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NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Brian Banner from the 2003 film. The mainstream version can be found here: Brian Banner. The mainstream version of Absorbing Man can also be found here: Absorbing Man
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Villain Overview

I gave you life, now you must give it back to me! Only a million times more radiant, more powerful!
~ David Banner to his son Bruce Banner.
Take it back. It's not stopping! TAKE IT BACK!
~ David Banner, sufferring from the continuous absorption of the Hulk's powers, as well as his last words before he gets exploded by a Gamma Charge Bomb under General Ross' orders.

Dr. David "Dave" Banner is the main antagonist of the 2003 Marvel film Hulk, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. He is a genius scientist and the estranged father of Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk, who later transformed himself into a powerful energy being.

Years after being separated from his son, David returns to Bruce's life and discovers his powers, leading him to devise a way to get them for himself, thus he is also the reason why Bruce became the Hulk in the first place. He is loosely based on Brian Banner and Absorbing Man from the original comics.

He was portrayed by Nick Nolte, who also played Wade Whitehouse in Affliction, Burt Johnson in Arthur, Frank Stockburn in The Ridiculous 6, Mulgarath in The Spiderwick Chronicles and Inspector Thomas Cray in Nightwatch, and voiced Vincent in Over the Hedge; while Paul Kersey portrayed his younger self.

History[]

David Banner was a genetics researcher who, in his quest to improve on humanity, experimented on himself; after his wife Edith Banner gave birth to Bruce, David, seeing that Bruce was abnormal, barely showing emotion and gaining patches of green skin when he did, felt that he was responsible, realizing that his experiments on himself had affected Bruce. Trying to find a cure for Bruce's condition, David had his research shut down by Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross; going into a rage over the loss of his work and the hopelessness of Bruce's situation, David accidentally destroyed his laboratory and tried to kill Bruce, only to accidentally stab Edith fatally, before being arrested and confined to a mental institution. Blocking his memories of David killing Edith, which haunt his nightmares and afflicting him with PTSD, Bruce was taken into foster care by Ms. Krenzler.

Thirty years later, David was released from a mental hospital and got a job as a janitor from Benny (after supposedly killing him for the job) at the research institute Bruce worked at, in the same field as his father. Confronting Bruce on the night after he was blasted with radiation and nanomeds, David revealed his relationship to him (Bruce doesn't recognize David because he previously thought his biological father was dead) and stole some of his mutated DNA. Experimenting with Bruce's DNA on animals, David also saw his son's first transformation into the Hulk, which he soon became obsessed with copying that power.

Releasing three dogs he had mutated to kill Betty Ross, who had confronted him over what has happened with Bruce, David called Bruce and told him of this. Defeating the mutant dogs and saving Betty, Bruce was tranquilized and taken to a military facility, which David followed him to. As Bruce was held captive, David subjected himself to the same devices that gave Bruce the ability to change into the Hulk, giving himself the ability to absorb the properties of everything he touched and uses his newfound powers to crush a security guard to death with a steel table. Finding Betty, David told her that he will turn himself in if he was allowed to see Bruce one last time, also revealing to her that he had intended to murder Bruce (believing he would become the Hulk and making him to lose control) when his research was originally shut down and that instead he ended up killing Edith when she tried to stop him.

Taken to Bruce, David was placed in a room with him, where they were placed between two electrical generators that would kill both of them if things went out of hand. Bruce began to reflect on the memory of his mother and cried. His father attempted to comfort him over Edith's death, but Bruce angrily refused, saying that maybe he was his father back then, but he no longer was now. Having descended into megalomania, David ranted to Bruce about how the military has ruined their lives, also stating that the Hulk was his true son, and Bruce was just a tool for him. Biting some electrical wires, David became a being of pure electricity while Bruce, upon seeing this, becomes the Hulk. Breaking out of the military facility and engaging each other, both father and son crash into a lake, where David, becoming a being of stone and water, tried to absorb all the Hulk's energy, which the Hulk aggressively allowed. Unable to contain the Hulk's energy, David transformed into a gigantic energy sphere, much to his prolonged dismay. General Ross then ordered the launch of a Gamma Charge Bomb, whose detonation killed David, but Hulk survives the explosion. With David's death, Edith is avenged, leaving Bruce with no parents left, thus making Bruce himself an orphan.

Later, after his father's death, Bruce remembers David tucking him into bed as a kid saying "sweet dreams", which probably means that his father still loved and cared about his son as there is still good inside David.

Personality[]

That's right, keep fighting. The more you fight, the more of you I take.
~ David attempting to provoke Bruce into becoming the Hulk so that he can absorb his son's powers.

David Banner is an extremely selfish, brilliant, intelligent, egotistical, and megalomaniacal individual from nearly the most diabolical kind, who sees nothing more or less than killing his own son whom he truly loved and cared about in order to obtain his energy and become the most powerful being the world has ever known.

Banner was a sadistic, destructive, and psychopathic superhuman being that only wanted to obtain godlike power. While his wife's murder wasn't David's intention, it was David's attempt to murder Bruce himself when he was a child (the reason David attempted to kill his son was because he feared Bruce will transform into a dangerous creature to kill him and tries to prevent it from happening) while Edith protected her son. To that end, David believed that he was the one who was really responsible for the creation of the Hulk because he is Bruce's biological father, and believed that if he wants to kill him, he must obtain his energy. It seems that his own personal hobbies were to wreak havoc and destruction, antagonizing his son Bruce enough to let the Hulk come out and thus to be able to carry out his plan, and to gain more and more power.

