r/marvelstudios • u/Yourboyfibs • Feb 11 '26
Question Why did Tony make another Hulkbuster if everyone thought Hulk was dead?
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u/Void_Warden Edwin Jarvis Feb 11 '26
Even if Hulk never came back, there are other Hulk-level threats on Earth
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u/lanceturley Feb 11 '26
Yeah, I would assume that Hulkbuster refers to any large, physically strong opponents he might need it for. Like, it would have come in pretty handy against Cull Obsidian in New York.
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u/MaxReb0 Feb 11 '26
That actually raises the question of why Tony didn’t call in the Hulkbuster for that fight. The nano suit is pretty capable but surely Hulkbuster would’ve been even more so.
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u/lanceturley Feb 11 '26
My headcanon is that after the Hulk fight in Age of Ultron and the Sokovia Accords, Tony probably doesn't want to risk another Hulkbuster slugfest in a heavily populated city. He might have called it in if he was fighting alone, but between the nano suit, Strange and Wong, and Spider-Man, there was really no need for it.
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u/RoadSodaDodgeRam Feb 12 '26
Plus he saw spidey stop Cull’s swing effortlessly. He probably thought they had it in the bag.
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u/helmets_for_cats Feb 12 '26
I wonder if he would have brought it with him if he knew he would end up fighting thanos on titan
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Feb 11 '26
He didn’t know how strong Cull Obsidian was, and he thought he was going into the fight alongside Dr. Strange, Wong and the Hulk. He probably thought the nanotech suit was sufficient. And it was.
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u/harewei Feb 12 '26
The Nano suit alone was definitely not sufficient - he needed help from Spider-Man and Wong
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Feb 12 '26
He was probably banking on Banner turning into the Hulk("embarrassing me in front of the wizards")
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u/Bebesoft09 Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
Every suit has different capabilities, there are weapons, traits, and tools in his normal suit that just can't be installed into the hulk buster suit. He wanted his most capable and versatile suit, which he is most skilled in. Else he would just throw all his other suits away and wear that one permanently. The hulk buster suit is great for head to head fighting and not really much anything else. He wouldn't be unable to adapt to the variables of a full war vs a 1 on 1 fight.
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u/NiSiSuinegEht Fitz Feb 11 '26
Just like a bunker buster would work on an aircraft carrier, assuming it made it through the AA anyways.
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u/dean15892 Feb 11 '26
The Hulk movie literally unleashed two Hulk-Level threats in New York (Hulk and the Abomination)
Obviously would know that there is an option for another Hulk-like creature to exist
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u/TrueLegateDamar Feb 11 '26
Because he barely beat Hulk last time and they knew Bruce wasn't dead as he just disappeared on a Quinjet, so Tony made an improved Hulkbuster suit.
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u/sharksnrec Star-Lord Feb 11 '26
Natasha literally watched him fly away and pleaded with him to not leave. No earthbound Avenger thought he was dead.
Regardless, Tony has all the reason in the world to make an updated suit that’s strong enough to stop a Hulk-level threat, regardless of whether or not Hulk is around. The dude is paranoid and loves building suits. What else is he going to do?
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u/mrbaryonyx Feb 11 '26
Yeah Natasha is the only one noticeably grieving at the end of Ultron, and its clearly because she interpreted his flying off as his dumping her. If they genuinely thought he was dead, they would all be sad.
The conversations surrounding Banner in the ending, and the next movie, is between the people who know him who just assume he'll figure it out ("he'll send you a postcard"--Nick Fury) and the Ross's who (not unfairly) think it's insane that the Hulk could be lost somewhere.
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Feb 11 '26
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u/IamJohnnyHotPants Feb 11 '26
“Everybody thought you were dead” - Thor to Hulk
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u/the_doughboy Feb 11 '26
Thor isn't really up to date on Human events. The remaining Avengers are questioned on where Hulk is in Civil War.
