Few comic-book characters have undergone as many transformations as the Hulk and his "puny human" alter-ego Bruce Banner. Between multiple Hulk personalities (at one point the monster became intelligent and got a job as a Las Vegas enforcer nicknamed "Joe Fixit") and a painter's palette worth of colours (most recently Marvel has unveiled a red Hulk) it's hard to keep track of all the schizo, savage, magenta or merely green variations.
GREY HULK
Originally, Lee's and Kirby's monster was plain old grey until the colour proved a nightmare to print, forcing the publishers to opt for his now-legendary leafy-emerald complexion. Still, that bit of trivia has inspired artists and writers to return the creature to his original colour skin every few years.
Most recently in the alternative-universe Ultimates series -- a post-modern revamp of the Marvel lineup -- Hulk is once more a pale shade of charcoal.
ANIMATED HULK
There have been three Hulk cartoons over the past four decades. The first, which debuted in 1966, regurgitated panels directly from the comic, meaning only the lips of the characters moved -- a sorry companion piece to the beloved Spider-Man series. The second Hulk 'toon arrived on Saturday mornings in 1981 while the last bowed in the mid-1990s.
TELEVISION HULK
As long-running as the comic may be, the character's most popularized incarnation came in the 1970s with the TV series that starred a tormented Bill Bixby morphing into Lou Ferrigno.
The show ran from 1978 to 1982 and was produced by Kenneth Johnson, a writer and director who would go on to create the V mini-series.
Bixby and Ferrigno would be reunited in a series of made-for-TV movies in the late 1980s that were thinly-disguised pilots for more Marvel-based shows (so in one Hulk fights a ridiculous-looking Thor, while in another he tangles with a pre-Ben Affleck Daredevil). Thankfully none of the spinoffs came to fruition.
Bixby died in 1993 after a battle with cancer. Ferrigno, though, remains a mainstay at comics conventions and has a cameo in the new Hulk movie.
ANG LEE'S HULK
With the X-Men and Spider-Man leaping successfully to the big screen, it was inevitable the Hulk would also get his own special-effects extravaganza.
After years of development and unused screenplays (including a polish by Lost creator J.J. Abrams) Oscar-winning director Ang Lee signed on to helm his own cerebral interpretation of the gamma-radiated icon.
But despite Hulk-sized expectations and a $130 million budget, the film fell far short of 2002's Spider-Man blockbuster, grossing a disappointing $132 million in North American theatres.
