After rendering Giant-Man unconscious and overpowering Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, who were all dispatched to stop his rampage, The Hulk changed back into Banner after the Wasp entered his skull through the ear canal and fired her bio-electric sting directly into his brain. In the first Hulk comic series, "massive" doses of gamma rays would cause the Hulk to transform back to Banner, although this ability was written out of the character by the 1970s. Shortly after becoming the Hulk, his transformation continued turning him green, coinciding with him beginning to display primitive speech. This procedure also increased Banner's mental capacity, which gave him the intelligence to tweak the Extremis virus within him and unleash a new persona for the Hulk: the super-intelligent Doc Green. Not one to be overshadowed by a skinny German Nazi, the Hulk promptly pounded Kleiser to a pulp and even ate him.

Hulk participated since he knew that Earth will be destroyed either way while his Bruce Banner suspects that Hulk's revivals were a manifestation of Hulk's immortality. In Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, Les Daniels addresses the Hulk as an embodiment of cultural fears of radiation and nuclear science.He is convinced by Karen Grant to be their "enforcer" in a new team sponsored by former Director Nick Fury. When Magneto attacked the Triskelion's lockup during the " Ultimate War" series, power went down for the entire facility. Before Old Man Logan can be finished off by Pappy Banner, he is suddenly attacked by Bruce Banner Jr.

However, while in hell, the Hulk became corrupted by the demonic beings he encountered, transforming him into a demon himself. The witnesses in the Dogs of Hell told Detective Gloria Mayes of the attacker as she and reporter Jackie McGee have a suspicion that it was Hulk even though Banner is believed to be dead.Old Man Logan found that Pappy Banner's head was placed on a gamma-powered robot made from Adamantium by Tinkerer. The contemporary setting removes the Cold War context of the original story, and serves as a tie-in to the Marvel: The Lost Generation maxi-series created by Roger Stern and Byrne, which also brought the origins of many Marvel characters out of the 1960s and into contemporary times.