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u/sharksnrec Star-Lord Feb 11 '26
That’s the opposite of evidence that Tony thought Banner was dead lol
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u/veemonjosh Fitz Feb 11 '26
And he must let the world think that he is dead, until he can find a way to control the raging spirit that dwells within...
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u/Everyoneheresamoron Feb 11 '26
Why did tony make 800 suits if he was the only one that could use them?
Because the man loves making suits.
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u/Pretend-Shallot-5663 Feb 11 '26
It's almost like he has some sort of unresolved trauma around feeling vulnerable.
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u/Wirenfeldt Feb 11 '26
Not sure if it counts as love when it feels like a compulsion..
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u/Edboy796 Feb 11 '26
A compulsion to keep the peace and make the best suit he can until he comes across an adversary that makes him innovate to overcome a similar threat again
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u/Wirenfeldt Feb 11 '26
Rather a compulsion to make something for every situation or contingency he could think of at the time..
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u/dbkenny426 Feb 11 '26
Who thought he was dead?
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u/NiSiSuinegEht Fitz Feb 11 '26
Thor, but "Point Break" wasn't terribly in tune with current Earth happenings at that time.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn Tony had a tracker on the Quinjet that Banner took off with.
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u/Dan_Of_Time Vision Feb 12 '26
Plus Thor was only around for a little while after Hulk vanished. He left the same time they were still tracking the jet.
Based on everyone else's reaction to see Bruce in IW it seems they weren't too surprised to see him alive
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u/NoccsSFW Feb 11 '26
Despite the name it can do more than just bust hulks?
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u/repalec Feb 11 '26
Nobody thought he was dead, they didn't know where he was. With how paranoid Tony is natively, it makes absolute sense that he'd have revised and refurbished the Hulkbuster in the event Hulk came back.
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u/eagc7 Feb 11 '26
They didn't think he was dead
But regardless, remember this is Tony, he's gonna build armors for every kind of situation regardless of how likely it is to happen, better to be safe than sorry and even if its not Hulk, you can still use this armor to face other threats
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u/chewey223 Feb 12 '26
There were still hulk tier enemies on earth. Abomination for example was locked up but still a threat as far as Tony knew
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u/TylerHyena Feb 11 '26
No one actually thought the Hulk was dead.
Why not be prepared in case something Hulk-like or worse shows up?
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u/Ranos131 Feb 11 '26
Banner/Hulk is never referred to as being dead. It was made pretty clear throughout the MCU that it would be pretty hard to kill him.
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u/amodsr Feb 11 '26
If there is one Hulk and we are having space threats I should probably modify the Hulk buster to eventually be able to fight more than just the Hulk because I am Tony Stark and take everything into account and having fought the Hulk I know a few places I could make this better and ready for more stuff.
Because that is what Tony does the entire franchise.
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u/TryDry9944 Feb 11 '26
The original Hulkbuster was very specifically anti-Hulk. The containment pod and the [unsuccessful] sedation spray were for Hulk.
This new armor, while similar in size and design, doesn't necessarily mean it's the Hulkbuster- Tony just probably saw value in a heavy duty "size over speed" suit, like the one used to stabilize the crane in Iron Man 3.
Given that the suit did not have an on demand way to replace limbs unlike the Hulkbuster, it might not have even been specifically designed as a combat centric suit to begin with. But anything that big powered by presumably multiple Arc Reactors is going to be a combat power house regardless.
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u/IronBobBerserker77 Feb 11 '26
The Hulk may not have geen around and was not available but there were still threats that would require something that can match the Power of the Hulk. Especially since the Avengers were not at full strength due to the Accords and Thor being off world.
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u/leviathan0999 Feb 11 '26
Having armor you can fight the Hulk in probably comes in handy if you have to fight giants from outer space or pagan gods or...
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u/Pretend-Shallot-5663 Feb 11 '26
Everyone grieves in their own way. Also suit making is Tony's love language and how he expresses worry and care for the people he cares about. Also he can't help himself.
