In the 2008 movie, Betty’s dad, Gen. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, wants to harness Hulk’s power for the U.S. Army. Emil Blonsky, wants Hulk’s power for himself. In 2012’s The Avengers, Loki triggers Hulk to further his nefarious plans. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Wanda Maximoff (a bad guy for the moment) pushes Banner to become Hulk, forcing his fellow Avengers to rein him in. In Thor: Ragnarok, he’s been made a supersized gladiator. In every movie he appears in, someone’s trying to harness his power. And for a time they might be successful. But Hulk, like the biblical Behemoth, ultimately resists every hook.
When Banner shows up at Clint Barton’s (Hawkeye’s) house in Ultron, he sees an unattainable utopia. “I can’t have this, any of this!” he tells Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson. “there is no place on Earth I can go where I’m not a monster.”
But if he’s a monster, he’s a monster who’s saved many a person/city/superhero. He’s the Avengers’ trump card in any battle, the ace in the hole when you’re playing for all the chips.
“I have an army,” Loki brags to Tony Stark in The Avengers.
“We have a Hulk,” Tony counters.
Hulk isn’t just uber-powerful, either. He’s curiously tender, too. He protects Betty in The Incredible Hulk. He’s calmed by Natasha in the Avengers movies. Hulk, like King Kong, is a big ol’ softie when it comes to those he loves.
Bruce Banner may sometimes see Hulk as nothing more than a monster, a beast that should be shut away for good. But those of us in the audience … we know better.
Faith—or, more accurately, religion—is a little like that. And I think we find it especially so in Christianity.
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