10 Biggest Missed Opportunities In Recent Comic Book Movies

10. Showing Bruce And Hulk Merging (Avengers: Endgame)

The Hulk has always been one of Marvel's tentpole characters as he is very much one of the only figures they created that is based on a stark, tried-and-true literary archetype. He is nakedly Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the nuclear age and the dichotomy and balance between Dr. Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk has been a major part of their characters' appeal since their inception, both onscreen and in the comics.

At the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, Hulk gets completely bodied by Thanos and only lives because Hiemdall uses the last of his power to open the Bifrost one last time. For the rest of the film, he regresses into Banner and refuses to be summoned on command by his other half. Fans knew this was building up to an epic and emotional showdown between the Gamma scientist and the green goliath.

A showdown, sadly, they were denied. In Avengers: Endgame, the Hulk is now a fusion of Banners mind in Hulk's giant muscular body. Bruce laughs off their abrupt transformation with a one-line joke about radiation baths, but it doesn't fix the fact that audiences were cheated out of a long-built up, character based conflict that would have been one of the franchise high points.