Dr. Bruce Banner [Marvel Cinematic Universe]

Player's Name:
Jackie


Characters Played Here:
Malcolm Meryln, Tony Stark, Leonard “Leo” Snart



Character:

Bruce Banner

Series/Canon:

Marvel Cinematic Universe

From When?
Post Infinity War

Previous Game(s):
He was in Boomtown a few years ago, but I have decided to not use his previous CR as I would like to start fresh since the town has changed so much.


History:

Bruce was born the only child of David and Edith Banner. David was a genius level scientist with his work focusing on genetics and cellular biology. He was also mentally unstable, making Bruce’s home life volatile and abusive. David did nothing to encourage Bruce’s emerging genius choosing instead to use his son as a test subject and deny that Bruce himself had any scientific interest at all. In fact, the more Bruce fought for his father’s approval the more David experimented on and abused his son. Bruce’s mother because his guiding light providing the young boy with a cheerleader, a friend and one of the few people who actually cared about him. He adored her in return and when Bruce was ten, Edith decided to leave her husband and take Bruce to live with her parents.

David discovered the plan and murdered Edith in front of Bruce as they stood outside on their driveway. David tried to convince Bruce not to testify against him and took Bruce on the run for a year continuing his experiments. Bruce finally decided to stand up for himself and turned his father in bravely testifying against him in court. David was declared insane and Bruce believed for twenty years that his father had died in the mental hospital. Bruce spent that of time being shuttled from foster home to foster home. He became shy and withdrawn believing that there was no one in the world who wanted him or saw him as anything more than another mouth to feed. He gave up on his interests and resigned himself to a life of invisibility. But a teacher by the name of Martin Free saw Bruce, saw his genius and encouraged it. Bruce blossomed under Free’s tutelage and decided to pursue science as his career focusing on cellular biology much like his father did. After attending Culvers University and getting two masters degrees in biology and genetics,

Bruce got a job there teaching the same subjects and met Betty Ross, the great love of his life. Through her he met General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. While the two didn’t exactly get along, Ross recruited Bruce for a government project to recreate the Super Soldier Serum. Bruce was told the serum would be used to augment soldiers’ natural skills when Ross planned to use it to create an army of super soldiers. Remembering his father’s experiments, Bruce believed gamma radiation was the key to unlocking the new serum. He built a machine he believed could give a test subject a safe dose of gamma radiation after they had been injected with the serum. Unable to find a willing test subject and with time and funding running out, Bruce decided to test the machine using himself as a guinea pig.
The experiment backfired and Bruce received a dangerous dose of radiation that instead of killing him were absorbed by cells primed by his father experiments years ago and helped to create an eight-foot-tall green monster nicknamed the Hulk. Both Ross and Betty were injured in the attack much to Bruce’s horror. After the Hulk’s first appearance, Bruce went to Ross and demanded the truth. Ross confessed that much of what Bruce was actually doing was based on David Banner’s work and also revealed that David was still alive. Looking for answers Bruce hunted David down and learned that David too had abilities and wanted Bruce to replicate his work so that David could steal it and become stronger and faster. David and Bruce confronted each other, and David confessed that he had murdered Bruce’s mother in front of him when Edith threatened to take Bruce and leave. Bruce repressed the memory in an effort to protect his own mind from the truth.

The Hulk ended up killing David when the older man’s own abilities got out of hand and threatened Betty’s life. Despite the Hulk saving the day and millions of lives, Ross demanded Bruce return to the nearest military base so that the Hulk could be ripped away from him and replicated. Bruce’s answer was to go on the run doing his best to stay away from Ross and his so called “Hulk Buster” units.

After five years with only a few incidents, Bruce settled in Brazil where he began to search for a cure. He corresponded with Dr. Samuel Sterns at New York University and worked at a nearby bottling plant as a mechanic and janitor. An accident where Bruce cut himself and a few drops of his radiated blood wound up in a bottle of soda, brought Bruce back to Ross’ attention. A unit was sent to capture him, which resulted in the Hulk appearing inside the bottling plant and both Bruce and the other guy managing to escape. Furious, Ross decided his only option was to create his own super solider and he chose Emil Blonsky, a career soldier who had led the unit in Brazil and who wanted another crack at the Hulk. Meanwhile, Bruce returned to Culver’s to gather data for Dr. Stern and to check on Betty who discovered Bruce had returned home and attempted to convince him to stay.

