One of the best things about Hulk is that there's a different version for everybody, but when it came to the Hulk in Avengers: Endgame, most fans seemed to bristle at the evolution of the character. Fused with Banner's mind and dubbed "Professor Hulk," the nerdier and gentler giant seemed to be a downgrade for many who wanted a more powerful version of the character.
But those who have issues with the character in Endgame might just have things backward because Professor Hulk was every bit as powerful as his previous incarnations in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, he may have been even more powerful.
A lot of the backlash against the Professor Hulk iteration of the character seems straightforward. Appearing after the five-year time jump, the direction for the character seemed to come out of left field for many fans who wanted to see the character develop rather than hearing about it secondhand. In the first scene he appears, he dabs for some teenagers, and throughout the movie, he never really lets loose with his physical strength. With it being the original Avengers' last go around, it was fair for fans to want to see Banner's alter-ego on a rampage one last time, but what they may be overlooking is that the Savage Hulk never made much of an impact on the MCU in the first place.
Most of Savage Hulk's accomplishments come in lending his strength to fights the Avengers were already winning. He punched a Leviathan that Iron Man blew up with one missile, fought off Chitauri the Avengers really didn't struggle much against and beat down Loki before being responsible for releasing him. In Age of Ultron, he was never really a critical piece in storming the Hydra base or fighting Ultron, and the hindrance of his rampage in his Hulkbuster fight probably outweighs his contributions there. In Ragnarok, he fought the wolf Fenris but already lost a fight to Thor earlier that demonstrates his help wasn't really necessary. By Infinity War, all he really does is provide Thanos some exercise, and from there, his contributions are nil.
Savage Hulk's strength ends up either being redundant because both Iron Man and Thor are stronger than him, while his childlike intellect proves an active hindrance. But in one single movie, Professor Hulk accomplished far more than that. He helped pioneer time travel to make the Time Heist possible, provided a crucial piece of the plan by convincing the Ancient One to relinquish the Time Stone and then literally single handedly saved half the universe by restoring the lives Thanos dusted in Infinity War. The narrative even builds up the power of the latter act and makes it clear that Hulk was uniquely capable of shouldering the burden.
It's not like Professor Hulk was lacking in raw power, either. Even with a withered arm, he helped maintain the collapsing building around him and his allies, jumped right into the final battle and, by the movie's end, was healed enough to continue calculated superheroics with less collateral damage than the Savage Hulk could ever manage. Even barring the massive value offered by his retaining Banner's intellect, Professor Hulk contributed as much to saving the world one-handed in one film as Savage Hulk did in any previous installment.
Fans of the Hulk may be justified in saying the MCU hasn't done the character justice, often reducing his role to the periphery of the plot while other characters enjoyed the spotlight. But if that's the issue, then Endgame isn't near the issue previous MCU ventures were, and despite the dabbing Hulk getting all the blame, he probably made the greatest strides in the direction of making the character as powerful as he should be.
Since Endgame released, Professor Hulk received an awful lot of flack, and it may just be time to start giving him the credit he deserves. Far from a disappointing degradation of the character, it's entirely possible to see this new Hulk as an absolute win.