Football Counter-Programming 2026: Week 2--Hulk Smash . . . Cancer?

NOTE: There are brief mentions of fictional suicide in this post.

Last night I was relaying some information from Grace about events in her classroom.

To wit--

Grace creates several 16-item bracket challenges each year, giving her students something to vote on. Such as The Best Thanksgiving Meal Side Dishes or The Best Character in the Lord of the Rings movies.

Each week, kids in her class get to vote, round by round until a winner is determined.

At the start of this year, the final two in the Marvel Characters bracket was The Hulk versus Spider-Man.

(How did The Hulk make it to the final round, you ask? Who was defeated along the way? I cannot say. I am surprised that The Hulk did make it to the end. I am NOT surprised that Spider-Man did.)

ANDBUTSO . . . I was relaying this information to Sarah and Lynda. And it got Sarah and I talking about why The Hulk? We didn't get to an answer on that, but Sarah suggested it is because Bruce Banner is a sympathetic character. Someone that people can feel empathy for. Might that play a role in his popularity?

This conversation around The Hulk eventually touched on the question of How powerful is The Hulk anyway? Some comics suggest that his powers are kinda limitless and are fueled by the Hulk rage, feeding off each other in escalating ways. 

Eventually we got to the point that, in one of the MCU movies, Bruce Banner admits that when he was at one of his most depressed times, he tried to commit suicide. But The Hulk prevented it from happening. Not much more explanation was given . . . but it got me thinking even further.

How powerful is The Hulk . . . really?

If (even in a submerged, unconscious state) he has the ability to prevent Bruce Banner from suicide, then does that make Bruce Banner functionally immortal? And going at this from a different perspective . . .

can The Hulk cure cancer?

Because, if The Hulk can step in and prevent mechanical types of death, then I though the only way to stop him was through unavoidable, biological types of illness and death such as cancerous tumors and the like. 

But maybe not?

The Marvel comics universe already has characters such as Wolverine and Deadpool that have a healing factor that allows their biological systems and body to recover from some of the worst types of degradation and damage. As a result of that we already know that Logan (Wolverine) has survived for more than a century and (probably) has been shown in some comic stories to live even longer and could be considered sort of immortal?

(I do not have more than a glancing knowledge of comics lore, which is varied, confusing, and EXTENSIVE. I do not pretend to have any kind of idea what sorts of crazy storylines have been dreamed up for Wolverine or any other comic book character. So if you already know "the answer" to this thought experiment, drop an educational comment below.)

Back to the thoughts . . .

Can The Hulk cure cancer?

And if he can, then can the gamma-irradiated qualities of Bruce Banner's DNA be a template for curing cancer generally? Or is he unique and no one else has the genetic quirks to make it work?

(Probably.)

Or are The Hulk cells so very unique and radiationally dangerous that no treatment can be pursued to make any kind of cancer cure?

(Again probably.)

Or is all of this nonsense fiction and there is no reason to pursue this any further because it's all just made up and why are you trying to apply real logic to this flimsy, idiotic scenario?

(Most definitely . . . but . . . do you see where I'm steering this?)

ISN'T THIS THE SAME SCENARIO THAT MANY COLLEGE FOOTBALL FANS PUT THEMSELVES IN WEEK AFTER WEEK?

Don't you convince yourself that anything that happens on the field has real bearing in your life? Or that what you do or what you say or how you sit or what you wear or when you eat has some cause and effect relationship with the real-time actions of separate college-aged individuals unconnected to you in a separate location with their own brain patterns and their own mind-body-musculature connections reacting to the complex thoughts and actions of other college-aged opponents. All being manipulated and coached and directed by a separate set of adult supervisors and leaders on the sidelines with their own separate ideas and motivations. NOT TO MENTION the infinite vagaries of wind, temperature, turf, rain, sleep levels, hunger, or a million other factors that affect and deflect each moment of a college football game?!

Stop trying to hold on to everything so tightly!

Let go and give in! You are not the game and the game is not you!

And so, smash your way out of this mindset.

Take a walk outside. 

Don't watch college football.