User blog comment:Mr. Xemnas/PLANET HULK SET FOR 2015 WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AVENGERS 3WORLD WAR HULK?????/@comment-1671874-20130207051018/@comment-1895174-20130207060428

About the first film: The villain was Bruce Banner's father, who was simply given the abilities of another villain (the Absorbing Man) so there could be something of a fight between the two characters at the end of the film. The character is about as much the Absorbing Man as Jim Carrey's Riddler is the Joker.

Have you ever wondered why no one got the Hulk right before The Avengers? It's because of money. Audiences want to see Hulk Smash, but Hulk Smash, as I outline in my post below, is expensive. This is why we never see the Hulk actually do anything more than two or three times in any movie. For The Avengers, it helps that there were other important characters to distract attention away from the Hulk.

It also helps that the Hulk was up against an enemy in The Avengers that him to fully show off his raw power, but I think both previous Hulk films were hoping for sequels so it makes sense not to put the Hulk up against his biggest threat in the first movie.