5 Heroes Marvel Saved By Getting The Movie Rights Back

Much like Captain America, the Hulk had some rather campy outings some time ago. There was the television show with Lou Ferrigno that ran from the late 70s to the early 80s, as well as a made for TV movie based off that show (which also featured Daredevil, interestingly enough.)

However, unlike Captain America, the Hulk's questionable on-screen past did not end there. In 2003, Universal Pictures released a film simply titled Hulk and it was criminally atrocious. The plot makes no sense, the characters were completely wrong, and the special effects were laughably awful.

When Marvel Studios regained the rights to the green giant back and planned to add him to the newly-formed Marvel Cinematic Universe shortly after the success of Iron Man, things would prove to get much better. However, it almost went completely wrong again.

The original script for The Incredible Hulk was terrible and it took interference by the film's star, Edward Norton, to make it into something presentable. Norton's acting as Bruce Banner was stellar and the effects were pretty great as well. As a result, the film has become arguably the single most underrated in the entire MCU. It still doesn't end there, however.

Bruce Banner has since been recast as Mark Ruffalo, who does a fantastic job in his own right and his alter-ego of the Hulk is very much on a roll. He played a big part in both Avengers films, helping to make some of the most memorable moments from each. He will also have a main role in the highly-anticipated Thor: Ragnarok, which is a team-up movie made in heaven.

Hulk's come a very long way.