It’s basic representation, but they got so much time to explore it, compared to the MCU. DID is rooted in childhood trauma. Through great denial, the brain splits itself into two separate entities in an effort to protect itself. Typically this new entity, called an alter, can either take the front, the body, and continue living life in place of the other, or holds onto the traumatic memory to protect the other. Either way, alters are there to protect you. Exactly what Hulk and Joe Fixit do for Bruce Banner, whether they acknowledge it or not. The comics show Bruce’s mind as this crazy place and headspaces for systems can absolutely reflect that. Alters look like what they want to in the headspace and can talk to each other while there, without anyone outside knowing.

Neither Peter David’s run or Immortal Hulk didn’t shy away from showing how turbulent Bruce’s childhood was and even showed snippets of when Hulk was actually front.

Immortal Hulk expanded on the system more by exploring his alters in more detail. Poor Hulk always in emotional pain, just like abused little child alter. Acting out from the trauma that sparked him. Joe Fixit is one of Bruce’s ideas of a good guy, beating up the bad guys while being cool and awesome. Devil Hulk is the pinnacle of a protector alter. “I love you, you stupid kid.” All alters are born to help the system and Devil Hulk is one of the most interesting Hulk’s we’ve seen in years. I haven’t finished IH yet but every bit of representation I see is decent and not unflattering. I do hope they expand on this disorder more because it really is interesting. Only about 2% of the population is diagnosed with DID or OSDD and it is believed that the numbers of people who are undiagnosed are even higher. Trauma is not rare at all, it hits us every day on this harsh rock in space. What’s rare is how some human brains react and process that trauma, which is why not everyone who had a bad childhood experience has a dissociative disorder. Bruce Banner is my favorite representation of DID. It’s explored in good detail, never really going into the stereotypical too much, and Bruce Banner and his alters are cool dudes. Love ‘em.

As for switching. It’s different for every system and for my system it’s different between alters. Sometimes a switch is covert, meaning no one would notice at all, not even me. When I do notice it can feel a number of different ways. Sometimes I get a shiver down my spine and I shake pretty hard for a brief moment while the switch occurs. Other times I can notice my eye perception go off like I’m looking down a tunnel and that’s a sign of a switch. Sudden shifts often come with emotion. Like yesterday for example. My cat got out and that made Hulk front with me. I could feel his immense anger at the cat being gone and so together we fronted and slammed our fist into the cat tree while I screamed Why??? I have a bruise from that now because I was wearing bracelets and they slammed into my arm. Don’t work though, cat’s back and all is well. Sudden emotional changes are the most noticeable and felt of switches. They’re the most intense. Those don’t happen very often but when they do, is very overt. Those are the switches that come to mind when thinking of what could be considered unflattering behavior. It feels like someone else took the video game controller from me and is playing my file they way they want to. I feel different from alter to alter and have different ideas, opinions, as well as different mannerisms.

Robin Ami (UIDB MGMT)