Marvel’s Smart Hulk.
As a result, however, some of Hulk’s greatest enemies were pushed to the side – including The Leader, a super smart gamma mutate who played a ing role in The Incredible Hulk film as the human scientist Samuel Sterns. Sterns was exposed to Banner’s gamma-irradiated blood during the film and appeared to be mutating into his villainous self, yet has been conspicuously absent in subsequent MCU films.
Although his absence was never explained in the films, one comic book series, Marvel’s The Avengers Prelude: Fury’s Big Week, managed to fill in some of the blanks by telling side stories of what happened in the aftermath of many MCU superhero battles. As it turned out, audiences can thank Black Widow for being so good at her job she was able to neutralize the Leader before he could become a threat.
In the fifth issue of Fury’s Big Week, readers learned that Natasha Romanov was one of the SHIELD agents secretly tracking Bruce Banner’s movements during the events of his movie. Posing as a university student, Natasha managed to gain access to Culver University during the period where Banner Hulked out and fought with General Ross’ army. Reporting to Fury directly on the scene, Natasha was ordered to not let Ross take Banner dead or alive – a directive that became moot when the Hulk simply smashed his way through the army.
Natasha did witness Emil Blonsky’s enhanced strength and speed during the battle, however, and informed Fury. Still assigned to Banner, Natasha went to Harlem during the Hulk’s second fight with Blonsky, who had since mutated into the Abomination. Instead of involving herself in the actual battle, Natasha went into the university lab where both Banner and Blonsky had been experimented on by Samuel Sterns and saw Sterns slowly mutate into a creature with a massively oversized brain.
Already showing signs of megalomania, the newborn “Leader” reveals his superhuman intelligence to Natasha by deducing her Russian heritage simply from analyzing faint traces of her remaining accent. Promising the Black Widow that he has an “illustrious future defined by power and influence,” Sterns attempts to recruit Natasha… who promptly shoots Sterns in the leg and calls in a SHIELD cleanup crew.
Readers next see Sterns in a SHIELD facility submerged in a tank and kept in a sedated state. Given that nobody has seen or heard of the Leader since that point, it would appear that the Black Widow effectively ended Sterns’ criminal career even before it began. It’s an inglorious end to a villain who, in the comics, is one of the Hulk’s most powerful enemies – but it just shows how good the MCU Black Widow is at stopping threats before they have a chance to escalate.
