MARVEL RUMORS: Ragnarok and the Gladiator Hulk

Hey, Everyone! And welcome to another MARVEL RUMORS blog post on STEEMIT.

This time around, I'd like to address the reasoning of Hulk appearing in "Thor: Ragnarok", and look into some rumors and speculation of how he might have gotten on the planet Sakaar as a gladiator prisoner of The Grandmaster.

Last we saw Hulk, he was fleeing solo from the avengers team on a stolen quinjet, after his destructive actions he caused under the mind control of Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch). The Hulk and Bruce Banner were both very shook up after the Hulk side destroyed a few city blocks, remained hidden from the public, and became a fugitive from the government in order to keep everyone safe from him (Avengers: Age of Ultron). But, now we see the Hulk in full gladiator wear, on an alien planet, ready to duke it out with Thor over a screaming packed stadium? How did we get here?

A lot of rumors are going around about what Hulk could have been up to, but it's been about 2 full years since the events of 'AoU' (confirmed by 'Ragnarok' director, Taika Waititi) so what could he possibly have been doing?

Most speculation goes straight to the Planet Hulk storyline of the comics. In that story arc, Hulk is taken down by his fellow team members after a mass destruction Hulk caused. After fear of their safety and safety of the public, it was in their best interest to send Hulk away. The Avengers team charted a spacecraft to a far off alien planet with no intelligent life, but during the journey, the spacecraft gets knocked off course and Hulk crash lands on the planet of Sakaar. From there, Hulk was taken as a prisoner by The Red King, ruthless ruler of Sakaar.

Hulk is held captive and forced to fight for his life in the Gladiator trials and promised to be set free if he wins. During this arc, Hulk falls under a prophecy of the Sakaarian people history, and they believe he is their savior from the kings rule. He makes friends, forms a revolution, and becomes more personal and human than any other Hulk story arc I've come across. I highly recommend reading up on the comic issues of Planet Hulk, or even check out the animated film of the same name. (Haha, remember when Marvel was in the animated movie game and they were good?)

It's really hard to say what Hulk/Banner have been doing, as there isn't much to go on from what has been revealed to the public about the film from Marvel/Disney. Though everyone hopes we get to see some more Hulk storyline within the MCU. With the solo film rights for Hulk remaining in control of Universal Pictures, we definitely won't be getting a solo Hulk movie anytime soon. Even Mark Ruffalo talked about it this year in an interview, claiming Universal won't play nice with Disney/Marvel.

How did Hulk get from a quinjet soaring through the sky, to a far off alien planet? I hope and assume this will be addressed in the upcoming Thor film. Marvel and Mark Ruffalo himself have also confirmed Hulk will have more story to go on in both Avengers sequels of 2018 and 2019. I suppose it's best to give Hulk a lot to do in other character films since, we won't ever get a solo film. I think I am most looking forward to the Bruce Banner/Hulk personalities to finally merge, but I see the internal battle getting ready to happen.

Mark Ruffalo is quoted talking about the internal battle saying....
"No one's really gone in that place. I mean, he's always been running from him or trying to deny it, but they're coming for a collision course with each other, and I think that can be pretty exciting if we can figure out a way to do it multi-dimensionally".

What do you think Hulk has been up to? What will be his purpose among this film? Are you excited to find out?

Comment and support below, and until next time!

-Gengar