Full name: Robert Bruce Banner
Species: Human (genetically altered)
Date of birth: January 22, 2364
Place of birth: Dayton, Ohio, Earth
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 150 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Adjusted Wolfe-deKok Intelligence Index: 175

Date of IPO induction: December 12, 2406
Division of service: Research and Development
Grade: Lensman
Test of Light administered: December 12, 2406
Other special qualifications/certifications:
- B.S. Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2384
- M.S. Physics, Universität Berlin (Niogi), 2386
- Ph.D. Physics, New Avalon Institute of Science, 2391
- International Police Able Non-Combatant Self-Defense Training

Description: Dr. Banner is a human male in his mid-forties, unremarkable of build, with slightly curly black hair just starting to go grey at the temples. He often wears spectacles and is customarily a bit unkempt and in need of a shave, with perpetually rumpled clothes.

Notes: Bruce Banner (he doesn't go by his first name) is one of the galaxy's foremost authorities on spatial hyperphysics and high-energy phenomena. As a graduate student, first in Berlin and then at the New Avalon Institute of Science, he was part of the research team that worked with Wedge Defense Force Director of Research Professor Andrew Petrarca on the Stargate project.

After earning his doctorate with the first of the papers that would establish his reputation as one of the leading physicists of his generation (The Anti-Electron Collision Effect in Dark Matter, 2391), Banner returned to his alma mater, MIT, and took up a research fellowship there. Over the next decade he consulted on scientific and technical matters for the WDF, the fledgling IPO, and the governments of the Earth Alliance and the United States. In 2399 he was hired away from MIT by the Los Alamos National Laboratory to study exotic energy sources. Shortly after arriving at his new lab there, after reading an obscure paper by the 21st-century Neo-Japanese physicist Shoichi Saotome, he became interested in the exotic form of energy known as Getter radiation.

Intrigued, Banner set about developing a device that could concentrate ambient Getter rays, which are ubiquitous but normally very faint, into a useful quantity of energy. Unfortunately, he was not aware at the time that the same form of energy was known on the colony world of Ragol as "Photon energy", and that the Ragolians had learned centuries before that collecting and amplifying it above a certain level is a very bad idea. One day in the late spring of 2401 he awoke out in the desert, buck-ass nude and very confused, and discovered upon making his way back to Los Alamos that his laboratory had been destroyed by a monstrous, rampaging creature the city's press dubbed an "incredible hulk". Banner himself was presumed to have been killed in the incident.

It didn't take Banner long to discover three important and equally dismaying facts:

1) The "incredible hulk" was none other than himself, transformed by exposure to what should've been a lethal quantity of Getter rays when his experimental collector exploded in his face;

2) His reaction to extreme stress or anger was to turn into the creature again and go on a terrifyingly destructive Getter-fueled rampage; and

3) Sinister government agents were pursuing him, intent on either killing him or (for preference) figuring out a way to enslave his astonishingly powerful alter ego.

For more than five years Banner lived on the run, constantly searching for a cure for his condition, hampered by the lack of really first-rate science facilities available to scruffy drifters with no ID, pursued by "recruitment teams" from various governments and Big Fire as well as IPO search teams, and wrecking everything in sight on the depressingly-non-rare occasions when confrontations with his pursuers triggered a transformation into the creature who now chose to identify himself as the capital-H Hulk. Luckily, when he was ultimately captured in late 2406, it was by the IPO and not one of the other organizations.

To Banner's immense surprise, IPO Chief Technologist Skuld Ravenhair's answer to his dilemma was to administer the Test of Light - which to his even greater surprise, he passed - and then consult with her son Corwin to create a special Lens made from a mystic material, gaolith, which is a natural Getter-ray regulator. This Lens seemed to be an immediate success, giving Banner control over his transformations and the Hulk himself.

Banner spent the next three years heading the IPO's High-Energy Phenomena Laboratory, very occasionally venturing into the field as a special operative. As the galaxy's leading expert on Getter rays, he found his expertise much valued by an organization that was - thanks to the influence of Ragolian Hunter and CID operative Janice Barlow - making a significant investment in Photon/Getter-harnessing technology in weapons and personal protective equipment. Only infrequently did he employ his Hulk persona, with which he was never entirely comfortable, in the course of his duties, preferring to remain in the laboratory.

By late 2409, though, the veneer of Banner's stable new life was beginning to show cracks. He was becoming increasingly erratic, developing an explosive temper entirely at odds with his normally mild-mannered demeanor, and began to suffer frequent and intense headaches. Eventually, Skuld realized that she had gravely misdiagnosed his condition when creating his original Lens. The Hulk, as she and Banner had both believed, was not simply a physical transformation in which most of Banner's conscious mind was blotted out by neurological changes and Getter-amplified emotional responses; he was a separate person with his own soul and consciousness, one whom they had inadvertently consigned to years of torture. What was more, the strain of keeping that consciousness bottled up at all times was slowly killing Banner.

