MCU: Every Hulk Appearance Ranked Worst To Best

The first Avengers sequel struck a good narrative balance between Bruce and the Hulk. For his part, Bruce's relationship with Tony was explored a little more, the two paired up on a journey that led to both the arrival of Ultron and Vision in everyone's lives, and - love it or hate it - his newfound relationship with Natasha showcased his fears about being a terrible partner for anyone considering the monster inside of him.

As for the Hulk, we got to see the character at his most compliant, effectively working with the team in the opening mission, his most subdued, with Natasha managing to calm him down and turn him back into Bruce, and at his most dangerous, with Wanda's actions unhinging the character and setting him loose on Johannesburg, where his fight with Iron Man caused untold damage.

Ultimately, what Age of Ultron achieved was two-fold. One, the Hulk's actions in South Africa would later be used against the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War, raising the question of accountability for their actions.

Two, it forwarded the notion of the Hulk as a character with his own agency, as he saw the horror he caused after Wanda's magic dissipated - and before Tony knocked him out - and later actively chose to leave everyone behind in the Quinjet, revealing there was more to the green giant than just rage in a way that would later be capitalized upon by Thor: Ragnarok.