What the Heck Is Marvel Doing With the Hulk Anyway!?

Spoilers follow for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

It’s time to swing by your local cinema, Marvel fans, because Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in theaters. The fourth entry in the Tom Holland solo Spider-Man franchise is set to be a massive hit for Sony and Marvel, meaning we’re sure to see more movies with this iteration of the character after Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars tie up the Multiverse Saga. But while the movie is sure to please fans with its focus on small-scale drama and exciting action set pieces, one of Peter’s guest stars reminds us of a recurring problem that the MCU has had with character continuity. That would be Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, who is once again played by Mark Ruffalo.

Although he only has a small supporting role, the use of Hulk, while certainly entertaining, doesn’t quite line up with his previous depictions in the MCU. That’s happened to Banner more than once, to the point that it feels like each project he appears in features a different version of the character. How did this happen? Let’s take a look.

Hulk Smash... Why?

Bruce Banner is introduced in Brand New Day as a physics professor at Empire State University. Peter sits in on one of Bruce’s classes so he can talk to him afterwards about the gamma inhibitor, a device Bruce wears on his wrist that prevents him from Hulking out at inopportune moments. This device first appeared in the post-credits scene of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, but Bruce didn’t explain what it was. It was seen again in She-Hulk, where one of the subplots was about Bruce’s cousin Jennifer Walters getting an inhibitor of her own. Bruce’s inhibitor was damaged in the incident that gave Jennifer her gamma powers, resulting in Bruce transforming back into the Professor Hulk form we saw in Endgame.

Now, the reason we bring all this up is because the inhibitor’s previous appearances don’t line up with how the Hulk returns in Brand New Day. When the inhibitor is damaged this time, Bruce transforms into his Savage Hulk persona, which we haven’t seen since Thanos gave Hulk a serious beatdown at the start of Infinity War. While seeing a more traditional Hulk in the MCU is cool and the subsequent action scene is a lot of fun, the reason why Banner transforms into Savage Hulk isn’t clear. Didn’t Banner cleanse himself of the Savage Hulk between movies, as he explained to his fellow Avengers in Endgame? One could argue that the damage to the inhibitor put him off balance, but that didn’t happen when the inhibitor was damaged in She-Hulk. So what makes this time special?

It would be one thing if Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), who is influencing Bruce to do her bidding, used her psychic powers to force Banner’s transformation into Savage Hulk. But that doesn’t appear to be the case either, since when Spidey first arrives on the scene, Banner is still in Professor Hulk mode, speaking like normal and wearing a snazzy blue sweater. So what made Bruce go full “Hulk Smash?” The movie never explains it, likely because the filmmakers assume that Hulk isn’t the main focus of a Spider-Man movie and doing an action scene with Savage Hulk is worth ignoring the contrivances needed to get there. Again, it’s not that the scene isn’t cool or doesn’t look great (this is the best Hulk has looked since the first Avengers movie), but ignoring character continuity has sadly been a long-running tradition for the MCU’s Hulk.

A History of the MCU Hulk

When charting the development of MCU Hulk, we have to acknowledge a couple of caveats up front. First, that Bruce Banner was originally played by Edward Norton in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk before being recast with Ruffalo in The Avengers, and second, that Universal Pictures owns the distribution rights to Hulk solo films, which is why there haven’t been any more after the Norton film. For reasons that have never been made entirely clear to the public, Universal has refused to partner with Marvel Studios on any more standalone Hulk features, something Ruffalo has discussed in interviews.

But even with that in mind, Bruce Banner’s development in the MCU has always been haphazard, with major events taking place off-screen and the character’s direction changing with almost every major appearance.

The new baseline that The Avengers established for Banner is upended in Age of Ultron with a weird romantic subplot involving Black Widow that felt like it came out of nowhere. Did Banner just forget that Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross exists? Hulk then somehow teleports from a Quinjet in Sokovia to the far reaches of space by the time of Thor: Ragnarok, where he’s a goofy child enjoying the spoils of being a gladiator. Then the Hulk suppresses himself in Infinity War after getting trounced by Thanos, but we never learn why he refuses to help Banner beyond us assuming he’s too scared to fight again… only for Banner to have turned into Professor Hulk between movies in Endgame, resolving the conflict between Banner and Hulk completely off-screen.

It only gets more confusing in the Multiverse Saga, because if he was so comfortable as Professor Hulk, why did he need the inhibitor to go back to being Banner? He says it’s so his arm can heal after the damage caused by using the Infinity Gauntlet, but he’s still using the inhibitor after it’s healed, so what gives?

And how old is Skaar, Hulk’s son who technically exists in the MCU because of She-Hulk’s post-credits scene? Is Skaar still on Earth by the time of Brand New Day? Banner doesn’t mention him. Does he have uncomfortable conversations with the rest of ESU’s physics department on Take Your Kid to Work Day? I’m not asking these questions to be glib, but because all of the projects where Hulk has appeared have introduced so many weird and contradictory aspects of the character that it’s difficult to reconcile them all. Unfortunately, many of these problems come down to a simple truth…

We Should’ve Gotten Incredible Hulk 2

A lot of what we’ve discussed likely could have been avoided if Universal had played ball and let Marvel make another Hulk solo film. Bruce’s arc is such a mess in part because he keeps needing to fit into the margins of other people’s films or the Avengers team-ups. And while Marvel could have done a better job of keeping Banner consistent from film-to-film either way, he’s never allowed to be the focus of a given project because of the rights situation.

Hulk is a lead character who’s always in a supporting role, which has shortchanged not just Bruce Banner, but many of the other characters associated with his franchise. Betty Ross fell off the face of the Earth. Rick Jones is nowhere to be seen. And Tim Blake Nelson’s Leader, who is the Hulk’s archenemy in the comics and was set up at the end of The Incredible Hulk, was put on a shelf for over a decade until making a deflating appearance in a Captain America movie of all things.

Universal being unwilling to work with Marvel is especially bizarre because Sony has had tremendous success with their shared custody deal for Spider-Man. When The Amazing Spider-Man 2 struggled to find an audience, Sony swallowed their pride and allowed Marvel Studios to incorporate Spidey into the MCU, and it revived the Spider-Man franchise theatrically.

Why is Universal so averse to a similar scenario? It’s not like they have other superhero properties to work with. If they had made an arrangement with Marvel years ago, we could’ve seen Hulk go head-to-head with Leader, made a stronger throughline for Bruce’s development, and dodged some of the more awkward moves Marvel has made with the character. And after devoting himself to the role for so long, Ruffalo really does deserve the chance to lead a solo Hulk feature. But the ball is apparently still in Universal’s court, so for now, we’ll have to make do with having Savage Hulk back. Maybe next time he’ll be Joe Fixit!

What do you think of Hulk’s role in Brand New Day? Let us know in the comments!

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.