Why does everyone hate Bruce Banner?

Anyone who wears purple trousers to work is OK with me. Most Hulk writers however don't seem to think that a purple trouser wearing, hyper-intelligent, nuclear physicist with the greatest glasses in history makes particularly good reading or writing material these days.

The first thing I want to mention is that the Ultimates are the shining exception to this rule. Millar, as usual, seems to know exactly what I want to read. Loeb, on the other hand, has thus far disappointed me greatly.

Loeb seems to divide opinion more than pretty much any other writer in the comic world. The Long Halloween is both loved and loathed in equal measure. Some consider it a great example of crime fiction, others are of the opinion that Loeb didn't have a clue what he was doing. For my part I don't consider it to be a particularly good murder mystery but do think it's still an excellently written piece of work, and no matter your own personal opinion it's fair to say that Loeb considers murder mystery in comic book form to be his forte.

It's not particularly surprising that Loeb made Hulk big dumb fun, as that's how most people seem to treat him... but I'm still disappointed. He could easily have swung the other way and made this a slightly more cerebral run than the Hulk is used to, with of course the hyper-intelligent Dr. Banner showing us a new side more akin to Ichabod Crane... well a man can dream can't he? I mean Rulk is an unknown, Gamma infused, killing machine and well I think it's fair to say that Banner is the world's leading authority on all things Gamma, so 2 + 2 = ?

It's not like it's just Loeb though, during the entire Planet Hulk/World War Hulk run the good Doctor is no more than an inconvenience to the storyline. Now don't get me wrong I adore both Planet Hulk and WWH, and entirely understand why those stories kept the Hulk's alter ego at a distance, but that amounts to roughly 20 issues and almost two years worth of Hulk stories with little or no sign of one half of our protagonist.

If we go back further to the PAD days, undoubtedly one of the finest runs in Hulk history, Bruce Banner didn't really exist. The smart green Hulk was more of an amalgamation of the two personalities rather than being truly Bruce Banner.

Recently I read one commentators view that he/she was sick of the old Jekyll and Hyde cliche, and was actually fairly dismissive of the whole idea. I think it's fair to say that that particular view is not an unusual one, but sometimes I wonder if these people have ever actually read the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Firstly, it's written from the perspective of a friend of Jekyll's concerned about his recent strange behaviour, and leaves Mr Hyde as a shadowy mostly unseen character. Secondly, although Hyde gives the book its flair the real interest is in the slow and painful decline of Jekyll. Thirdly, and most salient in this case, the enjoyment is gleaned from the mystery surrounding the whole affair. It is after all entitled 'The Case' of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Then again as time passes in the novella Mr Hyde becomes more and more powerful, with Dr Jekyll spending less and less time as himself. So perhaps the Hulk is following it's inspiration fairly closely after all.