David - I wasn't saying the comics suggested that at all. The entire idea behind making the Hulk a killer in the comics is because Marvel feels their world should reflect reality more, so they are saying it is unrealistic to have a Hulk that doesn't kill.

I was just taking the next logical step - if Hulk must have logic applied to him to reflect "reality" then by Marvel's logic, the heroes are responsible for all the damage that the villains do. When actually applied to real life, it's just as ludicrous as saying the Hulk MUST be a killer.

As you seemingly agree - ridiculous!

...and Daniel, I agree with Michael. The beginning of the Jones run which you have is great - but it went on with hardly any explanation or momentum for a couple of years. The characters were written out of character, and it just collapsed under the weight of its own over-elaborate plotting. By the end, I could have cared less who was behind the whole thing, like X-Files toward the end.

Too many red herrings, too many plot contrivances, to much "how can we fit the characters into THIS story"

But man, those first few issues - great stuff with lots of potential!

Paradoxically, the more realistic superhero comics become, the less believable they are.

Cuz once you start pulling on one thread (or strangling the characters with it), the whole thing starts to unravel.

The Hulk certainly reached a point back in the 60s, at least for a time, of getting mad enough to kill, and screaming he'd kill everyone, and so on. I was reading ESSENTIAL HULK 2 (I think) and those stories surprised me. There's even the story in which the Hulk and Banner are split apart, pre-JB, where the Hulk then goes on a rampage to find and "kill" Banner for good. And he's not kidding.

To my mind, the Hulk rampages against "puny humans" but it's not an all-out assault. Banner's consciousness always kept the Hulk in check. The Hulk has NO qualms about killing enemies, especially monsters, though he doesn't seem to fully "understand" what has happened, most of the time. It's not like he ever ripped the head off the Rhino or anything.

I'm almost sure though that the shocking point was made during JB's short run that the Savage Hulk devoid of Banner had killed during his unchecked rampage. I just feel like I remember a panel in the Avengers issue where it's pointed out, but I may be misremembering. This intensifies Doc Samson's thirst for revenge as well, since he's responsible for every lost life literal and figurative.