Andrew Bitner wrote: (Which invites the entire argument of "Is the Hulk a hero, a monster, or both?" but I digress.)

Actually, I think that question is wholly relevant to this discussion.  More than one poster has referred to The Hulk and/or Bruce Banner as a hero.  This in the context of if the Hulk does kill (or does if "properly written.") 

I once said to a friend that The Hulk is "not a hero."  We were talking more about patroling a city from the rooftops, stopping muggers and bank robbers and so on.  Out of that discussion came some of the following ponderances. 

• The Hulk is not a "super-hero."  There is, however, no question on the "super-" part of that term in The Hulk's case, so the question is whether he's a "hero." 
• He's not.  The Hulk is a monster.  At core, that's what the character is. 
• However, he (and Banner) are other things.  "A monster... appearing in the super-hero genre."  "A guy who sometimes does heroic stuff."  "A titular protagonist."  Maybe more. 
• The Hulk fights villains and super-villains.  Super-heroes fight villains and super-villians.  But it is faulty reasoning to conclude that just be cause he fights villians and shares some other traits with super-heroes (superhuman powers, a colorful and distinctive look, secret identity) that he is a super-hero. 
• The Hulk can also be an antagonist, and often has been over the decades in a variety of titles of Marvel comic books.  He can be a sypmathetic antagonist and still remain an antagonist. 

If we accept my premise that The Hulk is not a hero, what does that do for the question of whether the Hulk kills?  Very little, I'd say, because we must still ask ourselves (and as Dan Slott does ask) why Bruce Banner (characterized as we know him to date) would allow the Hulk to continue causing deaths?  If he can't commit suicide (I've heard rumor that it was established in a Hulk: The End project that Banner can't kill himself because he transforms and is unharmed by the attemt) them we must ask why he doesn't allow himself to be captured (as I understand that Banner has spent significant portions of his publishing history "on the lamb.") 

Further, if it is argued that The Hulk does kill, what does this say about the rest of the setting?  Are all the Marvel Super-heroes grossly negligent in not capturing Banner every chance they've ever had?  Is the government culpable (given that it was, I believe, their gamma bomb)?  Is Rick Jones guilty of manslaughter or negligent homicide, give his role in the origin and overall career of The Hulk? 

The Hulk doesn't have to be defined as a hero for the "Hulk as killer" scenario to raise problems.... 

QUOTE: Hulk eats people. Hulk likes mouthful. Yum!