MCU: The Snap and the 15 defining moments from Marvel’s Infinity Saga

12. Hulk loses to Thanos

Movie: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Hulk has been the strongest Avenger since day one. Anyone who went up against him lost. That was until he met Thanos. Thanos gave Big Green a beating he’d never forget. It was so bad that Banner couldn’t transform back into the Hulk for the remainder of the film. It was like the Hulk was too scared.

Five years later, we see that Bruce and the Hulk are one. All of Bruce’s intelligence and the Hulk’s strength (minus the rage). People may miss the old rage monster, but they couldn’t have set the universe back in order without smart Hulk.

Tony Stark was the one who figured out time travel, but it was Banner who returned the dusted people of the universe. Thor was the only person physically strong enough to do the snap. However, Thor was weak from eating and drinking himself into a stupor for five years. The rest of the Avengers were mortals. None of them have the strength to snap their fingers and set the world back. If Banner was the old Hulk, he wouldn’t have understood what he needed to do, but Banner  pointed out that there’s gamma in the Infinity Stones. Since his body is mostly gamma, it only made sense that he was the one to reset the world.

This is one of those moments that seemed small, but was significant. The child-like and rage monster would have been useless during any of the missions they went on as well. There’s no way he could have gotten the stone from the Ancient One. She would have cast him out-of-the-way instead of knocking his soul out of him.