Jim Wilson (comics)
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| Jim Wilson | |
 Jim Wilson, from The Incredible Hulk #388 (December 1991). Art by Dale Keown and Mark Farmer. |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #131 (September, 1970) |
| Created by | Roy Thomas Herb Trimpe |
| In story information | |
| Full name | Jim Wilson |
| Supporting character of | Hulk |
Jim Wilson is a fictional comic book character. A supporting character appearing in Marvel Comics, Wilson was a longtime friend of Bruce Banner (aka the Hulk) and Rick Jones. In Incredible Hulk #388 (December 1991), it was revealed that Wilson was HIV-positive. He succumbed to the disease in Incredible Hulk #420 (August 1994).
[edit] Fictional character biography
Jim Wilson first appeared in the Incredible Hulk #131 as an angry young man who befriends the Hulk. Throughout the years, Jim Wilson would often appear as a friend of Bruce Banner, following Banner/Hulk throughout much of the 1970s as one of the few people that Banner could trust. The Incredible Hulk #232 revealed that Sam Wilson, the superhero Falcon, was Jim's uncle.
In Incredible Hulk #388 Wilson enlists Rick Jones to play a benefit at a hospice for AIDS patients. On the drive from the airport, Wilson tells Jones that he is HIV-positive, and that his girlfriend left him. Wilson also informs Jones that a homophobic L.A. mob boss hired some thugs to kill his son's longtime companion, Jefferson Wolfe, whom the crimelord blames for his own son Tyler Lang's homosexuality, and the fact that he is dying of AIDS faster than Wolfe. When that fails (thanks to some timely help from the Falcon), the mob boss hires a supervillain named Speedfreek to crash the charity concert and kill Lang.
The palms of Jones' hands are badly slashed by Speedfreak, and Wilson receives a bloody chest wound. Rick is afraid to touch Wilson's wound, and after Hulk defeats Speedfreak, it is up to him to rush Wilson to a hospital. Jones and Hulk later secure evidence to send the mob boss to prison.
Wilson is again seen in The Incredible Hulk #420, in which he is attacked by a mob of bigots that are protesting the fact that a court has ordered an HIV-infected boy to be allowed into a public school. Hulk is able to rescue Wilson from the mob and take him to the hi-tech medical facilities at the Mount, the secret headquarters of the Pantheon, the superhero group in which Hulk is a member at the time. He learns that Wilson actually has full blown AIDS, and has had it for some time. In addition to the broken ribs he sustained in the mob attack, he is suffering from pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and does not have long to live. Remembering the blood transfusion that Hulk gave his cousin, Jennifer Walters (aka She-Hulk), Wilson asks Banner to give him a transfusion of his blood, knowing that the Hulk's immune system would act as a cure to the virus. Banner initially refuses to take the risk of creating another monster, but eventually pretends to be give Wilson a blood transfusion. Wilson reveals in private to Dr. Harr, the attending physician caring for him, that he was not fooled by Hulk's ruse, but played along anyway.
After Wilson's death, Bruce donates a large sum of money to the hospice that Wilson worked at in order to allow them to comfortably exist for the next few decades.[citation needed]
Jim Wilson's father, Gideon Wilson, blames the Hulk for Jim's death and joins Gamma Corps to seek revenge.[citation needed]
[edit] Other media
Jim Wilson shows up in The Avengers: United They Stand. He is still Falcon's nephew, but is renamed Andrew, for unknown reasons.
Jim Wilson is briefly mentioned in The Incredible Hulk (film).
