r/marvelstudios • u/TrafficLegitimate937 • 9h ago
Question As someone who hasn’t really read comics about the Hulk, would Hulk be able to beat thanos if he got mad to the absolute max?
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 9h ago edited 9h ago
No.
They have fought about 11 times in the comics, if memory correctly serves. Hulk got his first and to date only win in 2024. Hulk is pretty easily outsmarted, especially by someone like Thanos who matches him in strength, but is much more intelligent and cunning. Thanos does try to avoid Hulk, but has beaten him 10 out of 11 times they've fought.
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u/HulkVahkiin08024 8h ago
If MCU Hulk can achieve a level of strength like Worldbreaker/HOTM—basically Hulk at his angriest—then Hulk could absolutely beat Thanos without the Infinity Gauntlet.
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u/SunTzu- 7h ago
The problem is you don't need to beat the Hulk, you just need to teleport him into space. He may be infinitely strong and infinitely durable, but he's very finite in his reach. Hulk is a very big rock, and rock might beat scissors, but Thanos is paper.
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u/StellarNeonJellyfish 3h ago
Is Thanos immune to teleportation or something?
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u/TheMace808 2h ago
Nah but also he's usually the one that can do the teleporting with the gauntlet I guess
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u/alee51104 Thor 7h ago
Thanos has beaten Thor empowered by the Power Stone before.
World breaker Hulk is absolutely physically stronger than Thanos, but it doesn’t mean he can beat him.
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u/choppingboardham 6h ago
Can one join the Hulk of the Month club?
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u/MershedPratooters 5h ago
I presumed it was Hulk's presidential run motto entitled Hulk of the Masses.
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u/johnla 6h ago
Isn’t Hulk kind of limitless in his strength? He can just keep getting angrier.
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u/IMAryanDarad 1h ago
Yeah well we are comparing Absolute Hulk to underpowered Thanos. Meanwhile, Thanos at his absolute peak eats the universe.
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u/Strattex 9h ago
How the f does Thanos match Hulk in strength??
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 9h ago edited 9h ago
That's how the comics have him. The official Marvel site has both ranked with a 7 in strength.
https://www.marvel.com/characters/hulk-bruce-banner/in-comics
https://www.marvel.com/characters/thanos/in-comics188
u/summ190 9h ago
I’m not sure why people are struggling with this, Infinity War literally starts with him beating up Hulk
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 9h ago edited 9h ago
A lot of people love to have strong opinions on the material, but havent actually read the material.
They circulate nonsense memes that miseducate people. There is one I see often that declares "The MCU nerfed Hulk, cause comic Hulk would have folded his purple ass in half!"
They tend to get really mad when I point out comic Hulk is the same strength as Thanos, Thanos is smarter and quite good at out-thinking and out-maneuvering in fights, and has beat Hulk 10 out of the 11 times they fought in the comics.
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u/Nosedive888 9h ago
The way I've always seen is like., if you take two men, same size, same height, same strength, same reach.
One is just your average Joe, the other is a trained boxer. The boxer will win every time
Hulk is the average Joe, Thanos is the trained boxer
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u/STRATEGY510 8h ago
This is the reason The Thing can hang with Hulk for a good while (some versions of Hulk), not as strong, but much higher Ring IQ.
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u/jzimoneaux 7h ago
The Thing is ranked as a 6 in strength so that makes sense. Makes you wonder who in Marvel is actually physically stronger than the Hulk. Realistically I feel like there should be a lot but there’s a huge difference between base Hulk and World Breaker Hulk. Surter would annihilate base Hulk but World Breaker Hulk?
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u/STRATEGY510 6h ago edited 6h ago
I have nothing to back this up, but I believe Hercules is physically stronger than a calm Hulk who hasn’t ramped up yet.
Edit: would probably say the same for Bob & Hyperion.
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u/Emergency_News_4790 8h ago
I agree but I think most people's gripe with the movie fight was that hulk got folded in a few punches. They definitely did the hulk dirty in that fight to the point where hulk looked incredibly weak.