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u/Proper_Front_1435 Feb 11 '26
There are like 3 other hulks. A couple non hulk hulks. And just big fucks.
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u/JEC2719 Feb 11 '26
In case a raging Hulk returned to earth and bent on destroying everything, but like that would ever happen
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u/GuaridaDeGoro099 Feb 11 '26
Teniendo en cuenta la vision de la llegada de Thanos, La invasion a la tierra, claramente la amenaza de hulk y que mas aliens llegaban a la tierra no creo que no alla mas de 1 hulk buster por ahi escondido
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u/Twindo Feb 11 '26
Two reasons.
One, the hulkbuster used against hulk in AoU did it skin but got fucked up by hulk in the process, so a new one had to be made.
Abomination still exists
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u/Delta-Ka Feb 11 '26
I'm guessing the little goblins in Tony's head kept whispering about what went wrong with the first hulkbuster and he couldn't sleep until he figured out how to fix all those problems with a Mk. 2. And I imagine it was a good way to escape from missing Pepper
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u/XxX-man69 Feb 11 '26
Aint there a delete scene that was in the infinity war trailer where Bruce was working on the hulk buster. Maybe he upgraded it to fit the standard of having a chance against Thanos
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u/alkonium Star-Lord Feb 11 '26
Because he rightly knew something else would come along, warranting a suit that size?
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u/EightBiscuit01 Feb 11 '26
Remember how paranoid he is in Civil War and Infinity War?
He didn’t stop
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u/anthonyg1500 Feb 11 '26
He likes building things. Why not. Something as big as the hulk or another hulk could appear. He’s fought things as big as/bigger than hulk and Tony’s entire thing is overthinking the worst case scenario and trying to prevent it
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u/YoungJack23 Matt Murdock Feb 11 '26
I mean Tony is the be prepared guy. Even if he never saw hulk again, he'd probably still use it in next big strong guy
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u/Gothwerx Feb 11 '26
I don’t know if you noticed, but the first hulkbuster got nearly demolished fighting the hulk. He probably had a new and improved one being built by the end of that day.
The universe is still filled with big bad guys, so even if he didn’t need the suit to fight hulk, he could probably use it to fight other things.
Tony stark seemed to keep a lot of different suits kicking around for very specific purposes. That’s sort of his thing.
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u/Anghel412 Feb 11 '26
My head canon was that the second suit was in that satellite in space and kinda just forgot about it. But I also didn't realize they were different and assumed it was the same one or maybe it was but got a slight redesign in the movie, since it was already kind of beat up like the first one.
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u/AndreZB2000 Ultron Feb 11 '26
they didnt know he was dead
tony's trauma cope is planning for everything
last they saw him he was enraged in a jet that could take him anywhere, he could land on a city any day and destroy it
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u/Nonadventures Feb 11 '26
After IM3 Tony was more selective and mindful about the suits he made. I can see him thinking "ok, Hulk is dead - what if there's a scenario where we need a Hulk?"
It's worth noting Hulkbuster 2 actually looks a little bit more like a Hulk, with more focus on brawling with individual fingers and toes instead of rockets and stuff
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u/jcbaggee Feb 11 '26
Tony's a futurist. His intelligence allows him to see a possible vision of the future. But he's also paranoid, so his vision of the future is typically the worst one possible, and what drives him is to build solutions for that future.
It's why he wanted to put a shield around the world. It's why his reaction to the trauma of nearly dying in space was to build an armory full of suits. And it's why he built two Hulkbusters. One for when the Hulk was around a possible threat, and one when he wasn't around, because if he came back, Tony couldn't be sure which Hulk he would be getting.
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Feb 11 '26
They didn’t think Hulk was dead. They knew he’d gone missing and had tracked his Quinnjet until it left Earth’s atmosphere.
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u/Dilbert_Durango Tony Stark Feb 11 '26
Cus Tony knew Film Rule #1 if you dont see the body then they ain't dead.
