Hulk is back and appears to be better than ever in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is a bad omen for a character who's close to him. The latest trailer for the highly anticipated solo film unleashes the Jade Giant that fans have been waiting to see smash things since the opening moments of Avengers: Infinity War. Of course, a mysterious villain appears to be behind his upcoming rampage, complicating matters. However, it's just nice to see him back in action.
Without his killer instinct, Hulk's last couple of MCU appearances have been lackluster, to say the least. Bruce Banner appeared in his human form in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, offering the titular character sage advice about the weapons he had acquired from his father. After that, he was in his cousin's corner as Smart Hulk when she became a hero in her own right in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
But playing second fiddle on a Disney+ show didn't mean his story ended up on the back burner. In fact, in the show's final moments, Smart Hulk showed up at the Walters family barbecue with a special guest, his son, Skaar. Bruce didn't know the young man existed until a ship from Sakarr paid him a visit, already putting him behind the 8-ball in the father department.
In addition to having an absentee father, Skaar also had to deal with the negative reaction to his introduction. Many fans thought he was tacked on at the end of She-Hulk to make the show feel more connected to the larger MCU than it actually was. In reality, his debut felt completely out of place. And it's possible that the powers that be at Marvel Studios reached the same conclusion because Skaar has yet to appear again.
An argument could be made that there hasn't been a safe landing spot for him after She-Hulk. After all, Hulk is only just making his return after four years away. However, it's actually Hulk's newest gig that casts a dark shadow over Skaar's place in the MCU.
Bruce is back in his human form, teaching classes at a university and seemingly not doing the hero gig anymore. That has to be a tough pill to swallow for Skaar, who doesn't have a different form to revert to when things get hard. He has to settle down on Earth with the cards he's been dealt and hope for the best.
If Skaar is on his own, though, he's far from the first MCU hero to deal with daddy issues. And if he needs an outlet for his rage, there's one place he could go that his comic book counterpart has visited.
Skarr Doesn't Need Hulk To Have A Future In The MCU
If Marvel Studios would rather not bog down Hulk's story by giving him a kid to watch over, it can make Skaar his own man, with his own motivations. At one point in the comics, the hero fell in with a bad crowd, joining Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers team. Skaar went along with Osborn's transgressions until the team was tasked with kidnapping Captain America.
Not wanting to hurt the Star-Spangled Man, Skaar revealed himself as a double agent and worked to bring down Osborn for good. The MCU doesn't currently have an Osborn for Skaar to go after. What it does have, though, is Mr. Charles, the mysterious government agent from Daredevil: Born Again, who recruited Luke Cage and Bullseye.
Charles is clearly up to no good, and Skaar would be an asset too enticing for him to turn down. All it would take is a few scenes to give Skaar a new purpose in the MCU, one that's far more exciting than hanging around in the background while his dad has all the fun.
