Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man may be centered around a new version of Peter Parker, but the animated series casts a wide net in the Marvel Universe. Nearly every member of the show’s supporting cast is based on a costumed hero or villain from the comics. That’s even true for Peter’s fellow interns at Oscorp, including the one and only Amadeus Cho.
Who is Amadeus Cho, and why has he become one of Marvel’s most important teen heroes of the past several decades? Why does he go by the nickname “The Totally Awesome Hulk?” Here’s what you need to know about this brilliant but self-absorbed character. These are the topics we cover here:
- Who Is Marvel’s Amadeus Cho?
- Amadeus Cho’s Hulk Powers and Abilities
- Amadeus Cho’s Comic Book History
- Amadeus Cho Beyond the Comics
Who Is Marvel’s Amadeus Cho?
Despite his young age and the fact that there’s no shortage of competition, Amadeus Cho ranks among the smartest people in the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, it’s precisely because of his brilliance and defiance of authority that Amadeus has spent much of his teenage life on the run from the law. He has a soft spot for fugitive heroes like the Hulk and Hercules, and he’s not afraid to stick his neck out to protect his friends.
In recent years, Amadeus has gained the strength to match his brainpower. He became the Hulk for a time after absorbing Bruce Banner’s gamma radiation. And even though the classic Hulk is back in action, Amadeus continues to fight for what’s right in his new role as Brawn. Whatever name you prefer, Amadeus Cho is a powerful force for good.
Amadeus Cho’s Hulk Powers and Abilities
Amadeus is exceptionally intelligent. Officially, he’s ranked as the seventh smartest person in the Marvel Universe, but he may be even higher than that. He’s especially skilled at pattern recognition and performing intense feats of mental calculation at will. The only downside to his incredible mind is that computation often leaves him starving for food.
After becoming the new Hulk, Amadeus gained the physical strength to match his mental abilities. In his peak form, Amadeus has all the strength of the Hulk, along with Hulk’s other abilities like regeneration, durability, and so forth. Unlike Hulk, Amadeus retains his intelligence and personality when transformed, so he’s not as big on the whole rage monster thing.
These days, Amadeus goes by Brawn rather than Hulk. His Brawn form is slightly weaker than his Hulk form, though he can still fully Hulk-out when the situation demands.
Amadeus Cho’s Comic Book History
Amadeus Cho was created by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa and debuted in 2005’s Amazing Fantasy Vol. 2 #15. That issue was an important one, as the original Amazing Fantasy #15 from 1962 marked the debut of Spider-Man. Marvel used the Vol. 2 edition as the chance to introduce more characters with the potential to do big things in the Marvel Universe, and Amadeus wound up being the book’s breakout character.
Amadeus becomes officially recognized as the world’s seventh smartest man after winning a competition sponsored by the Excello Soap Company. Unfortunately, the contest’s sponsor, Pythagoras Dupree, targets Amadeus for death in order to protect his position as the sixth smartest man. After his family is killed in the crossfire, Amadeus goes on the run with only a coyote pup for company. And one chance encounter with the Hulk later, Amadeus becomes a lifelong friend of the Jade Giant.
Amadeus returned to prominence during 2007’s World War Hulk crossover, where he resurfaces to lend a hand to his old buddy and winds up partnering with Hercules (who was one of the many fugitive heroes who refused to register for the Superhuman Registration Act in 2006’s Civil War). Amadeus and Herc quickly spun out into their own series called The Incredible Hercules, where they had many a misadventure together. That’s the book that birthed this iconic meme image:
Cho and Herc eventually become respectable heroes on the right side of the law again, and they even save the multiverse from the threat of the Japanese god Amatsu-Mikaboshi. Eventually, though, this Dynamic Duo splits up and goes their separate ways.
That opens up a new chapter in Amadeus’ life, however. After absorbing Bruce Banner’s gamma radiation to stop a nuclear meltdown, Amadeus winds up becoming the new Hulk. His adventures as the Marvel Universe’s newly minted strongest hero are chronicled in the pages of Totally Awesome Hulk. Cho also helps spearhead a new incarnation of the superhero team The Champions, fighting alongside fellow teen heroes like Ms. Marvel, Nova, Viv Vision, and a time-displaced Cyclops.
These days, Banner is back to being Hulk and Amadeus has found a new niche as Brawn, a hero who’s as powerful as he is brilliant. This is one character who definitely has the skills to back up his massive ego.
Amadeus Cho Beyond the Comics
Amadeus has slowly become a recurring player in Marvel’s animated and video game projects, particularly in the wake of becoming Hulk in the comics. On the gaming side, the Amadeus version of Hulk is a playable character in mobile games like Marvel Future Fight, Marvel Puzzle Quest, and Avengers Academy, and he also appears in the LEGO Marvel games.
In terms of animation, Amadeus appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man and Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled. In both those projects, Amadeus is voiced by Eric Bauza and carries the mantle of Iron Spider, despite that never happening in the comics. The 2017 Spider-Man animated series was the first to feature Amadeus as the Totally Awesome Hulk (voiced by Ki Hong Lee).
Now Cho appears as a supporting character in the latest Spider-Man animated series, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Voiced by Aleks Le, Cho is introduced as a very self-assured scientist and one of Peter Parker’s fellow interns at Oscorp. It’s unclear whether this version of Amadeus will eventually become a super-powered hero. But given that the other interns and even their professors are all based on heroes and villains from the comics, we’d guess it’s only a matter of time before this Spidey teams up with Brawn.
We also assume it’s only a matter of time before Amadeus makes his debut in the MCU. His mother Helen plays a small role in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron (played by Claudia Kim) as the scientist who is forced into creating a new body for Ultron. So it seems as though the MCU was laying the foundation for this character long ago.
For more on Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, check out IGN’s spoiler-free review of Season 1 and see the 5 ways the new series reinvents Peter Parker’s mythology.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
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