After 64 Years, Hulk Is Getting Completely New Powers

Published Sep 25, 2026, 11:36 AM EDT

Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. 

For the first time in Hulk's sixty-four-year history, Bruce Banner exchanges his gamma abilities for a very different source of powers. Nobody who knew Dr. Bruce Banner before his gamma explosion incident would have ever thought he would become the most powerful hero in the Marvel Universe. The shy bookworm eventually embraced his monstrous alter ego, joined the Avengers, and repeatedly turned into one of the biggest threats to Earth.

Although the Earth has been populated with an increasingly large number of gamma mutates, Bruce Banner's Hulk has always been the strongest. Gamma energy only awakened what was already bubbling up inside, and the Hulk took shape separately from Bruce Banner's psyche. This is the reason why other gamma characters like She-Hulk, Red Hulk, Red She-Hulk, and the Abomination aren't separate characters, but only reversible transformations for their human selves.

Fortunately for the Earth and for Hulk's opponents, Bruce Banner's only external enhancement was the gamma energy that allowed the Hulk to materialize. Otherwise, the Marvel Universe would have to worry about a Hulk with additional superpowers.

Hulk Switches Powers With The Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four: Incursions #1; Written By Ethan Parker & Griffin Sheridan; Art By Paco Medina

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Eleven years after the events of Secret Wars, the incursions return to the Marvel Universe in Fantastic Four: Incursions #1, just in time to match Avengers: Doomsday's live-action adaptation of the multiversal cataclysms. This time around, Bruce Banner and Reed Richards are in charge of facing the unstoppable destruction of the incursions. Even more shockingly, Bruce Banner will copy the superpowers of all Fantastic Four heroes, while the Fantastic Four are set to develop their very own gamma transformations.

The first two covers for Fantastic Four: Incursions #1 reveal what this superpower exchange looks like. Bruce Banner retains his frail human form, but seemingly gains the ability to transform every part of his body according to the Fantastic Four's distinct powers. Similarly to Kl'rt the Super Skrull, Banner can stretch and ignite one arm and cover the other in invisible rock. Meanwhile, each of the Fantastic Four get their own Hulk color: Reed Richards is a grayish blue Hulk, Sue Storm is a bright green Hulk, Ben Grimm is a deep green Hulk, and Johnny Storm is a red Hulk with a blonde mohawk.

The Fantastic Four's Hulk Transformations Are Actually Feasible In All Timelines

Reed Richards And His Family Are Rarely Interested In Enhancing Their Superpowers

A Gamma-powered Fantastic Four is entirely possible within Marvel’s prime continuity, given the team’s history with cosmic radiation and the Marvel Universe’s precedent for characters gaining powers through gamma exposure. Reed Richards has the scientific knowledge to replicate the process that created the Hulk, and the FF’s physiology has already proven resilient to extreme transformations. However, Reed has never pursued this path because he understands the dangers of gamma mutation and values the balance of abilities the team already possesses. The Fantastic Four’s strength lies in their synergy, not in endlessly stacking new powers.

The rest of the Fantastic Four shares Reed's perspective. Ben Grimm has long accepted his rocky transformation as the Thing and sees no need to chase additional strength, especially when his durability already rivals the Hulk’s. Johnny Storm thrives on the uniqueness of his flame powers, and Sue Storm’s mastery of invisibility and force fields makes her indispensable in ways gamma mutation could never replicate. A full team of gamma-powered Fantastic Four is a terrifying idea both because of their sheer power and because it suggests they have left this principle behind.

Which Marvel characters would you like to see exchange powers?Fantastic Four: Incursions #1 is available December 23 from Marvel Comics