Bruce Banner's having a birthday party, and we're all invited!

In Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Incredible Hulk's alter ego will be confronting not only his monstrous nature, but the passage of time. Actor Mark Ruffalo tells Entertainment Weekly that part of his Age of Ultron story involves Banner turning 46 years old, and coming to a point where he realizes he can't keep running away from himself.

"Whatever you hate about yourself or you don’t like, when you get to be 46 years old, you start to say, 'OK, no,'" he said. "Obviously, you can never really get away from yourself, so you start to live with some of the things you think are so bad. And maybe they’re not that bad. Maybe those things are what you need to do whatever you were never able to accomplish."

As he reflects upon himself and his true nature, Banner will realize a fundamental truth: "Hulk is as afraid of Banner as Banner is afraid of Hulk."

"He's terrified of him," he said. "It’s in the comics. But because you haven’t really been able to get inside of Hulk’s head, because the [cinematic] technology wasn’t available to make it nuanced enough to do that, and now it is. So now I think there’s a way to do it. Both of these guys are obviously the same guy, and they have got to come to peace somehow with each other. And I think that this confrontation is building along the lines of this film."

Banner and the Hulk return in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, in theaters May 1, 2015.