Correcting this mistake was a dicey business involving a trip to Valhalla for public safety reasons, but with the help of several of Skuld's Valkyrie, the team of Dr. Henry Jekyll and Sgt. Edward Hyde, and an inadvertently obliging fire giant strike force, the scientist and his unexpected counterpart managed to find a new balance.

Since returning from his trip to Asgard, Banner has reverted to the calm, easygoing, modest genius he was when he first joined the IPO. His studies with ancient masters in Valhalla and his own reformative experiences across the Upper Worlds have left him with a sort of unflappable Zen-cool air that takes things as they come, with a wry remark or gentle, unaggressive barb for even the worst situation. Where he once loathed and dreaded what he thought of as the beast within him, now he's hip to the fact that sharing his lifespace with an indestructible titan is not the worst thing that can happen to a guy in his line of work - particularly now that he knows the Hulk won't destroy his life along with his foes during his own times "out of the office," as it were.

Current assignment: Dr. Banner is back at his post as head of the HEP lab, taking point on the IPO's exploration and development of Getter applications and leaving the heavy lifting to those more suited to it - including a certain rookie SA7 operative who never seems to turn up in the same place at the same time...

ATTENTION: RELATED FILE AUTOFEED

Full name: David Edward Banner
Also known as: ("The Incredible") Hulk
Species: Human (genetically altered)
Date of birth: June 8, 2401
Place of birth: Los Alamos, New Mexico, Earth
Height: 7'
Weight: 1,040 lbs.
Eyes: Green
Hair: Black
Adjusted Wolfe-deKok Intelligence Index: 75

Date of IPO induction: April 24, 2410
Division of service: Special Assignment 7 (Chief's Discretion)
Grade: Lensman
Test of Light administered: April 25, 2410
Other special qualifications/certifications:
- Einherjar Medal of Valor
- Honorary Berserker
- Strongest One There Is

Description: Hulk is a towering, heavily muscled humanoid with bright green skin and eyes. He prefers nothing more complicated than cargo shorts in the wardrobe department (and Dr. Banner possesses a large assortment of same that are enchanted to fit whichever of them happens to be wearing them at the time). Even in a place like New Avalon, this is not a man who's easy to overlook.

Notes: Although "David Banner" is the name on his IPO ID card, the creature born of the Getter-ray explosion in Bruce Banner's Los Alamos lab in 2401 thinks of himself first and foremost as "Hulk". In the press this name is often preceded by the phrase "the Incredible", but this is not an affectation Hulk generally adopts himself.

Hulk is a simple creature who speaks a curious sort of Caveman Standard, but - contrary to popular supposition during the early days, when he was constantly at internal odds with Banner and being hunted relentlessly on the outside - he's not an imbecile or an animal intellect. In fact, in combat situations he often displays a level of tactical insight that puts him on par with some of the greatest operatives in history. This faculty is sometimes dismissed by his detractors as "low cunning", but low cunning doesn't account for his innate knack for improvisation. Nobody who can identify the most immediate threats on a complicated, fast-moving battlefield and invent new and inspired ways of dealing with them on the fly is just reacting like a cornered animal.

On the other hand, Hulk knows he's not one of the galaxy's towering intellects. He can read and write, but his math skills are not impressive and he's not going to be doing an in-depth analysis of the key themes in the works of Shakespeare anytime soon. His taste in literature runs more to Bacon Junior Comics. In fact, "childlike" is the word people who know him better most often use to describe Hulk's personality - both in terms of his capacity for wonder, and his breadth of emotional extremes. For all that he's got a pretty good lid on his temper these days, Hulk is a creature originally born of concentrated frustration and rage - a reaction to Bruce Banner's lifelong struggle with feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness - and even now that Banner's coping well and Hulk views him as a friend, that fury is never too far below the surface.

All of Hulk's personality traits are at least a bit larger than life, probably because he was originally created, and is still fueled, by Getter rays - a form of energy that reacts to sapient emotions, becoming more powerful as those within its sphere of influence experience their feelings more strongly. This means that Hulk's capacity for friendship and loyalty is enormous, and that once roused, his wrath is almost beyond measuring. It also means there is no theoretical upper bound to his physical power. Simply put, the more angry Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets.

Nearly indestructible - even when his fantastically resilient frame is actually wounded, the injuries heal almost instantly - Hulk can outlast, outmuscle, and outfox almost any opponent. He's defeated entire armies in his time, gone toe-to-toe with the mightiest warrior the fire giants of Eldjotunheim can boast, even wrestled the Juggernaut to a draw (and that was interrupted). He's single-minded and relentless when the Berserkergang is upon him, absolutely confident that whatever comes along, whoever tries to stop him, Hulk is strongest one there is.

Current assignment: As a member of Special Assignment 7, Hulk undertakes special missions under the direction of the Chief or other designed SA1 operatives. These are generally not tasks that call for a great deal of subtlety, but Hulk OK with that.

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