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The MCU haven’t made a Hulk film since 2008 and now the disadvantages of that are staring to show, with big character beats missing from film to film.
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for She-Hulk episode 9The Hulk has been a fan-favorite character in the MCU since Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner turned up in The Avengers, but the drawbacks of not making a Hulk solo film have started to show, with the finale of She-Hulk repeating the same mistake that Avengers Endgame made. Right up until Avengers Infinity War, Hulk had a number of successful roles in projects like the Avengers movies and Thor Ragnarok. His characterization worked, and the films managed the gaps between his appearances well. However, the period between Infinity War and Endgame, and the radical changes seen in the Hulk, presented some serious issues for the MCU.
When viewers are reintroduced to Bruce in the culmination of the Infinity Saga, he has already balanced his human side and his Hulk side, blending the two characters together. Until Hulk’s Endgame arc, the biggest dilemma for Bruce Banner was about controlling the savage rage monster part of himself. As such, conveniently resolving that major obstacle off-screen did a massive disservice to the character and the 10-year arc he’d been on until that point. This was doubly insulting given the events of Ragnarok, where the differences between the Hulk and Bruce Banner were highlighted extremely clearly. The end of the She-Hulk finale repeats this problem – doing loads of character development off-screen and showing the character after an interesting journey (in this case, with the introduction of Hulk’s son Skaar). While the reveal is exciting, it actually highlights the off-screen growth problem even more. Assuming Hulk had his son during his time on Sakaar, that’s far too long ago to skip it entirely and then just show up as a tease at the end of a series. While it could be argued that this adds another layer to the Hulk’s character in Ragnarok, the film was five years ago, and the characters and story have moved way past the events of that film. As such, hinting at more major Hulk growth off-screen in She-Hulk proves that the MCU is just repeating Endgame‘s Bruce Banner mistake.
Why The MCU Has Repeated Endgame’s Hulk Mistake
The main reason why the MCU repeated the Bruce Banner mistake from Endgame is that it hasn’t made a proper Hulk solo film. The character and story development that was skipped over in Endgame and the She-Hulk finale would have been the main focus of a stand-alone Hulk film, giving the character due care and attention, rather than making him a sideshow. This would have given the studio the time to dive into Bruce and the Hulk, really showing how difficult it is to live that life.
If Bruce was more of a supporting character in She-Hulk, maybe Marvel would have been able to develop this new part of his story more, but that would have taken more time away from Jen and her story. For that to have worked, She-Hulk would have been a different show entirely, making one potentially positive switch at the expense of something else. Had Bruce had more of an on-screen presence, She-Hulk‘s Skaar introduction could have been the perfect place for the reveal, but only with more Hulk-focus during the show itself.
The MCU Has Set Up A Way To Fix Its Hulk Problem
One of the easiest ways to fix the Hulk problem would be to stop skipping huge moments for the character between projects. One solution would be to go back to developing Bruce as part of other projects, as the MCU had done up until Infinity War. But the most obvious is to use the Skaar tease to set up a Hulk movie, potentially using elements from the Planet Hulk storyline. This would be a great way to get Hulk back on track after a few years of misfires. Flashbacks could fill in the gaps to show how he has gotten to this point with his son and then continue the story from there. This wouldn’t excuse the fact Marvel skipped it in the first place, but a Hulk standalone film would go a long way to restoring the character’s true might and giving him some much-needed visible development.
All episodes of She Hulk: Attorney at Law season 1 are now streaming exclusively on Disney+.
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