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Who Is The Red Hulk?

A little more than two years after his debut, the secret identity of the Red Hulk is still a mystery. While this has enraged many fans, it has also caused a reader following in great numbers who month after month, want to deduce the secret, or find out about it in a future classic (and perhaps infamous?) issue. This page contains important information about the Red Hulk, which is key to deduce his identity.

The Main Suspects

Discarted cover for Hulk #1 where we see the Red Hulk plus Thunderbolt Ross, Doc Samson, Iron Man, and She-Hulk Bits of information scattered through out the Hulk comics confuse more than help to reveal the true identity of "Rulk", the Red Hulk.

But if we concentrate on the very first issue (Hulk #1), we can get a good list of suspects who could be the Red Hulk.

Rulk killed the Abomination. He beat him to almost death first, and then shot him several times with a special S.H.I.E.L.D. gun. It was clearly an act of revenge.

The Abomination killed Betty Ross by poisoning her blood with his own. The following list of suspects is made of people who would want to avenge Betty Ross' death:

Bruce Banner. Husband
Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. Father
Doc Samson. Lover and friend
Glenn Talbot. Husband

All of these suspects have been seen interacting with (or fighting) the Red Hulk, except for Glenn Talbot, who died battling the Hulk (Incredible Hulk #260), but has recently showed up very alive (Fall of the Hulks Gamma #1). So...

Glenn Talbot seemed most likely the man who turns into the Red Hulk.

Colonel Glenn Talbot:

Hates Bruce Banner/the Hulk, his job was to hunt down the Hulk ("died" trying in Incredible Hulk #260). And Betty Ross, his former wife and love of his life, went back to Banner after leaving him.
Has reason to hate the Abomination for killing Betty Ross
Has been "dead" for decades, but was recently seen alive (Fall of the Hulks Gamma #1) and with Betty Ross (!)
He and the Red Hulk have never been spotted together
He's got military training, and perhaps access to military facilities (Hulk #2), weaponry (S.H.I.E.L.D. gun used to kill the Abomination), and aircraft (using stealth plane in Hulk #20)
He "died" near a volcano that erupted red lava. Besides being red like fire, one of Rulk's characteristic is that his body heat increases the madder he gets. Perhaps Talbot developed an uncanny resistance to extreme heat thanks to the advanced technologies in the aircraft he was piloting, that kept him in suspended animation until he was found by M.O.D.O.K. and turned into the Red Hulk.

But as shown in Hulk #22, the Red Hulk is actually Thunderbolt Ross, the man who chased and attacked the Hulk almost his entire life, out of hatred but also out of jealousy for having all that power to himself, thinking Banner deserved in no way.

Ross accepted being turned into the Red Hulk by the Leader and M.O.D.O.K. in exchange of they bringing his daughter Betty back to life. A rookie at controlling such power, Ross acted like a super villain at first. But then he helped avoid the world from becoming pray of the Intelligencia. And was given a spot in the Avengers.