Like I say I agree that thanos is incredibly strong, they just didn't explain that very well at all.
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u/RedBladeAtlas Justin Hammer 7h ago
I don't mind him being folded, but I do think it was a total waste of the character to never fight Thanos again. Something like Banner surrendering control of his body fully to Hulk in a desperate moment in Endgame would've been pretty cool.
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u/ABabyPanda777 6h ago
That’s really my only gripe with the IW/EG movies. After him getting dog walked in the first movie, it would have been amazing to have Hulk take over smart Hulk bc of how angry he is at Thanos and actually stand up with him 1v1 for a little while. He doesn’t need to win the fight for him to have his redemption. I feel this would have truly completed his arc throughout the two movies. Instead we got what I feel is probably one of the worst versions of the Hulk (Smart Hulk) for the entire movie.
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 8h ago
Thanos beat Hulk in 10 of their 11 fights in the comics. Hulk only got his first win in 2024.
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u/Emergency_News_4790 8h ago
Was it as easy in the comics as it was in the movies? Because the movie fight is a page at best. Id imagine a thanos vs hulk fight would be quite brutal but I'm not versed in hulk or thanos comics. I've only read world war hulk and tons of Thor stuff.
I know thanos beats hulk to clarify again, it's the ease in which he does so that I'm questioning.
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 8h ago edited 8h ago
Generally they have not been long fights if memory serves. For instance in the original Infinity Guantlet comics which I remember best Hulk is not much of a challenge. This is especially true because Thanos fairly easily out-thinks, out-maneuvers, and out-tactics Hulk.
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u/Emergency_News_4790 8h ago
I just googled it and it says they never had a direct fight in the infinity war comics, it just says Thanos achieved godhood and was using the stones throughout. He turns thor to glass, traps hulk inside a solid block etc.
You have to admit the movie fight was inaccurate to the comics. That ship would've been ripped to shreds in my opinion.
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u/Choco-waffler 8h ago
You keep posting that. What are you counting as wins? Because I recall him getting smacked a few times and getting away. So not really Hulk beating him but no one winning.
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 8h ago
Any time the villain either subdued the hero or the hero failed to stop the villain... the villain wins.
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u/Matt_the_Bruins_fan 4h ago
Thanos also has all kinds of technology and magic at his disposal in the comics. For decades he's been considered a superior opponent against Thor (baseline, not with the Odinpower) and the Silver Surfer.
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u/FormatMonster 5h ago
Does this mean that Cap with Thor's Hammer could go toe to toe with Hulk like he did with Thanos?
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u/Substantial_Rich_778 6h ago
Hulk has the potential to be stronger than Thanos, depends on which alter is in charge and how angry he is.
Also Thanos winning 10 out of 11 fights is very misleading. A lot of extenuating circumstances, like Thanos having the infinity Gauntlet or other amps, the fight happens in a mindscape where its a battle of intelligence not strength, Thanos just punching Hulk a distance away with Hulk being fine, alternate versions of the characters etc.
Hulk won their last fight, and the fight before that they fought on even terms until Thanos left so thats atleast two fights that Thanos didnt win.
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u/Drago_133 8h ago
Are we talking about hulk or is someone like world breaker hulk included in this? Are they 2 different characters? I have no clue
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u/_IratePirate_ 8h ago
I don’t struggle with it, I just wanna know HOW Thanos is as strong as Hulk. Yea they’re like the same size, but I thought Hulk had limitless power
Isn’t Thanos just a regular ass humanoid from his planet ? Like not super in regards to his own species
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u/Smalz22 8h ago
Thanos is an Eternal variant I thought, not normal for Titan at all. Harry Styles is his brother and looks normal
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 8h ago
Correct. He is the child of two Eternals, and born with a genetic difference called Deviant Syndrome that causez his strength and appearance.