Despite his actions, it is hinted that he is actually a tragic person because he still cared about Bruce and his wife, as he showed remorse when finding out about Bruce's transformation into the Hulk, and could be a genuinely loving father at times when Bruce was a child and clearly felt guilty for having murdered Edith, as he cried when confessing to Betty of his actions.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

  • Superhuman Strength: David could lift a computer terminal and slam it on a security guard moments after being mutated. He was shown in both electric and rock form to subdue and restrain the Hulk.
  • Absorption: He had the ability to absorb or take on the properties of whatever he touched. He was able to merge with objects such as metal and rock to electricity and radiation. He could absorb the heat from a lake he merged with and cause it to be frozen at will.

Weaknesses[]

  • Banner could only absorb so much power at a time; the Hulk eventually used this against him, overloading him with energy. The attempt to absorb so much energy caused him to swell into a vast bubble-like form that rose into the air.
  • He could be injured by the Gamma Charge Bomb, a device powered by the same energy source that granted both his and the Hulk's abilities. This weapon, mounted onto an air-launched missile, was deployed by General Ross at the climax of the film in a last-ditch effort to stop the two monsters, who had proven invulnerable to conventional weaponry. In his weakened state, Banner was successfully killed; the Hulk, however, survived.

Trivia[]

  • In the novelization by Peter David, Banner is depicted as far more callous than in the movie. He experimented on young Bruce out of fascination and self-interest rather than to cure him, subjects him to both emotional and physical abuse, and blows his lab up on purpose rather than by accident in the film-not caring that it may kill thousands of innocent people. He always blamed Bruce for "ruining" his life which was what drove him to try to kill his young boy. While he may have cared for Bruce at some point, he later showed regret and disgust for said feeling. He also continues to try to kill Bruce after killing Edith by accident. David seemed to have a distaste for children in general as he was disgusted by the idea of having Bruce even before he found out that he was infected, and always hated Edith for giving birth to him. He's also a master manipulator who plays on the emotions of others, as shown when he simply uses Edith's death as a way of gaining sympathy from others. Thus, the novel strips David from any possible redeeming qualities he had in the film.
    • Also, while it is merely implied that David may have killed the janitor Benny in the film, in the novelization it is revealed that he had his dogs rip him to shreds.
  • Despite being the incarnation of the Marvel comic book villain the Absorbing Man, this alias was never mentioned in the film and Banner never adopted it.
  • David Banner's name is a reference to the 1978 Incredible Hulk series where Bruce Banner was called David Banner instead. Though in the comics, his full name is Brian David Banner.

External Links[]

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Movies
Hulk (2003): Absorbing Man | Glenn Talbot | Thunderbolt Ross | Gamma Dogs
The Incredible Hulk: Abomination (Novelization) | Strategic Operations Command Center (Thunderbolt Ross | Kathleen Sparr) | Samuel Sterns | Tough Guy Leader
Hulk Vs.: Professor Thorton | Deadpool | Lady Deathstrike | Sabretooth | Omega Red | Loki Laufeyson | Hela | Enchantress | Skurge | Surtur | Malekith the Accursed | Valkyrie
Planet Hulk: Red King | Grandmaster | Skrulls
Heroes United: Iron Man and Hulk: Zzzax | Abomination | HYDRA
Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell: Nightmare

Television
The Incredible Hulk (1978): Dell Frye | Michael Sutton | Dark David Banner | Wilson Fisk
The Incredible Hulk (1982): The Leader | Doctor Octopus | Thunderbolt Ross | Puppet Master | Glenn Talbot | HYDRA | Spymaster
The Incredible Hulk (1996): The Leader | Abomination | Zzzax | Glenn Talbot | Doctor Doom | Wendigo | Thunderbolt Ross | Absorbing Man | Scimitar | Hybrid
Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.: Agents of C.R.A.S.H. (The Leader, Absorbing Man, Blastaar, Sauron, Titania & Abomination) | Annihilus | The Collector | Ego the Living Planet | Frost Giants (Laufey & Ymir) | Mole Man | Wendigo | Wrecker | Thunderball | Piledriver | Bulldozer | Doctor Doom | Fin Fang Foom | Galactus | Terrax the Tamer | Loki Laufeyson | Malekith the Accursed | Dormammu | Skrulls (Super-Skrull) | Maximus | Medusa | Gorgon | Skaar | Kree (Ronan the Accuser) | Firelord | Null the Living Darkness | High Evolutionary | Pluto | Xemnu | Red Ghost | Maestro | Super-Apes | Dracula | HYDRA (Red Skull) | Supreme Intelligence | Doctor Octopus | Venom | Impossible Man | J. Jonah Jameson

Video Game
The Incredible Hulk (1994): The Leader | Abomination | Absorbing Man | Tyrannus | Rhino
The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga: Maestro | U-Foes (Vector, Vapor, Ironclad & X-Ray)
Hulk (2003): The Leader | General John Ryker | Madman | Half-Life | Flux | Ravage | Thunderbolt Ross
The Incredible Hulk (2003): The Leader | Abomination | General Ross | Tyrannus | Skurge
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction: Abomination | Devil Hulk | Thunderbolt Ross
The Incredible Hulk (2008): Abomination | Strategic Operations Command Center (Thunderbolt Ross & Glenn Talbot) | Bi-Beast | Enclave | U-Foes (Vector, Vapor, Ironclad & X-Ray) | Samuel Sterns

See Also
She-Hulk Villains

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