Bruce Banner (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
angermanaging) wrote2013-03-27 09:07 pm
angermanaging) wrote2013-03-27 09:07 pm
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Character Information:
Name: Bruce Banner
Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Canon Point: After the Incredible Hulk, but before the Avengers.
Age: 43.
Reference: the Incredible Hulk (2008)
Setting: Generally speaking, the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is much like our own modern world, with one glaring exception: comic logic. From wacky science to space aliens, things just conveniently happen that make for dramatic plots. Bruce's own story is a great example of this. The idea that the Hulk has any kind of plausible scientific origins is utterly ridiculous, and even the less outlandish ideas rarely have any foundation in reality. So while there's the same pop culture references that we have, there's the same countries and the same foods, in convenient places we deviate into crazy land.
There are several important major players relevant to Bruce's life so far in MCU. The first and most prevalent of which is General Thaddeus Ross, a general in the U.S. army that Bruce previously worked for. Also of note is that he fell deeply in love and had a relationship with his daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Ross aka Betty. We can infer that they met sometime in college due to mutual scientific interest, as Bruce is a nuclear physicist and Betty is a cellular biologist. Although he and Betty thought they were working on a way to induce radiation immunity in soldiers, in reality they were working on a secret super soldier project run by General Ross, and that was where everything went wrong. Confident in his hypothesis, Bruce tested it on himself, and in a freak accent became the Hulk.
It's worth stopping at this point to note that this is one of those places where comic logic strikes again. There's no way a scientist could be working on a project like that and not realize that it wasn't radiation immunity. It's similarly deeply implausible that a responsible scientist would test anything on himself. But I digress.
Betty was severely hurt and hospitalized in the resulting chaos, and Bruce, shamed and guilt-ridden, ran away. He was pursued by Ross, who considered his body property of the U.S. military, with an intent to try to duplicate the results and produce more of the Hulk. (I should note that it is not until much later that the Hulk is actually referred to as the Hulk, and that Bruce himself never calls it that.) Years pass with Bruce on the run, desperately trying to minimize casualties and find a cure for his condition, always pursued by Ross and the military. Over time he gains a much better understanding of how to prevent incidents, and lives in a constant state of self-control, although it's not perfect.
The super soldier program originally produced Captain America (Steve Rogers) back in World War 2, another critical player in this world. At the time that Bruce is being pulled from, Steve has not yet emerged from the ice that trapped him for decades, but his legacy lived on in the program that created the Hulk.
In addition, the secret agency S.H.I.E.L.D., or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, has become a key player. Run by Nick Fury, they are what amounts to a half-spy, half-military organization that monitors extra-human threats to the world population, which happens to include Bruce. Although at this time Bruce hasn't made personal contact with them, they consistently monitor his activities as part of threat assessment, and of course later once the Avengers are formed and Bruce is a member, he has extensive interaction with them.
Last but not least is Emil Blonsky. A Russian-born British soldier on loan to the U.S., he is a self-described fighter that, upon seeing the power of the Hulk, wants it for himself. Throughout the first half of the movie, he and Bruce have several conflicts, and later on when Bruce goes to New York City to see Samuel Sterns about a cure, things come to a head. Bruce had sent Sterns a vial of his blood in the effort for a cure, but Sterns, not understanding the inherent danger, concentrated and replicated the highly toxic blood. Blonsky discovered this and forced Sterns to inject him with it, creating the Abomination, a monster of immense power that rivaled the Hulk. Although ultimately defeated by him, it is not clear what happened to the Abomination at the end of the movie-- we can only presume that he is not dead.
Personality: Headcanon is in green.
Character-wise, Bruce is quiet, guilt-ridden, and uncommunicative. He's incurably paranoid and justifiably so - he hasn't used credit cards or had an ID in years, and he rarely uses his real name. It's easy to understate how deeply he feels responsible for what he does as the Hulk, but in one deleted scene from the movie we see that he tried to kill himself in the Arctic of Alaska, only to be stopped by the Hulk itself. While a small scene, the implication that Bruce is readily willing to commit suicide - even for such an altruistic reason as protecting people as a whole - is undeniably telling. There are largely two levels to him: what he admits and accepts about himself, and what he denies and tries to eradicate. This push and pull between the facets of his personality is psychological; the Hulk is but a representation of it.
