Since when? When did this first get established? And does it mean that his power is potentially infinite? Or will he have a heart attack if he gets too angry? (Or does his heart get stronger along with everything else so it's a self perpetuating thing?)

Alternate question:Is Evansy overthinking this concept?

I think it started in the late 80s or early 90s, but I always thought of it as hyperbole. As in, "adrenalin rush in Hulk makes Hulk even stronger", but only to a point, after which his strength levels off and eventually tapers down. I admit I haven't put a lot of thought into his heart and how it withstands the extra strain, but presumably a being capable of his feats and taking the kind of punishment he does would have a virtually indestructible heart.

He was saying this in the mid seventies mate, so it's been a part of his myth is for much longer than that. It was a central part o f his powers to me reading him as a kid but looking back there were times when it undermined the drama a bit...no matter how strong the opposition, you knew they were going to have that"No! It's impossible!" moment...

I was hoping someone could come up with the exact issue number (I DON'T KNOW why I care )

I'm reading Essential Hulk vol. 2 and have read vol. 1 and there have been some allusions to this but it's not quite the same.

I didn't know it had been that long. It just felt like something that would come from that era, to me.

It evolved over time because it was strongly implied in how he won many fights ( he's one of those "no upward bound to his powers" characters). I'd be curious to read when the first time that phrase was uttered. We were saying when I was young in the 1970's.

I believe it definitely emerged in that story that is my favorite (in Tales to Astonish #74)

Ironically, that triumphant moment where Hulk defeats the mightiest champion in the galaxy through a fit of "not gonna beat me" rage -- he's Banner personality then.

Yeah, that's one of the examples of the madder Hulk gets but not the specific "power" but writers have been using it almost since the beginning.

I think a better example might happen sometime after this comic book came out. Bruce was still trapped in the Hulk form, but now his personal had regressed to the savage Hulk. Some guy whom the army hired to stop the Hulk, but really had delusions about conquering the world was fighting him and thought that he had the Hulk beaten. However, he thought that the Hulk's strength was static when instead it kept growing due to his rage. This might have been one of the earliest examples of what Evans is talking about. I think the first Hulk movie made by Ang Lee aped this storyline when it came time to get rid of their Glenn Talbot, played by Matthew McConaughey.

The seeds were there as early as FF #25 back in the early '60's when the first big Thing/Hulk battle raged across NYC. Hulk wouldn't get tired and just kept on going, getting angrier. I think it was the early '70's when it became a mantra to go along with Hulk smash. They just started playing it up more in the storylines. Eventually became a crutch to get him out of a lot of situations. He had an endless supply of adrenaline. Later, when he faced Wolverine and got cut a zillion times, they brought up his healing factor too.

I just checked the Power Records "Incredible Hulk - At Bay!" and he doesn't say it in that record. I thought maybe the fact that approximately 100,000 of us Gen-X'ers played that record approximately 100,000 times each might have propelled it into greater usage.

I found a couple of things,
Fantastic Four #25,

Tales to Astonish #59

Tales to astonish #70

Found on this blog that has more examples,
http://www.comicvine.com/profile/dum529 ... the/92103/

That's great, thanks Marcus!

That Tales to Astonish #70 was in my Fireside book, so I would have read those words approximately 1,000 times. And would have been the context for that scene I posted from #74 above.

Again -- ironic that that it gets said by "Banner as Hulk."

But back then, whenever he was "Banner as Hulk," he always devolved pretty quickly to a personality that clearly isn't Banner's.

It's more the personality that eventually became associated with the grey Hulk -- around the late 80s and early 90s, right, Jeff?

There was a specific reason in that run -- a bullet lodged in his brain made him Banner, to the extent of even being able to run the machines in his laboratory. He thought he needed to bathe himself in gamma to stay alive (to stay Hulked up and survive the bullet). But the Leader dissolved the bullet, but ironically bathed him in so much gamma that he just stayed the Hulk, 24/7.

His personality became a hybrid, kind of a tough wise guy Bruce.

Then, as you say, gradually devolved without explanation into Third Person Hulk Brute over a span of many issues. And the art got horrible, too.

When Gil Kane took over, he drew him flat headed and looking like the Frankenstein Monster ( not Frankenstein, who was a scientist). And they wrote him like a confused, misunderstood beast. Full circle.

I feel I should not speculate further lest I provide more entertainment for you.

Ive always wondered about The Hulks intelligence too. When did he go from average and cunning to child like?

Yup. This is correct. Bill Everett, creator of the Sub_Mariner produced much of the bad art.

You're welcome. I knew it was early on but really wasn't used regularly until the 70s.

There's always a specific reason, but like I said, he always devolved back then. And there would always be the transitional, "tough, wise guy" phase. That was his personality in Hulk #6, for example, when he supposedly had Bruce Banner's personality, and also in Avengers 1 and 2. But eventually he went to his "speak in the third person" personality.

Then the cycle happened again during the phase you're talking about, the "bullet" period.

The cycle also happened in 1984, over the course of the "Secret Wars" miniseries. In issue 1, the Hulk is all, "Yes, I'm inclined to agree," but then by issue 12 he's a grumpy tough guy.

The tough wise guy eventually became codified as its own thing -- rather than just a transition period between two other things -- and was the persona given to the grey Hulk. In the late 80s and early 90s.