Hulk

…the character’s first feature film, Hulk, in 2003. Another version, The Incredible Hulk, directed by Louis Letterier, appeared in 2008. The character was integrated into Marvel’s larger cinematic universe with Mark Ruffalo’s scene-stealing turn as the jade giant in The Avengers (2012). Ruffalo returned as the Hulk in Avengers: Age…

…Lee made the live-action thriller The Hulk (2003), transforming the comic-book story into an intelligent investigation of character and identity. In 2005 he directed Brokeback Mountain, a Western based on a short story by Annie Proulx that centers on two cowboys (played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) who fall…

were Daredevil (2003), Hulk (2003), and Iron Man (2008). Lee was often featured in cameo roles in those films, a tradition that continued after Disney purchased Marvel in 2009. A flood of Marvel films followed the acquisition, including those based on Lee-Kirby creations such as Thor (2011), the…

…Nolte’s abusive David Banner in The Hulk (2003) and the scheming Loki played by Tom Hiddleston in films such as Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and The Avengers: Endgame (2019). The epitome of the psychopathic modern supervillain remains the late Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).