I'm just getting started out with the whole universe, and I'm particularly interested in Bruce Banner. Where do you recommend I start? It can be Avengers comics, Hulk comics, from any time period. I also like his friendship with Tony.
Posted Jun 3, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC
You should probably just get a rec of the main Hulk comics since those are the ones that really delve into Bruce's character in depth.
I also like his friendship with Tony.
Oh boy you will be disappointed in that department since the two aren't necessarily close and after what happened in Planet Hulk it put them at odds for a long time. There are comics that have interesting interactions between the two tho.
And it's actually worse than this. If your main exposure is the MCU, but you had heard that this was the original Avengers line-up you might think Hulk and Iron Man interacted a lot.
But Hulk left the Avengers after a single issue in the comics:
https://cmro.travis-starnes.com/groups_roster.php?group_name=2
I'm not 100% sure but I think you might have to go all the way up to 2012 Avengers Assemble and later for that dynamic that is at all like the movie.
I recall latter issues Avengers Assemble had KSD making Tony and Banner friends but it felt pretty out the left field and it was pretty much ignored by the other writers (Hickman had them at odds again).
Yeah, Hulk might have been a founder but he left the Avengers pretty early and was mostly a Defender than an Avenger. She-Hulk was the Avenger.
Bruce Banner specifically? Or the Hulk in general? Because the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk are must-reads for Hulk. Also Civil War II has a pretty good Hulk/Bruce Banner plot
Bruce specifically.