| |
|
| |
|
| As a child, Brian Banner was abused by his father Bruce. Regarding his father as a monster and believing that he had inherited a "monster gene" from him, Brian promised himself that he would never have any children, for fear of bringing another Banner into the world. In college, Brian met a girl named Rebecca, whom he fell in love with and later married. Gaining a PhD in physics, Brian found a job in Los Alamos, New Mexico working for the government as a member of a project trying to develop a clean way to create nuclear energy. The stress of his job eventually led Brian to become an alcoholic and he began to develop anger problems, lashing out at others even when they try to help him. While drunk on the job one day, Brian accidentally overloaded some of the machinery, causing an explosion which ended up with him fired from his job. Despite doctors stating that the explosion caused him no harm, Brian became convinced that the explosion in Los Alamos had affected him on the genetic level. |
| Becoming a rising star in the field of radiation research, Brian started investigating gamma radiation. As he started looking into its anomalistic behavior, Brian started considering that gamma was neither a wave nor a particle, but something entirely different. One night when working late, Brian closed his eyes for a second due to exhaustion, and caught a glimpse of the One Below All, a grotesque presence in the Below-Place, a dimension lower than Hell and reality's bottom layer. Brian also sensed that the One Below All was looking for him. Deeply affected by this dream, Brian decided to put a stop to his research the following morning. |
| Despite his vow to never have children, Brian accidentally impregnated Rebecca, who gave birth to their only son, Bruce, who was ironically named after Brian's father. Instantly hateful of the baby, whom he believed to be a monster created from both the radiation he was exposed to and the "monster gene," Brian ignored him completely and attempted to keep Rebecca away from him, leaving Bruce in the care of the neglectful Nurse Meachum. |
| When Bruce woke up early one Christmas morning and opened a present from his mother, a complex model kit, he assembled it easily despite his young age. Brian's discovery of this convinced him that his belief that Bruce was abnormal and different was correct and resulted in him beating Bruce and Rebecca when she came to their son's aid. Forced to endure heavy abuse from Brian for several years, Rebecca attempted to escape from him with Bruce. Finding Rebecca as she and Bruce were packing their belongings into their car, Brian attacked Rebecca, killing her by slamming her head against the pavement in front of Bruce. |
| Under the threat of severe punishment, Brian stopped Bruce from testifying against him at his trial for Rebecca's murder, saying in doing so, he would go to Hell. Intimidated by Brian's anger, Bruce lied to the courts, stating that his father never abused him or Rebecca, whom he claimed tried to run away for no reason. Brian escaped conviction due to lack of evidence, but was arrested after boasting about it while drunk. Taken away, kicking and screaming, Brian yelled at Bruce that he would have revenge for this. |
