Avengers Doomsday: Future Imperfect

 

    Hello everyone, Hector here again! Hope you're all having an amazing day, and today, I have another topic regarding Avengers Doomsday and or Secret Wars, more specifically on one of my favorite characters ever, The Incredible Hulk and how he'll factor into the story. There's been a lot of discussions regarding the many potential characters we'll see in Avengers Doomsday and after Seeing Avengers Endgame Encore, as well as his memorable appearance in Spider-Man Brand New Day, it got me thinking on what we could expect to see next regarding the Green Goliath. If this theory is true in any regard, it will be so exciting to see play out! Spoilers for Spider-Man Brand New Day, Avengers Endgame Encore, other various Marvel films, and potential spoilers for Avengers Doomsday and or Secret Wars, as well as elements from the comic books, particularly the storyline, Future Imperfect. 

    The Hulk/Bruce Banner has had an interesting road in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with being a part of the Avengers to fighting Thor on Sakaar to being the one to bring the half of the whole universe being snapped away back into existence with the Infinity Stones, and training his cousin, Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, on being a superhero. In his most recent appearance in Spider-Man Brand New Day, we see Peter Parker go to Bruce Banner at a college he teaches at to get some information on how to handle mutations and keep the more dangerous aspects at bay. In the film, though also explained in She-Hulk, we see that Bruce has an Inhibitor device to keep the Hulk from coming out. However, Bruce's Inhibitor devices break as later on, we see Jean Grey possessing Bruce into fighting Spider-Man/Peter and Punisher. Bruce manages to stop Jean from possessing him, only for Hulk to emerge once again! 

    

    This leads into Hulk and Spider-Man having a brief but phenomenal battle where Spider-Man tries to stop Hulk, only for him to be nearly beat to death. However, Spider-Man encourages Bruce/Hulk to stop, saying that he is his friend. Hulk sees that Spider-Man is scared for his life and sees his reflection, realizing what he's doing is wrong and decides to let himself fall. Bruce is sent to a psychiatric hospital after his transformation into the Hulk, which is the last we see of him in the film. For a while, we thought this would be Hulk's only appearance as of 2026, but if you saw Avengers Endgame Encore, we got a post credit scene where we see what Bruce is up to after the events of Brand New Day.

    In the scene, we see that Bruce is recording himself to show his progress on fixing his issue with Hulk in a military bunker that's a couple of miles down from the psychiatric hospital he was in. He seems to be close to curing himself, only for the room to turn green, as we hear Doctor Doom's voice, "Mr. Banner, I'm here to collect you." As it happens, Hulk's voice is heard, indicating that Bruce has transformed into Hulk and the camera falls, where the only thing that the camera picks up is a floor with green runes. Many of us are now wondering what Doom wants with Hulk and whether or not he'll be in Avengers Doomsday. 

    More than likely, Doom wants the Hulk as a weapon, but this is where things get interesting. If you read my last blog post where I mentioned the idea of the Avengers being evil (or Dark Avengers if you want to call them that), I wrote that Doom noticed how bad things has been in the Multiverse, thanks to how Steve Rogers messed with time, and now, he wants to create order through his rule. Doom finds out how the Avengers used time travel to undo what Thanos did in Infinity War, as they refused to move on from the circumstances and because the Avengers used the Infinity Stones to bring back the half that was snapped out of existence, it threw things off balance. In a sense, Doom sees Steve and the other Avengers are living stolen lives, but you know whose life was stolen as well? Hulk! 

    

    While there's no doubt in anyone's mind that Doom sees Hulk as a weapon, he also understands the pain that Hulk has went through as he knows what it's like to have everything taken away by someone. For nearly 10 years, Bruce has locked away the Hulk, at least until Jean came along. Bruce had good intentions, but his approach to the Hulk wasn't healthy as despite his temper and destructive powers, Hulk is his own person with his own wants and needs. He may be much at times with his powers, but Hulk is by no means evil, just misunderstood. And there's no better demonstration than his appearance in Thor Ragnarok! 

