| “ | A mistake? You really messed up didn't you Banner? Hmm? You've always tried so hard to suppress the creature. You don't want him released. Well I do. I can...and I will! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! | „ |
| ~ Dark David Banner recording a message he has for his heroic counterpart. |
Dark David Banner is the main antagonist of the Incredible Hulk episode "Dark Side". He was unleashed when David Banner created a serum that he thought would suppress the Hulk. However, the results were more than simply just a failure and ended up unleashing a darker and entirely savage side of himself, also resulting in a much more dangerous Hulk.
He was portrayed by the late Bill Bixby while his monster self was portrayed by Lou Ferrigno.
Dark Side[]
As David Banner stayed at a troubled family's home, he had been working on a drug that he hoped would suppress the Hulk and prevent him from transforming forever. When he finally tested it, it instead resulted in his darker half being unleashed, causing this Jekyll to Hyde transformation between his moods.
After Dark David has been unleashed, he threatens David via a recorder saying that unlike him, he wants to and he will release the creature within him, and laughs maniacally after he says so.
The first thing he desires is food, so he goes down to the family's kitchen rummaging through their fridge while still laughing. The family's daughter, Laurie, who has had a crush on David, goes downstairs to the kitchen with a knife after hearing him laughing and can only assume it is someone else because it sounds nothing like David. Dark David takes the knife and flirts with her by calling her "Laura", telling her that "Laurie" is a girl's name and that she is a woman. He attempts to make out with her, but instead ends up cutting his hand with Laurie's knife which is apparently enough to snap him back into normal David for a while until her father, Mike, whom Laurie has a difficult relationship with, comes downstairs and does not like what he sees. He threatens David and tells him to find a new place and grabs him by the shoulder. David then snaps back to his darker half and threatens back, telling Mike to never touch him again. He then snaps back into his original self and says he'll find a new place to stay as soon as he can.
The next day, David realizes what's happening to him and calls in sick for the lab he's working in, in doing so, one of the employees, Miss Farber, flirts with him over the phone and invites him to a party at a bar, but he politely declines. Afterward, Laurie is still pleased over what went on the night before and flirts with David. His dark side starts to emerge but he can suppress it long enough to kick Laurie out of the room, but not before she kisses him. After she's out, his dark side takes over again and he decides he'll go to the party anyway.
As he attends the party, he tells Miss Farber to dance with him. However, her date is not pleased and tells him that she's with him. Seeing this as an opportunity to unleash the creature, Dark David punches her date in the stomach and he and his friends take him aside to beat him up. This only makes him laugh harder and harder as he starts to transform and nearly kills them all, seeing as to how the creature's personality is dependent on his host, and since Dark David is willing to kill anyone, so is the creature. He indeed tries to kill Miss Farber's date but does not succeed.
The next day, still transformed, Dark Hulk attacks a delivery man and tries to eat a frozen hunk of meat he was trying to deliver. Not pleased with his meal, he tries to kill the delivery man. Fortunately, the creature reverts to his normal self and realizes what he is about to do before he can do any worse. He then lets the delivery man go and walks away, full of remorse.
During that same day, things are not going well with Mike and Laurie. She is more attached to David and is not pleased that Mike has always been traveling all these years. Mike decides to set her up with a boy from high school, Jimmy Ellison, who's always had a crush on her. However, David walks in on the situation to walk to his lab and find the antidote. Laurie asks to go with him, but David declines. However, she insists on trying to go but Mike grabs her by the shoulder. This is enough to enrage David's darker half as he returns and commands Mike to keep his hands off of her. He then reverts to his normal self immediately after. Enraged by this, Mike demands David pack things after his "walk" and leave immediately. David agrees. After he leaves, Mike tells Jimmy to come back later and that Laurie wants to go out with him. Upset, Laurie has her last argument with her father and goes upstairs to her room, crying.
David manages to get the antidote from the lab and attempts to inject himself with it. However, Dark David emerges and keeps him from doing so and puts it in his pocket. He then arrives at the house and manages to sneak upstairs and tell Laurie to pack and leave with him, but not before making out with her first. After she packs and tries to leave with him, Mike and his wife try to stop them and he even tells Laurie that she was right all along and that he was always in the wrong. After he tells Dark David that she's not going with him, he kicks him in the face and manages to knock him down long enough to leave, but not before telling Mike that he's nothing more than a child and that Laurie needs an adult with full commitment.
Jimmy arrives in time for Dark David to throw him out of his car, steal it, and drive away with Laurie, laughing maniacally. Laurie's parents chase them down while Dark David starts to clash with his original self and their struggles with each other result in him crashing into a pond. Dark David is out of the car but Laurie is trapped inside and is about to drown in the pond as the car sinks. David is now struggling with his darker half as he tries to inject himself with the antidote. He manages to hold his darker self down long enough to do so, transform into the creature, and manages to save Laurie from drowning in time for her parents to get there. Mike, unaware of his good intentions, threatens the creature with a gun, but the creature simply breaks it and grabs Mike as if to brutalize him. However, he looks at the scar he left on Mike's face earlier and decides he's done enough damage. After he leaves, Laurie and her parents are reunited and things are much better between her and her father.
Dark David would remain imprisoned inside David's subconscious until the latter's death in Death of the Incredible Hulk-thus resulting in his demise as well.
Personality[]
Dark David Banner was the complete opposite of David. Unlike David, who was calm, polite, humble, and reserved, Dark David was savage, maniacal, perverted, psychotic, and completely bent on chaos based on his desire to let the creature out. His behavior resulted in a much more dangerous Hulk who was willing to kill anyone, including innocent people.
