Avengers: Infinity War
Thanos outfox Hulk inAvengers : Infinity War , but is that only because the Green Goliath was recovering from an harm from former MCU filmThor : Ragnarok ? Hulk ’s frustration at the start of the film was an significant effect , starting Bruce Banner on his performance - issues fictitious character bow and leaving the Avengers a very important homo down as Thanos arrive at all six Infinity Stones .
The reason for Hulk ’s defeat is , especially when learn from a narrative standpoint , rather simple . He ’s thestrongest Avenger(a fact corroborate inRagnarok ) and so for him to so effectively be dispatched by a baddie previously hide in the shadows highlights just how outstrip the intact squad is . InThe Avengers , Hulk was capable to effortlessly overcome Loki ( something the God of Mischief bring up before the fight ) ; now this threat is even handsome .
Related : Why Bruce Banner Knew About Thanos ( Despite Only Hulk Meeting Him )
All of this is surely lead to arematch between Hulk and Thanos inAvengers : Endgame . Mark Ruffalo pitched a three - movie Banner arc to Kevin Feige ahead ofThor : Ragnarok , and after two moving-picture show where Banner and Hulk were unwilling to transform severally , the innate advancement is for them to come to peacefulness with that idea and overcome what they previously could n’t . That peace is probable theProfessor Hulkpersonality we ’ve seen in marketing , while that trouble to overcome is for sure Thanos . But , even with the smarts of Banner , there ’s a head of how Hulk can mayhap add up back from such a definitive defeat .
The answer may lie in the first movie of the arc , Thor : Ragnarok . In the pic ’s closing curtain , Banner sacrifices himself to become Hulk and help stop Hela ’s rule of Asgard , fighting elephantine fabulous Hugo Wolf Fenris . During their fall on the Asgard waterfall , Fenris grabs Hulk in his backtalk and stabs one of his large fangs into his branch . While there ’s no obtrusive injury on Hulk ’s peg in former scenes , the placement of the pungency is normally covered up by his trousers , and the moment stands out for the camera holding on the close - up for a long time during the carefully edited " Immigrant Song " chronological succession .
Thor : Ragnarokmay be a rather comedic trilogy - capper , but it still works inInfinity Warsetup - best seen withLoki swiping the Tesseract , which the scene also lingers on for a little longer than necessary - so it ’s not out of the question that this Hulk harm is supposed to be important . It may be a insidious indication that the Hulk who fought Thanos initially was n’t up to full strength .
Hulk does , of course , have an accelerated healing factor that may render this thinking moot ; it ’s exclusively possible the Fenris bite was simply included to put Hulk in jeopardy . But the focus put on his injury and the heavily - discussed connectivity between the three latest movies have the character go forth it open as a likely explanation . Only clip ( andAvengers : Endgame ) will tell .
Next : Endgame hypothesis : The Avengers Win At The start Of The Movie
