Bruce Banner's Bittersweet Iron Man Memento In She-Hulk Episode 1
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has thrilled audiences on the big and small screen for over a decade, and in all that time there's only been one (in-universe) version of the Hulk. Obviously, Bruce Banner was originally played by Edward Norton in "The Incredible Hulk" before Mark Ruffalo came aboard for "The Avengers," — but it's the same character in the MCU. However, the hero has been joined by a brand new Green Giant, Jennifer Walters, also known as She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany). She gets her powers from Bruce's blood when they get into a car accident due to a Sakaarian ship showing up out of nowhere — a nod to the "World War Hulk" comics, perhaps.
The series kicks things off by establishing a fun dynamic between the two cousins, as Bruce tries to teach Jen everything there is to know about being a Hulk. When speaking to Access Hollywood, Ruffalo praised Maslany, saying, "Tatiana Maslany is frickin' legendary as the She-Hulk. I'm passing the Banner onto her. There are some really good, funny, cool, long, long scenes between Professor and her." He added, "We've never really seen the Hulk interact with people the way he does in that show. It'll be really interesting."
Bruce and Jen spend plenty of time in the isolated Mexican laboratory where the scientist learned to merge his two selves in the time between "Avengers: Infinity War," and "Avengers: Endgame." But when Walters is wandering around the building, she finds a bittersweet Iron Man memento that has us all in our feelings.
Jennifer finds an old Iron Man helmet at Bruce's Mexican hideout
Although "She-Hulk" is obviously about Jennifer Walters and how she balances her legal career alongside her burgeoning responsibilities as a superhero, the show also takes the opportunity to look at Bruce Banner a little more closely. Episode 1 ("A Normal Amount of Rage") reveals that Bruce spent a lot of time with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in the five-year gap after "Avengers: Infinity War" because the billionaire playboy philanthropist funded his laboratory. They even built a beach-side bar together to have some fun, even in a traumatic time. But Bruce seems to have done more of the work than his pal. "Well, Tony mostly drank, just sat around, like, complaining about Steve," Bruce tells Jennifer.
When Jen is wandering through the house, she finds a ruined Iron Man helmet that Bruce is clearly keeping to remember his fallen friend. It appears to be from the Iron Legion suit, verions of which can be seen in both "Iron Man 3" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron." In fact, fans may remember that in "Age of Ultron," none other than Bruce himself helped Stark build his latest version of the suit. This little memento reminds us that Tony and Bruce had a real friendship that thrived outside of the Avengers. When the duo first meet in "The Avengers," Tony tells Bruce that he's a big fan, especially of how he grows into an enormous green rage monster. Over the years we see them connect further, working on projects (oops, Ultron) and driving around in nice Audis together.
Using a small part of "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" to look a little closer at Hulk's character arc is a clever move from Marvel. After all, the giant hero hasn't had his own solo movie since 2008 because the distribution rights for the character are at Universal.