10 Things That Will Never Happen In The Marvel Cinematic Universe‏

2. Bruce Banner Trying To Kill Himself

Brian Azzarello and Richard Corben's Startling Stories: Banner is an unjustly forgotten story in those creators' histories, and in the ever-changing world of its "hero", too. We say "hero" because at no point in Startling Stories is the Hulk shown as anything approaching a superhero. He's more an unstoppable force of nature, a natural disaster, with property damage and a body count to match. The Hulk travels across the US like an unending Hurricane Katrina, causing widespread devastation and killing thousands. After one of these spectacularly bad moods, Bruce Banner realises what he's done as his Hyde-like alter ego and decides the best thing to do is kill himself. So he climbs up to the top of a cliff, sticks the barrel of a shotgun in his mouth, and pulls the trigger. When he wakes up, he realises that he immediately Hulked out and has killed even more innocent victims during his rampage. So yeah. Startling Stories: Banner is incredibly bleak, a dark and brooding take on the uncontrollable monster hidden inside man, and our inability to quench its bloody march forward. Which doesn't sound much like the chilled and charming portrayal of Banner we've seen most recently on screen, courtesy of Mark Ruffalo. Marvel have had trouble deciding what to do with the Hulk in film. That's why he's been rebooted/recast three times in the course of a decade, rapidly shedding first Eric Bana and then Edward Norton before they got to Ruffalo. There's also no Hulk solo movie on the slate for the second or even third "phases" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe grand plan. Startling Stories is certainly a novel take on the character, but we doubt kids will want to buy an action figure of a mass murderer. Then again, it worked for Man of Steel...