That’s the fucking problem with the Superman archetype. “How do you do it well?”
I think they really did The Hulk dirty running up to the end of the last chapter, really. They should have pit him against enemies that required his specific power level, and forced him to become more fully one with his rage, learning that his rage and strength were absolutely connected and how angry he got could elevate his power. Instead? They neutered him twice and chucked him out a window.
He should have been more able to stand up to Thanos, even with the power stone, and instead been cast out of his Hulk body in that fight, somehow, which would have been a better source of his PTSD than ‘being weaker’ by default. If Thanos didn’t have the mind stone by that point, reorganize everything to be when he did have it, and somehow use that stone to separate Bruce from the hulk, and revert him to Bruce before tossing him aside like a sack of potatoes. Hell, the reality stone would have worked in a similar fashion, just spaghettifi him, until Thanos leaves and that’s PTSD enough for someone as powerful as the Hulk and also a scientist who just saw himself turn to spaghetti. The Hulk is just like Superman, right? Brute strength? And we’ve already acknowledged that spiritual abilities can neuter the hulk, right? (Separating his spirit from his body). Then magic… could have easily neutered him and MADE SENSE!! (Especially since Superman doesn’t have any resistance to magic, same thing.) Instead of brute strength, when even Ironman and CPT America tanked at least 1 hit from the guy.
They then did the same with CPT Marvel by writing her off as ‘being away’ and ‘uninformed about a true galactic threat’ when that’s her whole fucking shtick, the whole reason she was away and missed it. Not to mention the Eternals!!! Wtf… we could have had significantly better writing devoted to where they were and why they weren’t there. Hell, drop Easter eggs during the other chapters about the heroes you are going to bring in in the future.
The writing got ridiculously poor near the end of the Thanos saga/chapter.
Hulk was mostly accepted due to comedy and Mark Ruffalo. He's another Paul Rudd type person.
Marvel as the lead can't be the clown. Ruffalo can't fix the suit. It would take to long for a new one.
I want a three tier system with adult, dark, and kids MCU. You can do a combo massive team up every 10 yrs or so. Team ups can be FF style (dumb and explosions) or John Wick style (high and long action).
Counterpoint: Thor.
He blasted lightning out of his hammer, flew, didn’t require oxygen, and had godly strength. He was placed alongside:
A guy who can fly in a metal suit.
A guy without a jetpack who throws a shield
A guy who gets big and angry
A regular guy with a bow and arrow
A regular chick with a gun
At the time of this team up, Thor was still a cocky jock who had about as much character development as Captain Marvel has had to this point. But no one was concerned about Thor ruining the MCU.
Yes people hate Brie bc she's a women or she appears to be a bitch. Will I say she is my favorite actor, no. Better then Joe McHale or Aziz Ansari. However, she does a great job with Captain Marvel.
DC had the same issue that the MCU is running into. The lead shouldn't be your god killer. Maybe they do a "with all this power I failed bc I didn't play to everyone's strengths," story.
If Hulk or Thor lead, it would be the same issue. The eternals failed for the same reason. "We have a fast girl, a guy that has finger guns, and someone that kills a literal god." It felt empty and pointless from the other members view point. Imagine Hawkeye getting killed by a bullet with the Hulk, Sentry, and Dr. Strange standing next to him. You would question why he's there.