Last year’s She-Hulk teaser marked the return of a fully fit stud boy Smart Hulk. Tatiana Maslany seems to be doing a great job as Jennifer Walters. Well, I certainly want to see her get angry because as Smart Hulk said, anger and fear are the keys to Hulking out. And more than her, I’d really like to see Hulk get angry once again. It has been over 3 years since we saw an angry Hulk on the big screen. And now, Marvel has literally given us a way to bring angry Hulk back by fixing his arm! We knew that it would happen at some point, but we still want to know how Smart Hulk has fixed his arm in She-Hulk.
One theory is that this is one of those fake trailer shots that Marvel is known for using in order to play with us. Remember what they did with the Infinity War and Thor: Ragnarok trailers? In the same way, the She-Hulk teaser showed us a fixed arm, but we might actually see a damaged arm when the series arrives on Disney+. But why would Marvel do this really? It won’t make a lot of sense to raise these questions about how his arm got repaired, and then just say… Psych!!! It was just a prank we pulled on you guys coz we’re Marvel! A lot of fans will be disappointed and there will be a lot of backlashes. So, it is not a risk worth taking, and the arm is fixed for sure.
Another theory is that this scene in She-Hulk takes place before Endgame. That’s why Smart Hulk’s arm is intact, as he hasn’t snapped yet. Maybe Jennifer got into an accident a couple of years before Endgame happened. And this is when Bruce was walking her through the process of staying in control in her Hulk form as he had just learnt the same himself. But this timeline would raise all sorts of questions like where She-Hulk was during the Endgame if she existed.
She could have been a great asset to the Avengers, so Bruce had to bring her into the scheme of things if she was around. That’s why I believe that Jennifer will turn into She-Hulk after Endgame. It should happen even after Shang-Chi because Bruce probably has to be in human form in order to give his blood to Jennifer. Okay, so let’s come back to how Bruce healed his arm. Back in 2019, Joe Russo confirmed that Hulk’s arm was gone for good. He said in an interview that:
“It’s permanent damage. The same way it was permanent damage with Thanos. It’s irreversible damage. If you notice, his arm is a lot skinnier, it’s blackened. So he loses a lot of strength there.”
Well, it is understandable why the damage was supposed to be permanent. Hulk literally carried the weight of trillions of living beings and brought them back to life. Something like that ought to have had permanent consequences. Even when Thanos snapped his fingers, his damage was also permanent. Thanos had healed his chest wound using the time stone after Thor plunged his axe into him. But he wasn’t able to do the same to his arm. So, if Thanos’s arm was not even fixed by the time stone, then how did Bruce achieve this feat?
When we saw him in Shang-Chi, he managed to reverse his Smart Hulk state even though we were made to believe that it was permanent. I mean, he had spent 18 months in a gamma lab. Ragnarok showed us that Hulk wanted to stay in control. He wanted to exist. So, he probably made a deal with Bruce which allowed both of them to exist at the same time. Bruce kept the conscience while Hulk got to be alive physically. Now, we do want to know how Bruce convinced his other split personality to go back into the shadow. But that’s still quite believable as he would have had a bit of help from the sorcerers. Or he would have spent a bit more time in his gamma lab between Endgame and Shang-Chi. That’s how he would have gained a bit of mastery over his transformations.
But what’s astonishing is that his arm was healing. It was still in a brace. But it was not as blackened or scarred as we thought it would be. So, did it just heal naturally? It’s understandable that Shang-Chi took place quite a while after Avengers: Endgame. And after Smart Hulk reverted back to Bruce Banner, the arm could have just begun to heal with time in his regular human form. She-Hulk supposedly takes place after Bruce’s Shang-Chi cameo. So by the time we reach that series, Bruce’s arm could be fully healed. And that’s why he has both of his arms even in his Smart Hulk form.
In the past, I’ve presented a theory stating that Hulk might use his immortality machine from Endgame to reinstate his arm. While trying to nail time travel, Hulk actually created an immortality machine. Scott was sent back in time after the first trial of time travel. But instead of pushing him through time, Smart Hulk pushed time through him. He came back as a young boy, an old man and a baby before coming back as his former self. So, we thought that maybe Hulk could use the same trick to fix himself. Did you notice that when Scott turned into an old man, he was complaining about his back? And then, when the original Scott returned, his body was totally fine, except for the pee in his pants.
So, it is clear that when time is pushed through someone, his or her body ages or de-ages. And when the de-ageing happens, all the diseases and damages to the body could be restored. So when Smart Hulk will push time through himself, he could actually reach his former self. He could even reach the Pre-Hulk phase where Bruce Banner wasn’t exposed to Gamma radiation. But in She-Hulk, he’d probably just get back to his pre-endgame Hulk form. He might still need the Hulk to take on future threats like Red Hulk or even the Abomination. That’s why we theorized that it would be just his pre-Endgame Smart Hulk state where his arm was fully fixed and he was capable of fighting. It was the best of the two worlds and Bruce wouldn’t have had it any other way.
But this theory has actually been pushed aside because Bruce was wearing a brace in Shang-Chi. If he would have pushed the time back through himself, then the brace would have been fully gone. And Bruce would probably not have looked as old as he was looking in Shang-Chi. On top of that, pushing time through a person would actually be the same as reversing time on someone using the time stone. Since Thanos had already tried that, I guess the same trick could not have worked on Smart Hulk either. So, the only logical explanation here is that the damage to his arm was permanent in the Smart Hulk state. But when Smart Hulk managed to reverse his transformation, his arm began to heal in the Bruce Banner state.
I admit that it may not make total sense. But maybe the Marvel writers could beat this theory into shape! And besides, Hulk definitely needed to fix his arm for having a bigger future in the MCU. We’ve heard rumours that a World War Hulk movie is in development. If those rumours are true, then Banner’s arm had to be fixed for that! His arm had to be fixed if we are to get a world breaker Hulk in the future, or a Hulk vs. Wolverine battle. We could not have had a one-armed Hulk fighting all these big battles.
Now let’s see if the She-Hulk series gives us an intricate explanation for how Bruce healed his arm. What do you guys think about this theory of how Smart Hulk has fixed his arm in She-Hulk? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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