5 Ways That Marvel Destroyed Bruce Banner's Character In Avengers: Endgame
1. Everything Interesting About His Relationship With The Hulk Has Been Destroyed
The whole point of Bruce’s character is that he’s a timid scientist forced to share a persona with an aggressive, simply-spoken monster. In Ragnarok, he spends years as a more intelligent Hulk that he can’t remember being once he’s Bruce again.
In Infinity War, the struggle between the two creates an interesting dynamic in terms of how far Bruce has come from having to hold Hulk back despite the fact that he’s “always angry” to begging him to come out and fight. In Endgame, the Hulk has essentially been killed. Bruce says he combined “the brain and the brawn” to create what he saw as the best version of the two, but it leaves a large number of possible ways to properly explore this struggle impossible.
Originally Infinity War was supposed to introduce the compromise between the two characters, as screenwriter Stephen McFeely explained, “His arc was designed like, I’m not getting along with the Hulk, the Hulk won’t come out. And then they compromise and become Smart Hulk” while in Wakanda. It was scrapped due to the belief that the story fit better in Endgame rather than the third act of Infinity War.
The issue is that the entire emotional crux of his character is gone. He no longer fights with the idea of being a monster who struggles to determine where and when he should let him flourish. At least if the story had taken place in Infinity War in the heat of battle it would have made sense in terms of it being necessary for Bruce to fight for the lives of everyone in the universe.
Holding it back until Endgame after the desperate fight has ended means the Hulk is now just Banner’s personality completely dominant in a big green body, used to his celebrity advantage in the interim five years. It’s an extreme change for a character arc we never truly saw run its course due to its removal when it would have made the most sense.
Imagine if by the time the sequel to Venom comes out, Eddie Brock has just miraculously learned to tame Venom’s personality and is now just Eddie Brock able to transform into a black goo creature whenever he wants with no personality clashes with what makes Venom truly Venom. It wouldn’t be good.
Like a turd floating on the wind, you might say.