The Hulk Storyline Marvel Fans Thought Was Totally Wasted
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has managed to juggle several different storylines across its many films and television shows. The fact that it's worked so well thus far, with the MCU having grossed over $25 billion as of this writing, is arguably due to the popularity of comic book movies and the careful planning of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. Each film or show feels like a natural continuation of the overall story while also further developing characters in their own personal storylines.
However, even a universe as massive and in-depth as the MCU is not immune to missteps or storylines that don't quite pan out. As a recent prime example, "Eternals" didn't quite work for critics or fans, garnering a rating of 47% on Rotten Tomatoes. As it turns out, there's also a particular storyline involving Bruce Banner aka the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) that didn't quite satisfy fans. In fact, a big portion of viewers felt like this particular plot could have been explored even more and ended up being nothing more than a wasted opportunity.
Marvel fans thought that Hulk's Infinity War storyline was pointless
Over on the r/marvelstudios subreddit, u/JJ-McTalks-A-Lot expressed their dislike for the Hulk storyline in "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame." It didn't quite sit right with this user that the former film spent so much time dealing with Hulk and Bruce Banner's internal struggle and Hulk's refusal to help the Avengers in their battle with Thanos, only for the latter film completely handwave it away with the Professor Hulk development. In fact, they believed that the storyline would have been improved had fans been able to see some of Bruce's time in the lab, figuring out the way to merge him with the Hulk.
u/whiskerbiscuit2 took it a step further, positing that this development is actually nothing new when it comes to the Hulk or his character development. They went on to list the events of Hulk's past, including Bruce learning to control his anger and transformation between the events of "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Avengers," as well as Black Widow learning the secret to calming him down in between films. It seems as if most of the character's development or changes take place off-screen.
There's some speculation that Hulk's storylines work like this because of a rights issue. Currently, "Hulk" solo movie distribution rights are owned by Universal, making more solo films set in the MCU difficult. So while fans may be disappointed that the MCU skips a lot of the character's development, it doesn't seem like this will be changing anytime soon.