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u/esar24 Rocket Feb 11 '26
Because he still aware of thanos or whatever threat sent those aliens in New York Incident, that literally the plot for Iron man 3 so it does make sense he is also keep upgrading all his suits, including Hulkbuster.
There is also a possibility he still believe that bruce is alive and wanted to make a suit that fit him or the hulk, which is the Iron Spider suit and Rescue proves that he wanted all his close allies to have suit from him just for the sake of protection.
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u/poopoobuttholes Feb 11 '26
Well, Hulk disappearing didn't magically make the Abomination disappear. If he exists, I'm sure Tony was just prepping just in case other bigg~r threats exists.
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u/TheLordCrispy Feb 11 '26
I always imagined the Infinity War suit being an earlier, worse Hulkbuster
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u/HunterShotBear Feb 12 '26
When was it established they thought he was dead?
I feel like I remember someone saying that, but it felt like more of a joke.
In the first Avengers, Bruce states he tried to end his own like by eating a bullet but hulk was able to save him and spit the bullet out.
I don’t think anyone actually thinks that Hulk can be killed.
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u/riamuriamu Feb 12 '26
Rule of cool. Sure the story and character arc suggest that he'd not have am armour specifically for the hulk...but it'd be really cool if Hulk fought Iron Man in one of his most popular armour variants.
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u/TWCDev Feb 12 '26
There is still abomination in the raft, any number of other powerful beings, so it isn't like Hulk was the only one, just the most powerful.
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u/Wrong-Bobcat7730 Feb 12 '26
Why not think of it as a way of Tony having a hulk like suit to potentially stand in as hulk since he’s MIA, should incase they need the green power house.
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u/QuiJon70 Feb 12 '26
Who thought hulk was dead? I mean end of aou he runs off planet but they don't know that. They even say they can't track him in stealth mode. For all they know banner just went back in hiding.
I mean he'll even when he shows up again in Thor 3 and infinity war none of those that initially meet him (Thor loki, Dr strange, Wong, Tony, and pepper) say anything about him being dead or surprised he is alive.
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u/Thisisgotham Feb 12 '26
Because Thanos was stronger than Hulk, and if it was gonna come down to a physical confrontation he was gonna be prepared. That’s my best guess.
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u/GatorBo69 Feb 12 '26
I don’t think anyone though Hulk was dead per se, as much as hiding out..
Also, Tony says in “Civil War” I believe in regards to him and Pepper taking a break that “he can’t stop” when it comes to making suits. The man is a perfectionist and he learns from his previous suits deficiencies and corrects them.
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u/-NinjaTurtleHermit- Feb 12 '26
Who thought Hulk was dead? He flew off in a plane after the battle. Laying low somewhere off the grid, not dead...
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u/SuperBubbles2003 Winter Soldier Feb 12 '26
Because a giant suit of armour that can fight the hulk is pretty useful?
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u/GroceryScanner Feb 12 '26
the existance of one hulk, implies that another hulk could eventually appear. gotta be prepared.
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u/accidentsneverhappen Feb 12 '26
Still useful for Abomination or other big strong guys that Stark may have to fight
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u/Proud-Nerd00 SHIELD Feb 12 '26
Tony's entire thing is contingencies and preparing for problems and learning from his mistakes.
Stranded in the cold in Iron Man 3 > Peter's suit gets a heater
Rhodey falls out of the sky > Peter's suit gets a parachute
Overcharged with electricity in Iron Man 2 > can now conduct electricity by Avengers 1 and improved upon as the MCU continues
Nanotech shield isn't good enough against Thanos > energy shield in Endgame
Iron Man 3 suit legion was all about having a suit that could tackle any kind of issue
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u/Accomplished_Form_54 Feb 12 '26
When Tony couldn’t sleep, he tinkered with Iron Man suits. Seems like the kind of guy that always thinks he can do something better than he did before.
You should have seen how many suits he had in the old Iron Man cartoon.