In general a decisive, unassuming person, Bruce doesn't flinch from his circumstances. He is withdrawn and broods more than is healthy, but in the end he is very practical and constructive about what he does. When it's more prudent for him to return to civilization instead of retreating to hermitage, he does so. He is, actually, very lonely, and longs for something as simple as being able to make friends without putting them in danger - yet his sense of responsibility is too strong to put aside. He's a person that takes absolutely nothing for granted.
He is a deeply emotional person that nonetheless rules his decisions by logic. Inherently wary after an abusive childhood (comic canon that Edward Norton has stated he used as material for his role), as an adult he maintains poor self-image and a strong reluctance to argue or yell. This is a naturally developed trait and not one he trained himself into after gaining the Hulk. Despite this deep well of negativity, though, his rational mind is constantly overriding his emotions, discarding or ignoring those that are hindering him and examining critically even the ones that aren't. However much he doubts himself, his unceasing capacity for sharp logic keeps everything else in check. Uncomfortable as it may make him, Bruce is willing to do things against his conscience and his feelings if logic dictates that it's the best course of action. This is exemplified in how he completely leaves Betty behind for her own safety, and how later he does endanger her when needs must.
The abuse his father inflicted on him made him a wary person at the outset, and years of living on the run has compounded his innate caution. Bruce has long trained himself into emotional distance from other people, particularly now that it would put them at risk - if not from the government, then from himself. Those people that with calm persistence make it past his internal barriers gain a lifelong, loyal friend. Because it takes Bruce so long to trust and open up to someone, by the time he does he is absolutely certain that they are worth his consideration, and he rarely if ever reverses that decision. The list of people he openly cares about is a short one; in canon, we pretty much only see him display this sort of committed devotion to Betty.
Bruce is drawn to Betty because of a combination of factors. On their own, these are not unique character traits, but together they are compelling to him: ready kindness, an intelligence and wit that can keep up with his, and a kind of independent strength that we see when she stands up to her father time and again. Betty is well able to take care of herself, but cares about Bruce simply because she finds him worth caring about. The unconditional simplicity of this is powerful to him. Someone that relied on him too heavily would make it difficult for him to relax around them, unable to stop thinking about his responsibilities; as strongly responsibility-driven as he is, then, Betty's ability to compel Bruce to stop and think about himself compassionately is crucial. She is one of the few things that unequivocally provokes a sense of calm rest in him - even as the Hulk, something unique to her.
The Hulk itself is a purely visceral expression of emotion, an outletting of everything Bruce denies himself during his conscious, waking life. In some story lines in the comics, the Hulk is written almost as an alternate personality, but ultimately it is simply an expression of repressed anger and hurt. In a very real sense, there is something of it in everyone alive. Bruce states in the movie that he isn't interested in controlling that other force, only in getting rid of it. This is a very childish, if understandable, reaction. Wanting to 'get rid of it' as he does lends it more power, and it's at the end of the movie when he decides to try to control it that he's able to accomplish something more - a glimpse of a reasoning, thinking Hulk. There's hints of this earlier, when it protected Betty and took care of her, but those were abstract and basic concepts. Once Bruce does work in cooperation with it, the Hulk speaks and starts to understand consequences on both a real and emotional level.
His intense reluctance to accept the Hulk is a clear mirror of his reluctance to accept himself. While rationally he understands that this is a product of unproductively low self-esteem, practically that makes little difference: Bruce struggles with his own identity and his unwillingness to acknowledge that inside of him is the capacity to be the same kind of monster that his father was, a perfectly human one. He grew up with his father convinced that he himself was a monster, and had genetically passed it onto his son, so this is a very real fear to him (comics canon again). To Bruce, the sheer possibility is horrifying, no matter how unlikely we may realize it is for him to ever become a selfish, angry, violent person. He obsesses over control, ever striving to maintain a perfect grasp on his every emotion and action. Obviously this is impossible, but his deep, gnawing fear of being a monster in truth - one without the excuse of gamma radiation - drives him to attempt for it constantly.