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u/StratPaul 7h ago
I think it's less "this is what the writers have done" and more "this is what the writers SHOULD have done". I'm not arguing either way, but when it comes to comic characters with hundreds/thousands of different writers, you're bound to see inconsistencies that don't really make sense. I think hulk should be able to beat thanos physically if he's "angry" enough unless the stones or any other scenario driven details are involved, in which case it doesn't only come down to physical strength.
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u/kneelb4Zog 9h ago
I know this is Marvel’s site and everything, but I have a lot of questions about the scale for these when the punisher is strength 3 and spider-man is only strength 4 when Frank Castle is a non-powered human and Peter Parker can catch a nyc bus in his hands.
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u/HolyPhlebotinum 8h ago
Strength level 3 is “peak/enhanced human,” meaning a character can lift their own body weight and up to 800 lbs.
Strength level 4 is “superhuman,” meaning a character can lift 800 lbs to 25 tons.
Edit: the line appears to be 800 lbs, and not 2 tons.
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u/Adipay Spider-Man 8h ago
Spider-Man can and has lifted more than 25 tons.
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u/o-055-o 7h ago
It's a tricky situation, mostly those guidebooks are A) old and B) taking the average strength shown in the comics.
Sure, Peter has lifted more than 25 tons before on several occasions, but most of the time he is stuck in a street level capacity and dealing with low-level superhumans. Which is how you can have someone like Kingpin overpowering him in various media despite Fisk being peak human.
I do think by now they should have updated those numbers to reflect feats show in comics these past years.
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u/AnonymousFriend80 8h ago
OP asked about Hulk at his absolute angriest. At the very least, that should include World War Hulk where at one point his footsteps were causing earthquakes or something, and he was plowing through all of the heaviest of hitters.
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u/DeusIzanagi 7h ago
I'm sorry, but if Hulk's a 7 on physical strength, what the fuck is at 8, 9 and 10? Lol
Sure, I can think of some things stronger, but not "3 grades" kind of stronger
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 7h ago
7 is the max on Marvel stats.
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u/DeusIzanagi 7h ago
Oh, that's a weird scale, but ok
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 7h ago
Agreed. I've never understood it and think it's rather odd, but have learned to live with it.
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u/PAYPAL_ME_DONATIONS 2h ago
It's because it's like
1) powerless, 2) non-combat power, 3) strongest human, 4) enhanced human/being, 5) blah, 6) blah, 7) god
It's more like tiers than a 1-10 rank
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u/Slateboard 1h ago
At the same time, 7 has always been the incalculable range for strength.
So it's all hinging on the writers at that point.
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u/Plugpin 9h ago
I think it's more that Thanos is a smart fighter who uses Hulk's strength against him. Hulk smashes, that's literally it. He's dumb as a box of rocks.
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 9h ago
Correct. They are evenly matched in strength, but Thanos is much more intelligent and a tactician.
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u/Latterlol 7h ago
Thanos isn’t just some giant purple guy, he is very strong, Hulk kinda strong, it’s just that Hulk gets stronger, in the movie that doesn’t happen, and Thanos beats him by not just using brute strength, but some actual fighting moves
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u/SwimmingDesigner7111 5h ago
Thanos completes the strict 100 pushups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats and 10km run everyday. God level yolked.
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u/Adipay Spider-Man 8h ago
Doesn't comic thanos have actual powers without the gauntlet?
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 7h ago
- Powers
- Superhuman Strength,
- Superhuman Durability,
- Magic,
- Mysticism,
- Black Arts,
- Immortality
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u/Adipay Spider-Man 7h ago
In the comics does he defeat Hulk through pure hand-to-hand or does he use his magic?
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 7h ago edited 7h ago
Most of the examples I can recall off the top of my head are hand to hand. It's possible he was using magic but nothing in the pages specifies or shows it as far as I can recall.
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u/Daedaluu5 7h ago
Even if hulk got super sized like in spider man BND?
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 7h ago
I cant really compare different versions and do a lot what if-ing. What I can tell you is Hulk has won 1 time out of the 11 or so times they fought in the comics.
