Hey, what's up?
I feel like all of you -- and
me -- I feel like we need to have a little talk to get a few things straight. Seems like a lot of you, well, you might be familiar with a world like mine. Maybe you've watched some movies with Edward Norton or Eric Bana -- and if you have, I'm sorry. Maybe you think I should look a lot more like the affable love interest in
13 Going on 30 or maybe you just think I'm always angry.
But, dig this, all of those things are
wrong.
What I am -- and what the
Hulk is is dangerous. Indestructible, incredible, irrational, irradiated -- whatever you want to call it, the
Hulk, if left unchecked, could rip this city apart faster than you could say "Smash". And if you're wondering if I'm writing this to tell you that there is some trick, some way to stop him, some
charm like the way music works on the Three-Headed Dog in Harry Potter? You're wrong. You can't stop him. They've tried everything from shooting me into space to greasing me up with bacon and maple syrup and leaving me in a room with Wolverine. It doesn't work. It never will.
Magic doesn't work either. We've tried that.
Why I'm telling you this is -- well, it's simple. If you see the Hulk, you run. You don't be a hero, you don't try to stop him, you don't try to reason with him, or talk him down. I can
sometimes do that, and God knows, I'll be trying -- these days, I even have control most of the time. But it's not a risk anyone ought to take.
Just run.
Why am I bringing all this up?
Because there's been a lot of talk about second chances aren't something anyone deserves. I certainly didn't -- or the third, forth, or fiftieth. Second chances aren't something that are earned, either: I've saved the world a hundred times over, I'll probably save it a hundred times more because that's what I do, but it doesn't make up for any of the lives I've ruined or the worlds I've destroyed. The planets that have been shattered to ashes because I failed to intervene in time. What
second chances are are a gift, they're a sign of mercy, of compassion, of
civilization and of hope.
They shouldn't be taken for granted, they shouldn't be revoked without reason, they -- basically -- shouldn't be fucked with. If someone fails at their second change, maybe they should be granted a third -- maybe not. But that's decided after, not before.
Because you can fuck with a lot of things, right -- but don't fuck with people's hope.
Especially not until you can stand up, look me in the eye and tell me you know what it's like not to have any.