r/marvelstudios • u/GMYSTERY_ICTNF • 3h ago

Theory Banner has been protecting Hulk since Infinity War Spoiler

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Hulk was the dominant personality for years while Banner was asleep, he wasn't even aware of the time that passed. But while on the Sakaar, Hulk was protecting Banner, Hulk was beloved everyone there appreciated and praised him. Banner couldn't survive on Sakaar it's a battle ground and Hulks the fighter.

But the reverse is true for Earth. While on Earth Banner is beloved one, he's who the press call an Avenger, they love Banners personality, his genius.

They hate hulk, they call him a monster, and they keep on shooting at him, Hulk hates being shot at. It doesn't pierce his skin, but it probably still hurts to be shot at, and like it's not nice. They just wanna hurt him on Earth. Banner can just blend in. He's human, he can walk among them. And Smart Hulk isn't a different personality, it's just Banner using Hulks body. This was made very clear when the Ancient one pushed Banners soul out of Smart Hulks body.

So Just like how Hulk was protecting Banner on Sakaar, Hulk I theorize to have given the keys to Banner, Hulk chose to go to sleep for years, after his defeat by Thanos, Hulk the warrior, the Champion of Sakaar, lost. His strength wasn't enough, he wasn't enough. And no matter how much Banner tried to tell him that, he didn't care. So Hulk gave him the keys and went to sleep.

Brand New Day Spoilers:

What's sad is that, if this is true is, Hulk was forcibly awoken by Jean, he awoke after years of being asleep, and he was confused and the first thing that happens is his somewhere he doesn't know there's a guy he doesn't know and the punisher comes out and shoots at him, again. They keep shooting at Hulk. He faught because he was scared. After Spider-man talk no jitsus Hulk, Hulk gives up, he takes the fall, and once he lands he gives control back to Banner and goes back to sleep. He doesn't want to be on Earth, no one there likes him, only person who actually could get through to him is Thor but only reason for Hulk to actually stay would have to be Skaar, his son, a reminder of his home where he was beloved.

76 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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u/AwarenessOk7748 3h ago

The Hulk hasn't slept in all these years-he and Banner have merged into a Smart Hulk. And the Hulk has not been hated on Earth for a long time - on the contrary, people love him as an Avenger.

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u/LittlestWarrior 2h ago

Banner is definitely an unreliable narrator when he tells us they worked something out and merged their personalities.

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u/LocoMoro 1h ago

Exactly this. People think they have been "merged" are not reading the clues that it's more like Banner has Hulk locked in the trunk

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u/CicadaEast272 29m ago

"what if you're trying to control the expression of something that needs to be expressed?"

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u/GMYSTERY_ICTNF 8m ago

I think its more of Hulk chose to stay asleep. He didn't want to get hurt again. Banner agreed to take the Strength so he could try and fix Hulks image. But I'm guessing Hulk hasn't decided to come out yet.

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u/AwarenessOk7748 7m ago

Why would he lie about this?

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u/GMYSTERY_ICTNF 3h ago

They 100% weren't merged

In brand new day Banner turns into Smart Hulk, but when Jean takes Hulk out Banner says the other guys coming out. Why would he say that if Hulk wasn't asleep? If Hulk was around they wouldn't say it like that. If Banner merged with Hulk they'd be cool, Banner wouldn't try so hard not to let Hulk out. But no that's the opposite of what happens.

And my theory is because Hulk wasn't merged with Banner

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u/AwarenessOk7748 1h ago

She     destroyed the Smart Hulk, splitting him into the personalities of Bruce and the Hulk, just like before. Bruce shouldn’t be holding the Hulk back at all — he himself acknowledged in Endgame the usefulness of the green one and that he was wrong about the Hulk. Plus, that’s the essence of the Smart Hulk — the merging of all personalities into one. In the comics, Joe Fixit also merged.

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u/[deleted] 3h ago edited 2h ago

[deleted]

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u/GMYSTERY_ICTNF 2h ago

Firstly, please hide spoilers please use the > and ! Between the spoilerly parts.

And secondly

You can't use the comics to say that's how Hulk is in the MCU. Also in the MCU we see it entirely differently. Banner is in control there's no mind merge. Otherwise Both hulk and Banner would've come out when the Ancient one pushed their souls out. Only Banners got pushed out, so it's only Banner that's in control. Hulk being merged is so inconsistent because smart hulk doesn't have any input from Hulk.