The true irony here is that, at least in the movie version, Bruce is incredibly selfless and moral. He does have a sense of humor, sardonic and rarely seen, and in average interactions is calm, unjudging, and even kind. He is the kind of person you would trust your baby to after you just met him; there is a compelling levelness about him. When he is not in danger and has room to think for himself, out of the heat of the moment, he is extremely reliable and not unfriendly. Dauntless and constantly thinking of others, Bruce is always, always focused on doing what is morally good - the proverbial right thing that so often eludes the best of us.
Regarding how Bruce will react to being in the In Between, he is overall a very adaptive person. He won't waste much time freaking out about it or being in denial-- when you're as in control of your emotions as he is, it's a waste of time. His supremely logical side will move right onto searching for answers. Part of him will wonder if he's having a psychotic break and hallucinating it, or something else along those lines (which is not totally improbable); another part will be extremely wary that this is is an elaborate illusion of some kind to get his cooperation, lure him into safety, and weaponize him; and maybe a little part of him will think that it's genuine.
Over time, he'll come to accept the reality of it as he gets more and more proof. This isn't something he'll be necessarily vocal about. Bruce tends to keep his doubts and questions to himself, and will go through all of this more or less silently, except for general requests for information and deep, unremitting paranoia. Even if this is real, everyone around him is in danger because of him, and he has reason to be wary that this government will decide he's a weapon just as the U.S. did. Circumstances haven't really changed for Bruce despite being in Keeliai, and he didn't have anything at home that he's left behind to miss. Betty can't be part of his life anymore; whether she's a continent or a dimension away makes little difference. Eventually, there's no reason Bruce can't settle in to what promises to be a much more normal life than what he has at home, even if it's going to take him months to accept that he doesn't have to keep everything secret here as he's used to.
Appearance: Edward Norton.
Abilities: First and foremost, he's the Hulk. When his heart rate exceeds a certain point, whether by exertion or strong emotion, he transforms into a massive, green, and nearly unstoppable monster. He can fall from heights of thousands of feet and get up a second later; missiles and large explosions don't make him flinch; and he's extremely protective of Betty (and presumably other people he cares about). His weakness in his form as the Hulk is probably his acute hearing, but even zeroing in on that tends not to keep him down for long. The entire conceit of the Hulk is that he is an expression of rage and therefore unbeatable, but as Bruce tries very hard not to transform, this usually does not come up very often while playing him.
Bruce himself assiduously avoids transforming whenever possible, even post-movie where he's started to accept the Hulk as part of himself a little more. As an otherwise normal human, his strengths lie in his genius level IQ. He's an accomplished nuclear physicist, and is shown to grasp physical mechanics very quickly. Since he went on the run, he's picked up some martial arts and meditation skills; nothing superhuman, but enough to get him past the average angry thug. He also knows passable amounts of Portuguese and Spanish.
Inventory: Heart rate monitor wrist watch, reading glasses, and his backpack (which includes his taped together laptop, two changes of clothes, Canadian bills, and a bottle of water).
Suite: Water sector, one floor. This is a pretty easy one-- Bruce's life is more or less based on remaining calm, and he's very good at it. He also spends most of his time living in poverty; living in a one room shack with a dirt floor would not be considered unusual for him. He is at heart a pacifist, and is dedicated to preventing as much violence as possible.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person: (Set post-movie, running on the implication in the Avengers that he learns to prevent the change by accepting his anger.)
He's falling forward out of his carefully controlled seated posture, hunching. His hands sink into the sand of the beach. Green starts to creep up his arms-- then his neck, his feet, good thing he'd removed his shoes when he sat down, he knew this was going to happen-- but coherent thought is gone, he's still gasping, strangely almost silent. His body starts to contort, muscles growing rapidly, seemingly without pattern.
But this time he wanted this. There was all the familiar, half-felt rage of the Hulk, and this time, for the second time in his life, Bruce let it in. It was like swallowing a torrent of water, forcing it down. The anger tried to take over, to assert control, but Bruce was ready for it; usually he struggled here, threw every bit of fear at it, anything he could-- but now he accepted it.
He was angry, and he had every reason to be angry. He'd been lied to and manipulated, used by the government, and as a result he was not only separated from, he'd almost killed the love of his life. He'd killed so many other, innocent people-- he'd been denied the very life he'd fought to have despite the every effort of his father to turn him into the monster he thought he was. Bruce had been denied food, shelter, and friendship, and had denied himself those things for years, been hunted down like a dog time and again, the military uncaring-- so unbelievably uncaring-- of the collateral damage.
