Times The Avengers Treated Hulk Like Garbage

For some hardcore Hulk fans, the man-monster's higher profile in pop culture since 2012's Avengers is bittersweet. While Mark Ruffalo deserves the praise he's received for his portrayal of Bruce Banner — and in spite of the CGI realization of the Hulk being a triumph in Avengers and every subsequent film in which he's appeared — all of that comes at a price. 

In the comics, the Hulk has rarely been the kind of superhero to "suit up" when some alarm went off, letting him know the world was in danger. Actually, a lot of times Hulk has been the reason for the alarm. While he pitches in every now and then, for the most part the Hulk isn't trying to save the world — he's trying to save himself from a world that has hated and hounded him, including the other superheroes. Sure, he was a founding Avenger, but he didn't last long. He fought Marvel's other heroes as often as he did its villains. That's why as awesome as it is for a diehard Hulkophile to watch his classic Loki-thrashing scene in Avengers, having him take orders from Captain America can evoke more bittersweet emotions.

During the Hulk's many clashes with the Avengers, the team is often just trying to protect other people from his rampages. But the Hulk rarely sees himself as the villain, and sometimes he really isn't. For some examples, here are times the Avengers treated the Hulk like garbage.

The Hulk's initial time in the Avengers was short-lived. He rage-quit at the end of Avengers #2, and considering everything, it's tough to blame him. 

In Avengers #2 the team is infiltrated by an alien villain named the Space Phantom, who can mimic the appearance and, to some degree, the powers of different people; when he mimics someone, that person is transported to the realm of Limbo until the Phantom changes back. The Hulk is the first Avenger Space Phantom chooses as his disguise, and acts out while doing so. He speaks rudely to the rest of the team, eventually getting physical. When the smoke clears and everyone realizes what happened, the Hulk's angry at what the Avengers said about him when they believed they were fighting him, and he leaves the team in a huff.

That could have been the end of it, but in Avengers #3 — believing the world isn't safe with a Hulk who isn't being chaperoned by other superheroes — the Avengers actively hunt the Hulk and battle him once more, apparently forgetting it was Loki who had fooled them into thinking the Hulk was a threat in the first place. The Hulk fights them off and eventually allies himself with the aquatic outcast Namor the Sub-Mariner in an attempt to destroy the team and get them off his back.

The first time they recruited him by attacking him. Later, they blackmailed him. When it comes to the Hulk, the Avengers have some bizarre recruitment policies.

In 1988, the High Evolutionary ticked off the whole Marvel Universe in an event that ran through Marvel's annuals called Evolutionary War. The finale takes place in Avengers Annual #17, but there's a problem: the Avengers have disbanded. An alarm summons a band of reserve Avengers anyway, including the mutant Beast. At the end of Incredible Hulk #350, with the Hulk just finishing an epic battle with Ben Grimm, a.k.a. the Thing, the Beast happens upon the Hulk and strong-arms him into helping the Avengers.

At the time, most of the world believed the Hulk had died in a gamma bomb explosion in Incredible Hulk #345. This gray, more intelligent version of the Hulk was living in Las Vegas and he liked the world thinking he was dead, so the Beast did exactly what any honorable, heroic member of the Avengers and the X-Men would do — he told the Hulk if he didn't help the Avengers, he'd reveal to the entire world that he was still alive, making him a wanted man-monster once more. Apparently the "Assemble" in "Avengers Assemble" sometimes means "ASSEMBLE... the sensitive and damaging information on potential members and make copies so we can convince them to join."

When the Avengers lock horns with the Hulk in 1986's Incredible Hulk #316, it's a different kind of Hulk. The gamma-powered hero Doc Samson has developed a method to physically separate Bruce Banner from his greener half, and as a result, an utterly mindless Hulk incapable even of his old classic "Hulk smash" speech rages through the New Mexico desert destroying everything he sees. The Avengers send their four physically strongest active members — Hercules, Namor, Wonder Man, and Iron Man — to stop him. 

It makes sense the Avengers would want to take out such a destructive version of the green goliath, but half of the quartet formed in the desert to tussle with the Hulk doesn't take it seriously. Wonder Man acts like the pampered Hollywood socialite that he was at the time, and Hercules in particular treats the whole thing like a game, reveling in the challenge of the battle and treating the Hulk as nothing more than an obstacle to throw himself over — which would be more fun if the Avengers hadn't been discussing killing the Hulk. The Greek hero treats it so much like a game that when Doc Samson shows up to stop the other Avengers from fighting the Hulk (because he believes it's his responsibility and no one else's), Hercules thinks it might be more of a challenge and politely asks Hulk to wait for him to finish Fight #2. Moron.

While it wasn't nearly as popular a comic as Civil War II #3, that 2016 comic was not the first time Hawkeye drew blood from Bruce Banner. While the latter event was to stop the Hulk from coming out, in 2004's Avengers #74, the archer shot Banner to make the Hulk show up. 

Banner's cousin Jen Walters, a.k.a. She-Hulk, had been missing for a while from the Avengers' roster and it's Hawkeye who discovers why: A more savage persona has emerged from She-Hulk, and she's on a rampage. Banner gets close to actually talking down the more savage She-Hulk, but that isn't good enough for Clint Barton. Wanting something to keep She-Hulk occupied to give the Avengers time to get there, Hawkeye fires an arrow through Banner's shoulder in order to force the Hulk to come out and fight. 

She-Hulk is eventually subdued by the Avengers. In spite of the destruction her rampage causes, the Avengers — including She-Hulk — do absolutely nothing to correct reports from the media that it was the Hulk, not She-Hulk, who had been rampaging. Because if there's one thing the Avengers know, it's loyalty.  

Comics aren't the only medium in which the Avengers treat the Hulk like trash. Sure, usually in the movies when the Hulk clashes with his teammates, he's the one to initiate the throwdown so it's hard to blame them. But what about a scene that isn't a fight? What about a scene that was an audience pleaser in the theaters?

Toward the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, after Bruce Banner frees Black Widow from Ultron's prison, he's ready to go with Widow's idea to skedaddle and live on the run with her. He doesn't seem at all scared of helping the Avengers fight Ultron, at least not for himself. The last time he transformed it was under the Scarlet Witch's influence, and he ended up going on a deadly rampage in Johannesburg. It was something he didn't want to repeat.

Like the comic book Hawkeye did in Avengers #74, Black Widow takes the choice out of Banner's hands. She pushes him off a ledge, forcing him to transform into the Hulk to save himself because she needs "the other guy." It may have gotten applause in the theater, but considering how close Bruce and Natasha had grown, and how harrowing an experience it is for Banner to transform into the Hulk and back, Widow's push was a chilling betrayal. No Asgardian hammer or titanium fist could wound him more.