MICHAEL SUTTON

Real Name: Michael Sutton

Identity/Class: Alternate reality human (Earth-400005)

Occupation: Hunter of Man;
   former stock market expert and hunter of animals

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: His pilot

Enemies: David "Bennet" (David Banner/ Hulk)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: A private island, somewhere in North America

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9, "The Snare" (November 30, 1979)

Powers/Abilities: Michael Sutton possessed no known superhuman powers. However, he demonstrated great prowess at hunting, such that he felt no animal could pose a challenge to him. Specifically, he demonstrated fairly formidable marksmanship and great skill with traps.

   He also really liked chess and showed a decent level of skill at the game, in addition to being able to garner decent amounts on the stock market.

 

Height: 5'101/2"
Weight: 140 lbs. (by estimation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

 

History:
(The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9 (fb) - BTS) - Michael Sutton was a big-time hunter who grew bored with hunting animals, as he was too skilled. He worked the stock market for a while, before buying his own island, where he set up numerous traps to hunt people with. He claimed to hunt animals, such as a bear, on the island, but it's unknown if he did in fact hunt animals between people hunting or if he claimed to hunt animals to his victims.

(The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9) - Due to engine troubles on his private plane, Michael Sutton arrived at an airport, where he saw a man working on the chess problem in the newspaper. Striking up a conversation, he invited the man to play chess. After a few games, he invited the man, who said his name was David Bennet, to his island, as David's flight had just been cancelled; following some protestations, David accepted. Once they arrived, Sutton showed David many of the features of the island, such as the many animals he had imported, the great fishing at the lake, and the cliff.

  Eventually, they arrived at his house. David was off put by all of Sutton's hunting trophies, but nonetheless stayed. Sutton prepared David a meal of Rattlesnake. After the dinner, he got some wine (which he had secretly drugged) and took a photo of David. They sat down together to play another game of chess, when David drank the drugged wine.

(The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9 - BTS) - Once David collapsed, Michael took David out into the middle of the island, dumping him in a shallow grave with food and a recording, explaining to David that he was now to be hunted.

(The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9) - Michael Sutton arrived where he had left David. He noted that David's tracks were fresh, and tracked him to the dam he was trying to cross. Sutton proceeded to taunt David and fire arrows at him; David only barely made it across to the ladder on the other side of the dam. David climbed the ladder, which Sutton attempted to break; although he did hit the ladder, he failed to impede David, leading to the chase resuming. He found David once more fallen into a pit trap, which disappointed Sutton; nonetheless, he watched from a distance as David attempted to escape the pit. A scorpion attacked David, and Sutton watched in amazement as a powerful green creature escaped the pit. Sutton quickly chased down the creature. Once face-to-face with it, he ducked behind a tree to notch an arrow to launch at it; however, the creature uprooted the tree, incapacitating Sutton.

(The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9 - BTS) - Sutton managed to free himself, and figured out that the creature was in fact a transformation David underwent. Fascinated, he updated the tapes in his mansion.

(The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9) - Sutton cut the cord on the only motorboat off the island to keep David there.

(The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9 - BTS) - Sutton was alerted by David activating his boobytrap that David had returned to the house.

(The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9) - Sutton returned to the house, and watched as David attempted to get supplies in the room he was trapped in. He watched with amusement as David failed to get the guns, and was mildly impressed when he managed to find the key (hidden in a fake book) to escape. He also prepared his gun, and when the time was up he entered the room. He was impressed to see David walking out. Sutton called after him, angrily asking him to bring back the beast he turned into, because he wanted to fight it.

  Once David had ran away, he prepared to face the creature: laying out special arrows, which he dipped in poison, and remembering his initial meeting with David and his past hunts, readying his crossbow, etc. Once he was all suited up, he headed out for the hunt. He used his skills to track David, taunting him along the way. He was briefly tricked by a tape recorder David had earlier taken and used to taunt him, a ploy he was impressed by. Sutton resumed the hunt, yelling after David about what triggered the transformation. David managed to outwit him and get him to fall into one of his own traps, which he managed to escape by cutting. Resuming the chase (as David had come within sight while he was trapped), he eventually cornered David on top of a cliff. Sutton begged David to turn into the beast so he could kill it; when David refused, he got out a whip and attacked David. Eventually, he succeeded in getting David mad enough to transform, but at the same time he fell down onto his own bow. Getting back up, Sutton attempted to attack the creature, but it was too late: he had stabbed himself with his own poison arrow, causing him to be collapse and fall off the cliff into a lake.

   The creature jumped down after him, and took his dead body out of the lake. Later, David buried him in the grave Sutton had originally intended for David.

(The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9 - BTS) - As David rowed away from the island, he listened to one last message Sutton had recorded, congratulating him on his victory.

 

Comments: Created by Richard Christian Matheson & Thomas E. Szollosi (writers) and Frank Orsatti (director).

   Hey, it's another The Most Dangerous Game adaptation! I must say, out of all "do another story but with the Hulk in it" episodes, this is probably one of the best.

   With the exception of the guy from "The First", this is probably the closest the Incredible Hulk ever got to a proper supervillain, and he's just a normal guy of decent skill with a habit of hunting people. Of course, I'm not going to say the lack of supervillains was a flaw with the show or anything; NightMan had supervillains up the wazoo, and we all saw (or rather didn't see) how that turned out.

   Micheal Sutton was portrayed by Bradford Dillman, one of those character actors with an incredibly long and prolific career (he was the Columbo villain shortly before this episode), but who you'd be hard pressed to find someone who can name. Y'know, standard Hulk guest-star fodder.

   This profile was completed 07/31/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event to represent the Incredible Hulk live action TV series.

 

Profile by WaddleDeo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Michael Sutton should be distinguished from:

Pilot

An unidentified Pilot was employed by Michael Sutton to bring him supplies to his island. He flew Sutton and David Bennet to the island, before leaving to get more supplies. It is unrevealed if the pilot was aware of Sutton's hunting (I've got to think that if the pilot's plane was the only way people got on and off the island, he had to have at least noticed a LOT of his passengers were only going one way, yet the island didn't seem to be getting crowded - Loki)

--The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9, "The Snare"

images: (without ads)
The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9, "The Snare" (all images)

Appearances:
The Incredible Hulk Season 3 Episode 9, "The Snare" (November 30, 1979), Richard Christian Matheson & Thomas E. Szollosi (Writers), Frank Orsatti (Director)

First Posted: 09/30/2026
Last updated: 07/31/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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