Brian Banner

As a child, Brian and his sisters Susan and Elaine, along with their Mother were physically and emotionally abused by their father, Bruce Banner I. Regarding his father as a monster and believing that he had inherited a "monster gene" from him, Brian promised himself that he would never have any children, for fear of bringing another Banner into the world. He severed contact with his sisters not wanting to relive bad memories from their childhood and wanted to escape his by running from it.

In college, Brian met Rebecca, whom he fell in love with and later married. Gaining a PhD in physics, Brian found a job in Los Alamos working for the government as a member of a project trying to develop a clean way to create nuclear energy. The stress of his job eventually led Brian to become an alcoholic and he began to develop anger problems, lashing out at others even when they try to help him. While drunk on the job one day, Brian accidentally overloaded some machinery, causing an explosion that caused him to lose his job. Despite doctors stating that the explosion caused him no harm, Brian became convinced that the explosion in Los Alamos had affected him on the genetic level.

Despite his vow to never have children, Brian impregnated Rebecca, who gave birth to their first-born son who is ironically named after his father Bruce Banner. Instantly hateful of the baby Bruce, who he believed to be a monster created from both the radiation he was exposed to and the "monster gene", Brian ignored him completely and attempted to keep Rebecca away from him, leaving Bruce in the care of the neglectful Nurse Meachum. When Bruce woke up early one Christmas morning and opened a present from his mother, a complex model, he assembled it easily despite his young age. Brian's discovery of this convinced him that his belief that Bruce was abnormal and different was correct and resulted in him beating Bruce and Rebecca when she came to their son's aid. Forced to endure heavy abuse from Brian for several years, Rebecca attempted to escape from him with Bruce. Finding Rebecca as she and Bruce were packing their belongings into their car, Brian attacked Rebecca, killing her by slamming her head against the pavement in front of Bruce, who stood there and watched as his mother was killed by his father. Under the threat of severe punishment, Brian stopped Bruce from testifying against him at his trial for Rebecca's murder, saying in doing so, he would go to Hell. Intimidated by Brian's anger, Bruce lied to the courts, stating that his father never abused him or Rebecca, who he said tried to run away for no reason. Brian escaped conviction due to lack of evidence, but was later arrested when, after becoming drunk, boasted about how he beat the law by bullying his son to what he says. Taken away, kicking and screaming, Brian yelled at Bruce that he would have revenge for this. Brian was sent to be imprisoned and put in a mental institution.