He was angry, he realized, because it was unjust. As much as Bruce guilted himself, some of these things weren't his fault or his responsibility. Yet he was saddled with them anyway. And... it was right. The beast inside him, it was right: he didn't deserve all of this.
It was incredible, that realization. It was power.
He/it looked up, finally, finally in agreement on something. On the most important thing. And Bruce realized he was kneeling in the sand, shirt torn away and ragged, and he hadn't hurt anyone. Hadn't moved. He'd flickered, been about to change, right on the precipice of falling over the edge into brain-searing madness, and he'd stopped it.
But the Hulk was still there, inside his mind, suppressed for now but not stopped and definitely not pleased. It was like everything was distorted, and he was seeing through a murky filter underwater. He felt restless -- still so angry -- like he needed to hurt someone to release that anger. But for this one moment, he was able to stop and realize, push aside that overwhelming black cloud trying to consume his mind and make him fight and rage. He realized what he'd done: he'd succeeded in suppressing it, if not changing and retaining his consciousness.
Network: [He's seen a lot, experienced a lot, that would be considered unbelievable, but this is something else. Bruce had taken a few hours to himself to make sure he was calm, do his breathing exercises, and trawl the network with a frown. But ultimately he has to say something, he realizes. This isn't a place he can remain in isolation, as uncomfortable as that makes him.
The camera shows a serious-minded man with dark hair, face lined with tiredness but nonetheless alert and attentive. He can't resist taking a moment to complain about the illogic of it all first.]
You know, I'm pretty sure the many worlds interpretation is time asymmetric. Even if world splitting happens, why would world merging ever... [He stops himself. Sighs. Okay, yeah, physics isn't going to help him much here, is it? He can't even be surprised.
Bruce runs a hand through his hair, pushing onto practicalities without transition.] So what exactly is the process for getting a job around here? I'm not picky, but-- I have the most experience in mechanics.
And, uh. If anyone knows where I could get some superglue, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks. [He finishes the broadcast intentionally without giving his name; there's one split second of awkward pause, and then he switches it off.]
Name: Bruce Banner
Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Canon Point: After the Incredible Hulk, but before the Avengers.
Age: 43.
Reference: the Incredible Hulk (2008)
Setting: Generally speaking, the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is much like our own modern world, with one glaring exception: comic logic. From wacky science to space aliens, things just conveniently happen that make for dramatic plots. Bruce's own story is a great example of this. The idea that the Hulk has any kind of plausible scientific origins is utterly ridiculous, and even the less outlandish ideas rarely have any foundation in reality. So while there's the same pop culture references that we have, there's the same countries and the same foods, in convenient places we deviate into crazy land.
There are several important major players relevant to Bruce's life so far in MCU. The first and most prevalent of which is General Thaddeus Ross, a general in the U.S. army that Bruce previously worked for. Also of note is that he fell deeply in love and had a relationship with his daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Ross aka Betty. We can infer that they met sometime in college due to mutual scientific interest, as Bruce is a nuclear physicist and Betty is a cellular biologist. Although he and Betty thought they were working on a way to induce radiation immunity in soldiers, in reality they were working on a secret super soldier project run by General Ross, and that was where everything went wrong. Confident in his hypothesis, Bruce tested it on himself, and in a freak accent became the Hulk.
It's worth stopping at this point to note that this is one of those places where comic logic strikes again. There's no way a scientist could be working on a project like that and not realize that it wasn't radiation immunity. It's similarly deeply implausible that a responsible scientist would test anything on himself. But I digress.
Betty was severely hurt and hospitalized in the resulting chaos, and Bruce, shamed and guilt-ridden, ran away. He was pursued by Ross, who considered his body property of the U.S. military, with an intent to try to duplicate the results and produce more of the Hulk. (I should note that it is not until much later that the Hulk is actually referred to as the Hulk, and that Bruce himself never calls it that.) Years pass with Bruce on the run, desperately trying to minimize casualties and find a cure for his condition, always pursued by Ross and the military. Over time he gains a much better understanding of how to prevent incidents, and lives in a constant state of self-control, although it's not perfect.
