5 Weird Places Marvel Movies Won't Dare Go

Planet Hulk!

Greg Pak's epic Planet Hulk arc is, along with the subsequent World War Hulk, a highly entertaining story well told. And, within the context of books themselves, it makes sense and blends perfectly with the surrounding Marvel Universe. However, this is exactly the sort of crazy ass thing they could never pull off in the movies. The general gist is thus: Hulk has become so much of a liability on Earth, following numerous rampages on various American cities, that his friends* (naturally) decide to jettison him into space and send him to another planet. However a freak wormhole/portal thing prevents him from reaching the intended peaceful planet and instead sees him land on an extremely violent warring world ruled by an evil and cruel emperor. Weakened by his journey through the portal, Hulk is enslaved by the emperor and forced to battle as a gladiator. However he regains his strength and - over a dozen or so issues - fights a bloody war to dethrone the tyrant, alongside new allies the Warbound: former gladiators from various alien races. After defeating the emperor Hulk is crowned the Green King of the planet, gets married and conceives a child. Then - just as he attains inner peace and contentment - the wreckage of his friends' spaceship unexpectedly malfunctions, destroying most of the planet and killing his wife along with millions of inhabitants. Hulk then gets on the next ship back to Earth determined to have his revenge on those who sent him into exile in the first place. He then wages a brutal war against the heroes of Earth... and so on. I think you can already see why this isn't going to work as a movie. But here are a few reasons nonetheless. For one thing, the movie Hulk has never displayed the amount of sentience and reason that the comic book one does - rarely speaking - so this tale of a Hulk wedding and the strategised conquest of another world would not conceivably work. Another reason you won't see this on the big screen is that it's essentially John Carter with Hulk replacing Taylor Kitsch, so Disney won't want to go there any time soon. But mostly - and I do love this book - it's because the story is plainly, to quote movie-Banner, mad as a bag of cats. Especially when the Silver Savage (a similarly enslaved Silver Surfer) just so happens to turn up as one of Hulk's arena opponents. *The oft-ridiculed Marvel version of the Illuminati - represented on this instance by Tony Stark, Black Bolt (leader of the moon-dwelling Inhumans), Doctor Strange and the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards - retconned into existence during the last decade as a secret force behind major events in history.
Contributor
Contributor

A regular film and video games contributor for What Culture, Robert also writes reviews and features for The Daily Telegraph, GamesIndustry.biz and The Big Picture Magazine as well as his own Beames on Film blog. He also has essays and reviews in a number of upcoming books by Intellect.