Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross is a retired lieutenant general of the U.S. Army and was the military leader responsible for getting Bruce Banner involved in the experiment which led to the accident that turned him into the Hulk. He is now the U.S. Secretary of State and works closely with the Sokovia Accords.
Ross was among the many who vanished when Thanos completed the Infinity Gauntlet and wiped out half the life in the universe. He was resurrected five years later by Bruce Banner via the Infinity Stones.
Biography[]
The Incredible Hulk: The Big Picture[]
Sometime after Bruce Banner's accident, Bruce spoke to Ross about the accident and revealed to Ross that he will find a cure, Ross refuses to allow him to get a cure, but Bruce disobeys him and runs away. Ross orders his men to capture Bruce.
Iron Man 2: Public Identity[]
With Tony Stark getting worse, Senator Stern called Ross. When Ross arrived in Stern's office, he told him to forgive him as he was in a bit of a hurry as this was taking him away from the Gamma Project and he wanted to get back to it. Ross said that the US army couldn't afford to wait Tony Stark to smarten up. He told both Stern and James Rhodes to follow him. Ross was about to show them something that was classified top secret, Stern asked where Justin Hammer was and Ross told him that Hammer was on the way, Ross told them that their new weapon would be the right way to send the right message to the enemies of freedom, the message being that they don't need Tony Stark. When Hammer arrived he presented to Rhodes and Ross the Aerodymamic Marvel, which he considered to be the next step on close-quarter combat with full protection and attack capabilities.
When testing the machine it was shot down and fell into an enemy zone. Ross was informed that Iron Man was heading in to clean up. Ross was interested in seeing what Stark could do. After Stark saved the pilot, Ross ordered him to land on Cairo Weat Air Base immediately. Stark met with Ross and asked if he had something to ask him, Ross told him that they picked up on a shoot out with the Congolese Army and Stark didn't return fire, stating that when someone fires on an American, that American has to fire back, he also told him that by claiming that he won't make any more weapons, he was distancing himself from his father's legacy. Stark warned him that if he heard about another innocent being put in harm's way there would be consequences.
The Incredible Hulk[]
Ross gets an agreement with the scientist Bruce Banner, his daughter's fiance, for working on a government's project to render soldiers immune to Gamma Radiations. The experiment fails and Bruce transforms in to a giant and amazingly strong brute, who flees after injuring Betty. Taken by a sense of guilt and rage, Ross puts his life at the service of a single cause; to hunt down and capture Bruce.
Five years later, Ross manages to track Bruce because of his contaminated blood, found in a bottle of Guaranito. Ross engages one of the best operatives at his disposal, Emil Blonsky, and sends him in the village of Rocinha, near Rio De Janeiro, where the drink is produced. The team fails to capture Bruce, who becomes the Hulk and flees.
When Blonsky comes back and is told how Banner has become the Hulk, he accepts to be injected with an experimental version of the Super Soldier Serum, developed by Ross' researchers. When Leonard Samson, Betty's new boyfriend, warns Ross that Bruce has come back to Virginia, Ross and his forces, super-powered Blonsky included, attacks the Culver University in an attempt to capture Banner. Ross uses all his men and his new weapons created by Stark Industries, but fails once again, and Betty flees with Bruce.
With much of Ross' surprise, Blonsky manages to recover very fast from the wounds suffered in the battle with Banner, that because of the Serum. General Ross manages to track Banner's accomplice and has his lab taken in custody by the Army. Unknown to Ross, anyway, Blonsky goes to Samuel Sterns' lab and forces him to inject him with Bruce's DNA, which reacts with the Serum and transforms him into a Hulk-like monster. For stopping Blonsky, Ross accepts Banner's help, and has The Hulk fight the Abomination. At the end of the battle, Ross takes Blonsky in custody, while Banner is disappeared once again. Later, in a bar, Ross meets Tony Stark, who wants to talk with him about the "Avengers Initiative" that might interest him.
The Consultant[]
Tony Stark's meeting with Ross was arranged by Phil Coulson and Jasper Sitwell to prevent Ross from releasing Blonsky.
Fury's Big Week[]
In need of new information about the Hulk's movements, Ross obtained the World Security Council's permission to extract the data from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computers. A few hours later, Ross was confronted by Nick Fury himself. Ross told Fury that he wasn't going to leave the safety of the world in his hands. Ross then left, claiming that he had "a Hulk to catch".
The Avengers[]
When Natasha Romanoff recruited Banner to help S.H.I.E.L.D locate the Tesseract, she mentioned that the organization had helped keep other interested parties off of Banner's trail, referring to General Ross.
Captain America: Civil War[]
- "The world owes you an unpayable debt. While a great many people see you as a hero, there are some who prefer the word vigilante. People are afraid."
- ―Gen. Ross[src]
To be added
Black Widow Prelude[]
Ross, believing that Black Widow betrayed him and helped Captain America and Winter Soldier escape, asked Councilwoman Hawley to lend her resources to aid him in locating her.
Black Widow[]
To be added
Avengers: Infinity War[]
To be added
Avengers: Endgame[]
Five years after the Snap, Ross, along with all the other victims of the Decimation, was resurrected by Bruce Banner via the Infinity Stones.
Ross attended Tony's funeral, after Iron Man sacrificed himself to destroy Thanos and his army.
