How Tall Is the Hulk? (Comic Books, Movies, TV Shows)
There are a lot of questions one might ask about the Hulk, one of Marvel’s best-known and most interesting characters. You can ponder about his powers, his abilities, his strength, how strong he is when compared to some other characters, but also some simpler questions like why his pants don’t tear or how tall he is. The latter question is going to be the focus of today’s article, so if you ever wondered how tall are the different versions of the Hulk, you’ve come to the right place.
Based on the data we’ve gathered, Hulk’s height in different sources varies from 6’5” to an amazing 15”, which makes him one of the tallest Earth-based characters in Marvel’s universe.
Marvel Comics is a comic book publishing company founded in 1939 under the name Timely Comics. Timely Comics changed its name to Marvel Comics in 1961. Along with its chief rival, DC Comics, Marvel Comics is the biggest and most important mainstream comic book publisher in the United States. Marvel has, along with DC Comics, contributed to the development of American comics, specializing in the superhero genre. Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby are just some of the pivotal writers who’ve helped shape the style and universes of Marvel Comics.
Throughout the years, Marvel has created several pivotal superhero characters and has launched successful franchises such as the Avengers, X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy, all of which have been adapted into movies, TV shows and video games. Some of the most famous Marvel Comics heroes are Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Wolverine, Professor X, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey; but, the franchise also includes famous supervillains such as Thanos, Apocalypse, Galactus, Loki, Magneto, the Mandarin, Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin, Venom and others.
Now that we’ve given you a short introduction, let us discuss the topic of this article in more detail.
Hulk and his powers?
The Hulk is a fictional superhero appearing in stories published by Marvel Comics. Hulk is the alter ego of physicist Bruce Banner, who is a regular human, without any superhuman abilities. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the characters debuted in The Incredible Hulk #1 (1962) and is today regarded as one of Marvel’s strongest characters.
Dr. Robert Bruce Banner is a genius physicist, but a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved human. During the experimental detonation of a gamma bomb, Banner saves teenager Rick Jones who has driven onto the testing field; Banner pushes Jones into a trench to save him, but is hit with the blast, absorbing massive amounts of gamma radiation. He awakens later seemingly unharmed by the incident, but that night transforms into a lumbering grey (yes, he was initially grey before having been recolored) form. A pursuing soldier named the creature a “hulk”.
Originally, it was believed that Banner’s transformations into the Hulk were caused by sunset and undone at sunrise, but later, it was discovered to be caused by anger. Banner was, interestingly enough, cured in The Incredible Hulk #4, but chose to restore Hulk’s powers with Banner’s intelligence. He later became one of the founding members of the Avengers.
The Hulk is a green-skinned, hulking and muscular humanoid possessing a vast degree of physical strength. The two exist as separate dissociative personalities in the same body, and (generally) resent each other. The Hulk’s level of strength is normally conveyed as proportionate to his level of anger. Commonly portrayed as a raging savage, the Hulk has been represented with other personalities based on Banner’s fractured psyche, from a mindless, destructive force, to a brilliant warrior, or genius scientist in his own right.
The Hulk is one of Marvel’s most popular characters and has appeared in a lot of derivative materials, including animated films and TV shows, video games and live-action movies. In the live-action movies, he was portrayed by Eric Bana, Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo, with the latter two portraying the characters within the MCU.
How tall is the Hulk in the comic books?
When the comic books are concerned, marvel.com lists the Hulk as being 7’6” (229 cm) tall. This is an official number and should be considered correct in lack of any other official evidence. But, the comics haven’t been all that consistent since Hulk’s debut in 1962 and have portrayed Hulk as being taller or shorter than his current, official height.
For example, Grey Hulk, the original version of the character that later became green, was 6’6” (198 cm) tall, which means that the character was initially envisioned as being much shorter than he is now. Still, as the years passed, the Hulk “grew” and at one point reached even 8′ (244 cm) in height. The Green Scar Hulk was 8’8” (264 cm), while the tallest version of the character – Immortal Hulk – was an incredible 10′ (305 cm) tall, almost as the Sasquatch.
How tall is the Hulk in the movies?
There are several live-action movie iterations of the Hulk, with the first one being Eric Bana’s version from 2003. Incredible as it may sound, this Hulk grew throughout the movie, so we’ve seen three different “iterations” of the characters. Initially, he stood at 9′ (274 cm), then appeared as a 12′ (366 cm) tall giant and finally appeared as a 15′ (457 cm) creature that shocked everyone.
The MCU also offered two different versions of the character. The first one, played by Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk (2008), was supposed to be the main version in the giant cinematic universe, but after Norton’s departure, some changes were made to the character. This version of the Hulk stood was 9′ (274 cm) tall, which would bring him at the same height as Bana’s initial version of the character.
When Mark Ruffalo took over the role from Edward Norton and became the new MCU Hulk, the producers decided to change the characters height a little. This Hulk lost about half an inch and was around 8’5” (256 cm) tall, which made him the tallest among the Avengers, but still not as tall as some of his predecessors. This is also the adaptation that came closest to Hulk’s average height in the original comics.
How tall is Hulk in TV shows?
The Hulk had its own TV series that ran from 1977 to 1982. The show is today considered to be a cult classic, but it had a relatively low budget, which resulted in very low-quality special effects, as if the restrictions of the time weren’t enough. Lou Ferrigno portrayed the Hulk in the TV series and since the effects were as they were, the Hulk was only as tall as the actor himself.
Since Lou Ferrigno is 6’5” (196 cm), the Hulk was also 6’5” tall, which makes this the shortest iteration of the character ever.
What about the other Hulks?
As you might know, the Hulk can come in many different colours and not all of these iterations are connected with the character of Bruce Banner. Bruce Banner, himself, has been the Grey Hulk, the Green Hulk and the Blue Hulk, while the other colours were represented by other characters.
As for their heights, we are sad to report that these numbers are not available, save for the Red Hulk, whose height is listed as being 7′ (213 cm) by marvel.com. For the other colours, we’ll just have to wait for an official confirmation.
And that is the story of Hulk’s height. As you can see, his height has constantly varied in different materials, spanning from 6’5” to an amazing 15”, which is exceptional for an Earth-based character. Decreasing his height was a truly rare occurrence, while the often applied elevations of the numbers make sense from an in-universe standpoint.
Namely, the Hulk doesn’t seem to have a predetermined size, which means that he can practically become as big as he wants; there probably is a certain limit, but this has never been revealed in any of the materials. Hulks size depends on the intensity of his anger, meaning that the angrier he gets, the bigger he becomes. This explains why he seemed bigger when fighting some tougher opponents. As for the other Hulks, we’ll just have to wait until Marvel officially confirms their heights.
And that’s it for today. We hope you had fun reading this and that we helped solve this dilemma for you. See you next time and don’t forget to follow us!
