Hulk Fact — November 2, 2026

Today's Fact

The cure worked perfectly. That turned out to be the catastrophe.

BANNER AND THE HULK WERE SPLIT INTO TWO BODIES — AND BANNER LED THE HUNT FOR HIMSELF!

The Featured Fact

In The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #315 (1986), by John Byrne, Doc Samson's nutrient-bath process at the rebuilt Gamma Base did what decades of cures could not: it separated them. An unconscious Bruce Banner was lifted out of the tank a whole, ordinary man — while the Hulk stayed behind in the bath, a body Samson described as a blank slate with none of Banner inside it.

S.H.I.E.L.D., under Clay Quartermain, arrived to secure the facility and eliminate the creature outright. Samson, horrified, freed his patient instead — and the Banner-less Hulk, with no mind to check him, rampaged. The Avengers sent against him in the following issue, Iron Man, Hercules, Namor and Wonder Man among them, could not bring him down.

Banner's answer was to become his own nemesis. Recovered, he built a Hulkbuster base and recruited a team of specialists — the Hulkbusters of The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #317 (1986) — dedicated to destroying the Hulk for good. The arrangement could not last: the separation itself proved hazardous to both men's survival, and the hunter and the hunted eventually had to become one person again.

Why It's Obscure

For a few months in 1986, the Hulk's most determined enemy and the Hulk were legally the same man, living apart.

1986

Incredible Hulk #315 — Byrne's separation issue: one tank, two patients, and a cover asking whether Banner is 'free at last.'

Blank slate

A Hulk with nobody home — Samson's own assessment of the separated creature, offered moments before S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to execute it.

The breakout

Samson's rescue — The psychiatrist who split them also sprang the Hulk from his execution transport, then vowed to recapture him personally.

#317

Banner's Hulkbusters — Within two issues the separated scientist is running a paramilitary team whose entire mission is killing his other half.

Gallery

The separation issue's own cover, the Hulk unbound, and Doc Samson — the man who performed the split.

Incredible Hulk issue 315 comic cover showing Bruce Banner emerging between two roaring Hulk heads with the words Bruce Banner Free At Last — **The issue that split them**The cover of The Incredible Hulk #315 itself: Banner rising, screaming, between two roaring Hulk profiles — 'Bruce Banner… Free at Last?' The question mark earned its place.

The Hulk leaping through an explosion of rubble and rock in torn purple pants comic art — **Nobody home, nothing held back**The Hulk mid-rampage, tearing through rock and dust — the unleashed, Banner-less force the Avengers failed to stop in the separation's aftermath.

Doc Samson comic cover showing the green-haired Doc Samson running in a lightning-bolt shirt — **Doc Samson, named in today's fact**Doc Samson on one of his own covers — green-haired, lightning bolt on his chest — the psychiatrist whose nutrient-bath cure created the two-body problem.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #315 — CLZ ComicsA full synopsis of the issue: Samson's nutrient bath separates Banner from the Hulk, Quartermain's S.H.I.E.L.D. team moves to eliminate the creature, and Samson frees him.
Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #317 — Marvel DatabaseThe follow-up record: Banner, released from hospital after the separation, forms his Hulkbusters to destroy the Hulk — with the continuity note that the separation proved hazardous to both.
1986 — Incredible Hulk — Marvel Comics of the 1980sA run retrospective: in #315 Samson splits Banner's mind and body from the Hulk, the unchecked creature defeats the Avengers' attempt to stop him, and Banner builds his Hulkbuster team.