2008's The Incredible Hulk Was A Bold Second Chapter For The MCU

As the MCU’s second film released the same year as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk had the job of proving that the prior 2008 movie wasn’t a fluke, and that Marvel Studios was indeed building toward a shared universe, one that would soon see the assembly of live-action Avengers for the first time.

When viewed as a singular movie, the film plays like a modern fugitive thriller, differentiating itself from Iron Man and many of the MCU movies that would come after it. At the same time, The Incredible Hulk also reinforces the promises made by Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury of a "bigger universe" in Iron Man's post-credits scene.

SHIELD does indeed have a background presence in the movie as General Ross uses various intelligence networks to track down Bruce Banner, while also injecting Emil Blonsky with attempted recreations of the Super Soldier Serum used to enhance Steve Rogers as Captain America, eventually turning Blonsky into the Abomination.

Additionally, Ross (originally played by the late William Hurt), is a very entertaining antagonist, obsessed with controlling and militarizing the highly dangerous gamma-derived power within Banner, which he fails to fully understand. That core flaw is something we see Ross hold onto throughout the MCU (even as recently as last year).

Most importantly, the movie's final scene, featuring Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark meeting with General Ross, doubled down on the idea that the Avengers Initiative was real and would soon be coming to the big screen. By the time credits roll, it genuinely feels like the shared universe concept is accelerating and off to the races.

The Incredible Hulk truly has one of the most peak MCU movie endings, one I remember had me so hyped when I first saw it 18 years ago, especially with the tease that Banner was learning to control his meaner and greener half.