Is Hulk Gay, Bisexual, or Straight? What Is Marvel Canon?
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Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, is one of the most iconic Marvel characters ever created, both in the comics and the MCU. The “Strongest One There Is” usually doesn’t think of relationships all that much, but we’ve seen Bruce Banner have plenty. So, is the Hulk gay, bisexual, or straight? What does Marvel canon say about his sexuality?
Bruce Banner’s Hulk was never portrayed as anything but straight. In the comics, the Hulk had many love interests, and they were always female: Jarella, Kate Waynesboro, Nadia Blonsky, Caiera Oldstrong, etc. Even in the MCU, Natasha Romanoff was his only known love interest.
Now, one can say that Bruce Banner and the Hulk should be considered as separate persons in the same body, but even then, the big green fellow showed only straight tendencies. Although, some of those tendencies were borderline animalistic. Let’s dig through the Hulk’s canon in Marvel comics to find out more.
Is Bruce Banner’s Hulk Gay, Bisexual, or Straight in the Comics?
Bruce Banner is the original Hulk, first appearing in The Incredible Hulk #1 in 1962. After falling victim to a lot of gamma radiation, Dr. Banner developed an alter-ego of pure, unlimited anger, and strength. After Banner, there were many other characters who became Hulks, such as Thunderbolt Ross, Jennifer Walters, or Amadeus Cho, but I’ll focus on the original fellow.
Now, I’m saying all this because some fans refer to Banner and the Hulk as two different people. So, naturally, they can have different tendencies and sexualities, but is that the case here? Well, not really, because both Bruce Banner and the Hulk showed nothing but explicitly straight interests throughout the comics.
Despite usually being viewed as dorky, Bruce Banner actually had numerous love interests throughout the comics. So much so that he was actually married to Betty Ross, who was later known as the Harpy and Red She-Hulk.
There was also the time he dated Dr. Kate Waynesboro.
And that’s just the beginning. Bruce was involved with Nadia Blonsky, Angela Lipscombe, Marlo Chandler… I’m sure I’m forgetting someone. And that’s Banner’s side of the coin. One would think that the Hulk never cared about anything but rage and smashing, but he actually had several great love interests, too.
One of them was Jarella, a princess living in the sub-atomic kingdom of K’ai. She was the Hulk’s greatest love interest (other than his wife on Sakaar, but we’ll get there) until she died right in his big green arms.
And then, we arrive at Sakaar – a planet to where the Hulk in the comics was banished. There, he trained and became a champion, being one of the most powerful versions of the Hulk ever. There, he met Caiera Oldstrong, an extraterrestrial woman who became his wife, his biggest love ever, and the mother of his two children, Skaar and Hiro-Kala.
The thing is, Bruce and the Hulk could never father children on Earth, as the gamma radiation would usually kill every woman, or the child would be stillborn. So, when Hulk found Caiera, his whole world changed.
Unfortunately, that changed when Caiera, too, was killed, along with his children, sparking one of the most brutal Hulk storylines ever, featuring one of the strongest Hulk versions ever – the World Breaker Hulk.
There are alternative versions of the Hulk from different universes that had different tendencies, but I’ll get to that in the final subheading of this article.
Is Bruce Banner’s Hulk Gay, Bisexual, or Straight in the MCU?
In the MCU, the Hulk, and Bruce have a less “separated persons” relationship, especially after Banner merged them into one to become the Smart Hulk. We didn’t really see many of his preferences, though, but the one we did see was the same for both Bruce and the Hulk.
Their mutual love interest was Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. Granted, we never explicitly saw anything materialize between them, but there was obvious attraction and affection on both sides.
Now, I want to point out that (spoilers in you haven’t seen She-Hulk: Attorney At Law yet) the MCU Hulk left in a spaceship to go somewhere after the first episode of the series. I’ve seen many fans speculate he returned to Sakaar, so perhaps he will meet a wife there in the MCU, just like he did in the comics. It’s only wild speculation, but I’m certainly rooting for it.
Is She-Hulk Gay, Bisexual, or Straight?
Now that I’ve mentioned She-Hulk, one can also view her as an alternative version of the Hulk. So, is Jennifer Walters also straight, or is her sexuality different from her cousin’s?
Both in the comics and so far in the MCU, She-Hulk is straight, just like the original Hulk. In fact, in the comics, she is known as the “men’s lady,” a twist take on the expression “ladies’ man,” meaning Jen changes partners quite frequently.
If I remember correctly, there was this time when Jen revealed she keeps an ever-growing list of all the men she had dated, and the list goes on. Now, in the MCU, we’ve seen She-Hulk go on dating apps both as Jen Walters and She-Hulk, and both times, she expressed interest only in men.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that She-Hulk is exclusively straight, but those are the only indications we have so far. It could potentially change in the future and portray Jen as bi, but it wouldn’t be canonical to Marvel comics.
Is There Any Version of The Hulk That Isn’t Straight?
The theory suggests that there are virtually countless universes in Marvel comics, with Earth-616 being the main continuity universe. So, in an unlimited number of universes, there are certainly versions of the Hulk who are gay or bisexual. We haven’t seen any in the comics, though.
We have seen other versions of the Hulk who have such tendencies, though. For instance, Theodore Altman, aka Hulkling, was in an openly gay relationship with Wiccan, Wanda Maximoff’s son (known as Billy in the MCU).
Technically, Hulkling isn’t a real Hulk – he is half-Kree, half-Skrull, and he usually shapeshifts into a teenage Hulk, all with superstrength and green skin, just not as powerful as the real Hulk.
But, probably the weirdest, most disturbing version of the Hulk came in the Old Man Logan storyline, revolving around an alternative future timeline of Earth-807128. You could call the Hulk straight here as well, but his only interest and motivation here was reproduction.
This future had seen most superheroes die, and supervillains took over. Meanwhile, all the years of gamma radiation messed up Bruce Banner’s psyche, turning him into a pure evil animal. He ate people for fun.
The Hulk couldn’t have children with a normal woman, and most superhero women were already dead.
Seeing his cousin, Jennifer Walters, as the only woman who could bear him children, the Hulk forcibly took her into an incestuous relationship, with Jen giving birth to multiple children, later known as the Hulk Gang. They were inbred thugs who caused nothing but chaos and destruction. Eventually, they all perished, getting killed by Wolverine in the act of revenge.
This version of the Hulk was straight, but his only true motivation was breeding. There was really no sexual affinity, just an animalistic urge to reproduce, even if it meant with his own cousin. It was probably one of the most twisted Hulk versions and takes I’ve ever read, but god, I loved the storyline!
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