My theory on Banner's control of the Hulk is that it depends on who he is angry at. If you think about where Black Widow found him, he has surrounded himself with the poor and oppressed; there, the people to be angry at are not best confronted by violence, so Bruce gets to stay in control, helping with medicine and doctoring and such.

But when he directs his anger at the Chitauri, Hulk smash!

First off: Excellent episode!

Secondly, on the Xanatos Gambit: Yes, I think this is very much where they are headed with things and I can't wait to see Thor 2. Loki has schemes within schemes within schemes!

On Hulk:


I think the pivotal character development for Banner occurs after he wakes up in the abandoned building after the helicarrier attack. Banner realizes, through talking with the old guy, that the Hulk isn't as mindless as he and everyone else have believed. The Hulk chose to land on a remote, disused building and may have willingly gone back to normal Bruce rather than continuing to rampage. The only people to die by the Hulk's rage are bad guys. The ejecting pilot could have easily been killed, but the Hulk just shook him up a bit. Though he did mildly hurt Black Widow, I think it was in a very calculated, cat-and-mouse way.

Fourthly: I want Coulson to come back as the Vision.

Finally saw the movie a few weeks ago, and then listened to the podcast yesterday.

I generally agree with your criticisms (as has been pointed out, the aliens did have to come through New York, and specifically Stark Tower, but the idea of building an army that can be destroyed by hitting one vulnerable point? Bad idea.).

As to the Hulk, in the Ed Norton film, which I believe is supposed to be the same continuity as this, there is discussion of Banner having some degree of awareness when the Hulk takes over, and at the end, it is even implied that he might be learning to intentionally bring the Hulk to the surface. So, with that in mind, the Hulk being more "direct-able" makes more sense.

Yes, I remember that from the Incredible Hulk movie. I also think they just had to put that in there - there's no other way to get the story to work. I guess I just wished they had addressed it in the movie - maybe if there's a director's cut or something.

Yeah, it would have been nice.

Another possibility is that Whedon often has things happen because they feel right, even if they don't actually quite make sense - this was not uncommon in Buffy and Angel. And at that point in the story, the team was coming together, and it did feel right for the Hulk to join, so, ya' know...handwave, handwave, handwave.

I felt that Whedon did an excellent job trying to allow all the different heroes their own time in the lime light but the nature of the beast just wouldn't allow for as much background or nuances from the characters who had their own movies as much as it just showed them trying to play nice with others.

I also think that Whedon was trying to tye in and hint strongly that if you want more of "this" character you should check out their own movies. That way he is not only getting people to go back and watch movies they may have missed but also gives them things to look for in the movies that tye everything together better than just the few hours you get with The Avengers.