The Marvel Cinematic Universe: Making A Case For The Hulk

Of all the comic book characters that feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's arguably the treatment of The Incredible Hulk that makes the least sense. This icon of popular culture was the focus of the second instalment in the juggernaut franchise – 2008’s The Incredible Hulk – but has essentially been relegated to the status of supporting role ever since. Along with Thor, the Hulk was entirely absent from Captain America: Civil War, having flown off into the sunset as Sad Hulk at the end of Avengers: Age Of Ultron. His absence will soon be explained in Thor: Ragnarok – due for release on November 3rd – but the frustration of Hulk fans around the world continues to grow. Yes, the sight of the character in gladiatorial garb is an exciting prospect – as is the incorporation of plot threads from the Planet Hulk story from the comic books - but, isn’t it time that Hulk took centre stage for a change, with a solo movie that's actually a true representation of the brilliant, but consistently underused source material? We All Know The Hulk, Right? Or, do we? Sure, devoted fans of the Hulk comic books are very familiar with the finer points of his character, but to most people, he’s just a giant, green rage monster – the manifestation of one man’s anger. In reality, though, there's a great deal more to The Incredible Hulk than simple fury. The Hulk was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 in 1962. Physicist Dr. Bruce Banner – a renowned scientific genius – was seen to save the life of teenager Rick Jones, when the boy strayed onto land on which an experimental gamma bomb was about to be tested. Banner pushed Jones into a trench to protect him from the blast and took the full force of the explosion himself. Though he seemed to recover, he transformed into a giant grey being that night. Initially, the comic books had Hulk transforming at sunrise and sunset (a little like Princess Fiona in Shrek, for example), and later, by use of a gamma ray machine. By 1964, however, it'd been established that emotional stress was the trigger for Banner changing into the angry creature – and it also saw Hulk change from having some residual intelligence, to being more savage and seemingly immature. It was further established that, in his Hulk state, the creature could resist psychic control, absorb radiation and dark magic, and also punch his way between dimensions of both space and time. As the comic books progressed, 1984 saw the story begin to explore Banner’s childhood to a greater extent and revealed the fact that he had experienced abuse at the hands of his father, Brian Banner. It eventually transpired that, as a child, Bruce witnessed his father murder his mother, Rebecca. This gave rise to a further evolution in the story – that of Bruce Banner’s psychological make-up. The Incredible Hulk turned into a story about the fractured psyche of the troubled scientist and a variety of different Hulk personas began to emerge. The original Hulk was Grey Hulk (also known as Joe Fixit), and he more closely resembled Frankenstein than Banner. Savage Hulk is the green Hulk, which became the more commonly recognized rage monster. Savage Hulk occurs when Banner is so angry that he loses touch with reality and essentially becomes pure instinct. Merged Hulk is the combination of Banner, Grey Hulk and Savage Hulk, and represented Banner’s ideal self. Later, in the source material, merged Hulk became known as The Professor. Mindless Hulk occurred when the dream demon Nightmare tried to impact upon Doctor Strange by attacking his ally in Banner. Through psychic penetration, Nightmare manipulated the worst thoughts and feelings Banner had about Hulk to create the most terrible version of the monster. Separately, Devil Hulk is the manifestation of Banner’s resentment, while Guilt Hulk – also known as The Beast - is the embodiment of Banner’s regrets. Maestro is a future Hulk that has been strengthened by the same nuclear devastation that has supposedly wiped out all other heroes and villains, while Doc Green is the result of a Hulk being exposed to Extremis (a procedure seen in Iron Man 3, as well as the comic books). Finally, Green Scar is the embodiment of the need to survive, which manifests when Hulk is on the planet Sakaar, and World Breaker Hulk is a more focused, powerful version of the same. This is the true beauty of The Incredible Hulk. He's unique in comic books in that he provides a real exploration of the human emotional experience through the depiction of a character living with a mental health condition. Hulk is the physical externalization of Banner’s stresses and emotional responses – and the damage he wreaks upon his environment is analogous to the psychological damage from which he's seeking to protect himself. That Banner has been highly successful in his chosen professional field while dealing with this cognitive turmoil is worthy of note - as is the fact that he takes this emotional dysfunction and uses it for largely heroic purposes. But, there is a further level of function for this iconic