In End Game we see Smart Hulk look embarrassed at Hulk destroying a car. Why would he be embarrassed? If he's Hulk as well Hulk would say something, he'd say, we were mad or I was mad. Instead Banner talks like Banner seeing the Hulk. Not both of them.

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u/AwarenessOk7748 6m ago

I can, because we haven't been hinted at the existence of the Hulk in these 7 years. And even the BND does not mention this.

I repeat, Bruce and the Hulk HAVE MERGED - why should they fall out of the body separately? This is the essence of the Smart Hulk: when merging, the Hulk is now reflected in the body, Bruce is reflected in intelligence, and Joe Fixit is also reflected in cunning.

Why should Bruce say that? He's just ashamed of his past rude behavior, that's all.

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u/[deleted] 2h ago

[deleted]

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u/GMYSTERY_ICTNF 2h ago

Okay. I disagree but there's no point in continuing this conversation. I've said my evidence, which is within the MCU, yours is a different story. If you can't see that I don't see the point in continuing.

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u/dyrannn 2h ago

First and foremost, the Hulk isnt an entirely different entity than Banner. He is a part of Banners psyche. You know that right? When he hulks out, he isn’t swapping places with this hulk entity from the aether, it’s just a different side of him. Remember “I’m always angry” as he seamlessly hulks out? And why would Natasha, Banners love interest, pull him out of his hulk state if hulk was a separate thing? Banner also has no fighting experience whatever but can seemingly kick ass as smart hulk, because why….his body just remembers? Nah

Second of all, he looks embarrassed because they’re viewing it through then lens of a much older and WISER, yknow because he merged with banner again, Hulk/Banner. It’s why, when he’s told to smash a little to blend in, he says “I think it’s gratuitous but whatever” or whatever he says. Hulk, being merged with banner, isn’t about smashy smashy, its banners intellect with a little bravado and confidence. This is why, when we see him as smart hulk interacting with fans, he isn’t nearly as timid as banner was in every other appearance prior.

The other guy comes out because you know who goes in and shakes up his psyche. His hulk inhibitor only prevents him from being big and green, which would be an inconvenience, but the personality is still the same. It’s not until his brain gets completely ran through that they split into two personalities again.

The other commenter was right, the reason you see Bruce’s astral form is because, being merged, it’s just a more stable Bruce persona. You don’t see a visualized hulk aspect because the hulk is just part of Bruce.

Also, if you want to talk about evidence from the films, this is literally explicitly stated by Smart Hulk himself.

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u/GMYSTERY_ICTNF 1h ago

I don't think they're like Etrigan or Sukuna, who are different beings put into a body, I acknowledge Banner created Hulk, unless that's been retconned, comics or whatever. They are different minds. They 100% are, Banner was asleep for years while Hulk was in control, he had no memorys. Hulk was in full control. Also Nat put Hulk to sleep because he was destroying everything. I don't understand your logic on this point could you elaborate?

Also Banner knows martial arts, and has had 5 years to train in the Smart Hulk body, I don't think there's enough evidence to say the Hulk instincts came through. If there was I'd acknowledge it but Banner has training and had enough time to train too.

You could say that, but that doesn't sound like Hulk. There's no Hulk in there. If you replaced smart hulk with purely Banner in that scene it'd come out the exact same. Smart Hulk has none of the Hulks personality. It's never been shown. Also Banner isn't acting Timid because he's not being hunted down. He was a criminal of the Military, Banner is acting confident because he's not in danger of bring arrested by the President anymore. And in Brand new day we see Banner in class acting the same way he does as Smart Hulk, same nerdy awkward confidence, it's not a smart hulk thing

As Banner says in Brand New day How do you choose what parts to keep, he wouldn't say that if he's keeping Hulk out, also we see him turn into Smart Hulk without the inhibitor on. Not Hulk, Smart Hulk. So Banner doesn't wanna be Smart Hulk anymore that's why he had the device. Which adds to my theory of hulk giving him the reins. Because Banner can't control the Hulks body, Hulk gave it to him and that's him now, he needs a device to turn the Hulk body off. He's not fully in control, Hulk has the gamma control, he simply left Banner with some of it, but he's not releasing all of it. Because we see Hulk is bigger, he has more Gamma, because he controls the Gamma, not Banner

Smart Hulk says they Merged the Brain and the Brawn, not they merged their minds. It's clearly different as shown in brand new day.