Ross made Bruce’s mind up for him when Blonsky and his Hulk Busters unit attacked forcing another “incident” and nearly resulting in the destruction of the school and Betty getting hurt. Bruce and Betty decided to head to New York to speak to Dr. Stern, who had created, what he claimed was a cure using a sample of Bruce’s blood and an unknown flower Bruce had found in South America. Inducing a Hulk appearance, Stern injected Bruce with the cure and revealed he’d replicated Bruce’s blood. Before Bruce could tell him to destroy it all, Ross attacked and managed to catch Bruce off guard. Bruce was tranquilized and taken onto a helicopter by Ross while Blonsky decided to take the Hulk out for good by combining the serum inside him with an infusion of Bruce’s blood. This action created another hulk like creature called the Abomination, which then went after Ross. Bruce realized innocent people could die unless he and the Hulk interceded. Bruce willingly fell out of the back of the military plane and “Hulked Out” resulting in a battle in the middle of Harlem that “broke” the neighborhood. The Hulk would have killed the Abomination, but Betty begged him to stop and he did choosing instead to chain up the other creature and escape to Canada.

Bruce used the next year to gain control over the Hulk and his own anger. He also traveled to India and began working with Doctors without Borders in Calcutta. While he was there, Natasha Romanoff approached Bruce asking for help in tracking Loki and the tesseract. Despite his reluctance to leave the safety of his quiet life, Bruce agreed to help and met Tony Stark, Thor, Steve Rogers and Clint Barton. Bruce was among people who understood him and the Hulk for the first time in years. Loki attempted to use the Hulk against the newly minted Avengers only to have it backfire and the Hulk became a valued member of the team saving Tony Stark and smashing quite a few alien warriors during the Battle of New York. Bruce himself became a good friend to Tony Stark and moved into Avengers Tower after the fall of SHEILD designing new weaponry and medical technology for the Avengers. He and Natasha began to grow closer both emotionally and physically.

Sometime between the Battle of New York and the opening battle in “Age of Ultron” they designed and implemented a lullaby that calmed the Hulk after a mission and brought Bruce back with a minimum amount of pain and fear. They also flirt with each other and talk frankly about a future together. During a raid on a Hydra base, Tony comes across technology that would allow him to create a robotic peacekeeping force called Ultron. He ropes Bruce into helping despite Bruce having deep reservations about the project. Ultron gains self-awareness and attacks the team. This starts off a worldwide chase as the Avengers try to stop Ultron before innocent people get hurt. Bruce and the Hulk end up getting caught in the crosshairs when Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlett Witch uses her abilities to focus the Hulk’s rage on Johannesburg South Africa. Both Bruce and the Hulk are horrified by their actions and consider the incident a major setback in their quest for acceptance. Natasha being kidnapped by Ultron inspired Bruce to help Tony create Vision, a robot using the JARVIS program and the vibrainuim body designed by Ultron.
He then snuck into Ultron’s headquarters to rescue Natasha and attempts to convince her to run away and hide. Natasha pushes him off a cliff instead resulting in an appearance from the other guy. The Hulk goes after Ultron after Natasha is injured, yanking the robot out of the Quinjet and into the path of the Vision. When Natasha tries to call the Hulk back using the lullaby, the Hulk tunes her out and pilots the jet to points unknown.

Those points unknown end up being the planet Sakarr where the Hulk becomes the champion of the planet’s Game Master. He is happy and loved and when he is founded by a displaced Thor he has no plans on leaving and he refuses to hear any talk of Banner at all. Hulk also formed a friendship with another displaced Asgardian named Valkyrie.

Thor pushes the issue and he and the Hulk wind up back on the Quinjet where they trigger Natasha’s last message, which brings Bruce back to himself and he reveals he’s been the Hulk for two years, the longest period he’s been transformed that even Bruce knows of. He expresses the fear that if he turns back into the Hulk, he Bruce will be gone forever.

Thor gives Bruce a pep talk, needing the Hulk’s help to defeat his sister Hela and Bruce agrees to join Thor, Loki and Valkyrie in the defense of Asgard. He even risks losing himself to transform back into the Hulk who happily fights Fernier, Hela’s wolf and the fire demon who ends up causing the death of Asgard. The Hulk then joins the refugees on their ship only to have the ship then attacked by Thanos.