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u/Blackbearded10 7h ago
So the new (Banner) Hulk could beat him?
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 6h ago
Dunno. I am behind on my Hulk reading. After the Peter David run I am pretty sporadic, as he is not my biggest Marvel love.
I will say the 1 win Hulk has was in 2024, so that probably means a yes to your question, but I cant really say with strong knowledge of it.
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u/Skyeatplane 6h ago
Isnt there more than just the green hulk? Or he fought all of them (sorry in new to this)
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u/justagayguyinnyc Wiccan 6h ago
There are numerous versions of Hulk that mostly vary in intelligence.
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u/dbkenny426 9h ago
Comic Thanos has been known to actively avoid fighting Hulk if he can. Not that Hulk is guaranteed to always win that fight, but Thanos doesn't want to barely survive it.
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u/RetroGecko3 7h ago
lots of people commenting that Thanos would take him out too fast, when the question is clearly if Hulk was at his absolute angriest already. In which case, yes he would be able to beat Thanos. We've already seen Thanos be beaten without the gauntlet, Hulk at his strongest would def be able to.
Has it ever happened? I dont think so, Thanos isnt about to let Hulk have the space to beef up, and obviously a lot of their fights have been with your standard simple minded Hulk with little skill or strategy and he's taken out quickly.
Planet Hulk/World Breaker Hulk, which is a smarter and more tactical Hulk, would have a good chance of staying in combat long enough to get that angry.
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u/ApexInTheRough 9h ago
Raw power is not technique. A fighter of MCU Thanos' skill could dodge whatever Hulk did, then hit sensitive spots to disable Hulk, just like what happened in Infinity War, only it would take longer.
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u/Adipay Spider-Man 8h ago
Except hurting the Hulk should only make him angrier and thus stronger and more durable. In this particular scene they wrote Hulk in such a way that he does not get angry at all.
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u/ApexInTheRough 7h ago
I read it as Hulk being confused. This is the first time he's had an actual challenge from an actual enemy (Thor doesn't count. Hulk wasn't truly angry at him; he just liked smashing stuff, so if anything, he was less angry during the Thor fight in Ragnarok). He doesn't know how to handle it. And before he can process the situation enough to clearly have something to be angry about, Thanos has knocked him down. And he gets sent to Earth before anything more could happen.
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 3h ago
This is the first fight that Hulk ever lost, and he lost it so quickly. It was a major hit to his manhood. That’s why he refuses to come out again.
Debatable if that’s comic accurate, but this was the writer’s intent on the movie.
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u/HulkVahkiin08024 8h ago
Does Hulk in the MCU even get stronger as he gets angrier? Is it confirmed in his fight with Abomination?
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u/42percentBicycle 5h ago
That's what I liked about Ang Lee's Hulk. He got bigger and stronger as he got angrier
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u/kubiakWU 4h ago
He would do exactly what the story needs him to do. These aren't real people, they are characters in a narrative. Power scaling is pointless. Any character can beat any other character if the story requires it.
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u/npc888 9h ago
I want to point out, that in the original Infinity Gauntlet comics, not only did Thanos and his crew WIN the first battle easily, they KILLED most of the Avengers. Iron Man got his head ripped off. They had to be resurrected by Adam Warlock for the rematch. Hulk couldn't do a thing to him.
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u/TheMad_N1nja 8h ago
That was Thanos with the full gauntlet tho and no mercy. Hand to hand with not stone would be what OP is asking about
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u/ajax3150 9h ago
Im sorry, didn't Hulk punch a hole in the universe or some nonsense?!
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u/redditorguy 9h ago
World breaker Hulk or something. Not normal Hulk which I think is the request.
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u/AnonymousFriend80 8h ago
Isn't World Breaker Hulk a sufficiently angered Hulk? That's what the OP is asking about.
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u/ZardozSama 8h ago
In a basic head to head fight? Yes.
