The reason is simple why the Hulk’s solo films have been less successful than the other Marvel heroes yet he stole the show in the Avengers is because with all due respect to him he’s really a One-trick pony.

Meaning that all the other heroes have to do is point him in the right direction, say ‘Smash’ and cut him loose.

But while that worked in ‘The Avengers’ it doesn’t let him hold a whole movie by himself.

Dr. Banner is indeed a complex character, but his alter ego is just a Tank.

I think to make a franchise of Hulk movies work is to have other colorful protagonists support the movie with him and interact with him as Bruce Banner while the Hulk is reserved as the Deus aux Machina for them to either fight with or against.

Such candidates would be: Rick Jones, Doc Samson, Jennifer ‘She-Hulk’ Walters, etc.

What do the rest of you think?

His movies would be a great way of introducing other Marvel heroes and giving them their moment in the spotlight.

I disagree, I think the reason the Hulk movies don’t succeed is because the writers don’t know how to make the Hulk persona compelling.

Writing it off as “just a tank” is 99% of the problem.

I haven’t seen either of the Hulk movies oddly enough, I kept hearing bad things about them. On the surface, it seems simple, a guy gets mad, turns green and big, and wrecks stuff. How could one mess that up?

But to label the Hulk as a ‘One-Trick Pony’ is to miss the point, I think. If he was such a thing, his comic wouldn’t have lasted this long. There are many facets to their personalities, both Banner and the Hulk. At times, the Hulk has been brutish, child-like, savage, intelligent, and in love.

Up till now, screenwriters seem to have been confused over what version of the Hulk to present to audiences. Whedon has presented a version that is close to some of his comic appearances and one that the audiences seem to love.

I’m not a fan of the superhero genre in general, but I will say the TV series of Hulk was pretty good.  Lots of exploration (for a TV show at the time) of what the poor guy dealt with.  Also it gave me the line “That’s a biological fact, not a relationship.”

That’s what they should have been doing.

They gave Banner character development and he was the resourceful thinking man in the TV shows both live-action and animated, but the Hulk had usually a single strategy; ‘Bash it til’ it breaks.’
That’s OK for a few laughs but it gets thin.
The Hulk should be treated like the Frankenstein’s monster as STAN LEE envisioned; a huge child that doesn’t know his own strength sometimes.

The moment when he went ‘Bamm-Bamm Rubble’ on Loki is proof of that. ^_^

Mark Ruffalo had it pegged, but he still had a great cast around him to bounce off of both intellectually and physically.