| NOTE: This page is about David Banner's his book incarnation, as his original film incarnation was not voted Pure Evil, and thus only the novel version of David Banner's info and crimes should be put here. |
David "Dave" Banner is the main antagonist of the novelization of the 2003 superhero movie Hulk.
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.
While the film gives a few redeeming factors such as feeling remorse for accidentally killing his wife as well as genuinely caring for his son at moments, the novelization by Peter David strips said redeeming qualities away, presenting him as a bloodthirsty and sadistic monster.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Upon having his research rejected for a human trial by the military, he tests the serum on himself, which results in Bruce, his son, having the same mutated genes.
- Even before he knew that Bruce could be infected with his genes, he still showed a disdain for children in general and hated his wife Edith for giving birth to Bruce.
- After discovering what happens to Bruce's body when he gets angry, he begins abusing him both physically and emotionally, and draws blood from him to use it for research on his own experiments. This is unlike in the film where he did tests on Bruce with the intent of curing him.
- When Edith passes out from seeing David draw blood from Bruce, he makes the young boy feel guilty for it just to make him angry.
- While he seemed to care for Bruce during one Christmas, two hours later he shows disgust for said feeling and regrets ever having it, putting it away.
- Once Thunderbolt Ross shuts down his experiments upon learning he's been using blood from his own son, David tampers with his military base's Cyclotron to make it explode, uncaring of the fact that it could go nuclear and kill thousands of people. This is unlike in the film, where he blows it up by accident.
- In the film, he tried to kill a young Bruce out of fear of what he could become, but stopped once he stabbed his wife by accident when she got in the way and immediately felt remorse from it. In the novelization, however, he tries to kill Bruce for "ruining his life", and once Edith takes the stabbing for Bruce, he's shocked for a little, but continues trying to kill Bruce until Ross and his men show up to arrest him.
- When David learns that Bruce has become the Hulk, he has his three dogs rip Benny, the janitor who works at Bruce's school, to shreds so he can take his place.
- He breaks into the lab to steal Bruce's research to experiment on animals, three of which are his dogs, whom he mutates into giant ravenous monsters and sends them to kill Bruce's love interest Betty, later taunting Bruce over the phone about her seemingly upcoming death.
- He didn't even cared about his own dogs either, as he was disappointed of their failure rather than being saddened by their deaths.
- Uses the same radiation that infected Bruce on himself, giving him the power to absorb energy. When a security guard catches him, he uses his powers to crush him to death with a steel table.
- Unlike in the film where he clearly felt guilt for having killed Edith, he shows no such thing in the novelization and uses her death to gain sympathy from Betty – faking remorse while doing so and smiling once she leaves.
- Intends to absorb energy from Bruce/the Hulk, nearly killing him so he can use his powers to become a god-like being and kill anyone whom he feels wronged him.
Trivia[]
- Only the Absorbing Man's book version counts as Pure Evil, as his film version doesn't due to him actually caring for Bruce and Edith (even felling remorse for accidentally killing her), not being confirmed to have killed Benny and his death being played for sympathy-with Bruce remembering one instance in which his father wished him "sweet dreams" and tucked him into bed, concluding that even if David Banner lost his mind, he still loved his son.
- It should be noted, however, that David not caring for Bruce in the novelization is more faithful to his mainstream comic book counterpart, who is also Pure Evil due to never caring for Bruce and trying to kill him.
External Links:[]
- David Banner on the Villains Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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