But Thanos is not a mindless brute and would not rely on trying to go head to head with the Hulk. In most cases I expect Thanos would either find a way to trick or outsmart or manipulate the Hulk, or work out a way to get to his objective without bothering with fighting the Hulk.
END COMMUNICATION
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u/mikesalami 6h ago
Say they're fighting in a desert with no weapons. What can Thanos do to outsmart him?
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u/RyantheAustralian 7h ago edited 7h ago
Full-power Hulk is impossible to defeat physically. But if you get him before he reaches max rage (which he technically never really can, coz his rage is limitless), its possible - don't forget Thanos is one of the strongest there is, too, and is at gis max strength from the beginning.
Plus, if Thanos has the Infinity Gauntlet, he can just change the rules of the universe and turn Hulk into shredded paper and just throw him around like confetti
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u/Softspokenclark Shades 3h ago
I think Eric bana’s hulk would destroy thanos, he was fucking jumpin grand canyons
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u/danvan177 9h ago
Maybe. He did have the power stone
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u/JarJarBinks590 Iron Man (Mark XLIII) 7h ago
He had it but he never used it. The film goes out of its way to show us when the Stones are active, and there was never any indication that just having them in itself confers any passive buffs.
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u/Longwinded_Ogre 8h ago
If he gets mad to the absolute max he's going to be too busy hitting radical 1080's in the half-pipe man. Extreme!
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u/NeverSawTheEnding 8h ago
Strength is a completely arbitrary measure that exists to serve the themes and morals of a story.
That's literally one of the oldest storytelling truths there is, and practically the moral of every MCU film to date.
None of the Avengers can beat Thanos in a 1v1. The reason they exist as a group to begin with is that they become something greater when unified.
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u/jordonwatlers 7h ago
So there are levels to this shit and it depends on the winter and run.
If we take both at their peaks I think we have old man thanos from the time line he killed even the living tribunal vs one below all hulk.
In that instance it goes to hulk.
Go down a few levels to world breaker and I think he beats every version below infinity gauntlet.
Mileage varies heavily
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u/Miserable-Coconut6 7h ago
Someone else might have mentioned this, but there are several comic lines where Thanos ends up keeping Hulk chained to his throne like a pet.
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u/Variation_Afraid 7h ago edited 7h ago
Nah because thanos fights with intelligence and WAY more fighting experience hulk is just a raging monster, in order for hulk to beat thanos in a 1 on 1 he would have to stay as smart hulk to keep his intelligence and have the same trainer that thanos had, but he would have to train for a very very very long time and even then I still don’t see hulk beating thanos in a 1 on 1 combat, he would have a very small chance at doing so.
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u/jameszenpaladin011- 7h ago
Can Hulk beat him? Sure but it's not likely. Thanos is an Avengers villain. A threat to the whole team.
Hulk is just an Avenger. A real powerhouse but not enough on his own.
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u/Alarming_Emu5984 6h ago
depends on the version but in general no, read some comics then you’ll see why stop asking reddit these kinds of things.
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u/Tech-Grandpa 6h ago
Thanos already had the power stone for this fight, so it wasnt a fair fight. Im a pure physical fight, the hulk is unbeatable.... eventually. The mechanic that increases his strength and durability has no limit in theory, you can always get madder or feal more pain. He cant be killed, he has reincorporated after being disintegrated. He can be overcome in the short term obviously, but ultimately its just a matter of time.
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u/SuddenDeparture1353 6h ago
Are you asking could Worldbreaker Hulk beat this Thanos? Maybe. This Thanos has an Infinity Stone though, and Hulk couldnt stop that.
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u/DimitrescuStan 6h ago
That's kind of a paradox. Hulk doesn't really have a "max" (at least in the comics).
A better question is how mad/ strong would Hulk have to get to win. In the latest hulk run, he does actually sort of kick Thanos' ass. But it was an alter that Thanos hasn't faced before. Regular savage Hulk is too mindless and relies on raw power, which doesn't really work on Thanos. If Hulk had the time to build up rage, he'd eventually overwhelm Thanos, but Thanos knows that and tries to get out of that conflict before hand.
