Bruce got Magic Plastic Surgery between The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers, hence the actor shift between Norton and Ruffalo.
- Given Bruce's destructive lifestyle, wouldn't you?
Igor Drenkov had a hand in the gamma accident, like in the comics.
Plus, he's a HYDRA agent. Betty went into Witness Protection after this movie, explaining her prolonged absence from the MCU.
Hulk and Leader have battled several times since this film...
...Just offscreen. 'Cuz it seems wrong to never have the two become archenemies. Ruffalo's appearance is the result of The Hulk physically taking over Norton's Hulk.
He's kind of the in-between of Norton's narrow features and The Hulk's beefcake face. The Hulk is the reason Cap was discovered
Consider: Hulk's arctic suicide attempt and the resulting avalanche got the attention of SHIELD (who weren't fully aware of Banner yet). So a small team goes and investigates. Someone spots what appears to be a very unusual shipwreck below the ice. They report this to the higher ups (i.e Fury) who realize that the avalanche happened in the rough vicinity of where Howard Stark was said to have recovered the Tessaract and just a short distance from the location of a certain super soldier's last known radar contact, so Fury sends in some more agents and equipment to pull up the wreck, and there you have the opening of The First Avenger. The Incredible Hulk takes place in the next universe over from the MCU-proper.
Which explains why both Bruce Banner and Abomination look different in this film than the others, why Betty Ross has gone unmentioned in any film but this one, and why we're never going to see what happened with the nascent Leader. Ruffalo-Banner's experiences prior to The Avengers roughly paralleled those of Norton-Banner, but they're alternate versions of Hulk rather than The Other Darrin. As for Stark's post-credits appearance, it's an unique case where The Stinger of one film is sneakily set in a different reality from its main content.- Jossed. Thunderbolt Ross later appears in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Black Widow. The Abomination reappears in Shang-Chi and the Legends of Ten Ring and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, with the latter show making a tongue-in-cheek joke about the The Other Darrin Hulk.
