Jim Wilson (comics)
| Jim Wilson | |
|---|---|
|
Jim Wilson, from The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #388 (December 1991). Art by Dale Keown and Mark Farmer. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #131 (September 1970) |
| Created by |
Roy Thomas Herb Trimpe |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Jim Wilson |
| Supporting character of | Hulk |
Jim Wilson is a fictional comic book character. A supporting character appearing in Marvel Comics, Wilson was a longtime friend of Bruce Banner (a.k.a. the Hulk) and Rick Jones.
Publication history
Jim Wilson first appeared in The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #131 as an angry young man who befriends the Hulk. During the late 1970s he became a regular supporting character of the series, usually appearing as a friend of Bruce Banner.
The Incredible Hulk #232 revealed that Jim Wilson is the nephew of Sam Wilson, the superhero Falcon. Though this revelation occurred when Roger Stern was writing the series, Stern says that earlier Incredible Hulk writer Len Wein came up with the idea that they were related and simply didn't get around to it during his run.[1]
Wilson was dropped from the series by 1980, and did not return until The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #388 (December 1991), in which it is revealed that Wilson was HIV-positive. He dies of AIDS in The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #420 (August 1994).
Fictional character biography
Wilson enlists Rick Jones to play a benefit concert at a hospice for AIDS patients. On the drive from the airport, Wilson reveals to Jones that he is HIV-positive, and that his girlfriend left him. Wilson is injured while protecting Jefferson Wolfe from the assassin Speedfreek at the charity concert. The Hulk rushes Wilson to a hospital. Jones and the Hulk later secure evidence to send the mob boss who employed Speedfreek to prison.[2]
Wilson is again seen in The Incredible Hulk #420, in which he is attacked by a mob protesting the fact that a court has ordered an HIV-infected boy to be allowed into a public school. The Hulk is able to rescue Wilson from the mob, and takes him to the hi-tech medical facilities at the Mount, the secret headquarters of the Pantheon, the superhero group which the Hulk is a member of. He learns that Wilson actually has AIDS, and has had it for some time. In addition to the broken ribs he sustained in the mob attack, he is suffering from pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and does not have long to live. Remembering the blood transfusion that the Hulk gave his cousin, Jennifer Walters (which turned her into the She-Hulk), Wilson asks Bruce Banner to give him a transfusion of his blood, hoping that the Hulk's blood would act as a cure to the virus. Banner initially refuses to take the risk of creating another monster, but eventually pretends to be giving Wilson a blood transfusion. Wilson reveals in private to Dr. Harr, the attending physician caring for him, that he was not fooled by Bruce's ruse, but played along anyway. Shortly afterward, Jim Wilson succumbs to the disease and dies.
After Wilson's death, Bruce donates a large sum of money to the hospice that Wilson worked at in order to allow them to comfortably exist for the next few decades.
Jim Wilson's father, Gideon Wilson, inexplicably blames the Hulk for Jim's death and joins Gamma Corps to seek revenge,[3] although in the end he admitted to himself and the Hulk that he only blamed the Hulk for his son's death in order to avoid facing his own guilt for his failures as a father.
In other media
- Jim Wilson briefly appears in the 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk, in which he is played by P.J. Kerr. He is depicted as a Culver University student who is interviewed by a local TV station after he witnesses and videotapes the Hulk during his on-campus battle with General Ross' military forces.
References
- ↑ Buttery, Jarrod (February 2014). "Hulk Smash!: The Incredible Hulk in the 1970s". Back Issue! (TwoMorrows Publishing) (70): 16.
- ↑ The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #388
- ↑ World War Hulk: Gamma Corps #1