Big Brain Time : Sam's pronouns

Solar Eclipses - Hollywood Principle ft. Dr. Awkward

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I once had someone asking me "do you think Sam could be a trans character?" and I think headcanons are meant to be a personal interpretation of something not necessarly confirmed in the story. I strongly believe your interpretation doesn't have to stick to the lore as long as it brings you comfort and isn't meant to disrespect someone else so yeah, if you think Sam is trans then he is. And it shouldn't be deeper than that but I saw "you're not allowed to think that because that's not canon so it hurts the OG story" (how ???) from people who yell "free speech" whenever they need to spit they bigotry so many time that I understand why someone would ask me how it makes sense to the actual Hulk lore.

So let's show them how everybody can bend the canon to their will. In fact that's what being a true fan is about to me, it's not about following a canon, it's about having your own fun, your own interpretations, because genuine fan stuff (let it be fanfiction, fanart, casual conversation) is the fuel keeping your fav thing alive and it cannot exist if you stick to canon only.

Sam was created in 1963. Back then we often had cishet queer coded villains, they were in this in-between of "queer bad so our villains are queer but queer bad so our main characters and villains gotta stay cishet even if they're queer", of course being queer was often about having physical homophobic features. Like smaller men, thin hands, long nails, thinner and weaker body, long eyelashes, eyeshadow looking like make-up, even makeup actually. More effeminate and smart, because being smart was (and still is) seen as being weak, sissy and girly (thus the nerd being bullied cliche), opposing the strong brainless manly man. Because a good man is a man who can bring money and who won't ask about his unfair condition. While evil women are depicted as strong, independant, either widowed or single but without a man, loud, old. So the opposite of the attractive woman who will silently bear a child.

I'm not going to make a whole thesis on this topic here so it's pretty fuzzy but keep in mind that virilism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and racism all have the same root and the same objectif so we have marginalized villains with features from minorities without totally being part of it.

And through these features we got a lot of queer coded villains. I'm sure you have a lot of Disney exemples in mind while reading this, Ursula, Jafar etc... In fact Ursula made a good point about this through her song, a woman should be pretty, naive and stfu (and she was designed after Divine, a very famous Drag Queen).

Well for Sam it's true too, you have this small guy, very thin, very touchy with men, not so manly in his manners. It went as far as Marvel making jokes about his very non hetero behaviors.

M.O.D.O.K Fall of the Hulks (2010) writing and art by Ryan Dunlavey

Let's go back to Sam's past, we already explored it here but long story short Sam was alienated by his family and was craving love and attention, leading him (lol) to grow up highly insecured, wanting to become a whole new person and that's how our trans allegory starts :

Sam suffers body dysmorphia.

Incredible Hulk 223 (1978) writing Roger Stern pencil Sal Buscema

That's pretty much canon, there's no debate or interpretation, it's a simple fact : Sam hates his body and himself as a whole. Before his mutation he would mostly wear large top like a lot of people who are trying to hide their body but after his mutation slowly he started wearing tighter and tighter top, having his chest very visible. There's no real reason to that other than comics design and visible muscles because it's easier for artists to draw a naked body than drawing clothes over it but when you read about him and see his own evolution and self discovery journey, it matches the idea that maybe he became more comfortable with his own body after becoming the Leader.

That's an important part of Sam we talked about, Sam is about love and hate, including self love and self hate. He's full of self hatred, it's the core of his character, he hates what he is, he hates how he looks like, he hates his name and he would rather die than going back to his previous life. After all, the gamma mutation gave him the power to do whatever he wants with himself, which makes sense, he's a genius, if he was trans it would be so easy for him as the Leader to just completly change his body to have it match what he is.

Hulk vol.2 23 (2010) writing Joeph Loeb art Ed McGuinness

Sam used to hate his name

I wouldn't call it a deadname because Sam still accepts and uses this name now but at some point he totally rejected it, he took the name of the Leader and tried to burry his old name forever as a mean to reject what he used to be prior to his mutation, when he didn't feel like himself.

Sam is also a very gender neutral name. Sure his fullname is "Samuel" but his brother never called him more than Sam and considering his intelligence he could very well change his formal identity. He faked his death for a while until he felt comfortable enough to expose his name again anyway so changing his name to masc wouldn't be that difficult for him either considering he had no friends nor family (not anymore at least).

