The Hulk is the most powerful human on Earth, and it’s not even close. For years, the Jade Giant was presented as the strongest one there is, an unending fount of rage and strength that had no upper limit. As the years have gone by and the character has been better developed, we’ve seen him go from a man of science humbled by hubris to a broken, abused child trying to hide from the things in his head to the avatar of the most powerful force of darkness in the Marvel Multiverse. He has become something far beyond what he once was, which means that his villains have to be challenge a hero for whom “infinite power” is just his everyday reality.
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The Hulk’s enemies aren’t just ordinary villains, they’re often superlatively powerful beings who can challenge a character who constantly gets stronger. Many Hulk villains aren’t even villains at all, but heroes who he has fought numerous times, developing grudges that have turned into full-blown hatred. Over the years, as he’s gotten stronger, many of his enemies have too, whether it be in alternate universes or the good old Earth-616. Here are the seven most powerful Hulk villains, each of them becoming a more potent foe for Marvel’s best argument for anger management.
7) “Age of Apocalypse” Weapon X
Wolverine first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #181 and the two of them have been rivals ever since. An argument can be made that calling Wolvie a Hulk villain wouldn’t be accurate, but the two of them have all of the hallmarks of being enemies, despite the few times they’ve been able to work together. In the “Age of Apocalypse”, the two fought on different sides of the war – Hulk was a servant of Apocalypse and Logan was the freedom fighter known as Weapon X – and the two never met, as Hulk’s mission was to go after the High Human Council of Eurasia, a sleeper agent enhanced with gamma radiation. However, later on, Weapon X would become Weapon Omega, gaining the power of Apocalypse and restarting the way that almost destroyed their world. This one is sort of a stretch, depending on how you classify Logan in Bruce’s life, but I’m counting it.
6) Hulk-Killer of Earth-21923
“Old Man Logan” has become a legendary tale, giving readers exactly the kind of dystopian future they expect from Marvel Comics. In this world, Red Skull was able to marshal the villains into an army and kill all of the superheroes, carving the United States into territories for each of them. The Hulk ended up joining the bad guys in this world, creating the Hulk Gang, and terrorizing the Western United States. Eventually, Logan would kill Bruce and take his son Bruce Jr., trying to raise him to be better than his father. After some multiversal shenanigans, Logan ended up back on Earth-21293 with Bruce Jr. and Dani Cage. Members of the Tranquility Temple decided to hunt the young gamma mutate down, thinking his death would ensure peace, and broke out the Hulk-Killer, a powerful robot made to destroy the Jade Giant. It almost succeeded, but Logan was able to defeat it, using an overload of electricity to shut it down.
5) Rick Jones Abomination
The Abomination and Rick Jones are two of the most important characters in Hulk history. Look at it this way: Bruce Banner would never have been caught in the gamma blast without Rick, and the Abomination was one of the Green Goliath’s first actual supervillains. The future MCU villain was introduced, trying to steal the secrets of the gamma bomb before becoming one of Marvel’s most enduring monster figures. And then in the 21st century, the two characters would become linked when Red Hulk killed the Abomination, and Rick was given gamma powers, taking the name A-Bomb. In The Immortal Hulk, it was established that gamma-powered individuals could come back to life, and Rick was resurrected as a monstrous new abomination. Eventually, Rick was able to take control of his new body, but even this was a ploy, part of a plan made by the Leader to destroy the Hulk once and for all.
4) Earth X Absorbing Man
Earth X is an underrated Marvel gem. This sometimes overlooked story takes place in a future where everyone gains superpowers, and this version of Absorbing Man proved to be one of the greatest threats ever. After the death of his wife, Titania, in battle with the Avengers, in a bid for revenge, he absorbed Ultron, which added a fiendishly high level of intelligence to his base of powers. He attacked New York City, and the Avengers stood in his way, expecting to fight the same big dumb brute they always did. However, with his greater control over his powers he was able to kill the entire team, taking down Hawkeye, Giant-Man, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver. He was defeated by the Vision, who gave him a computer virus, but he’d eventually be awakened and saved the Earth after the Celestial embryo inside it was destroyed, replacing the vibranium that had kept the planet stable.
3) Red Hulk
General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross was in command of the gamma bomb project from the military side, and he hated Bruce Banner, if for no other reason than because he was dating his daughter Betty. When Banner became the Hulk, Ross was charged with taking him down and became obsessed with taking down the gamma-powered goliath. Eventually, he was given his own gamma powers by the Intelligencia and became the Red Hulk. While the Hulk gets stronger when he gets angry, Ross got stronger from absorbing energy, including gamma energy. He went on quite a tear when he first gained his powers, running through just about every powerful hero in the Marvel Universe like they were nothing. Since then, he’s become one of the most dangerous soldiers the US government has, doing everything he can to protect his country, even if he had to go against the heroes. The less said about the MCU version, the better, sadly.
2) Maestro
While the Hulk has fought plenty of bad guys over the years, his greatest villain has often been none other than himself. While this has always been part of the subtext of the character, it became text in Hulk: Future Imperfect. That’s where the Maestro came from. This version of the Hulk survived a nuclear war after being held by AIM. He tried to help people at first, but realized that the world needed a strong leader after everything that happened and it might as well be him. The ambient radiation left over from the nukes made him more powerful than ever before and he ended up killing the remaining heroes and villains on his planet, taking control of what was left of the population and ruling with an iron fist, until freedom fighters brought the Hulk from the present to stop him. He’s showed up numerous times over the years, challenging the Hulk and various other heroes.
1) The Immortal Hulk Leader
The Immortal Hulk is a modern-day classic, changing the Hulk’s mythos forever. And as the book went on, there seemed to be a nefarious hidden hand behind everything happening to the Jade Giant. Naturally, because this was a Hulk comic, it turned out to be long-time Banner adversary, the Leader. The super-intelligent villain had learned the truth about the One Below All years before and had been biding his time, gaining power and control before he dropped his ultimate plan on his hated foe. And rather than the already-formidable original iteration, this version of the Leader was smarter, stronger, and had better mental powers; and was able to possess Rick Jones and manipulate events in the outside world. His connection to the One Below All was eventually severed, but it’s almost certainly only a matter of time before he’s able to reforge that link and become more powerful than ever.
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