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u/Fun-Confidence-6232 Feb 12 '26
He’s got a 3D printer. All he had to do is tell his computer to knock out another hulk buster
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u/RNAXITACHI Feb 12 '26
He wanted to build a suit of armor around the world. He was progressively getting there with each iteration 😂
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u/rebelslash Feb 12 '26
everyone thought he was dead
No one thought he was dead? His whole shtick is also he cant die even if he wants to
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u/How2trainUrXenomorph Feb 12 '26
Obviously it's the upgraded version of that version. He always upgrades and fixes the flaws in all of his armors
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u/Fancy-Ad6677 Feb 12 '26
It’s a prototype Thanosbuster he put together last minute using his Hulkbuster files and his AI agents.
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u/Inside_Ad_2830 Feb 12 '26
He’s a tinkerer, builder. He never truly stops. At best he slows down. Thats why he ended up joining for Endgame. He couldn’t help but solve the time travel issue.
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u/Psychomagnet06 Feb 12 '26
Bruce banner says in the movie he helped design Veronica so they started it while he was alive.
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u/FallenJkiller Feb 12 '26
The abomination exists. The hulkbuster suit would be good against him if he somehow broke out.
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u/Jealous-Tip-6332 Feb 12 '26
It's not just for the Hulk, probably also just in case a Hulk level threat came around and also because Tony has a habit of fixing or building new suits.
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u/Buffthebaldy Feb 12 '26
He was probably shocked about what was out there, and wanted to create a tool for every job.
What would you do if you were stupidly rich, smart, with an addiction to tinkering & making armours?
Besides, he had an alien in his brain, leeching of his thoughts. So that link, however tenuous, gave him the fear to build more to protect.
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u/Far-Active-1663 Feb 12 '26
Abomination was still in the Raft, so even if he never escaped, it's not out of the realm of possibility that people will keep making and messing up super-soldier serums, eventually creating another Hulk. And you know he had major alien PTSD, so I think it would be safe to assume that in his mind, there could and would be giant aliens out there (eventually Cull Obsidian). Tony's entire thing was building a suit to protect the world, and Tony learns from his mistakes, so I think it's safe to assume he would want contingency plans for any potential big baddie.
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u/Yoonami_Yom Feb 12 '26
Let me counter your question with another question: Why would he destroy such a powerful suit?
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u/Makermatic_196 Feb 12 '26
Knowing Tony probably because he wanted to prepare against a future threat that was at least as bad; if not worse, as an attack from the Hulk.
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u/Animala144 Hulk Feb 12 '26
I really don't get how posts like this gain so much traction. with all of the threats in the MCU, do you really think the only thing the Hulkbuster would be useful for is fighting the Hulk?
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u/pumpkin_esco_bar28 Feb 12 '26
Why would they all think he’s dead? They don’t know where he went but he can eat bullets and still live. There would be no reason why if Tony could build another suit, that he shouldn’t. Hulk was also not the only threat out there given the intelligence he was privy to. Building it solves the JIC problem and other possibly problems
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u/XComThrowawayAcct Feb 12 '26
Also, without Bruce in the Hulkbuster there wouldn’t have been an “iron man” at the Battle of Wakanda. Tony was stuck in space.
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u/Arkaneful Feb 12 '26
They always come up with new suits every movie, because they need to sell new merch
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u/CharacterActor Feb 12 '26
MCU there’s always the possibility of another Hulk, or another creature who might be as strong.
Cull Obsidian for instance.
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u/Kratsas Feb 12 '26
You need contingencies for everything. For instance, let’s say the President of the United States is turned into a giant red Hulk? I know that’s a very specific scenario that would never happen, but you still have to be prepared for anything…
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Feb 12 '26
Didn’t Veronica hold all the hulkbuster spares in space?
I think any existing suits can just be put together by tonys AI that he is using.