The Hulk attacks Thanos at one point only to be soundly beaten down and then sent back to Earth by Henidall before the former dies of his wounds. Crashing into roof of the New York Sanctum Bruce attempts to warn Stephen Strange, Wong and later Tony Stark about the danger of Thanos and his search of the Infinity Stones. He also attempts to help when the Black Order attacks New York only to find he cannot Hulk out.

Once Strange and Tony vanish into the Black Order ship, Bruce uses the phone Tony dropped during the battle to call Steve Rogers where he is reunited with Natasha, Steve, Falcon, Vision, Wanda and Rhodes. They all agree to head to Wakanda for help in extracting the Mind Stone from Vision’s head before Thanos can kill him. Bruce helps Princess Shuri work out a way to extract the stone, but then joins the distraction battle in the Hulkbuster armor since he still cannot release the Hulk despite several attempts during the battle to do so. He does however cheer the return of Thor and give his all to protect the stone watching in horror as the Avengers fail and Thanos kills off half the population of the galaxy.

Does your character have any close ties to existing canon characters? (Canon OCs and AUs only.)

Bruce’s main connections in the game include most of the MCU characters in game all of whom are aware I am bringing Bruce in.


Why do you think your character would work in this setting?
After the events of Infinity War, Bruce will be desperate for an escape. He will jump at the chance to come to New Dodge though he will feel slightly guilty for running away again. While he will attempt to hide how damaged he was by the events he’s been through sooner than later the truth will come out and Bruce will be forced to face the trauma he underwent.

He will also be forced to face the fact he’s been in town before and what happened then even though he won’t remember having been in town before. This may give him the confidence to be a better person and may even strengthen his connection to the Hulk. His time in New Dodge will allow Bruce to finally realize that he is as much of a hero as the Hulk is something that Bruce has always struggled with.

How do you plan to expand their CR?

Bruce will be reaching out to his friends for help in shattering the mental block that is keeping him from becoming the Hulk. He will also be attempting to reconnect with Natasha as he misses her and still cares about her. He will also be reaching out to the people who knew him from New Dodge before and trying to connect with them in an effort to gain more confidence in himself and his abilities.


What will your character do for work?
Bruce will hopefully joining the clinic as a doctor.



Inventory:

Bruce will have nothing on him but the ragged clothes he wore throughout Infinity War.

Samples:

Third-Person Sample:
Bruce stared at the man in front of him like he’d grown a second head. “You want me to go where,” he asked like he hadn’t heard Eli the first two times he’d made his offer. “New Dodge needs you Dr. Banner,” the man replied his tone even. “Needs me or the Hulk,” Bruce asked bluntly. Eli smiled slightly. “You,” he replied easily and Bruce simply shook his head.

“No one needs me,” Bruce replied his tone slightly sharper then he means it to be. “You do yourself a disservice Doctor,” Eli said. “Your friends are lost without you and the town could use your brilliant mind as it once did.” Bruce laughed harshly. “You didn’t hear me the first time. No one needs me. Who they need is the Hulk and he’s currently still sulking in the back of my head.” Bruce started to turn away but Eli’s voice stopped him. “Natasha needs you,” he says bluntly, “she’s always needed you, but you’ve both been too afraid to admit it.”

Bruce sighed softly. “I miss her,” he said softly, “I miss them all.” Eli smiled sensing his hook. “Then come back and see them again. How do you know what you can do unless you try to do it?” Bruce saw the man’s point he really did, but would running away again really be the answer. It didn’t fix anything the last time why would now be any different? Still he would never forgive himself if he didn’t try. Glancing back at the dusty plains of Wakanada, Bruce Banner made his choice. “Alright I’ll come,” he said finally, “couldn’t be worse than right here could it?” Eli nodded his agreement. “It might actually be better,” he said drawing another laugh out of Bruce. “Anywhere is better than here,” he muttered softly.


First-Person Sample:

Hulk,

Look I know we’ve never gotten along. How could we? You are the worse parts of me and I’m…. I’m just me. But the fact of the matter is we’ve been stuck together for over ten years and maybe it’s time to stop fighting each other.

I know you want to live as much as I do and you are your own person. But I’m a person too and this shouldn’t be a one or the other sort of thing. You protect me from becoming him and I…I made you. We should be working together instead of pulling apart and maybe by going to New Dodge we can do that.

I’m not saying this should be a be all end all solution to the problem of us, but don’t we owe it to each other to try and live together. So let’s try. Maybe by working together we can both be the Avenger we were meant to be instead of the monster we and most of the world think we are. I know this all sounds hokey but it’s what she would want us to do.

Bruce