Every fan of The Avengers remembers that memorable line Bruce Banner delivered during the Battle of New York: "I’m always angry." This was right before he transformed into The Hulk and punched a Leviathan monster straight in the face. It was basically the most badass possible way to deliver that line. Three years later, writer and director Joss Whedon revealed the origin of that signature moment.
Whedon told Rolling Stone that it took him a while to come up with Banner’s line, but its essence is actually rooted in how the director feels when he gets pissed off. Whedon said:
I thought, ‘This feels psychologically true, like somebody could be like that.’ And then about four months after the movie came out, something happened and I just lost my shit. I was like, 'Oh! It's about me!
As angry as Whedon may have gotten, at least he didn’t turn into a gigantic green rage monster and start smashing everything in sight. Although now that this image is in my mind, I’d be interested to see what Whedon looks like all Hulked out. You can reacquaint yourself with that incredible (pun intended) Avengers scene below, although there’s really no excuse to not watch Hulk punch a massive alien head-on.
The Hulk mythos, both in the comic books and other media, frequently explores the relationship between Banner and The Hulk, and one of the common questions posed is how Bruce deals with controlling his inner beast. The Incredible Hulk showed him strugle to keep calm throughout the story, to the point that he didn’t have sex with Betty Ross for fear of getting his heart rate too high.
By the time of The Avengers, excluding the effects Loki’s scepter had, Bruce seemed to have a grip on keeping himself cool and collected, to the point that nothing bad occurred when Tony Stark shocked him just to see what would happen. His reason is that he always stays angry, which is why he can willingly transform into Hulk in seconds. So while his inner self always has that rage to hold onto, his emotional state on the surface is calm. Unfortunately, this control will be compromised in Avengers: Age of Ultron when Scarlet Witch plays with his mind and unleashes an especially angry Hulk, prompting Tony to put on the Hulkbuster armor and deal with the out of control Green Goliath.
U.S. fans can catch up with Bruce Banner and The Hulk when Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters on May 1.