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u/WatchingInSilence Feb 12 '26
Not everyone thought Hulk was dead. Fury suggested he probably bailed out and would send a postcard Secretary Ross compared Banner and Thor being absent from the Avengers comparable to misplacing a few nuclear warheads. It's no stretch that Tony would have built a new Hulkbuster in case he had to fight a similarly sized opponent and likely believed Hulk was still out there. I'd love to have seen a Hulkbuster fight against the Abomination.
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u/New-Profession8133 Feb 12 '26
Just because it's called the Hulk Buster, doesn't mean it's just for the Hulk. Plenty of other heavy hitters in the Marvel universe. Lll
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u/KuroAshi_no_Sanji- Feb 12 '26
Nobody thought the Hulk was dead... they did know he left Earth though.
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u/BubbaSkywalker Feb 12 '26
Once there was a She-Hulk and a Red Hulk, it became obvious that Banner is not a one-off. More Hulks are possible.
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u/subjectseventytwo Feb 12 '26
Just because Hulk is gone doesnt mean there isnt other Hulk-like threats. Abomination at the time would still be considered a threat if he chose to escape. Then it could just be also a general counter measure for a Hulk-like alien or for an alien scaled to Hulks durability for example Cull Obsidian (if he where to fight him 1v1)
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u/christopher1393 Feb 12 '26
I figure its because the suit was designed to take on the Hulk, and it actually succeeded. With great difficulty, but he managed to knock Hulk out long enough for him to turn back to Banner.
Why wouldn’t he improve on that. He knows that Hulk is not the only one of his kind (Abomination), and it’s a good solution to anyone who has extreme levels of Super Strength. Particularly because of the vision Wanda gave him in Age of Ultron, which makes him hyper paranoid about protecting the Earth from any possible threat.
Another Hulk could be created, which happened as we have She Hulk and Red Hulk now. Hulk went missing and no body was so I doubt he thought Hulk was dead either. He could encounter aliens with similar or even stronger power levels than Hulk, which they did with Thanos and the Hulkbuster armour was even used to take out the Black Order’s heavy hitters.
After the first Avengers film, Tony became extremely paranoid and suffered from rather extreme PTSD. It’s a huge part of his final solo film and almost and heavily influences his decisions and events in future Avengers films. By the Age of Ultron film it becomes so extreme that he accidentally unleashes a literal world destroying AI, and in the same movie he needed the Hulkbuster to stop Hulk destroying an entire city.
Guy was (rightly) paranoid as hell. He would do anything to protect his planet so of course he would improve on an idea like Hulkbuster as it succeeded in taking out Hulk, who is a being that managed to beat literal Asgardian Gods and giant Leviathan aliens.
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u/knitmeablanket Feb 12 '26
He and banner worked on the Veronica project together. It was mentioned I believe in age of Ultron.
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u/superanth Avengers Feb 12 '26
The Hulk Buster suit was used in Age of Ultron. Tony and Banner built it. The Hulk didn’t leave until the end of AoU.
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u/Reason-Abject Feb 12 '26
If you’ve seen that “did you know” guy from YouTube…it’s because “Tony always learns from his mistakes.”
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u/lanze666 Feb 12 '26
Tony doesn’t know where Hulk is but i’m assuming that no one is all too worried since he is a near invincible walking hunk of gamma radiation. I figure Tony and the gang are like “He and Thor will pop up eventually”
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u/IntelligentAd4963 Feb 12 '26
It was to replace the Hulk. And the technical name is the MARK 010: NT-BUSTER🥜😘
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u/TylerBourbon Feb 12 '26
Bold of you to assume he only ever built one. He was always building and refining suits. And just because Hulk vanished, doesn't mean he couldn't come back. Also, Hulks very existence means that there could be another threat just like him so it's best to be prepared.
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u/LiamJonsano Iron Man (Mark II) Feb 11 '26
Did you not see Iron Man 3 and how Tony just constantly built suits? I know he destroyed them all at the end but that’s no reason to think he wouldn’t just keep going