For over a decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has all but retconned its sophomore installment, 2008’sThe Incredible Hulk. However, that trend has changed over the course of the past month. On Disney+,She-HulkreintroducedTim Roth’s Emil Blonsky—a.k.a. Abomination—in its second episode, and they even referenced the recasting of Bruce Banner fromEdward NortontoMark Ruffaloin the covert form of a joke. Even more recently, Disney revealed thatTim Blake Nelsonwould reprise his role as Dr. Samuel Sterns in the form ofThe Leader in 2024’sCaptain America: New World Order, thus promising delivery on a 14-year cliffhanger. With theseIncredible Hulkcharacters reentering the MCU, its lack of acknowledgment of the film’s most important figures is more noticeable than ever.
Betty Ross—as played byLiv Tyler—was easily the most significant character inThe Incredible Hulkafter the titular hero. Not only was she Banner’s closest collaborator, but she was also his love interest, as taken from the comics. Despite this, she is again never heard from in the franchise, except for the briefest of appearances inWhat If…Episode 3. Now thatThe Incredible Hulkis finally getting proper recognition within the MCU, it seems time for Betty Ross' long overdue return.
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Hulk’s First Love
The Incredible Hulkintroduced Betty as early as the opening credits. Flashbacks reveal that she was there when Bruce first became the Hulk, and when Bruce hiding in South America he keeps a picture of her on his desk, making the possibility of seeing her again one of his strongest motivators to cure himself. By the time Bruce returns to the United States in the film, Betty is one of his only allies. She leaves her husband and risks everything to get him to safety and rekindle their relationship. Throughout, she is a strong, smart, and compassionate character, and her romantic chemistry with Banner is palpable.
As aforementioned, that chemistry is comics-accurate. Betty Ross has been Bruce’s primary love interest since Hulk first debuted in 1962’sThe Incredible Hulk #1. She is to Hulk what Mary Jane is to Spider-Man or Lois Lane is to Superman. While the MCU sometimes downplays the romantic subplots from their comic book source material, this is a uniquely odd case, for they already established the romance within the universe, but then proceeded to ignore it. By the time Banner returned in 2012’sThe Avengers, Betty did not even get a mention, and by Hulk’s subsequent appearance in 2014’sAvengers: Age of Ultron, he wascourting Black Widow as if she was his first love.
Now that Black Widow is gone, though, it’s high time for Bruce’s true first love to reemerge. After all, despite the praise Natasha receives for calming Hulk down inAge Of Ultron, Betty is able to adequately soothe him inThe Incredible Hulk, well before Bruce had developed any control over his monstrous alter-ego. As a brilliant scientist and someone who has been there from the beginning, she is clearly the one best suited for Bruce. Moreover, now that Bruce has more autonomy over himself and his situation, their relationship could truly prosper. In the comics, the two even end up getting married.
Betty Ross As Red Hulk
Also in the comics, Betty has a supernatural arc of her own, which could make for compelling screen content. Before marrying Bruce, Betty gets injected with gamma radiation herself, becoming the villainous Harpy against her will. Later, she dies from gamma radiation but mysteriously returns as the Red She-Hulk. As this alter-ego, she faces off not just against Banner, but also against Jennifer Walters, the original She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany). Since Walters is now canon in the MCU, the franchise should tap into her vast wealth of narratives, villains, and conflicts, and as exemplified onShe-Hulkso far, her intriguing stories seem to be the ones that also involve Bruce. Betty Ross as Red She-Hulk is thus a prime figure to bring into the fold.
On the topic of Red Hulks—a riveting comic concept that the MCU has not yet used—the original Red Hulk is none other than General Thaddeus Ross, Betty’s father. Strangely, General Ross is one of the fewIncredible Hulkcharacters who has recurred in the MCU. He made appearances inCaptain America: Civil War,Avengers: Infinity War, andBlack Widow, all without even mentioning his daughter or the fact that she used to date one of the Avengers' founding members. However, General Ross' MCU appearances may be entirely in the rearview now, as the actor who played him,William Hurt, recently passed away. Sadly, this means we may not get to see the original Red Hulk come to fruition in the MCU, and we also won’t get to see a Betty-Thaddeus reunion as depicted by their original actors. At the same time, though, Betty Ross could fill a certain void in General Ross’s absence. While Betty was never a military person in the comics, and she rarely saw eye-to-eye with her father, the pair did have moments of collaboration, especially when they both became Red Hulks. If the MCU does go down the road of Red Hulks, Betty could thus be the point of entry. If executed appropriately, it could even be a subtle tribute to the late Hurt and his contributions to the franchise.
An Expert in Her Field
All matters of Betty’s superheroic alter-egos aside, though, perhaps the most important reason to bring her back would be her role as a sophisticated scientist. Long before Jennifer Walters fought for justice in the courtroom, and even a few years beforeJane Foster decoded the stars, Betty Ross was the MCU’s first depiction of a woman occupying a position that equaled her male counterpart’s profession. Admittedly, viewers did not get to see the character do much science inThe Incredible Hulk. That, however, could easily change in future installments, and it is all the more reason to bring her back. In fact, whileAvengers: Endgamehad a brief sequence of all the franchise’s female characters coming together to attack Thanos in the final battle, one could imagine a more subtle—but equally profound—instance where Betty Ross, Jane Foster, Monica Rambeau, Hope Pym, and Shuri all team up to solve a problem and defeat a threat using their brains. It could be inspirational, and given the fact that all of these characters are already established as exceptionally intelligent, it would probably feel far less gratuitous than thatEndgamesmackdown.
The MCU is always expanding, but with the advent of Disney+, it’s now adapting stories from the comics at an unprecedented frequency. It is bringing new characters to life, and in some cases,bringing back characters who haven’t graced the screen in years. Betty Ross is an exemplary character in Marvel comics. Outside Bruce Banner, she might be the most notable and consistent figure in Hulk’s storyline, and she has a wealth of narrative potential herself. Natasha is gone, and William Hurt is no longer around to play General Ross, but at the same time,Abomination is back, The Leader is set to return, and She-Hulk is headlining her own show. Hulk’s story thus seems to be waxing more than it is waning, and a true Hulk story simply does not feel complete without Betty Ross and everything she has to offer.
