Did Disney Ruin the Hulk?

I believe it's safe to say that The Hulk is an iconic character, to say the least, being a staple at Marvel comics for over fifty years. Scientist Bruce Banner haunted by his inner rage that transforms him into a modern Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is a relatable character for many. Over the years writers have developed not only Bruce Banner, but his creation The Hulk into three dimensional characters that are worth exploring for the fan and non-fan alike. This iconic character has also stared in a plethora of animation from films to cartoons, while also having an incredible television run from the 80s. Lately, the juggernaut of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has put The Hulk in full view of the world and has curated this version of the character for over five films, and after taking a step back I'm quite frankly shocked at how abysmal the MCU has treated such a staple character.

Being introduced in 2008s The Incredible Hulk, staring Edward Norton as the titular character, Marvel introduced their cinematic universe with their strongest Avenger along with their smartest, Iron Man. As first floor films go when building a universe The Incredible Hulk is an underrated delight. Taking familiar concepts from the television show and incorporating the suspense thriller aspects of Bruce Jones' comic run with Mr. Blue, The Incredible Hulk is a good balance of old and new while taking a good starting point for the lovable green giant.

However you feel about said film, one thing they focused on was giving both characters, Bruce and Hulk, their own story arcs. For Bruce it was trusting people and accepting his emotions, that anger happens, but we shouldn't shy away from it. The Hulk was portrayed as a beaten creature who shied away from society only to come back and stand in the flaming wreckage of Harlem and save the day. By the end of that film both characters felt like they took a step in the right direction, however, the Hulk started to change drastically in 2012s The Avengers when Disney acquired Marvel Studios.

Before, Marvel Studios were acting on their own with Paramount as the distribution platform. During the creation of what Marvel calls Phase one, Iron Man-The Avengers, Disney came and and just like they would with Lucas Films shortly after snatched up Marvel Studios and made it part of their growing empire. Before The Avengers the Hulk was portrayed in a state of growth. What I mean by that is the character of the Hulk had already went through his origins and who he is. He'd already formed thoughts and progressed as a character when we first met him at the beginning of the film. Also in this interpretation the Hulk is tall, lean, and walks upright (which is an important character detail). At the beginning of the film he mostly grunts and roars, and on occasion says very simple lines like "Go Away." By the time the credits roll The Hulk not only was able to communicate, although still poorly, with humans he also had a lot of fighting experience by his "scuffles" with the Abomination that mirrored something of an MMA fight rather than a brawl.

Whether it was Joss Whedon trying to capture the silver age essence of the character, Disney asking to change the Hulk's portrayal so it's different from Paramount, Mark Ruffalo wanting to differentiate his take on the character as successor to Norton, or maybe all of the above, it was clear that the Hulk from The Avengers was not the same. In the first modern crossover movie that cemented a shared cinematic universe for geeks the Hulk was portrayed as a hairy ape, with his hunched posture, and more fat than muscle. This portrayal seemed to focus on the Hulk being bigger, not necessarily visually stronger. Another big difference to the character is how simple he is as a creature. Emotions control the way he is like his previous incarnation, but this time his emotions control how he thinks. If he gets angry he's sent into a rage that affects everyone, whereas in The Incredible Hulk Bruce already learned how to reason/talk with the creature and knows where to "aim it." When comparing the two iterations of this Hulk that the MCU has put forth to us on screen it's easy to assume that his character arc has been regressed for Disney to start anew, but after twenty films that doesn't seem to be the case.

Being tied up in some legal licensing mumbo-jumbo, Marvel can't, or more likely won't, make another Hulk film since Paramount still holds the rights and will in turn gain a profit from doing minimal effort. Because of this The Incredible Hulk is the only stand alone film the jolly green giant has in the MCU, and since then he's been mainly placed in the Avenger films as part of a team. By 2015, when Avengers: Age of Ultron came out, he was the only Avenger with the smallest appearances, even Black Widow whom doesn't have her own film is above him by being part of Iron Man 2, Avengers, Winter Soldier, and Age of Ultron. In that time, and after eleven films in the MCU, the Hulk had been reduced to supporting character, and in his few appearances had barely any character development at all.

In both Avenger films the character of the Hulk is more liked, and slightly more developed, than his human counterpart Bruce Banner. In The Avengers there is an interesting scene where Tony bonded with Bruce because he's one of the few people on the planet who could keep up with his genius, but after a few minutes it's reduced to Tony poking and prodding him to get to the Hulk. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bruce Banner has even less screen time, and is reduced to an awkward love story (are we really not going to mention Betty at all here?) and a man who is once again afraid of the monster within him. The Hulk gets a little better treatment, but not by much. Black Widow had figured out a way to control the Hulk in Ultron, the Hulk stole the movie in The Avengers because of a certain Loki scene, and still in both movies the green giant had barely said anything...actually other than screaming I believe his only line of dialogue was in The Avengers when he says "Puny god." After all that he doesn't appear again until Thor: Ragnarok, to which his character had finally developed off screen between movies and can now stand up straighter, is slightly more intelligent, and now speaks like a five year old while also acting like a five year old when he meets up with Thor. Plus, Bruce Banner is reduced to a joke, albeit a hilarious joke, and doesn't care about the ramifications of being the Hulk for years. Thus, after ten years and twenty films the Hulk has only been included in five films (no the cameo at the end of Iron Man 3 doesn't count) and is only just now getting close to where his character started out in The Incredible Hulk back in 2008.

Now, Marvel had stated that the Hulk would be put through a five film character arc, starting with Ragnarok, Avengers 3, 4, and one other supposedly. This sounds good and is what they should have done earlier, but I'm really worried that they'll just end his character arc where they ended The Incredible Hulk. There's so much they can do with the character, and yet he is still looked at as a brute, a smasher, and not even an expert fighter. His intelligence is still low, and the MCU's treatment of Banner barely having any character at all at this point is just disappointing. The "man vs. the monster" aspect was thrown away in The Avengers, the scientist aspect is only brought up whenever the plot calls for it (creating Vision, whatever he did with Tony in Avengers) and ultimately whenever the Hulk is on screen it's to put him in fights that would leave him out of the main fight (Giant space fish, Scarlet Witch making him destroy a city, what Thanos did to him in Avengers: Infinity War). At the end of the day there just isn't much to this character anymore that confidently tells me that he's Bruce Banner/The Hulk other than the green skin.

The MCU has tackled some of the biggest stories in Marvel comics, and brought in little tasty treats that only comics fans would recognize and are obscure, and so my question is how come they can do that and not pick a single thing from the Hulk's decades worth of stories and only focus on his early incarnation of "I'm a monster that helps the Avengers." Where's the Abomination? Where's The Leader? Where's Rick Jones? How about some Red Hulk/Red She-Hulk? We had Planet Hulk, but no World War Hulk? No Samson? Will we get Amadeus Cho? Brain dead Banner? There's so many great storylines that the Hulk is apart of and barely anything of the Hulk is referenced in the MCU. I'm positive that the character will change, and grow, in a very pleasing way in the next few movies, but for the past ten years it's been disappointing watching what the character has regressed to, and I don't think I can blame Disney for that.

I think that Disney had no idea how to handle a character like the Hulk and limited his exposure. I think Joss Whedon wanted to tell a Hulk that would be similar to the original Avengers. So, did Disney ruin the Hulk? No, but I do think they've ruined Bruce Banner, and stunted the growth of the Hulk when reflecting on these past ten years and comparing this character to Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the founding members of the Avengers. So Hulk, a not so well written character, is always enjoyable on screen and fans of the MCU love him no matter what problematic baggage the character and writing hold for him.