My super mega unpopular hot take on brand new day is that I genuinely fully believe that hulk was always going to come back, even if jean never took control of banner. His solution to avoiding and shoving down the hulk was always going to blow up in his face, the question was just how it was going to get to that point and when.
"Oh but smart hulk-" smart hulk was still mostly banner. It was not banner accepting the hulk, it was not them working out a deal, it was a way of avoiding the actual issue while still trying to reap some benefits. It was destined to fail and honestly all things considered its a miracle it ended up leading to such little damage.
I'm not saying it's banners fault that it happened or that jean is an innocent saint, but that its a more complicated issue than some people like to pretend. This was the obvious outcome.