The super soldier program originally produced Captain America (Steve Rogers) back in World War 2, another critical player in this world. At the time that Bruce is being pulled from, Steve has not yet emerged from the ice that trapped him for decades, but his legacy lived on in the program that created the Hulk.
In addition, the secret agency S.H.I.E.L.D., or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, has become a key player. Run by Nick Fury, they are what amounts to a half-spy, half-military organization that monitors extra-human threats to the world population, which happens to include Bruce. Although at this time Bruce hasn't made personal contact with them, they consistently monitor his activities as part of threat assessment, and of course later once the Avengers are formed and Bruce is a member, he has extensive interaction with them.
Last but not least is Emil Blonsky. A Russian-born British soldier on loan to the U.S., he is a self-described fighter that, upon seeing the power of the Hulk, wants it for himself. Throughout the first half of the movie, he and Bruce have several conflicts, and later on when Bruce goes to New York City to see Samuel Sterns about a cure, things come to a head. Bruce had sent Sterns a vial of his blood in the effort for a cure, but Sterns, not understanding the inherent danger, concentrated and replicated the highly toxic blood. Blonsky discovered this and forced Sterns to inject him with it, creating the Abomination, a monster of immense power that rivaled the Hulk. Although ultimately defeated by him, it is not clear what happened to the Abomination at the end of the movie-- we can only presume that he is not dead.
Personality: Headcanon is in green.
Character-wise, Bruce is quiet, guilt-ridden, and uncommunicative. He's incurably paranoid and justifiably so - he hasn't used credit cards or had an ID in years, and he rarely uses his real name. It's easy to understate how deeply he feels responsible for what he does as the Hulk, but in one deleted scene from the movie we see that he tried to kill himself in the Arctic of Alaska, only to be stopped by the Hulk itself. While a small scene, the implication that Bruce is readily willing to commit suicide - even for such an altruistic reason as protecting people as a whole - is undeniably telling. There are largely two levels to him: what he admits and accepts about himself, and what he denies and tries to eradicate. This push and pull between the facets of his personality is psychological; the Hulk is but a representation of it.
In general a decisive, unassuming person, Bruce doesn't flinch from his circumstances. He is withdrawn and broods more than is healthy, but in the end he is very practical and constructive about what he does. When it's more prudent for him to return to civilization instead of retreating to hermitage, he does so. He is, actually, very lonely, and longs for something as simple as being able to make friends without putting them in danger - yet his sense of responsibility is too strong to put aside. He's a person that takes absolutely nothing for granted.
He is a deeply emotional person that nonetheless rules his decisions by logic. Inherently wary after an abusive childhood (comic canon that Edward Norton has stated he used as material for his role), as an adult he maintains poor self-image and a strong reluctance to argue or yell. This is a naturally developed trait and not one he trained himself into after gaining the Hulk. Despite this deep well of negativity, though, his rational mind is constantly overriding his emotions, discarding or ignoring those that are hindering him and examining critically even the ones that aren't. However much he doubts himself, his unceasing capacity for sharp logic keeps everything else in check. Uncomfortable as it may make him, Bruce is willing to do things against his conscience and his feelings if logic dictates that it's the best course of action. This is exemplified in how he completely leaves Betty behind for her own safety, and how later he does endanger her when needs must.
The abuse his father inflicted on him made him a wary person at the outset, and years of living on the run has compounded his innate caution. Bruce has long trained himself into emotional distance from other people, particularly now that it would put them at risk - if not from the government, then from himself. Those people that with calm persistence make it past his internal barriers gain a lifelong, loyal friend. Because it takes Bruce so long to trust and open up to someone, by the time he does he is absolutely certain that they are worth his consideration, and he rarely if ever reverses that decision. The list of people he openly cares about is a short one; in canon, we pretty much only see him display this sort of committed devotion to Betty.
Bruce is drawn to Betty because of a combination of factors. On their own, these are not unique character traits, but together they are compelling to him: ready kindness, an intelligence and wit that can keep up with his, and a kind of independent strength that we see when she stands up to her father time and again. Betty is well able to take care of herself, but cares about Bruce simply because she finds him worth caring about. The unconditional simplicity of this is powerful to him. Someone that relied on him too heavily would make it difficult for him to relax around them, unable to stop thinking about his responsibilities; as strongly responsibility-driven as he is, then, Betty's ability to compel Bruce to stop and think about himself compassionately is crucial. She is one of the few things that unequivocally provokes a sense of calm rest in him - even as the Hulk, something unique to her.