character, too. Hulk is one of the clearest examples of a pop culture response to the threat of nuclear destruction. He was created just as the reality of the atomic age was beginning to settle in with the average world citizen, and as global political tensions with foreign nuclear powers were reaching fever pitch. While many comic book superheroes were created through terrible accidents with dangerous chemicals and energies, it's Dr. Bruce Banner who literally saved a younger generation by throwing himself in front of a radiation blast. Little of these fundamental aspects of his character have been seen outside of the Marvel comic books, though. Instead, to date, we've been handed the same basic Hulk variation time and again. Our Adapted Hulk While animations have certainly gone much further in exploring the story of The Hulk since his first adaptation in 1966, his live-action renderings have only deteriorated since his heyday of 1978. That was the year that the television show The Incredible Hulk began its now legendary run – a series that aired until 1982. It starred Bill Bixby as Dr. Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk – but strangely, it did not use the origin story from the source material. Instead, Banner’s transformation in the show was the result of a scientific experiment prompted by his investigations into surges in physical strength experienced by people under extreme stress. This interest, in turn, was prompted by the fact that his wife had been killed in a car crash because he had been unable to lift the overturned car. While in the comic books, Banner is pursued by U.S Army General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, in The Incredible Hulk TV show, he's pursued by an investigative journalist as he travels from town to town, helping random people. The television show was very popular, however, and greatly contributed to the visibility of the character within popular culture. In fact, it was so successful, it spawned several feature length stories using the same versions of the characters. In 2003, award winning director Ang Lee delivered Hulk, starring Eric Bana as Bruce Banner. This presented a story that focused on Banner’s relationship with Betty Ross (played by Jennifer Connelly), who is indeed a significant love interest for the scientist in the source material. She's also the daughter of General Ross – Banner’s enemy. Hulk saw this conflict play out alongside an exploration of Banner’s relationship with his abusive father (played by Nick Nolte) – creating a denouement reminiscent of a Greek tragedy. It still altered the way in which Banner was exposed to the radiation in the first place, though. Then, came the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and director Louis Leterrier delivered a variation on the relationship theme again. This time, Edward Norton played the scientist, while Liv Tyler filled the role of Betty Ross in 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Her father was still chasing Hulk, though – and this time, he did so using Abomination. This is a Hulk-like character from the source material, and is one of Hulk’s arch-enemies. Abomination’s alter-ego is Emil Blonsky, and here he was played by Tim Roth. The character was recast after the release of The Incredible Hulk and Mark Ruffalo took up the mantle. He has since played the hero in The Avengers and Avengers: Age Of Ultron, and will continue to do so through future franchise instalments – including the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok, which will feature elements of the Hulk comic book stories previously unseen on the big screen in live-action. But that’s simply not enough. The Incredible Hulk deserves more – and so do his fans. Beyond the strange, altered re-tellings of his origin story, and beyond the confines of his relationship with the Ross family (of which we have already seen far too much) there's a wealth of other material to explore. Such Smashing Possibilities Over the course of the past 50 years, The Hulk has faced many enemies, and fought for many causes. Indeed, many of those enemies have been parts of himself – hulking embodiments of his own emotional discomfort. He's also built a family, of sorts, and through these developments, further exploration into his own experiences of kinship has been possible. But, make no mistake, while cinematic adaptations to date have focused almost exclusively on General Ross chasing Hulk after the establishment of changed origins, The Incredible Hulk provides an opportunity to tie together the various intergalactic and inter-dimensional plot threads that have been established in the second phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, just as much as any other MCU character. As already mentioned, a previous Hulk storyline in the source material saw the rage monster manipulated by a dream demon, as part of Doctor Strange’s dimension shifting world. But it's in the far reaches of space that The Incredible Hulk truly found a life for himself. The storyline of Planet Hulk, closely followed by World War Hulk gave Banner and his alter ego a brand new