    For two years or arguably even longer since time works differently, Hulk lived on Sakaar as a gladiator fighting many creatures. We only get a glimpse of it, but it's clear that the people of Sakaar love and admire him, so much so that they would celebrate him by making a bunch of Hulk themed items and worship him as if he's a God, unlike on Earth where most of the people hated and fear him. Interestingly enough as well, it's the only movie where we actually hear Hulk talk in sentences rather than growling, roaring, and the occasional word due to him being on Sakaar for a while. Eventually, we find out in She-Hulk that he has a son, Skaar, so it's clear that Hulk had a happy life on Sakaar, but Bruce, who admittedly had every reason to be freaked out, left the planet. Granted, he did return to Sakaar at some point in She-Hulk, but based on what we saw, we really didn't see or at least get to see Hulk's perspective on coming back to Sakaar. 

    

    But going back a bit in the timeline, we see Hulk show up in the beginning of Infinity War where he fights Thanos, only to take a horrible beating at the start to show how much of a threat Thanos truly was. Afterwards, Hulk never shows up again, leading to many of the audience and fans believing that Hulk was so scared of Thanos, but that's not the case. According to the Russo Brothers, the Hulk never came back to fight because he was tired of being used as a weapon for Bruce and the Avengers as that's all they really saw him as. While it's not as explored as it could have been, though there was a lot happening in the movie, it makes sense in the grand scheme of things as Hulk said that Earth hates Hulk and the Avengers, save for Captain America, Thor (though somewhat debatable) and Black Widow/Natasha, they valued more Bruce rather than the Hulk. And it isn't fair as both Bruce and the Hulk both bring something valuable to the team as Bruce has the brains, while Hulk has the brawns! 

    

    As of now, we don't know whether or not Doom knows everything that happened to the Hulk/Bruce, but for the sake of the theory, let's say he knows or at least has an idea of how Hulk feels being locked away for a long time. Doom is creating his own team, the Dark Avengers, and he needs a team in order to make sure everyone falls in line with the world he is creating. With how powerful Hulk is, he would be a huge asset to the team, and what better way to gain Hulk's trust by offering him the life he lost?! And unlike how Bruce approached curing himself, Doom would give him a cure of sorts, by properly merging both Hulk and Bruce, becoming Maestro! 

    

    For anyone unfamiliar with Maestro, he's a future version of Hulk who first appeared in the Hulk comic book storyline, Future Imperfect, where Maestro is the dictator of a Dystopian Earth and Hulk is sent to the future to stop him. Maestro has Bruce's intelligence along with Hulk's strength, but unlike the Hulk, he's cruel, calculating, and has no regard for anyone other than himself. Based on the trajectory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars however, as well as the dark nature of Maestro, it's unlikely that they'll adapt Future Imperfect one to one. That being said, the films can use aspects of the storyline and Maestro, much like how Thor Ragnarok adapted elements of Planet Hulk, such as Hulk/Maestro being a dictator of sorts, though working with Doom and his Dark Avengers in order to save the Multiverse, painting him in a more sympathetic lite, and Hulk/Maestro can have a beard (which we saw Bruce sporting one in the mid-credits scene of Avengers Endgame Encore). Interestingly enough, Maestro may have been foreshadowed in Spider-Man Brand New Day. 

    

    When Jean took control of Bruce, his mannerisms were more methodical and cold, yet a sense of anger that's lingering within him. It was all mind-control by Jean, but I wouldn't be surprised if the filmmakers were testing the waters to a more villainous yet smart version of Hulk that could be used later down the line. Mark Ruffalo said as long as they keep doing new and interesting things with the Hulk character, he'll come back to play the role again and playing a version of the character that's villainous and smart would really give Mark something unique to play around with. If what we saw in Brand New Day is any indication, we may be in for something truly horrifying yet incredible because seeing Hulk as a villain would give the Avengers and other heroes a fight they will never forget. The Hulk has fought many of the heroes before, but he was essentially a rampaging bull that fought anything he saw as a threat, so seeing a Hulk that's in control of his actions and against the Avengers would be crazy to see, but in the best way imaginable! 

