Rick Jones

A teenage orphan with more nerve than sense, Rick Jones goes joyriding straight onto a live gamma bomb test range, waving off every warning with a breezy "It's a free country, right?" Somehow the most guarded weapons site in America has no trouble letting a kid stroll in. Dr. Bruce Banner sprints out and hurls him into a protective trench a heartbeat before the G-bomb detonates. Rick walks away without a scratch. Banner is not so fortunate. He soaks up the full blast of gamma radiation and transforms into the Hulk. Rick, who has spent his whole life as nobody's priority, is floored that a stranger would risk everything for him. "You're the first one that ever cared what happened to me," he says, and from that instant he is Banner's man for life.

That loyalty makes Rick the only soul alive who knows Banner's secret. He trails the rampaging Hulk through the base. Banner claws his way back to himself. He digs Banner's stolen gamma ray formula out of the wreckage and keeps it clear of the traitor Igor. And when the Gorgon spirits Banner halfway around the world, Rick flatly refuses to be left behind, riding out the whole ordeal at his friend's side.

Rick Jones remains with Bruce Banner while Banner attempts to control his nightly transformations into the Hulk. The two establish a hidden cave with a heavy concrete door designed to contain the Hulk until daylight. Before they can safely use it, the Toad Men capture both of them with magnetic technology and transport them to their spacecraft. Torrak sends Rick back to Earth in a protective cylinder while keeping Banner aboard the ship.

Rick continues searching for Banner after Banner is arrested and later transformed into the Hulk. When the Hulk takes Betty to Banner's laboratory, Rick follows them and attempts to calm Banner's alter ego. He remains nearby when the Hulk changes back into Banner at sunrise and helps Banner reach the gamma-ray weapon before the Toad Men can destroy Earth. Rick then uses a fire hose to hold back the soldiers attempting to enter Banner's laboratory while Banner prepares the weapon.