Film Marvel Cinematic Universe

What? The Incredible Hulk is canon to the MCU? What sorcery is this? Betty Ross doesn't exist. There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

 

It was a joke because I'm still pissed about how Joss Whedon basically threw aside what Betty and Bruce had in TIH in favor of that awful forced romance between Nat and Bruce in AOU.

Bruce has a girlfriend, people. And don't tell me she wouldn't have been on the first flight to Wakwanda when she saw what Wanda made Hulk do to calm him down B(

 

except the romance wasn't forced
it was completely natural and one of the better things of the movie

 

I dunno, it was pretty left field, and even Scarjo thought it was weird.

If you skip to 0:35, you'll hear her say it doesn't feel like they'd be at this point, and I definitely agree. It didn't have anything leading up to it, and was just kinda there because JW wanted it to be. There definitely COULD be something there, I always thought so from the first Avengers movie, but it was too sudden in this one. They should be able to talk about their pasts without having to be in love.

I just hate the way Natasha was written in this film, especially after The Winter Soldier. She was so great in that one.

 

It's strange. Winter Soldier is still my favorite Marvel movie, but it's in that one that Black Widow was weird to me.
Personally, I thought the romance was natural and we just didn't see the development, but Widow and Banner have known each other for three years now and, according to Age of Ultron the Avengers have been hunting Hydra. They have developed together, we just haven't seen it. Now whether or not I would have liked to see that development is another thing, but none of that felt forced to me. Unlike the CapXWidow ship from Winter Soldier. We could even talk about how Widow is unique to Hulk and Banner as opposed to the rest of the Avengers; she's the first either of them met and there was a form of...loose trust between the three. Or maybe I'm looking too much into what they did in the first film.

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff has been canceled (though it hadn't really started).

 

Honestly the lack of seeing that development is probably ey I see it as forced, even if it isn't. I just think it's a bit much right now.

 

Banner and Stark are seen as the "science bros" and they haven't really shown much of the development there either, but no one complains about that. I mean, except for the fact that they're both scientists and Stark was probably the only one who wasn't afraid of Banner turning into the Hulk for the whole first movie, then he uses Banner as his own personal therapist for all of one scene that Banner slept through, and suddenly, in AoU, they're best buds and even built Ultron and Vision together. There's a lot of implied development, but not much that we actually saw.
Dr. Cho is the same thing: she just shows up as an established character that they all trust, but we didn't need to see how she got to that point.
I understand that it's a little bit different because the relationship is between two main characters, one of which is the female lead, but...so? Again, not saying that I wouldn't have liked to see the development myself, but I didn't see it as forced at all. It seems like everyone is either not reading into the relationship as much as they should (but then read way too much into the "monster" comment) or projecting some personal opinion into the film.

 

There's a lack of development because the relationship is just beginning to bud. It feels sudden because this is where it starts. The lack of development with their relationship is intentional -- there's none to see, this is the development. The only thing that's kind of odd and I don't fully understand is the lullaby. Where did that come from? How did they figure it out? Why is she the only one who can do it? What even is it? I mean I know she established some connection with Hulk in the first one, though I wonder if that wasn't expounded enough between then and now, but even still I can kind buy that there's something there.

 

I don't think it's so much as the beginning, but it's still in its early stages (and depending on where they pick up, it might not ever make it any further). The thing that bothers me about the lullaby is that it's implied that only she can do it, which I took to mean that the other Avengers clearly see their budding relationship, but at the party scene, Banner and Rogers' conversation implied that the relationship hasn't began at all. That's the only inconsistency I found.
I'm more disappointed that Banner and Cap haven't had a heart-to-heart about the Hulk's relationship to the Supersoldier Project and I would have liked to see Thor and Hulk fight together as the two powerhouses. I remember the previous Avengers cartoon series where Thor first fought Hulk and cried out "Midgard has trolls?!" Something like that -an Asgardian acknowledgement of Hulk since he did clobber a god last film- would have been nice considering that Thor does seem to admire Hulk's strength.

 

Only posting this because I found it hilarious and relevant:

http://sergeantbuchanan.co.vu/post/118626002579/vorobey008-were-gonna-be-okay-right-ah

I mean look at that romance.

Either way I think what makes it seem forced to me is the lullaby. I don't mind off-screen development but with inconsistencies like that... Eugh.

I mainly disagree with it because I wouldn't have written the characters like that but eh

 

I admit, I do think the romance between Banner and Black Widow (yes, Banner, not Hulk. They're two different characters) is kinda forced, but the amount of people complaining that the writing was sexist makes me scratch my head.

Yes, she calls herself a monster, but there's more reason for it than her being sterile. Yes, she is captured by Ultron and relies on the other Avengers to break her out, but she still takes the initiative to alert the Avengers to where she is. Not to mention that no one tries to relegate her to more passive roles and is treated and portrayed as an equal to the other Avengers in both role and skill at kicking Chitauri, HYDRA and Ultron ass.

The real sexism around the movie is Marvel and Hasbro's extremely frustrating and constant erasure of Black Widow from the marketing and merchandising for the MCU. Seriously, since Iron Man 2, Marvel and Hasbro have avoided using her for marketing and there's really no excuse for it.