Incredible Hulk 367 (1990) writing Peter David pencil David Keown

One of the reason he hates his name is because it reminds him of what he used to "be" before his mutation, the other is because it relates him to the family who abused and rejected him. The canon reason to that rejected is "he wasn't smart enough" aka he's not like his brother who had good grade and just not what his parents expected from him. And you can wonder if the reason is deeper than just "Sam having bad grades". Maybe his desire to be "more like his brother" was more than just wanting to be smart. It's why he turned evil after all, to be like his abusive brother, the beloved man everybody would admire, even Sam. So what if he wasn't born a man but wanted to be one to be loved like his brother? Each trans journey is personal and different. Some are born this way, for some it's a way to reject and/or take control of their body (that's why a lot of trans people are disabled). I won't name every single reasons here because like I said it's personal and to be fair it's totally irrelevant. Why someone identify the way they identify is truly none of our business. But it could be one of the reason Sam identified as a man if he was afab (assigned femal at birth). Or maybe his desire to be like this brother was born of him always feeling this way and the abuse and rejection were born from the way he identifies himself. Both could work.

Sam's pronouns are canonically He/They

This one is 100% canon but yes, Sam did refer to himself as they in the 2000s, so way before most people even heard of transidentity. The main reason is most likely because he has a DID too, but it's canon, Sam's pronouns are he/they and if people are so into canon to the point of feeling personally offended by people's headcanon then they have to aknowledge and accept Sam uses these pronouns to talk about him.

Incredible Hulk vol.2 31 (2001) written by Paul Jenkins and Sean McKeever

Immortal Hulk

In Immortal Hulk Sam got some kind of shapeshifting power and one of his main form was very similar to the Xenomorph Queen.

Immortal Hulk 39 (2020) writing by Al Ewing

Xenomorph Queen

Immortal Hulk 39 (2020) writing by Al Ewing

David Fincher's Alien 3

I thought of it as either unintentionnal or a little Easter Egg to Alien but when you think of it Sam's last form wasn't a "Building", it was a nest.

He was resting and feeding because he was breeding. Look at his body(ies), the position is similar to someone giving birth. Legs open, arms pressing the floor, the position of his pelvis also.

Immortal Hulk 50 (2021) writing by Al Ewing

Immortal Hulk 50 (2021) writing by Al Ewing

Think about it. Bruce in his belly, his own human body in a weird organic pouch connected through organic strings very similar to a placenta and umbilical cordes, him coming through out like a new born, all naked and covered in fluids, it looks like a birth. It looks pretty much like that final form was meant for breeding and giving birth to whatever TOBA was trying to create.

Immortal Hulk 50 (2021) writing by Al Ewing

And what about that weird ugly-ass baby Leader in Cates' run?

Hulk vol.5 14 (2023) writing and pencil by Ryan Ottley

Not related to what we're talking about but look at this baby's face. Have you noticed that while it has Sam's brain that little freak kinda has Hulk's face? The nose, the brows, the square face. It's kinda hard to tell if it's just Ryan's artstyle when he draws baby or if it's a fusion, I don't know, maybe we'll never even see that little fucker again but maybe that's what TOBA was creating, the perfect gamma mutated. Maybe it's not Sam but TOBA's new mask, a fusion of Sam's brain and intelligence and Hulk's strength and durability. We can only theorize at this point and I'm sure whoever will write him next will just think of it as a baby Sam so we'll never know.

But anyway, it kinda gives Sam this pregnancy allegory vibe.

Sam's manly quest

There's this thing with gamma mutation, it gives you an appearance related to who you are. Bruce and his alters are Hulk because he sees himself as a monster. She-hulk is tall with long curly hair because she is that strong beautiful confident lady, Red Hulk is a Hulk because Ross needed to become his enemi. And Sam got a mustache.

Yes, he got a giant forehead too but that's not something he wanted, it's something his brain had to do to avoid exploding, a natural reaction to his new powers if you will, which is also why he suffers amnesia when he reverts back to his human form. It is said in canon as well, the big head is not a result of his "wish" but a natural reaction to his new capacities.

When you think of it, what his mutation gave him is a dandy look. Slicked back hair, a thin mustache, features he looses as soon as he goes back to his human self, as if what he really wanted to be and what he really was inside was a dude.

And he tried way too hard to be a dude archetype indeed (which makes him even gayer too honestly because while this post is about gender identity, let's not forget how Sam is most likely bisexual). He forced himself into het relationship he didn't really care that much about, he tried to act and be seen like the perfect gentleman etc...

And it makes sense because as we said, Sam wanted to be like his brother that he saw as the perfect man. Tall, more muscular than him, more confident. Maybe that's why at some point Sam was muscular and blond like his brother and no longer thin with brown hair when human (the real reason is inconsistency obviously but if Immortal Hulk taught us one think it's howyou can turn every plot hole into something very cool and relevant for the whole story).