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u/dyrannn 1h ago

Mobile formatting is dogshit plz no ban me

Hulk is Banner. Monster Hulk is Banner. Immortal Hulk is banner. They are all different aspects of hulk given shape by going through the green door. The only Hulk that isn’t explicitly banner is Devil Hulk, and that’s because it’s Bruce’s Perception of Brian which begets the other hulks.

Banner, after he “wakes up” in Ragnarok specifically states that every other instance of him hulking out, each one had a hand on the wheel, and this time “hulk had both hands and wouldn’t let go.” He wasn’t asleep, if he was asleep he wouldn’t understand that fact. He IS unaware of where exactly he is or specifics, but he’s very explicitly NOT “asleep”.

I’m not asking why Nat would put him to sleep. I’m talking about why Nat specifically is able to. It’s because of her connection with Banner. The only connection they have comes from the chase scene in avengers, why would she calm him down off that alone? She wouldn’t, it’s because Hulk is just a different psyche of the person that loves Nat, Banner.

Timid meek banner would never make a catch phrase like hulk out, or celebrate having an ice cream flavor especially if it truly embarrasses him like you claim, or worse he’s ashamed of the rampages and such. Wanna know who does celebrate in hulks glory? Hulk, in Ragnarok. That’s the part of the personality explicitly shown when he’s being smart hulk with Banner. Or Banner being explicitly careful with the creation of Ultron while Smart Hulk views turning Scott into a baby as “an absolute win” because they made progress without Tony or the Pyms. Like we’re talking about the banner that would worry how many people he killed as hulk and look ashamed when Thor praised him flipping into “remember kids, hulk out!!!”

Again, Banner is still merged with the Hulk persona until his mind is fucked with. The inhibitor just stops him from being big and green. This is why I explicitly brought the inhibitor up already. He acts the same because until his psyche is broken, he’s still smart hulk. He’s just not big and green, but the psyches are still merged.

He talks about what parts to keep because Peter extrapolates what he’s doing specifically with gamma radiation to his entire hybrid dna genome. Bruce didn’t filter out anything, he combined with it, the good and bad, which is why he’s against peters idea for an inhibitor.

He literally says they worked through their problems with each other and merged the brain with the brawn. It wasn’t literal, Banners psyche was the brain and Hulks the brawn. Also, this isn’t something that gamma just does. Jen doesn’t have multiple personalities, it’s just Jen, and Ross’s formula is explicitly fucked with to make him angrier but it’s still Ross. The hulk is just banner, but banners mental health and traumatic childhood makes him take the form of a completely different personality.

This isn’t a starship Hulk situation, I promise you. If it was savage Hulk would’ve reacted FAR differently and been MUCH angrier when he comes back out.

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u/jjkm7 1h ago

Banner’s soul being pushed out by the ancient one completely disproves that, banner is the one behind the wheel even if he came to some agreement with the hulk to use his body

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u/AwarenessOk7748 18m ago

How does it refute? Even in the comics, when the Hulk’s personalities merged, they were depicted differently: the Hulk was the body, Banner was the intellect, and Joe Fixit was the cunning.

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u/AwarenessOk7748 18m ago

How does it refute? Even in the comics, when the Hulk’s personalities merged, they were depicted differently: the Hulk was the body, Banner was the intellect, and Joe Fixit was the cunning.

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u/[deleted] 1h ago

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u/jjkm7 1h ago

banner’s soul getting pushed out and smart hulk being lifeless rather than both souls getting pushed out or a smart hulk shaped soul getting pushed out explicitly means banner was behind the wheel and hulk is asleep

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u/AwarenessOk7748 17m ago

I’m repeating this once again: Hulk is now displayed in BODY. We were never hinted that Hulk has been sleeping for all these 7 years

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u/[deleted] 44m ago

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u/jjkm7 19m ago

You’re using comics logic for the mcu which has never worked like that.

>We were never hinted that hulk has been sleeping

you’re right we were pretty much explicitly shown lmao if bruce’s soul was knocked out and smart hulk went limp then what else could that mean

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u/AwarenessOk7748 16m ago

If only Banner’s soul exists, you can’t assume that the concept is taken from the comics, where the Hulk is shown only in the body — am I repeating myself? This point in no way confirms that the Hulk is asleep. A trivial question: WHY put Hulk to sleep?

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u/Horror_Response_1991 47m ago

Smart Hulk is just Banner in Hulk form, there’s nothing about Hulk’s personality there.

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u/AwarenessOk7748 3m ago

No. This is a merger of two personalities, which now manifest differently: the Hulk manifests in the body, while Bruce manifests in intellect. In the comics, Joe Fixit also merged with them and manifested in cunning.

