The big movie news this Memorial Day? Something I couldn’t care less about—Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk is set to appear in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” Cue the fanboys losing their minds.
Because what this cinematic universe really needed was more of the green rage monster showing up in someone else’s movie to awkwardly smirk through exposition dumps. It’s like Marvel’s just spinning a wheel of “who hasn’t hung out with Spider-Man yet?” and praying the nostalgia will keep people from noticing the half-assed plot.
And let’s not pretend this is some bold new storytelling move. It’s a glorified cameo dressed up as a “game-changing” moment. The MCU’s starting to feel like a group project where everyone keeps recycling the same three ideas and hoping the teacher doesn’t notice. Spoiler: we noticed.
There hasn’t been a solo Hulk movie since 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,” before that one we had Ang Lee’s polarizing “Hulk” (2003), but otherwise, the character has mostly shown up in ‘Avengers’ and ‘Captain America’ movies. Sure, rights issues have been a hurdle, but let’s be real—Disney has the money and power to sort that out if they really want to.