The Hulk's 5 Unluckiest Moments

Mark today's 'Immortal Hulk' #13 with this unlucky number-inspired list!

Sure, the Hulk is plenty strong and all, but he’s not that lucky when you stop to think about it. He probably gets in the most fights out of any hero, gets roughed up the most. And why? Just because he can take it? That doesn’t sound fair.

And that's focusing on the Hulk; when one examines the life of Bruce Banner, well, it's hard to find anyone unluckier.

What’s got us thinking about all of this? IMMORTAL HULK #13! Writer Al Ewing and artist Joe Bennett present the unlucky numbered issue at your local comic shop today!

For almost 60 years, Bruce Banner and his green counterpart have had some pretty crummy times. You'd be here all day if we listed them all, so here are just a few of Bruce Banner and the Hulk’s unluckiest moments throughout the years…

Bruce Banner’s luck ran out on the day he was first exposed to the Gamma radiation that gave him his very angry alter-ego.

Bruce Banner was a simple scientist out in the middle of the desert when a good deed changed his life forever. Just before the government was about to detonate a gamma bomb Banner was working on, he saved the life of a young man in the blast area and got a huge dose of radiation. The explosion didn't kill him (lucky!), but it did leave him with a volatile companion forevermore (not so lucky!).

The Hulk was betrayed by his friends back on Earth because he posed too much of a threat to the people of the world. He ended up on the planet known as Sakaar, chained, and made to fight in a colosseum for the amusement of others.

At least he knows how to hold his own in the ring.

In HULK #24, Bruce was mourning the death of Betty Ross after she was killed by the Abomination. To add insult to injury, Banner was dying from ALS, though it wouldn’t actually kill him. Once the disease took away his ability to move and act for himself, he’d be stuck inside the Hulk until the end of time. If that’s not a kick in the head, we don’t know what is.

Geez, can this dude ever catch a break?

Remember when the Inhuman known as Ulysses had a vision of the Hulk going berserk and killing everyone?

During CIVIL WAR II, whether heroes stood with Iron Man or Captain Marvel, pretty much everybody showed up outside Bruce Banner’s door to “reason” with him. Before diplomacy won out, however, Hawkeye took matters into his own hands and killed Banner before Ulysses’ prediction could come true. To make things even more unlucky, Clint Barton was found not guilty in the slaying of Bruce Banner.

A nuclear war in the future wiped out all of humanity except for one “lucky” individual: Bruce Banner.

Thanks to the Hulk, he was the sole survivor of the complete devastation of the planet. Moreover, his symbiosis with the Jade Giant extended his lifespan over 200 years. Instead of getting sick and dying from radiation in the air, his body would just absorb it. And as an added bonus, Bruce also had to put up with giant flying cockroaches that not only survived after the bombs were dropped, but grew to immense size and ugliness. It’d be fine if he had the Hulk to keep him company, but the green-skinned oaf hated Banner most of all, hid from him at the most inopportune times, and, most importantly, wouldn't just let him die.