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Don't tell my boss, but Captain America: Brave New World is the first MCU movie I've been excited to see in a minute. Firstly, because marketing has given it shades of Captain America: Winter Soldier (my favorite MCU film by a mile), and secondly, because like your pal and mine Trent Cannon, I'm thrilled to see Sam Wilson take on the mantle. But maybe the biggest reason? I'm just excited to see a Hulk that's a monster again.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to rag on Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner. I understand that the MCU writers had to work pieces of the Hulk's 60+ years of comic book history into one cohesive story that played nicely with every other character's. I'm just saying that the pieces the MCU left out have traditionally been my favorite parts of the Hulk, and since we'll probably never see those aspects return to Ruffalo's Banner, I'm thrilled to see them come through in Harrison Ford's Thunderbolt Ross.

And if you'll join me for a few minutes, I'll explain why.

With great power comes great instability

If you've spent any time reading my stuff on this site, you know I'm a little horror nerd. So when it comes to the plethora of mugs that have graced the comic book medium, I'm attracted to the ugliest, the monsters. But even beyond Hulk's status as one of Marvel's Most Monstrous, I think he represents something absolutely compelling (and maybe even essential) to the world of superheroes. That is: the flipside of power fantasies.

Great superhero storytelling often presents the audience with an uncomfortable dichotomy - a character with incredible power, and the incredible cost that power comes with. Look at Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan - a being that bends physics to his will, but who is either hated or feared by his Cold War Era world. And speaking of character's that are hated and feared, consider The X-Men, whose abilities make them outcasts. Even The Boys can be boiled down to this particular fable - though admittedly the cost of Homelander's powers are more on a global scale than personal. But even with all those excellent examples across the superhero spectrum, there are few characters in the genre that exemplify this idea better than the Hulk.

From the first Jack Kirby-drawn, Stan Lee-written panel the Hulk appeared in, his character was defined by this cost of his power. The Hulk can smash a tank when he's angry, but there's also a chance that he might smash Betty Ross too. He can become nigh-invincible, but at the price of being nigh-uncontrollable at the same time. Turning him into a character that can control himself (though it has plenty of comic book precedent, I know!) strips those stakes away, making the audience both more comfortable with Hulk's power and less enriched by the story.

Unless of course, the story you're watching is the Ang Lee Hulk.

Banner moments in cinematic history

OK, definitely don't tell my boss this: my love of the Hulk didn't even start with comics; it started with the pre-MCU (but Kevin Feige produced) 2003 Hulk movie, directed by Ang Lee and starring Eric Bana. And that movie, though flawed in a myriad of ways, holds to what I consider the core of the character. The Hulk's power in that movie is cool, sure but it's also scary. He spends half the movie hiding in the shadows, a green-glowing silhouette that, with a few less muscles and a bit more fur, might as well be a werewolf.

(Quick aside on that note - one of the characters in the 2003 Hulk is Major Glenn Talbot, played by Josh Lucas. For years, I didn't know that he was a pre-established Marvel character, and I believed his name to be a reference to Larry Talbot, the titular character played by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1941's The Wolf Man. Who knows? Maybe Jack and Stan did that on purpose.)

Having discovered The Hulk in 2003, but with no local comic book store to turn to, my next experience with the character came from Walmart-bought DVDs of the 1978 Incredible Hulk series, which I maintain is still one of the best shows based on a Marvel property to ever air on TV. You didn't want for monstrosity in that show; Bill Bixby trembling in those bright green contacts was chilling enough, even if it wasn't followed by the legendary 'shirt ripping' effect just seconds later.

I guess even had I never discovered Hulk comics, I still would've raised an eyebrow to watching the Green Goliath calmly hand over tacos to Paul Rudd. But the thing is... I did discover Hulk comics.

Journey into Monstrosity

Despite the characters's turn-for-the-nicer on the big screen, the past six years in comic book Hulkdom have been as monstrous and horror-centric as they ever have been. Starting with the Al Ewing written, (mostly) Joe Bennett-drawn series The Immortal Hulk, Bruce Banner's powers have never been less of a source of fantasy, unless your fantasy is revulsive body horror and the existential threat of never dying (not judging if that's what you're into, though - you do you).

Not long after that came the Phillip Kennedy Johnson-written, (mostly) Nic Klein-drawn Incredible Hulk series in 2023. Even though the character is a little bit more of a traditional superhero in the currently ongoing series, he is a hero in a Hellish landscape, the price of his power being that it must be used to stave off the worst horrors of the Marvel U, all without becoming one (re-becoming one?) himself.

The MCU being what it is now, the likes of Immortal Hulk and his horror-leaning successor are almost certainly not going to be part of the House of Ideas interconnected cinematic universe. There are pros to that, as Im sure many bigger Hulk fans than I can tell you, but there are cons to it too. For me personally, there’s even a kind of missed opportunity, a chance opportunity to make the superhero genre a little bit wiser that has been lost. Fortunately, though, like the title of Captain America, Hulkiness does not belong to one human being.

And I'm hoping the next Hulk we meet will be the least human of them all. 

Captain America: Brave New World comes to theaters February 14.

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters