Marvel Mondays-The Incredible Hulk

Hello and welcome back to "Marvel Mondays!" As I said last week, this series will be dedicated to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and all of the films inside of it. I'll be looking at how each film intertwines with each other leading up to the culmination of the MCU as we know it in Avengers: Infinity War. Last week, I talked about the first MCU movie, Iron Man; and just like the movies, if you haven't read that, I'd highly suggest you stop now and take a look at that. However, this week I'm going to be talking about the next movie in the order of the MCU, The Incredible Hulk. As always, I'll include my movie current MCU rankings, which will be different than last week considering Black Panther came out and I was able to see it.

Iron-Man (6)
The Incredible Hulk (17)
Iron-Man 2 (9)
Thor (10)
Captain America: The First Avenger (16)
The Avengers (2)
Iron-Man 3 (8)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (15)
Thor: The Dark World (11)
Guardians of the Galaxy (13)
The Avengers: Age of Ultron (5)
Ant-Man (14)
Captain America: Civil War (1)
Doctor Strange (18)
Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 (12)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (3)
Thor: Ragnarok (7)
Black Panther (4)
The Avengers: Infinity War

So let's get angry and talk about the big green guy!



Now, we aren't going to be talking about the 2003 Hulk film staring Eric Bana, this is going to be the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk staring Sir Edward Norton. Of all the films in the MCU, the history behind this one is easily the most confusing. Everyone knows who the Hulk is, and because of that, there have been television shows, more comics, and other forms of media about the green guy. However, for the longest time there was no actual movie about him; until 2003 when Marvel and Universal Pictures gave us the Hulk, which flopped drastically. Marvel and Universal then hired Louis Leterrier to direct a new Hulk film that would star Sir Edward Norton. Leterrier actually wanted to direct Iron Man but Jon Favreau was already in charge of that film, so Marvel offered Leterrier the Hulk. The original intent for The Incredible Hulk was to be a sequel to the Hulk film from 2003 that would be more of a love story between Bruce Banner and Betty Ross. However in 2006, Kevin Feige got wind of the plans to make a sequel and quickly shut those ideas down. He said he wanted a new Hulk movie that would fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is something the 2003 film did not do. 



Because this wasn't the first film in the MCU, it was a lot easier to incorporate Easter Eggs into the movie. While Iron Man couldn't have that many nods to other Marvel films, The Incredible Hulk had quite a few nods. At the very beginning of the movie, there's a flashback to the popular Hulk television series; in the flashback, Nick Fury's name appears, as well as blueprints for technology made by Tony Stark. When Sergeant Ross is talking to Blonsky about the super soldier program, a portrait of Captain America is seen in the background. Speaking of the super soldier program, all of that is a big giant nod to Captain America, being as he was the original super soldier; you can see this as evidence because the color of the super soldier serum is the same color of the serum Captain America took in Captain America: The First Avenger. While Bruce Banner is on the computer, the S.H.I.E.L.D logo appears. This is the second time in a Marvel Studios film that the logo appeared, the first being in the post credit scene of Iron Man. While Banner is searching on the computer, one of the articles that come up talks about animal webbing appearing on humans, this is an obvious nod to our friendly neighborhood hero: Spiderman. Another Spiderman reference occurs when Hulk is fighting Abomination (the other Hulk looking villain) in the city streets. While the fight is going on, you can see a figure swinging over Abomination's shoulder; many people, including myself, believe this is Spiderman and his cameo in the film since Marvel technically didn't own the rights to webbed hero at the time. The last Easter Egg happens during the storm scene; when Hulk is yelling there is a lot of lightning and you can see an object fall from the sky towards Earth. Personally, I think that was Thor's hammer falling from when it was thrown from Asgard and when Agent Coulson discovers it at the end of Iron Man 2. 


Being as this was the 2nd film in the MCU, Feige and Leterrier had to come up with a way to make it flow with the MCU. The easiest way to do this would be to add a post credit scene similar to the one in Iron Man. The scene would obviously have to play into the film's script and make sense, but at the same time would have to deliver the idea of Hulk being part of the Avengers. The post credit scene takes place after Banner escapes to India, with Sergeant Ross at a bar, and none other than Tony Stark walks in. He reminds Ross about how Tony told him to stop with the supersoldiers and explains that "we" are putting together a team." Ross asks who the we is, in which Tony gives him a look as to say "you know exactly who the we is" and then it cuts. A great post credit scene doesn't have to give too much away, it just has to plant a thought into the viewers head, and this post credit scene is one of the best in my opinion.




The Incredible Hulk is a great addition to the MCU and vastly underrated in my opinion. While it doesn't carry the celebrity firepower that Iron Man does, the cast is still pretty solid. However, I will say I like Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk more than Sir Edward Norton. Many people wonder why there hasn't been another Incredible Hulk film and there are a multitude of reasons, but the main one is that there really doesn't need to be another one. During the press tour of Thor: Ragnarok, both Kevin Feige and Mark Ruffalo said that the Hulk would be a main focus in Ragnarok, Infinity War, and the Infinity War sequel, and that he would have his own character arc throughout those films. I for one, think Ruffalo as the Hulk is one of the best moves Marvel made. I think Hulk is a vital part of the Avengers, and so is Bruce Banner with his smarts as we see in Avengers and Age of Ultron; and I'm sure both Hulk and Banner will be very important in Avengers: Infinity War. Now, let's talk about where I rank this movie in the MCU...



Even with all of this praise, I have to talk about where I rank the film. Unfortunately, the film itself isn't great. The storyline is good, but that's about all of the good in the movie. Even though it'll never happen, I would love to see Ruffalo get his own movie as the Hulk because I think he was a much better Hulk than Norton. The action scenes are below average for a Marvel movie, and there's really no comedy in the movie, which is something that most other Marvel movies have an abundance of. All that considered, I actually don't have The Incredible Hulk at last like many other people do; for me, it comes in at number 17. 




Kevin Scott is a contributing writer for The Mouse Knows Best Podcast. He is self proclaimed Disney addict and oftentimes annoys his family with how much he talks Disney. He enjoys walking around all Disney Parks and taking as many pictures as he can in one day. When he isn't at Walt Disney World, he is working to get back or re-watching Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars movie. His spirit animal is a mix between Simba and Kylo Ren with a dash of Tony Stark. You can find him on Twitter @doubleoh_kevin and on Instagram @waltdisneyduo.