The Hulk itself is a purely visceral expression of emotion, an outletting of everything Bruce denies himself during his conscious, waking life. In some story lines in the comics, the Hulk is written almost as an alternate personality, but ultimately it is simply an expression of repressed anger and hurt. In a very real sense, there is something of it in everyone alive. Bruce states in the movie that he isn't interested in controlling that other force, only in getting rid of it. This is a very childish, if understandable, reaction. Wanting to 'get rid of it' as he does lends it more power, and it's at the end of the movie when he decides to try to control it that he's able to accomplish something more - a glimpse of a reasoning, thinking Hulk. There's hints of this earlier, when it protected Betty and took care of her, but those were abstract and basic concepts. Once Bruce does work in cooperation with it, the Hulk speaks and starts to understand consequences on both a real and emotional level.
His intense reluctance to accept the Hulk is a clear mirror of his reluctance to accept himself. While rationally he understands that this is a product of unproductively low self-esteem, practically that makes little difference: Bruce struggles with his own identity and his unwillingness to acknowledge that inside of him is the capacity to be the same kind of monster that his father was, a perfectly human one. He grew up with his father convinced that he himself was a monster, and had genetically passed it onto his son, so this is a very real fear to him (comics canon again). To Bruce, the sheer possibility is horrifying, no matter how unlikely we may realize it is for him to ever become a selfish, angry, violent person. He obsesses over control, ever striving to maintain a perfect grasp on his every emotion and action. Obviously this is impossible, but his deep, gnawing fear of being a monster in truth - one without the excuse of gamma radiation - drives him to attempt for it constantly.
The true irony here is that, at least in the movie version, Bruce is incredibly selfless and moral. He does have a sense of humor, sardonic and rarely seen, and in average interactions is calm, unjudging, and even kind. He is the kind of person you would trust your baby to after you just met him; there is a compelling levelness about him. When he is not in danger and has room to think for himself, out of the heat of the moment, he is extremely reliable and not unfriendly. Dauntless and constantly thinking of others, Bruce is always, always focused on doing what is morally good - the proverbial right thing that so often eludes the best of us.
Regarding how Bruce will react to being in the In Between, he is overall a very adaptive person. He won't waste much time freaking out about it or being in denial-- when you're as in control of your emotions as he is, it's a waste of time. His supremely logical side will move right onto searching for answers. Part of him will wonder if he's having a psychotic break and hallucinating it, or something else along those lines (which is not totally improbable); another part will be extremely wary that this is is an elaborate illusion of some kind to get his cooperation, lure him into safety, and weaponize him; and maybe a little part of him will think that it's genuine.
Over time, he'll come to accept the reality of it as he gets more and more proof. This isn't something he'll be necessarily vocal about. Bruce tends to keep his doubts and questions to himself, and will go through all of this more or less silently, except for general requests for information and deep, unremitting paranoia. Even if this is real, everyone around him is in danger because of him, and he has reason to be wary that this government will decide he's a weapon just as the U.S. did. Circumstances haven't really changed for Bruce despite being in Keeliai, and he didn't have anything at home that he's left behind to miss. Betty can't be part of his life anymore; whether she's a continent or a dimension away makes little difference. Eventually, there's no reason Bruce can't settle in to what promises to be a much more normal life than what he has at home, even if it's going to take him months to accept that he doesn't have to keep everything secret here as he's used to.
Appearance: Edward Norton.
Abilities: First and foremost, he's the Hulk. When his heart rate exceeds a certain point, whether by exertion or strong emotion, he transforms into a massive, green, and nearly unstoppable monster. He can fall from heights of thousands of feet and get up a second later; missiles and large explosions don't make him flinch; and he's extremely protective of Betty (and presumably other people he cares about). His weakness in his form as the Hulk is probably his acute hearing, but even zeroing in on that tends not to keep him down for long. The entire conceit of the Hulk is that he is an expression of rage and therefore unbeatable, but as Bruce tries very hard not to transform, this usually does not come up very often while playing him.
