Even 14 years later, The Avengers is still revealing intriguing secrets. For the first two phases of the MCU, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk was a hero without purpose: a stripped nerve, by his own assessment, whose very existence represented a threat to both the Avengers and the Earth. It was only during the events of Thor: Ragnarok that Hulk really found his purpose, and that came at the cost of Banner living his life, but his return to Earth once more dropped him into a maelstrom of personal conflict.
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But what if I told you that Hulk and Banner were always fated for a higher purpose? What if I told you that the sacrifice Hulk made in Avengers: Endgame to use the Nano Gauntlet and save billions from the abyss was set up 7 years earlier? Because, way back in 2012 in The Avengers, a conversation between Tony Stark and Bruce Banner proved to be hauntingly prescient for what would follow in Avengers: Endgame. Almost like the MCU’s first team-up set Bruce’s higher purpose years before it even happened.
How The Avengers Predicted Hulk’s “Higher Purpose”
When Stark tells Banner he’ll be joining the Avengers on the battlefield to face Loki, he says, “I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed, like a nerve. It’s a nightmare,” and then says the difference between the Hulk and Stark’s Iron Man armor is control, as he reveals his fears about losing it. Stark is typically blasรฉ about it:
Stark: “Hey, I’ve read all about your accident. That much Gamma exposure should have killed you.”
Banner: “So you’re saying that the Hulk, the other guy, saved my life? That’s nice. It’s a nice sentiment. Save it for what?”
Stark: “I guess we’ll find out.”
At this point, there was obviously no way Hulk could have known that Banner’s unique powers and physiognomy would have been the game-changing in bringing back Thanos’ Snap victims, but Bruce’s battle with purpose gets sharper definition here. Particularly when you consider that Hulk saving his life during the original Gamma explosion was just as important to the outcome of Endgame as the rat freeing Ant-Man. It feels far better to think that Banner was rescued from a Gamma bombardment that would have killed anyone else because the universe had grand designs for him.
That idea also rather pleasantly matches the idea of Tony Stark’s dark fate to take on the final, fatal Snap of Endgame too. As Doctor Strange told Stark, there could only ever be one way to defeat Thanos, and Stark’s sacrifice being the key event, just as Hulk being the one to use the Nano Gauntlet is a hugely rewarding reflection. Particularly as it somewhat absolves Strange of his quickly disproven miscalculation that Thanos was undefeatable any other way. If fate was the real decider, and Hulk’s destiny adds evidence, then we can all happily accept that Tony’s sacrifice was never a mistake.
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