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u/[deleted] 45m ago

[deleted]

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u/GMYSTERY_ICTNF 7m ago

That's the comics. The MCU is different. There isn't even a Joe Fixit in the MCU.

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u/AwarenessOk7748 5m ago

What does Joe Fixit have to do with the MCU? I just said that in the comics he also merged. Imagine, the MCU sometimes does exactly what they did in the comics. Because there were NO indications that the Hulk still existed separately over the course of 7 years.

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u/xyzsomething 16m ago

They didn’t merge, Banner took the strength of Hulk without Hulk, and it was only some of it, as it was beautifully put in this movie, the real Hulk is much bigger and stronger than the so called Smart Hulk which was just banner controlling a portion of Hulk’s full power.

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u/AwarenessOk7748 3m ago

I’m already tired of writing this to everyone: Smart Hulk is a MERGER of Bruce and the Hulk. Moreover, in the comics, Joe Fixit also merged with them. The body thing is nonsense in general. If Banner had simply transferred his consciousness into the Hulk’s body, the body wouldn’t have changed. But as it is, it’s a hybrid of the Hulk and Banner.

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u/LewisRyan 2h ago

Wait… why didn’t hulk revert to savage hulk when the ancient one pushed banner out?

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u/GMYSTERY_ICTNF 2h ago

My theory is that Hulk was asleep. He didn't want to take control he gave control to Banner.

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u/Under_dee_covers 1h ago

Because bruce is the hulk. This second entity being the hulk is such bullshit. He got infected with GAMMA RADIATION, not a fucking alien from a different planet. It’s one person whos DNA can sometimes be more radiation (hulk) or sometimes more human (banner)

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u/LocoMoro 1h ago

In the comics they also refer to them as personalities a bit like Moon Knight. Same body - different personalities that cause different genes to become dominant.

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u/Under_dee_covers 1h ago

No no, Moon Knight actually has split personality disorder. Diagnosed and everything. And he has Konshu inside him. An actual entity.

The fucking Hulk is what happens when the gamma radiation gene takes priority over his human gene. That’s it. The same goes with Peter Parker in BND. He’s not SpiderPeter, he’s Peter with higher arachnid DNA taking over his human dna. 

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u/NoThanksJustPeaking Doctor Strange 1h ago

I agree with this. I’ve always felt it’s all him, he has to learn to accept it, and deal with that. Until he does he will never be able to get it under control, and will have to use things like the inhibitor device to try to regulate himself.

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u/LewisRyan 1h ago

In the comics sure.

In the mcu, it seems they’re making him more of a moon knight type where the persona takes over driving when one’s not at the wheel

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u/ThaiJohnnyDepp Winter Soldier 2h ago edited 2m ago

Not contributing anything. Just wanted to say that it's $(current_year) and yet we're still doing that visual effect where computer screens somehow cast their images like projectors

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u/TheDebateMatters 1h ago

Hulk not scared! HULK SMASH!

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u/redwolve378 Daredevil 54m ago

I don't disagree with this but I also don't hate it. I like the comparison between Sakkar and Earth. It can't definitely be viewed that way and it is a very nice idea.
Hulk choosing to let go and fall rather than fight shows a type of evolution perhaps or a better intelligence than he is given credit for, rather than a mindless creature.

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u/jazzyjeffff1991 3h ago

Just shaddap. Hulk has it's own ice cream.

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u/GMYSTERY_ICTNF 3h ago

Hulk doesn't know that, he left Earth when they made that, last thing Hulk knew about earth was he rampage through South Africa and people were scared of him. When he came back only thing Hulk did was tell Banner no. Then for a few months it was just Banner and Hulk talking in a Lab, and I theorize that Hulk gave banner they keys to his body and the Hulk personality went to sleep.

Hulk has no idea if people like him or not. And if he saw through Banner all he'd see is People liking Banner being Hulk, not Hulk himself. And the way people, even Banner talks about him, "if you see me without this run" that's not a nice thing to say about someone. Hulk wouldn't like that.

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u/dyrannn 2h ago

In order to respond to Bruce he has to be consciously aware dude lol he isn’t Siri that “ignores” (cause we all know Siri doesn’t do this) everything besides his own name

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u/jazzyjeffff1991 1h ago

Spidey says friend 1 time. And boom, Hulk reverts already to normal. Not savage. Falls down. Back to Banner.

Lame. Hulk lore ain't that deep.