“We have a Hulk.”
There’s a moment early on in Avengers: Infinity War when the Hulk is utterly destroyed by a Mad Titan fast approaching the height of his power, and it’s one you can now relive in glorious HD thanks to the movie’s digital release.
Embedded below, this reel of footage begins with Loki trying to distract Thanos with the Tesseract, one which inevitably allows Josh Brolin’s all-powerful tyrant to travel across any dimension at any given time.
It quickly becomes the second Infinity Stone on that super-sized gauntlet, but not before Tom Hiddleston’s trickster unleashes the Hulk, all the while harkening back to his own beatdown during The Avengers. And even Thor: Ragnarok, when Loki watched with uncontrollable glee as the God of Thunder was on the receiving end of the Hulk’s wrath.
It’s undoubtedly one of the many highlights of Avengers: Infinity War, and brings to mind the pivotal fight scene from The Dark Knight Rises in which a beefed-up Bane hoists Batman into the air without so much as breaking a sweat.
For Joe and Anthony Russo, this is a quick and effective way of illustrating Thanos’ brute strength; even without all six Infinity Stones, the Mad Titan is still a force to be reckoned with, as his close-quarters combat is enough to leave the Hulk in a tailspin. But don’t be fooled into thinking that Marvel’s Jade Giant is actually scared of Thanos, as the Russo Brothers recently clarified that Banner’s stage fright can be traced back to the troubled relationship between man and beast.
People have speculated whether there was some fear on the Hulk’s part about having to face Thanos again. But I think ultimately what it is, is that he’s tired of playing hero to Bruce Banner.
The Avengers: Infinity War post-mortem continues apace, and we’ll be bringing you all the latest developments and reveals as the MCU epic nears its Blu-ray release on August 14th.
