Bruce Banner's struggle to remove the Hulk from himself and revert back to normal is a well-known one in the realm of comics, but not many know the most ridiculous way in which he attempted; Bruce Banner once built a rollercoaster... well sort of.
Those who have visited Marvel Super Hero Island at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure fondly remember entering the land as The Incredible Hulk Coaster roared above them, but if the visit happened after 2016, they may not realize the original purpose and story of this ride actually puts the rider in Bruce Banner's shoes. While most of the rides at the Island simply take you along for a journey with the character or subject you to their evil machine, the Hulk coaster differed in the fact that the story itself was centered around Bruce rather than the guest. Being the whole point of the Island is to make one feel like they're living the comics, making the rider actually play the role of the character to which it's themed takes it up a notch.
The original ride queue saw guests entering Banner's Gamma Laboratory, passing by various experiments and a gamma core. As riders progressed through the queue, they would learn of a new experiment Banner was conducting in which he would submit himself to intense G-force inside of a gamma-ray accelerator. The idea here is that the combination of gamma rays with intense G-force pushing on specific parts of his brain would ultimately cause him to permanently suppress the Hulk within his own mind. As the case with most of Banner's attempts to cure himself, the experiment goes incredibly wrong, and this is exactly where the fun begins.
Guests would board the experiment and enter into the gamma accelerator as if they themselves were Banner. His voice played through speakers on the headrests of the seats themselves, giving the illusion of him being on board and describing the experiment as it went along. A warning message would ring, proclaiming system failures, and Banner's voice would turn to panic. At this point, he violently transforms into the Hulk, which is simulated by the rapid launch of the coaster, blasting out of the gamma-ray accelerator into intense loops and inversions. From this point forward, the wild motion of the coaster is meant to represent the Hulk himself jumping around in pure rage, even having water blasters that shoot as the coaster approaches the lagoon as if the Hulk himself was slamming into it and jumping back up.
To this day the Hulk Coaster is regarded by theme park goers and comic book fans alike as one of the best thrill attractions out there, so much so, that when the coaster had started to age out of use that they completely refurbished it from the ground up to keep it alive. Sadly, with the update came a change of story and queue (though the new story is also fantastic), but fans of the original can still spot a little easter egg as the new Hulk statue standing at the coaster's entrance is actually holding one of the original coaster trains.
It seems a bit silly that the genius of Bruce Banner would think putting intense pressure on his brain would work, and wouldn't just piss off the Hulk, but the ride wouldn't be quite as fun or memorable if it was simply the Bruce Banner G-force simulator. The new story definitely solves this issue by removing Banner himself from the equation of creating the machine, but it does feel a bit sad that this goofy piece of Marvel history is lost to the amusement park gods forever.
Image Credit: Orlando Informer
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