The MCU Is Turning The Hulk Into Its New Super Soldier Replacement
The MCU now has a lot of Hulks, basically letting them replace the Super Soldiers - but what are they setting up? Let's see.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced more Hulks in Phase 4, and thus turned Hulk into a replacement for the Super Soldier. The Hulk has had a strange history on the big screen so far, and after debuting in Ang Lee's Hulk, the new Bruce Banner returns in The Incredible Hulk, now as part of the MCU. Bruce Banner then joined the original Avengers team, but his arc was so shaky that the studio didn't give him enough screen time to properly develop his story. After escaping, living in Saakar, and returning to join the other heroes of the MCU in order to stop Thanos, the Hulk took on a bigger role in the TV show She-Hulk.
After merging his human form with the Hulk and becoming "Smart Hulk", Banner built a device that allowed him to return to human form, and helped his cousin Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) obtain Gained shapeshifting abilities into She-Hulk after coming into contact with her blood. She-Hulk has an even bigger surprise, as Banner introduces his family to his son Scar (Wil Deusner), who hails from Sakar and inherits his father's Hulk powers. That makes for three Hulks in the MCU so far, and the universe pretty much turned them into the universe's new super soldiers.
How The MCU's Many Hulks Are Replacing Super Soldiers
Before the MCU had more than one Hulk, it had many super soldiers. The MCU's first successful super-soldier was Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), and since then there have been many attempts to recreate the proper formula, but none have had the desired success. This makes way for different super soldiers in the MCU - some heroes and allies, others villains - such as the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes, the Red Skull, the Red Guardian and the Hulk himself. The Hulk was the result of a gamma radiation accident during experiments to recreate the original super-soldier serum, but over the years, he was the only one of his kind, while other super-soldiers had very different side effects.
With Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) refusing to accept the Super Soldier serum, and the Flag Smashers version of the serum being destroyed, the MCU finally ended this storyline, but the new Hulk feels like a replacement. Their powers come from the serum and lead them on very different paths and inner struggles from humans As true super-soldiers, the Hulk could take their place as the new "tragic" figure in the MCU, but there are also more fascinating layers to explore as their condition causes mental, emotional and physical changes. Like a super soldier, the Hulk can create new heroes (like Jennifer Walters) and villains (like the Abomination), though the MCU also runs the risk of using them as an excuse to introduce new characters and spark new conflicts, as happened Serum has been used since phase 1.
Why The MCU Is Introducing So Many Hulks: What It's Setting Up
With the introduction of two other Hulks, the Hulk is finally getting more attention and space in the MCU, which in turn makes the long-rumored World War Hulk movie more likely. A World War Hulk event could bring together all the current Hulks — Banner, She-Hulk, Skaar, Abomination, and Thunder-Ross/Red Hulk (Harrison Ford) — and where he was in the past. On the other hand, the introduction of more Hulks could lead to Banner retiring, following in the footsteps of most of his original Avengers teammates, most notably in the setup The one from The Young Avengers. Skaar will be his father's long-awaited ensemble of young heroes, but hopefully by then Marvel will learn from their mistakes and give Skaar a better, more coherent, layered story than his father's. story.