identity: as a father. In Planet Hulk, an incident in Las Vegas leads the Illuminati to banish Hulk from Earth – tricking him into leaving the planet to solve a satellite problem, and then jettisoning him into supposed oblivion. His craft crashes on the planet Sakaar, though, where he's captured and forced into slavery – compelled to fight in gladiator battles for the entertainment of the tyrant Red King. Hulk raises resistance forces, however, and fights for freedom and liberty. He's pursued by Red King’s lieutenant, Caiera, who eventually joins Hulk before he defeats the Red King. Hailed as the new King, Hulk marries Caiera and they conceive sons – but the shuttle Hulk arrived in explodes and appears to kill Caiera, which sends Hulk back to Earth for revenge. The story continues in World War Hulk (not to be confused with the later story World War Hulks), as the angry creature returns to Earth from Sakaar with his alien allies in tow – seeking revenge against the Illuminati for banishing him, and against the Avengers for building the shuttle that exploded and supposedly killed his pregnant wife. He battles the Inhuman Black Bolt, the X Men, Ghost Rider, Iron Man and destroys Stark Tower in the process. He defeats the New Avengers, the Mighty Avengers and the Fantastic Four. He gives them all the same obedience disks with which he was enslaved on Sakaar, and then defeats Doctor Strange, General Ross, and the U.S Army – opting to set up gladiator fights between the superheroes. It's then revealed that the explosion on Sakaar was in fact caused by Red King loyalists, and Hulk is eventually imprisoned underground. A further interesting plot development occurs in World War Hulks when General Ross is revealed to be the Red Hulk, having exposed himself to gamma radiation in an attempt to finally win in his epic conflict with Banner and his various Hulk personalities. But it's Hulk’s family that creates an even more fascinating set of story options. His relationship with his parents has been explored onscreen, but what about the rest of his relatives? Bruce Banner has a cousin – Jennifer Walters – whose mother Elaine was sister to Bruce’s abusive father. When Jennifer and her mother are involved in a car crash leaving Elaine dead and Jennifer gravely injured, Bruce donates his blood in a transfusion to save his cousin – leading to the creation of the heroic She-Hulk. Jennifer is a lawyer, and as she was not exposed to gamma radiation directly – but rather through a blood transfusion – her Hulkness manifests in a slightly different way to that of her cousin. Jennifer retains her intelligence when she ‘hulks out,’ giving her a greater element of control over her powers. Hulk also has three children. His daughter, Lyra, was artificially conceived by Thundra after she collected some of Hulk’s DNA. Thundra is an anti-heroic, time-travelling warrior, who hails from a future matriarchal civilization. Thundra and Lyra both play a big part in the Fall Of The Hulks comic book storyline that ran from 2009 to 2010, which sees Bruce Banner, Red Hulk, Red She-Hulk and a host of ‘hulkified’ superheroes face off against each other – including Deadpool. Hulk also has twin sons – Skaar and Hiro-kala – as a result of his marriage to Caiera, and these characters also feature heavily in his stories. Clearly, with the issue of character rights and the studios that hold them restricting who might be able to appear in a Marvel Cinematic Universe Hulk movie, the chances of a ‘hulkified’ Deadpool making an appearance are sadly very slim – but many of these excellent supporting characters from the realm of Hulk comics could be included. The upcoming Thor: Ragnarok would seem to feature elements of Planet Hulk – with the green rage monster being engaged in gladiatorial activities on another world – but again, this has not only been relegated to a subplot in somebody else’s movie, but has also been greatly altered from the source material. With the inexplicable twist of a romantic connection between Bruce Banner and Black Widow having occurred in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the likelihood of the Sakaarian character of Caiera being introduced in a Thor movie are also slim. This is because, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Incredible Hulk is now a supporting character. Arguably, this is due to the lacklustre response to his 2008 solo movie – but that was arguably due to the fact that it offered little that was new onscreen. If nothing else, it's a demonstration of the way in which a constant rehashing of the same aspects of a beloved story only serves to reduce an important, iconic character to an over-simplified after-thought. It's a great shame, as there's vast potential for a deeply satisfying big-screen treatment of The Incredible Hulk just waiting to be developed by a filmmaker with courage and vision - under the umbrella of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With such tantalizing glimpses seemingly ahead in Thor: Ragnarok, a true embrace of The Hulk is long overdue. It’s time the rage monster was afforded the chance to smash the box office.