From San Diego Comic Con 2016, Ryan Penagos (VP and Executive Editor of Marvel Digital Media) has revealed armor that the Hulk will be wearing in the upcoming third film in the Thor franchise: Thor Ragnarok. Looking like something ripped straight from the movie Gladiator, comic fans will recognize this armor as bearing a striking resemblance to the armor Bruce Banner wore in the comic arc “Planet Hulk.” In this storyline, from writer Greg Pak and artists Carlo Pagualayan and Aaron Lopresti, several of the most intelligent super heroes of the Marvel Universe -- including Iron Man, Reed Richards and Dr. Strange to name a few -- blast Hulk into space to try to bring an end to his reign of destruction.

As is the case with most well-meaning plans, the whole thing goes to pot when the spaceship holding the Hulk malfunctions and sends him to a world fueled by gladiatorial combat called Sakaar. Eventually the green goliath, while wearing this armor, manages to overthrow the ruling dictatorship of that world and becomes its king. However, the spaceship that brought Bruce Banner there explodes and utterly destroys the planet, along with the Hulk’s new wife and unborn child. With everything taken from him, Hulk sets a course for Earth, acquires a group of like-minded survivors dubbed “the Warbound” and battles nearly every hero he can find in a monumental war for the ages, appropriately dubbed “World War Hulk.” The Planet Hulk storyline went down in history as one of the most notable Hulk stories created, and was even made into an animated movie.

Check out the Comic-Con footage below:

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/AgentM/status/756880164584292352[/EMBED_TWITTER]

Whether Thor: Ragnorok will follow this storyline to the letter is yet to be seen, and it may be doubtful considering Thor had no hand in it originally. Still, Thor: Ragnarok is shaping up to be an epic story with a cast to assist with the heavy lifting in the form of Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston, Jeff Goldblum, Cate Blanchett, Karl Urban, Idris Elba, and Tessa Thompson. The movie itself has been promoted by director Taika Waititi as a “buddy cop” movie between Thor and Banner, so it should be interesting to see how this gladiator armor for the Hulk factors into the film.

Thor: Ragnarok will hit theater on November 3rd, 2017.  

thor-ragnorak-planet-hulk-image
Image via Marvel

planet-hulk-movie