It's official - as revealed by the first official trailer💜 for Captain America: Brave🐎 New World, the Red Hulk is joining the MCU. And by all appearances, it will indeed be Harrison Ford's Pre൲sident Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross who transforms into the not-so-jolly red giant.

There's still time for Marvel to pull the ol' switcheroo and have some other character transform into the Red Hulk, but that sure looks a heck of a lot like Ford's features, and of course, Thunderbo🎃lt Ross is the original Red Hulk from comics.

But how is Thunderbolt Ross transformed into the Red Hulk in comics, and how does the Red Hulk saga fit into the mythos of characters like Bruce Banner, She-Hulk, and Abomination?

The answers to these questions are simple 𒀰- but they open the door to a whole wider Hulk continuity full of numerous Gamma mutates♔, rival Hulk factions, and much more.

We'll break it all down right now.

Who is Red Hulk?

The original Red Hulk is General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross. Introduced all the way back in 1961's alongside Bruce Banner, Thunderbolt Ross (for decades just a regular man) is the Hulk's oldest enemy, a military leader obsessed with❀ obtaining and controlling - or at the very least destroying - the limitless power of the Hulk.

After years of pursuing the Hulk through 🐈conventional (if increasingly powerful) weaponry and tactics as part of the military special forces group known as the Hulkbusters, Thunderbolt Ross finally decides to bite the bullet, and try to match the Hulk'🐼s strength through his own transformation.

But he doesn't undergo the transformation by himself. Instead, he volunteers as a subject for Hulk experiments conducted by the villain MODOK, who steals Bruce Banner's own Gamma energy after it's siphoned off by special satellites built by Tony Stark in the story 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:World War Hulk - a process which leaves Ban🤡ner unable to turn into the Hulk at all.

Using a combination of Gamma Rays and Cosmic Energy (the energy t💖hat gave the Fantastic Four their powers in the Marvel Universe), MODOK empowers Thunderbolt Ross as a Red Hulk, who possesses not just the strength of the original Hulk, but all his own military knowledge and cunning, as well as the power to absorb and release Cosmic Energy with blazin𝔉g force.

Following the successful creation of the Red Hulk, MODOK joins forces with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the Leader, Hulk's other major nemesis, to use the power of the Red Hulk to get revenge on those who have wronged them, and to seizไe power.

The newly empowered 🔯Red Hulk was introduced in 2008's , but his actual human identity remained secret for ꦑsome time. 

While still anonymous, the monstrously strong villain tears across the Marvel Universe by seemingly killing Hulk's classic foes the Abomination and Wendigo, single-handedly destroying a SHIELD Helicarrier, and even causing an earthquake in the San Francisco area, before fin🐭ally suffering his first defeat at the hands of a re-empowered Bruce Banner, and Thor.

Finally, in 2010's (a sequel to 2008's World War Hulk), the true identity of Red Hulk is revealed as 🉐Th🔴underbolt Ross.

But the reveal of Red Hulk's secret identity wasn't the end of Thunderbolt Ross' time as a Hulk - far fro꧟m it. 

Red Hulk in the Marvel Universe

First, Red Hulk teams up with underwater villainꦇ Tigershark, the magical Baron Mordo, and former herald of Galactus Terrax the Tamer to form the Offenders, a villain team that mirrors the classic lineup of the original Defenders (Hulk, Namor, Doctor Strange, and Silver Surfer).

In that♐ story, Red Hulk absorbs Silver Surfer's Power Cosmic, nearly killing the spaced-out hero along with s🍃everal others - until Galactus learns of Red Hulk's theft of the Power Cosmic, which the world devourer takes back, undoing the death and destruction caused by Red Hulk with his own godlike power.

After finally defeating the Red Hulk, a re-empowered Bruce Banner arranges for h🤪im t𝓡o be released into Steve Rogers' custody. Under the terms of the arrangement, Ross becomes an agent of the United States government working as Red Hulk, and eventually earns membership in the Avengers.

Along with the creation of the Red Hulk, MODOK and the Leader's supervillain group the Intelligencia conducts more Gamma experi💦ments, leading to a series of spin-off characters including Thunderbolt Ross' daughter Betty Ross becoming the Red She-Hulk, and Hulk's longtime pal Rick Jones becoming the explosive, Abomination-esque A-Bomb.

In 2012, Thunderbolt Ross led a new version of the whose missions involved dealing with the ramifications of Ross' own 🌜militar🐎y career, while Ross continued to operate in the Marvel Universe as the Red Hulk.

However, his downfall came when Bruce Banner, in his Doc Green Hulk persona, manages to catch Red Hulk and turn him b🍨ack into Thunderbolt Ross. With his powers depleted, Ross is imprisoned in his human form and later paroled as a powerless retiree.

Tragicallဣy, Ross was murdered in 2018's , with Stꦑeve Rogers being framed.

Despit🃏e Ross' death, the Red Hulk lives on, this time as former retired army general Robert Maverick, introduced in 2017's (after Thunderbolt Ross' defeat, but before his death), who becomes the second Red Hulk thanks to a Gamma device which allows him to transform for a limited time.

As of right now, Robert M💮averick is still the Red Hulk, though he hasn't been seen for a while.

Red Hulk in the MCU

Red Hulk is officially coming to the MCU, and it's l🍌ooking a lot like his film origins will be fairly close to many of the details of his 𝔉comic book backstory.

All the pieces are now on the board. Though the story of澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: the Intelligencia and their 💝desire for She-Hulk's blood in the She-Hulk streaming series ended in a much more unconventional way, the themes of the story remain mostly intact for a more straightforward follow-up in a later film, especia🌳lly considering the Leader himself, Samuel Sterns, is well known to be after the Hulk's blood as of the events of 2008's Incredible Hulk.

Now that Sterns himself is returning to the MCU in his evolved ꦦvillain form as the Leader in Brave New World, it's not impossible that Red Hulk ꩵhimself will also play a role in the adaptation of Leader's story in the MCU, with Leader potentially taking the place of MODOK in the creation of the Red Hulk.

As of෴ now, we've got more questions than answers. But with Red Hulk now officially confirmed for the MCU, we're starting to get a clearer picture of what to expect in Captain America: B😼rave New World.

Read up on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Hulk stories of all time.