10 MCU Plot Points Marvel Has Completely Abandoned

8. Betty Ross/Bruce Banner's Romance

Betty Ross Liv Tyler The Incredible Hulk
Universal Pictures

The Incredible Hulk is the black sheep of the MCU family, the one movie that is rarely factored into the equation by both fans, and Marvel themselves - but it's still very much canon.

The emotional backbone of this solo Hulk story was Banner's relationship with Betty Ross, as they strived for normality in a world where having sex together would literally prove fatal for the female.

The two were infatuated with each other, but as the film ends they're forced to part ways, with Bruce's unusual powerset coming between them and a normal life.

That being said, the implication was that they'd bump into each other again at some point - you don't just forget about the love of your life. So what happened to Betty, and why doesn't Bruce seem bothered that the two haven't had any contact for years?

Banner's forced romance with Natasha Romanoff in Avengers: Age Of Ultron felt like a cheap way to cover up this prior relationship and separate Mark Ruffalo's Hulk from Ed Norton's. In reality, Banner would not just stop caring about Betty.

It's not even that he's incapable of loving another, or doesn't desire a normal life - he seems to care for Natasha very much - and the fact that his former lover hasn't been given so much as a passing mention is equal parts bewildering and out of character.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!