Ok Steemit, gonna float my "Infinity War" fan theory and see what everyone thinks.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've likely seen "Avengers: Infinity War" by now. You've also likely asked yourself "How the hell are they gonna get out of this?" after watching the movies rather downbeat ending. You also likely have asked yourself why we saw no more than a minute of the hulk whooping ass on Thanos at the beginning of the film. I think I may have an answer ( or at least a PARTIAL answer) to these questions. Unfortunately, it requires a little background on the stories the movies are drawing from in order to understand.
You see the movies are based (loosely) on the comic mini-series "Infinity Gauntlet" but takes it's name from the "Infinity War" comic series that was a direct equal to the events of the "Infinity Ganutlet". As faithful to the IDEA of the first series as the movie is, there are major deviations from it that did not occur in the comics. This leads me to believe that they may draw from aspects of the actual Infinity War comic in order to wrap up the current story lines next year.
In the Infinity War comic the big bad guy was Magus, an aspect of a yet-to-be introduced character from the comic lines, Adam Warlock. ( Magus is the purple skinned guy, Warlock is in gold. Look for him in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3!)
Prior to the comic book Infinity War line, there was a short lived series called Infinity Watch, where six individuals, picked by Adam Warlock at the conclusion of Infinity Gauntlet, were the guardians of the Infinity stones.
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At one point in the Infinity Watch series, Drax, who possessed the Power Stone, swallowed it, thinking it was a jelly bean. (Drax in the comics is brain damaged at this point.)
Now....I believe the reason the Hulk refused to emerge after getting bounced around by Thanos at the movie's beginning is that Loki managed to pull a fast one on Thanos after all, giving him a very convincing but ultimately fake, Space Stone. I believe that Loki, realizing that Thanos would not let him live, magicked the Space Stone INSIDE of the Hulk. This could account for the Hulks' refuals to emerge, needing to focus on holding the power of the Space Stone in in order to prevent it from destroying Banner. This would make sense and be a direct hommage to the comic lines since.....
Magus was ultimately defeated by Warlock and a much humbler Thanos due to the fact that Thanos (who turned out to be the guardian of the Reality Stone) had made a very clever forgery that the Magus took from him.
SO.....could it be that Dr. Strange gave up the Time stone because he KNEW that Thanos would possess most but not all of the stones shortly but that Thanos wouldn't know it until it was too late? Seems to me that this covers the basics of these puzzling aspects of the movie while being very appropriate nods to some of the best cosmic storytelling produced by Marvel.
If you can't tell, I'm a fan of the movies and I salute Kevin Feige and the Russo Brothers and everyone involved with the creation of the MCU. I'm Looking forward to whats up their sleeves with Captain Marvel and Phase 4 of the MCU.
Let me know what you think.