The Hulk in space – is this the next move for The Avengers' jade giant?

Away from the myriad Star Wars spin-offs that it looks like we'll be getting over the next few years, all the talk this week in the geekosphere has centred on a possible new Hulk movie based on the 2006 comic-book storyline Planet Hulk. Latino Review suggests that once the great green rage machine has done his duties in The Avengers 2, which is due for May 2015, he'll be sent off into outer space to ensure he cannot do any more damage to the poor old battered Earth. At first glance this looks like a pretty preposterous proposition: Planet Hulk is one of those outlandish sci-fi-style storylines beloved of Marvel that might not translate well to a live-action big-screen movie, where screenplays need to be built around the charisma of the actors involved rather than pseudo-mystical subplots and mysterious extraterrestrials. But the more I think about it, the more I think the storyline might just work – with some pretty hefty adaptations.

Planet Hulk begins with the Hulk waking in a SHIELD spacecraft that has been blasted out of the solar system on the orders of a group of superheroes called the Illuminati (Iron Man and Doctor Strange among them) to exile their former pal for ever on a planet without intelligent life (where, it is proposed, he can happily smash up the local wildlife far from anything approaching a civilisation). So far, so fair enough: however, this being a Marvel comic book, the spacecraft accidentally travels through a wormhole and ends up crash-landing on the planet Sakaar where there is plenty of sentient life (though not much in the way of civilised attitudes). The Hulk is captured and finds himself forced to compete as a gladiator for a ruthless ruler named the Red King, along with an assortment of fellow contestants from various planets, some of whom he ends up befriending. I won't tell you any more, but suffice it to say that the not-so-jolly green giant ends up being pretty hot in the arena, and eventually heads back to Earth to take vengeance on the Avengers – a spat depicted in the comic book World War Hulk. Latino Review says its sources suggest this could be the basis of The Avengers 3.

Planet Hulk would in many ways make a splendid Hulk film, especially at this stage in the development of the wider Marvel universe. For a start, it pitches the character into a completely new environment where he is the only individual audiences are likely to know much about. In a sense, this almost becomes a Hulk origins movie, because he is forced to forge himself afresh in a new world. It allows Marvel to avoid repeating the rather stale storyline featured in both of the previous two (pretty prosaic) films about the character (whereby the military want to bring him down to stop him destroying stuff). And it nicely sets up the Hulk as a potential antagonist – we won't say villain – for The Avengers 3.

On the other hand, much like its hero, Planet Hulk has issues. The comic book is so heavily influenced by Gladiator that the story would need a lot of fleshing out if it were to avoid coming across as a shallow retread. Even more pressing is the fact that in print, the Hulk who appears in this story is the version of the character who does not transform into Bruce Banner (see this link for details as to why). Unfortunately, the Hulk without Banner – even a Hulk with the ability to feel love and father half-Hulk children as he does in the comic book – turns out to be a slightly boring creation. Moreover, the success of the character in The Avengers, which spawned the current demand for a new Hulk movie, stemmed largely from Mark Ruffalo's subtly magnetic performance as Banner as much as the comedy value of his angry other half. Add in the fact that Ruffalo is contracted for at least six films and it seems likely that one of the comic's central premises would need to be dispensed with. If Planet Hulk gets made, Ruffalo needs to be in the picture.

Marvel president Kevin Feige confirmed last year in an interview with MTV that Planet Hulk and World War Hulk were both possibilities for the next swath of superhero films, but admitted that each was problematic. "I think there's pitfalls of continuity-overload," he said. "And mythology getting so dense that it almost collapses in on itself. It happens every few decades or so in the comics. Apart from that, I'd say everything is on the table."

What are your thoughts on Planet Hulk as the basis for the next Hulk movie? Should the jade giant head off into outer space in search of adventure? Or, now that they've finally found a way to make the character work on the big screen, should Marvel keep those monstrous feet firmly on the surface of the Earth?