Why did Hulk ignore Betty Ross?
As shown in the Incredible Hulk, Betty Ross is irrevocably and unconditionally inlove with Hulk, she ended her three year relationship when she found out Bruce was alive and immediately pursued him like wtf? She even sold her late mothers final gift to her just to go on the run with bruce. Like what the hell is Bruce Banner thinking.
Commentaires
He didn't ignore or abandon her. He was a man who could turn into a monster and kill her at any moment, while being hunted by the American Military.
That's not a safe environment to date someone.
Much less a safe space.
Meanwhile Black Widow... Well, you've all seen ["the gif"](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/s/dShy6OFiEy) 😏
But it always makes me laugh knowing that Bruce Banner, a man who could level a city if he sneezes wrong, decided to hide in two of the most populated places on Earth; Rio De Janeiro and then India. Like I get hiding in those places made him harder to find, but holy shit Bruce maybe densely populated cities are not the move. 😂
So it kinda makes me laugh the idea that to protect the person he loves, he left them behind to go put millions of other lives at serious risk lol.
Hulk/Banner's gamma nature end up killing Betty in one series, in another, far darker series, Immortal Hulk, while not in control of himself Hulk kills Betty (who then comes back to life as Red Harpy... I think).
Overall the better series always place Betty as Hulk's lodestone, even in Hulk's wildest moments he tries to protect Betty, even though he might be indirectly or by his existence be putting her in harm's way.
UNHEARD OF!!!? /S
I don't know the guy personally so I can't say but writing a female character as defined by being or not being able to have a child despite it never being mentioned anywhere else seems pretty true to the (not great) character of the writer behind said scene.
That said, if it had been explored in passing by Widow in other films. Say she had looked longingly at Clint's happy family or if they had built this really emotional scene of her alone crying post the Red Room operation after the fact, lots of this could have made it feel more naturally connected to the character.
But instead it felt, as you said, super out of place and frankly really shat on the characters for no reason.
"You wouldn't like me when I'm on a treadmill" doesn't hit the same.
They are going darker with some projects.
Let's get a deeply messed up horror adaptation of Immortal Hulk exploring his traumas through the Green Door.
But I also thought we'd have a closure scene between Bruce and Nat in Infinity War, and that never happened, so what do I know?
Really only \~five relationships seem healthy and sustainable that we've seen form on screen. The fact that four of them (Tony/Pepper, Peter P./MJ, Peter Q./Gamora, Wanda/Vision) are gone for different circumstances is kind of funny. Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne may be the only MCU couple that are currently still together through multiple projects that we've seen start a relationship on screen. The rest, we're just kind of told they're together as part of one or both of the character's backstory.
Unrelated: I wonder if Steve felt awkward when Sharon was eventually born in the timeline he retired in with Peggy.
This is part of the reason why the only cast member who came back was Hurt, and that took eight years. They could technically show up in crossovers, but they would have to sign a new contract and could technically ask for more money (which Disney wouldn't really go for since the Hulk movie wasn't that successful), hence why they didn't bring any of them back, and recast the dude who *definitely* would have gotten more expensive.
I think you're right that they didn't know what to do with it, but that's just part of it. I remember in the theater hearing Ruffalo say "I broke Harlem last time I was here" and thinking that was the only acknowledgement that the movie happened.
Like it's funny, if you look up an ad for the box set of Infinity Saga online, you'll see it showing clips from every marvel movie, but the clips from Hulk are just clips of Ross from Civil War and the Mark Ruffalo Hulk (and the clips of Spider-Man Homecoming are clips from Infinity War).
That's not exactly correct on Universal's part. While Universal originally owned the movie rights to Hulk, Marvel Studios regained the movie rights to Hulk prior to 2008 but Universal let the rights revert back to Marvel Studios before they expired which enabled Universal to retained the distribution rights to Hulk movies with rights of first refusal. So technically, The Incredible Hulk is made by Marvel Studios with Universal distributing the movie while Hulk (2003) is made by Universal which they also distribute it. In 2023, the distribution rights to The Incredible Hulk reverted to Disney but Universal still retained the distribution rights to Hulk movies. If Marvel Studios is gonna make another Hulk movies, Universal have to be the one to distribute but they can choose not to do it due to the rights of first refusal.
Spider-Man was different case because Sony have own the movie rights to Spider-Man for a long time (and it still is as of today) until they agreed to share the movie rights with Marvel Studios to make MCU Spider-Man movies with Sony distributing the movies instead of Disney. Marvel Studios can make Spider-Man movies but Sony have to be involved.
In short, Marvel Studios owns the movie rights to Hulk but the distribution rights is own by Universal while Sony owns the movie rights to Spider-Man but sharing the rights with Marvel Studios with Sony distributing the movies.
Granted, that wasn't a Hulk movie, but it shows the characters can appear in other works if Marvel wants them to.
"Well, there is this guy named Doc Samson, he has green hair and is incredibly ripped from exposure to gamma radiation..."
"Great! We'll make him a normal looking Ty Burrell and remove all of that dumb book stuff from his character, he's just a normal psychiatrist!"
So, just poor writing.
They also thought paying two supporting actresses (scarlet johansson, elizabeth olsen) was more than enough and didn't want to bring in a third... (liv tyler or recasting her)
- HULk
2. The Incredible Hulk was the least popular mcu movie at the time and the mcu was barely acknowledging its existence until Thunderbolt Ross returned in Civil War (the most it got was the newspaper clipping showing Hulk vs Abomination in Ben Urichs office in Daredevil…which got very similar canon treatment until Spider-Man no way home)
Maybe now they’ll reconnect. He’s in such a better place. I hope so because him and Natasha sucked. Plus, I loved how they’ve used other Hulk movie characters since then. Took a awhile, but Red Hulk, Abomination, and Leader were all use perfectly imo.
Her small appearances in BNW and What If gives me hope. Even if we don’t get them together, I’m happy we at least got her back and I can always headcanon.