It's occurred to me that The Hulk has been an Avenger in the movies longer than in the comics

I had that realization pop in my head last week and while it's a minor thing at best, I thought it was interesting enough to post. So Hulk was a founding member of The Avengers when the comic debuted in September 1963. However, he left the team by the *checks notes* second issue in November.

Or to use an American sports idiom, he was an Avenger for a cup of coffee. I'm actually kind of astounded because while I knew Hulk wasn't on the team for very long and was gone before Captain America joined, I didn't realize that he'd left by issue #2.

Even Hulk is shocked by how short that was.

Now contrast this with the Hulk of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like his comic book counterpart, he was a founding member of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but unlike his counterpart, he stuck around for the long haul, appearing in every Avengers movie. So just on that front alone, he's got the comic book green behemoth beat in appearances. If we were to count actual time spent as a member of the Avengers, he would win there too. The first movie came out in 2012 and the most recent in 2019, so a solid seven years. I have no clue if he was still a member during that five-year span in Endgame between "The Snap" and the time heist. I'm also not counting Civil War because while it did feature the Avengers, it wasn't billed as one.

So clearly, the Hulk of the MCU had the staying power (and marketability *cough*) to be an Avenger, while the comic book original was fated to be a loner, at least for that period of time. I suspect that if they were making comic book movies back then, it would have been a different story altogether.