The trailers for Avengers: Infinity War were lying to you. There’s a memorable shot from the trailers of the Avengers charging into battle that isn’t in the final film. In fact, one of the Avengers in the shot doesn’t really make an appearance after the movie’s first couple minutes. What’s the Hulk’s deal?
This post contains big honkin’ Infinity War spoilers.
The Hulk is aboard the Asgardian refugee ship at the beginning of Infinity War, as the action kicks off mere moments after the Thor: Ragnarok post-credits scene. When Thanos is threatening Thor and Loki, the Hulk leaps out and he and Thanos have a short but brutal fight. Despite the Hulk’s immense strength, Thanos is able to defeat him, and Heimdall uses his dying moments to send the Hulk back to Earth. Once he crash-lands in Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, the Hulk reverts back to his Bruce Banner form. When Thanos’s goons attack, Banner tries to transform back into the Hulk, but he can’t. The closest he gets is when he partially transforms enough for the Hulk to scream “no!”
When did the big green guy become a yellow-bellied coward? Infinity War doesn’t explicitly state what’s up, but it’s seems likely that the Hulk is, perhaps for the first time, scared.
The Hulk hasn’t really ever been defeated before, and certainly not in a straight fight. Thor would’ve trounced him had the Grandmaster not cheated during their fight in Ragnarok, but even then, he had the power of lightning at his fingertips. Thanos was able to out-muscle the Hulk without too much effort on his part. Given that the Hulk is also getting much smarter (and more independent from Banner), it’s understandable that he’d have a strong reaction to, for the first time, going to toe-to-toe with somebody he couldn’t beat.
Looks like I need to update my ranking of the strongest characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Avengers: Infinity War is now in theaters.
