent Coulson - that led to Bruce's first change in years - one that left Bruce completely blacked out to the world as the Hulk turned on his allies. The resulting fight sent the Hulk flying off the helicarrier and slamming into the ground several miles outside of New York City.
When Bruce came to, he was in a huge, abandoned warehouse now partly destroyed thanks to the Hulk crashing through it. Able to piece together what most likely had happened, everything in Bruce was ready for him to run away, go back on the run as he had been every time the Hulk did some new, terrible thing. This time, though, an old guard spoke some sense into his head, enough to give him the courage (and the motorcycle) to return to the city just in time to help the newly formed Avengers.
Unlike his only willing change into the Hulk against the Abomination, Bruce found that his change, standing there on a destroyed street ready to face down a huge alien worm, was no complete black out but allowed him to 'watch' through the Hulk's eyes in flashes, giving some form of guidance to the brute. It also resulted in him learning something he would never had suspected - that the Hulk actually liked Tony Stark enough to save him, enough to feel something like sadness when the Hulk thought him dead.
After the battle, Bruce did return to Stark Tower with Tony. The longer they spent together, the greater their friendship grew. He needed to return to Calcutta to wrap up his things there before he turned to stay.
Currently, he can be located living in the Tower on his own personal floor, either working with Tony or as the head of newly created Stark Medical. He remains under the alias of David Bixby, unconvinced that the Army will ever stop trying to get their hands on him as well as not wanting to connect himself to the green Giant that New Yorkers saw during the battle. He has become friends with Doctor McCoy, as Tony and the Professor know each other well, and actively enjoys going out to the Institute whenever possible. He studies the X-Gene, working with McCoy (as well as working on the creation of new, cheap vaccines for many common diseases still rampant in third world countries), hoping one day he will find a cure for himself and finally be free of his fear the Change.
