One Hulk, two Hulk, Red Hulk, Blue… wait, what?

When the Captain America trailer came to an end, it felt like every Marvel fan went, “Hey, Red Hulk,” but in reality, how many of us even know what the Red Hulk is? My only knowledge of The Red Hulk is that he’s not the devil’s own but in fact, Thunderbolt Ross, but even that, I learned wasn’t entirely true. For the purposes of this article, though, we’ll ignore Robert Maverick and Joe Fixit and focus on the character that has been played by several of Hollywood’s most famous men, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross.

What’s funny about The Red Hulk is that way back in 2003 when Sam Elliot first played Ross in Ang Lee’s Hulk, the character hadn’t even been created. In fact, the character is so relatively new that when William Hurt took on the role for 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, the character wouldn’t make his debut in the comics for another 2 years. So how do we go from Thunderbolt Ross, now played by Harrison Ford, being a foil for The Incredible Hulk who doesn’t want the big green machine dating his daughter, Betty, to The President of The United States fighting Captain America?

In the comics, Ross had hit rock bottom. His daughter was dead, he turned to the bottle, and he still hated The Hulk. Taking full advantage of this, he was visited by M.O.D.O.K. and The Leader to form a plan that would result in the group capturing The Hulk and performing science on him so that they could put Hulk’s powers into Thunderbolt. And this is the simplified version of how we ended up with The Red Hulk. As for how this might happen in the movie, I’ll be saving my predictions for the end of the article.

Important to remember that Sam Wilson has no superpowers. So when we all eventually see him fighting the Red Hulk, it’s important to remember that he’s in clear and present danger. Thankfully for Clarence, this character was written during a famous time when the best way to defeat a villain was to defeat them with their own powers. What’s that? You get stronger the more energy you absorb, then let’s find out what happens when you absorb power levels you were never expected to absorb… BANG! The Red Hulk isn’t exactly that, but the angrier the Green Hulk gets, the stronger he gets, whereas with Ross, the angrier he gets, the more heat he puts out. And you guessed it, once he puts out too much heat, he gets weak. A simple way to think of it is that if you want to defeat The Red Hulk you’ll need to tear down his firewall. If you can do that, you’re headed straight for morning glory. A few punches in the face and Red Hulk will start shrinking back to Thunderbolt.

As I said, I would save the fan theories for the end of the article, and from what I can tell, we’re in the… ender’s game. Now for those that are new to the site, I perfectly predicted Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Avengers Endgame. I say that just to let you know there’s a good chance you’re about to witness me spoiling another Marvel classic.

The Leader brainwashes Isiah Bradley, turning him into the fugitive hellbent on killing the President. During the attempted assassination, Bradley kills Ross’s daughter, Betty Ross. This event sends Captain America on a wild goose chase to find out what lies beneath the truth of what Isiah has done. While this is going on, The Leader snakes his way into The White House to tell Thunderbolt Ross there’s a way to make sure the next time something like that happens, he won’t be so defenseless. This leads to him becoming Red Hulk. Obviously, a fight eventually ensues between Captain America and Red Hulk, but at some point, Sam tells Ross what he’s discovered. It was all The Leader. He wants control of the metal that exists inside the dead Eternal (remember that?) that’s currently sticking out of the ocean. Thunderbolt Ross is ashamed of what he’s become, gets so angry at The Leader, that he grabs him, jumps up into the sky, and explodes. And for anyone asking about the Thunderbolts movies, while I’m sure the rumored trailer that some might be seeing at the San Diego Comicon will prove me wrong, I think we’ll learn that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine runs the group and that they are named after the late President, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Like I said, I warned you about spoilers.

Oh, and just to finish off the already impressive job I’ve done, let’s go ahead and predict the end credit as well.

The camera fades from black to show Isiah Bradley talking to his grandson, Eli Bradley, in prison. After they share a touching moment, Eli gets up and leaves. As he approaches his car, he sees someone with their back to him standing next to the driver’s door.

“Can I help you,” Eli asks.

“I’m looking to start a team,” the mysterious figure turns around to reveal it’s Ms. Marvel, “and right now, its in need of a Kid Captain America.”

“Kid?”

“We’ll work on the name.”

Music hits. The crowd erupts. Kid Avengers continues to be formed.