The Incredible Hulk was originally gray, but printing limitations forced a change to green.

When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Hulk for The Incredible Hulk #1 in May 1962, they intentionally chose a gray skin tone. Lee wanted a color that wouldn't suggest any specific ethnic group or race. This decision proved problematic for colorist Stan Goldberg and the printers of the era.The four-color printing process used in the early 1960s struggled with gray ink. Depending on ink saturation, the Hulk appeared as different shades of gray, charcoal, or silver from page to page. In some panels, he looked washed out or completely black, which disrupted the visual consistency of the story.To solve this technical limitation, Stan Lee changed the character's color for The Incredible Hulk #2, published in July 1962. He chose green because it was a bold, distinct color that printing presses could handle with high reliability. This shift was never explained in the original story but eventually became part of Marvel lore.Decades later, Marvel writers introduced the Gray Hulk as a separate personality known as Joe Fixit to honor the original design. This character first appeared in Incredible Hulk #324 in 1986, establishing that the Hulk's color can change based on his psychological state. Today, the green skin remains one of the most recognizable brand assets in pop culture.