Character traits[]
In The Incredible Hulk, Ross is a decisive and ruthless individual, who's main goal is to protect the United States against potential threats by any means necessary, but he crosses several moral lines in the process. Ross attempts to achieve his goals by advancing the U.S. military, often by unconventional means, such as the super soldier serum that, was modified from a similar experiment in World War II.
Ross is single-minded, to the point that he fails to learn from any of his bad choices, for example, even after he had witnessed the destructive capabilities of Bruce Banner as Hulk and the injuries sustained by himself, his daughter, Betty Ross, as well as the death of several other doctors in the process, when the superhuman was unleashed for the first time, Ross still planned to replicate Bruce's gamma radiation experiment to continue the super soldier program that he was working on.
Ross is proved to be dishonorable as after Bruce was accidentally turned into Hulk, he covered up that incident by claiming that Bruce had stolen military secrets, in order to save his military career, as Ross did not have any authorization from the U.S. government to reinstate the super soldier program.
Ross is a vengeful individual, to the point of being unreasonable. He has an unjustified hatred towards Bruce for injuring his daughter, Betty, completely disregarding the fact that Bruce wasn't in control of his actions at the time, when he was Hulk, instead of helping to cure Bruce from his gamma radiation condition, that Ross was indirectly responsible for in the first place, he instead planned to capture and imprison Bruce forever.
Ross is hypocritical and claims to love his daughter, Betty, very much, yet he completely destroyed his relationship with her, due to his obsession with hunting down Bruce, the man that she loves, as a fugitive and the fact that he was the one, who made him a fugitive in the first place.
In Captain America: Civil War, Ross is justifiably concerned about super-powered individuals, having continuously witnessed the casualties and destruction of several incidents involving superhumans, such as the Battle of Sokovia, as the events happened without supervision or jurisdiction from the government which caused the Avengers to run freely. He viewed the Avengers as loose cannons and believed that the Sokovia Accords would keep them on constant government watch, which was best for the world. On the other hand, he is still the same single-minded hypocrite who ignores his role in those incidents, does not truly have the best interests at heart, and expects complete obedience at all costs. This makes him an embodiment of the reasons Steve Rogers would never, in good conscience, sign the Accords.
Ross is arrogant and egotistical, to the point that, when he first officially met the Avengers at the New Avengers Facility, he tried to speak down to them as if he was superior to them, but he was quickly put in his place by Steve Rogers.
In Black Widow, Ross underestimates his enemies, as he believed that he had Natasha Romanoff cornered, even after Natasha had called him on the phone, warning Ross not to come after her, as his campaign against the Avengers made him look pathetic and desperate, following his failed attempt to have both Steve and Bucky Barnes arrested.
In Avengers: Infinity War, two years after the Avengers Civil War, even after Helmut Zemo was revealed to be the true culprit behind the Bombing of the Vienna International Centre, Ross still refers to Steve and his faction of Avengers as criminals, and ordered their arrest, thus, earning the anger of James Rhodes, who had once respected him, to the point that he preferred a court martial over going against his better nature, when he cut Ross off and disobeyed the Sokovia Accords during the Infinity War.
Relationships[]
- United States Army
- Emil Blonsky/Abomination - Ally turned enemy and attempted killer.
- Hammer Industries
- Justin Hammer - Ally.
- Betty Ross - Estranged daughter.
- Leonard Samson - Enemy.
- Samuel Sterns - Enemy.
- Matthew Ellis - Ally and commander-in-chief.
- Senator Stern - Ally.
- Helmut Zemo - Enemy.
- Everett Ross - Ally.
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Nick Fury - Ally.
- Avengers
- Steve Rogers/Captain America - Former enemy.
- Tony Stark/Iron Man - Ally and associate; deceased.
- Clint Barton/Hawkeye - Former enemy.
- Bruce Banner/Hulk - Enemy turned ally and resurrector.
- Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch - Former enemy; deceased.
- Vision - Ally.
- Sam Wilson/Falcon - Former enemy.
- Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow - Ally turned enemy; deceased.
- Scott Lang/Ant-Man - Former enemy.
- James Rhodes/War Machine - Former ally and former enemy.
- Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier - Former enemy.
- T'Challa/Black Panther - Ally; deceased.
- Guardians of the Galaxy - Allies.
- Thanos - Killer; deceased.
Appearances/Actors[]
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (8 films)
- The Incredible Hulk (First appearance) - William Hurt
- The Avengers (Mentioned only)
- Captain America: Civil War - William Hurt
- Avengers: Infinity War - William Hurt
- Avengers: Endgame - William Hurt
- Black Widow - William Hurt
- Captain America: Brave New World - Harrison Ford
- Thunderbolts - Harrison Ford
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (1 short film)
- Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant - William Hurt (Recycled Footage)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (1 Web series)
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot
- "John Hancock" (Mentioned only)
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (9 comics)
Behind the scenes[]
- It took 75 minutes to apply Ross' makeup each day for The Incredible Hulk. This included facial scars, a toupee, eyebrows, and his mustache.
- William Hurt's stature played some part in his casting for this role. Director Louis Leterrier wanted Ross to be a "big, scary mountain of a man".
- The Russos confirmed that Ross was among the many casualties when Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half every existing race.
- William Hurt voiced an alternate version of Ross in the video game The Incredible Hulk. The game is not considered canon to Earth-199999.
Trivia[]
- General Ross is the father of Betty Ross. But his love for her, conflicts with his love for his country and his duty.