Bruce himself assiduously avoids transforming whenever possible, even post-movie where he's started to accept the Hulk as part of himself a little more. As an otherwise normal human, his strengths lie in his genius level IQ. He's an accomplished nuclear physicist, and is shown to grasp physical mechanics very quickly. Since he went on the run, he's picked up some martial arts and meditation skills; nothing superhuman, but enough to get him past the average angry thug. He also knows passable amounts of Portuguese and Spanish.
Inventory: Heart rate monitor wrist watch, reading glasses, and his backpack (which includes his taped together laptop, two changes of clothes, Canadian bills, and a bottle of water).
Suite: Water sector, one floor. This is a pretty easy one-- Bruce's life is more or less based on remaining calm, and he's very good at it. He also spends most of his time living in poverty; living in a one room shack with a dirt floor would not be considered unusual for him. He is at heart a pacifist, and is dedicated to preventing as much violence as possible.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person: (Set post-movie, running on the implication in the Avengers that he learns to prevent the change by accepting his anger.)
He's falling forward out of his carefully controlled seated posture, hunching. His hands sink into the sand of the beach. Green starts to creep up his arms-- then his neck, his feet, good thing he'd removed his shoes when he sat down, he knew this was going to happen-- but coherent thought is gone, he's still gasping, strangely almost silent. His body starts to contort, muscles growing rapidly, seemingly without pattern.
But this time he wanted this. There was all the familiar, half-felt rage of the Hulk, and this time, for the second time in his life, Bruce let it in. It was like swallowing a torrent of water, forcing it down. The anger tried to take over, to assert control, but Bruce was ready for it; usually he struggled here, threw every bit of fear at it, anything he could-- but now he accepted it.
He was angry, and he had every reason to be angry. He'd been lied to and manipulated, used by the government, and as a result he was not only separated from, he'd almost killed the love of his life. He'd killed so many other, innocent people-- he'd been denied the very life he'd fought to have despite the every effort of his father to turn him into the monster he thought he was. Bruce had been denied food, shelter, and friendship, and had denied himself those things for years, been hunted down like a dog time and again, the military uncaring-- so unbelievably uncaring-- of the collateral damage.
He was angry, he realized, because it was unjust. As much as Bruce guilted himself, some of these things weren't his fault or his responsibility. Yet he was saddled with them anyway. And... it was right. The beast inside him, it was right: he didn't deserve all of this.
It was incredible, that realization. It was power.
He/it looked up, finally, finally in agreement on something. On the most important thing. And Bruce realized he was kneeling in the sand, shirt torn away and ragged, and he hadn't hurt anyone. Hadn't moved. He'd flickered, been about to change, right on the precipice of falling over the edge into brain-searing madness, and he'd stopped it.
But the Hulk was still there, inside his mind, suppressed for now but not stopped and definitely not pleased. It was like everything was distorted, and he was seeing through a murky filter underwater. He felt restless -- still so angry -- like he needed to hurt someone to release that anger. But for this one moment, he was able to stop and realize, push aside that overwhelming black cloud trying to consume his mind and make him fight and rage. He realized what he'd done: he'd succeeded in suppressing it, if not changing and retaining his consciousness.
Network: [He's seen a lot, experienced a lot, that would be considered unbelievable, but this is something else. Bruce had taken a few hours to himself to make sure he was calm, do his breathing exercises, and trawl the network with a frown. But ultimately he has to say something, he realizes. This isn't a place he can remain in isolation, as uncomfortable as that makes him.
The camera shows a serious-minded man with dark hair, face lined with tiredness but nonetheless alert and attentive. He can't resist taking a moment to complain about the illogic of it all first.]
You know, I'm pretty sure the many worlds interpretation is time asymmetric. Even if world splitting happens, why would world merging ever... [He stops himself. Sighs. Okay, yeah, physics isn't going to help him much here, is it? He can't even be surprised.
Bruce runs a hand through his hair, pushing onto practicalities without transition.] So what exactly is the process for getting a job around here? I'm not picky, but-- I have the most experience in mechanics.
And, uh. If anyone knows where I could get some superglue, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks. [He finishes the broadcast intentionally without giving his name; there's one split second of awkward pause, and then he switches it off.]