Arguably the Marvel Cinematic Universe's biggest character mistake can be undone in She-Hulk to give phase 4 viewers a more traditional version of the Incredible Hulk once more. The new Disney+ series is set to explore the intricacies of the Hulk's transformations from Bruce Banner into the powerful Avenger. Through Bruce's experiments with Jennifer Walters, Marvel Studios could finally undo one of the most controversial changes to any Avenger, fixing the character of the Hulk ahead of future MCU projects.
Avengers: Infinity War establishes that Bruce Banner and the Hulk are having problems cooperating after they are brutally beaten by Thanos. Hulk does not appear for the rest of the movie as Banner fights using the Hulkbuster Iron Man suit. In Avengers Endgame, Banner now controls the Hulk's body in a form known as "Smart Hulk." He explains that during the five years after the blip, he was able to control his transformations by working with gamma radiation. She-Hulk sees Banner undertake similar tests on his cousin, Jennifer, teaching her to control her transformations.
She-Hulk offers an easy way to bring back the MCU's "Savage Hulk" - the original personality that Bruce historically struggles with. As Bruce is testing on Jennifer, the MCU is spotlighting gamma radiation for the first time in years, providing the potential for a scientific malfunction and a return of the Savage Hulk personality, splitting the two apart once more. This is made more likely by the return of elements from The Incredible Hulk, including Tim Roth's Abomination and the post-credits scene in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which shows Bruce in his human form. The MCU phase 4 bringing back Abomination signals that Marvel is directly calling back to a time when Bruce and the Hulk were separate, while Shang-Chi proves that Bruce must be able to transform back to his human form if he has not split from the Hulk altogether.
While Bruce Banner's Smart Hulk is not a poorly written character, his presence diminishes much of what makes Bruce Banner an interesting hero. Since Avengers: Endgame, there has been none of the inner conflict and the Jekyll and Hyde personalities that make the Hulk such an interesting character within the MCU. The lack of a traditional Hulk is one of few criticisms sometimes leveraged at Endgame, as some viewers expected the green hero to get a rematch with Thanos, just as Thor and Iron Man did.
Splitting the Hulk and Banner into two characters does not need to undermine their development since The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers. However, by bringing back the Savage Hulk, Marvel opens the door to adapting critically acclaimed comic books like World War Hulk and Immortal Hulk, which cannot work with Bruce as Smart Hulk. The former story could even see an Earth-616 version of the Illuminati appear, while an Immortal Hulk adaptation could bring the terrifying Demon Hulk into the MCU. All of these stories could be promising MCU adaptations, but they first need She-Hulk to separate Bruce and the Hulk.
