Deviations from the comics

Marvel's Designation of the TV Show Universe
Marvel designates universe names to each branch of their franchises. The TV Show Hulk Universe is Earth-400005, whereas the Comic book Hulk is from '''Earth-616. The Hulk movie from Earth-400083 is the 2003 film, and Earth-199999 '''is for all Marvel Studios films, including the 2008 movie starring Edward Norton.

David Banner
Bruce Banner's first name was changed to David for two reasons:
 * 1) The Name Bruce Banner alliterates, which comic book characters' names often do. It was changed to David to honour the showrunner Kenneth Johnson's son, David Johnston.
 * 2) Universal Studios (allegedly) thought "Bruce" sounded homosexual.

The Hulk's Creation
Comics: Bruce Banner creates a gamma bomb for the military. Rick Jones goes onto the test site and Banner runs out and throws Jones into a trench, but gets caught in the blast afterwards, giving him Hulk powers.

Show: David Banner experiments with gamma radiation on himself, and gives himself too much, giving him Hulk powers.

The removal of characters from the comics
These include: Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, Betty Ross, Rick Jones, SHIELD and all other Marvel Hulk supporting characters. Donald Blake, Thor, Kingpin and Daredevil appear, but are different to their Earth-616 counterparts.

Hulk Outs
In the comics, no indication is given to hint that Banner is about to Hulk Out, whereas in the TV show, his eyes glow white (or on occasion, green) before the metamorphosis. This was incorporated into the comics and both the 2003 and 2008 movies, though green eyes were the standard from then on).

Banner's family
Banner's father is Brian in Earth-616, but he is D.W. in the TV show. In the TV show, his mother is dead, and he has a younger sister: Helen Banner.