    Despite him being a wild card, Hulk was usually seen as the one that saves the day or gives the Avengers a winning advantage. With how high the stakes are already in Avengers Doomsday with Doom being the most powerful threat the heroes have ever faced and the Multiverse collapsing, the idea of the strongest Avenger being on the side of the enemy would be shocking yet exciting to see play out and truly raise the stakes even higher than before. This also gives the Russos an opportunity to redeem themselves in how they treated Hulk as while Infinity War and Endgame were phenomenal, Hulk sadly got the short end of the stick. But with how big Doomsday and Secret Wars are, the Russos and the filmmakers won't have to hold back on Hulk this time around and truly show how powerful Hulk is. The Hulk is generally seen as a tragic character, and with Hulk re-emerging in Spider-Man Brand New Day, there's a lot of potential drama with Hulk's current position in regard to how he feels about the situation, along with Doom and the rest of the cast. 

    Speaking of the cast, with the Hulk being on Doom's side, it would be the most ideal to give us the fight many Marvel fans have been waiting for, The Incredible Hulk vs The Thing! This has been a match that has been long overdue as it's one of the most iconic rivalries in fiction, yet while we've seen it adapted in various cartoons, we have yet to see it happen on the big screen. From what has been seen in the marketing, as exciting as it is to see The Thing and the rest of the Fantastic Four go up against Doctor Doom, it doesn't feel big enough for The Thing. The Thing has fought many villains and giant creatures before and more than likely, Doom will see fighting Thing as beneath him. 

    Beyond that, based on the marketing and how massive the cast is, as powerful as Doom is, he can't be everywhere all at once (unless he's using Doombots). With the movie being focused on the Multiverse, the movie will more than likely jump from one world to another, similar to how Infinity War jumped from one location to another. We have the main Marvel Universe, Earth 199999 (I'm not calling it Earth 616), the X-Men Movie Universe, Earth 10005, the Fantastic Four's world, Earth 828, and probably more. The heroes will split up to stop Doom from taking over the Multiverse, so to stick more with that Dark Avengers theory, Doom will need some assistance since his plan is on a scale that's too massive for just one person. 

    In the trailers, we see The Thing meet up with M'Baku, with Invisible Woman being with Shuri/Black Panther, the Wakandans, some of the Avengers, Namor, and his people from Talokan. Meanwhile, Mr. Fantastic will be with some of the Avengers like Yelena/Black Widow, Captain America, Shang-Chi, and the X-Men, indicating that the cast will be split up to deal with whatever Doom has in store. Wakanda and Talokan will more than likely be where The Thing will be, along with Namor, who are arguably the more powerful members of their respective teams. All of the heroes need to fight someone that isn't just Doctor Doom, which is where the Hulk comes in, as Doom will send him to Wakanda to take care of the heroes there. 

    The Hulk showing up in Wakanda to fight The Thing would not only be insane and fun to see play out, but it would also be a prime opportunity to revisit the unused idea of Hulk showing up in Wakanda in Infinity War. The Hulk was seen in marketing, with him busting out of the Hulkbuster Iron Man armor and fight in Wakanda, but the filmmakers decided to cut it as they wanted the whole Avengers team to be at a disadvantage. Remember that amazing moment in Infinity War when Thor shows up and everyone in the theater was cheering? Imagine this situation: The Thing and the other heroes are taking on whatever Doom has in store in Wakanda, where it looks like they might have a chance, then suddenly, someone jumps into the battle and instead of hope, there's a sense of dread as we see the other heroes get quickly defeated by a new challenger. We see from the Thing's perspective, looking concerned but ready to fight, wondering who has arrived, only to see that the Hulk has come in to stop the heroes from sabotaging Doom's plan, with a more reserved demeanor yet sense of anger ready to burst at any moment and more powerful than ever! 

    This is all speculation as at the time of writing this, it's not 100% confirmed whether or not Mark Ruffalo will be in the movie and nothing has been rumored regarding The Thing or Hulk. That being said, with this being The Thing's next appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Fantastic 4: First Steps, along with the Hulk always being in an Avengers movie and how massive Doomsday and Secret Wars are shaping up to be, the timing couldn't be better to see these iconic characters slug it out! I would love to see it happen, but regardless of whether or not it happens, Avengers Doomsday is shaping up to be a truly historic event in cinematic history and the moment Doomsday arrives, I'll be there! Thank you so much for reading this and hope y'all stay safe. Hopefully I'll be back to post more blogs in the near future.