A non-binary boy

So through his 60 years of history and evolution you have that lad who used to hate himself, who tried way too hard to look and behave like the dandy man cliche until he stopped giving a fuck about genders at all, even mocking the whole concept of manhood.

Immortal Hulk 37 (2020) writing by Al Ewing

I mean, Sam considers himself as more than human so it makes sense that slowly he stopped trying to be a dude and just decided to be just him. Why should he stick to human gender roles and codes if he's not even human anymore ? If he's a God as he calls himself ? That's something bigots have a hard time processing : people who aren't human or don't see themself as humans (in this case seeing themself as Gods) aren't bounded to humans codes and that include gender roles. You think someone who tries to turn humanity into gamma monsters and has absolutly no regard or respect to any kind of human norms and rules will pay attention to het or cis norms specifically? You think aliens and Gods care about humans social codes? Of course not. Sam is someone who tries to enhance humanity and destroy its limitation, of course it includes gender norms. If there's one character in the whole Gamma lore who shouldn't be cishet it's him. Why should he give a fuck about his gender and sexuality, it's irrelevant. It's, in fact, the opposite of what he's trying to become and do.

Actually Gamma mutation are a perfect metaphore of LGBT+ folks

You have people who are feared and violently rejected for being themself. Some, like Bruce, feel like monsters, afraid, rejecting what they are and suffering from it because of a twisted education (Bruce saw himself as a monster because of his father teaching him he's one). Some, like Jen, who fully embrace and celebrate who they are, past and present and eventually end up being stronger. And some, like Sam, who would rather die than going back in the closet and developped a huge ressent toward society (and humanity) but also his past self.

So when you follow Sam's journey, you follow a man who tries to become his true self and who go through a lot stages. From trying to be a toxic man cliche, because that's what people expect from a man, to not caring about societal norms and gender role at all anymore. And while it was not intentional, a lot of his personal chara dev feel like a transition journey, so why souldn't people be allowed to identify to that?

Oh some will play smartass and say "then how come he doesn't have scars ?" yeah, good point, how is that considering the amount of time he died, got stabbed, shot, felt into a volcano etc...? Nobody gives a shit, if comics were this accurate he would have a shit tons of scars from his injuries and own chirurgies.

And that's how I'll conclude this, it's freaking FICTION, not everything makes sense and not everything has to anyway. Even if it's highly inspired by our own reality it's NEVER our reality so who the fuck cares? If people see their own trans journey through Sam and if somehow it helps them out and makes them happy it's all that matter.

Fiction keeps up alive. No matter what people say we create bounds with fiction, that's why it makes us happy, sad, angry, scared, excited. Because we create REAL bounds with fiction. While we're very aware it's fictional, our feelings are very real and genuine. Someone's headcanon might bother you and might sound useless and irrelevant to you but it can mean the world for someone else. So if you don't like someone's interpretation just fucking ignore them, block if it's a social media, I don't know but act like a grown-ass adult and create your own fun instead. If you feel personally offended by someone's idea then you should understand what I mean by the importance of representation. If fiction is "nothing" and "not that deep" to you then you wouldn't give a single fuck about other people's headcanon.

I enjoy picturing Sam as a transmasc non binary character because I think it highly matches his writing and lore. Some enjoy picturing Sam as a transmasc dude because they are transmasc and love Sam and just want him to be more like them. Some will see him as a cishet guy because most characters are cis so it makes more sense to them, that's ok too. He's the fucking LEADER, he can do EVERYTHING, he became EVERYTHING, him, of all character, can give us this liberty of interpretation. The only truth about Sam is that he's a moron.

We all need and want a world that resemble us and our beliefs and that's something we can have through fiction. People writing your fav comics are just people who are paid to share their own headcanons after all. If you don't like someone's headcanons then don't stick to it and make your own, it's that simple, really.

You don't need nor have the right to policy people's imagination. There're a few Hulk runs that I dislike so I just don't talk about it, ignore the few canons facts that make absolutly no sense to me and focus on the stories I like instead, it's that easy, it's fiction, you can do whatever the fuck you want with it. It won't impact real life, it won't impact the canon story. But it will impact someone who need these headcanons and them only. That's the cool thing with fiction : you can choose the way it will impact you so make it positive by staying positive.

Beside sticking to my own vision and headcanons of Sam is super boring, I like hearing everyone's interpretation, it's a lot of fun.

Mind your own business, life is too short to feel offended by whatever some unknown random think about your favs.

Immortal Hulk 26 (2019) writing Al Ewin

Let me conclude with this cool moment of Sam (through Rick Jones' body) vibing at a concert with a LGBTQ+ flag flotting behind him. Enjoy~