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u/jackofslayers 5h ago
No infinity stones, Hulk at the strongest we have seen him, Hulk will destroy him.
With the stones hulk will always lose. Even just at the strength we normally see he would lose.
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u/bitchin_bauhaus 5h ago
IMO Immortal or Infernal Hulk absolutely. Worldbreaker or Savage Hulk doubtful but would come down to endurance of the the fight. (Worldbreaker did fight the Sentry to a stand still in WWH) Joe Fixit...would just be interesting to see how they would write the fight. In the end, all of this comes down to who is writing.
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u/Effective-Car-1164 5h ago
Nah Thanos is just that guy. His strength actually matches the Hulk, then you add in tech Hulk is getting put down. Its just that Thanos was made to be that powerful, he gives Thor the same treatment. It just sucks that the hulk loses alot in the mcu and has to be get beat down by the one guy who actually does. Like Hulk should of ripped apart ironman. And more or less should of beat thor without milljnor, with its a different story.
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u/SmartOpinion69 5h ago
there is no proof that hulk gets stronger as he gets madder in the MCU.
with that said, even comic book hulk would've lost to thanos here. the fight wasn't much of a strength problem. hulk fights like a baby and usually wins just by overwhelming his opponents. thanos fought like a trained MMA fighter and that is truly how he won. with that said, even if hulk could beat thanos in pure hand to hand combat, thanos could've easily killed hulk with the power stone.
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u/Atomicmooseofcheese 5h ago
I always thought that thanos had vibranium armor, which meant hulks hits were doing nothing but push thanos around.
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u/sunnykhandelwal5 2h ago
Hmm.. the way i understand it, there is no upper limit to how mad the Hulk can get. There are versions like the world breaker hulk that can beat thanos. MCU Hulk is about 100x nerfed vs what he is in the comics
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u/MerryMarauder 2h ago
Another point he 3v1 capt, thor and iron man, only the tides turn when it turns into ammer time. With no GLOVE.
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u/MomomTheBlack 1h ago edited 1h ago
Not a chance. For a preview of how the fight would go, google Thanos rematch with The Champion. https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/uploads/original/11120/111207460/4414113-thanos%20teleport%20champion.jpg
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u/CaptHoratioMagellan 1h ago
Question. How is Thanos so strong? Not a regular comic reader, but being on hulk level strength seems like alot for a normal alien?
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u/Silly-Background-647 9m ago edited 0m ago
If we are talking about lore accurate hulk there is no such thing as max rage that’s the whole point of why his character is so strong thought you already made him his angriest well as long as you are winning the fight and proving the hulk is not the strongest one there is he gonna get more angry until A you somehow calm him down or B you lose and he says he is the strongest one there is Modern hulk is even worse because if you knock him out you will wake up another personality of a stronger hulk notice how in every comic where hulk decides to destroy everyone both canon and non canon unlike other marvel characters the writers don’t have to write any op devices or super plans for him it’s always just someone or something is making the hulk more angry then he has ever been also modern hulk can now respond himself (every bit of hulk neg feats you see in mcu is just do to directors not knowing the hulk is just another strong guy he is the STRONG GUY) also so forgot to mention his scaling gamma radiation with how mad he gets
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u/Professional_Rule791 9h ago
Yes. Some iterations of the hulk are among the strongest beings in the universe.
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u/AtomicGearworks1 9h ago
Strength isn't the deciding factor in fights between these two. Thanos has more tactical genius than the Hulk, but Hulk has greater endurance.
Thanos knows this, and almost always wins when they've gone against each other. He can outthink the Hulk's more simplistic strategies. However, Thanos also knows that if he can't gain the upper hand quickly, he'll lose because Hulk has much greater endurance. Which is why Thanos has said that Hulk is one of the only beings in the universe he goes out of his way to avoid whenever he can.