Even Thanos Fears the Hulk (and These 5 Marvel Feats Show Why He’s Nearly Unstoppable)

The Hulk is the strongest one there is. Sure, we’ve seen Superman throw planets and rarely seen anything comparable from the Hulk (I say rarely, Hulk fans, not never), but the Jade Giant’s power level has been established numerous times over the decades in other ways. Like many characters, power scaling has played a big role in the character’s history. Nowadays, it’s said that he has infinite strength potential, but once upon a time, he topped out at a hundred tons. He’s become one of the biggest powerhouses in the Marvel Universe, his gamma-fueled might making him more powerful than gods.

Now, an argument can be made that the Hulk isn’t actually a superhero. He doesn’t really fight supervillains to save the world; he just wants to be left alone and usually gets pulled into some wild situations. However, it’s during these times that the best of Bruce Banner comes out, proving that he belongs among the greatest heroes of them all. These five accomplishments prove the Hulk is one of the greatest heroes ever, including a victory that defined Marvel’s best book of the new millennium.

5) Thanos Is Actually Scared of the Hulk

As established the above, the Hulk is the strongest one there is. Sure, he’s lost fights and even had some enemies who could be considered stronger than him (… until he gets angry enough to be stronger than them; the Hulk is one of the most annoying characters to argue about on the Internet), but he’s the strongest and everyone knows it, including a villain that many would consider the most dangerous in the Marvel Universe – Thanos. The Mad Titan is superlatively powerful, but one of the main reasons that he’s been so successful is that he’s smart. He knows his enemies and how to deal with them. He knows all about the Hulk and he’s come to one conclusion – he’s terrified of the Green Goliath.

Thanos has beaten the Hulk before, but he also knows that if those fights had went longer, if he made some kind of mistake, he would have lost. He knows just how dangerous the Hulk is and would honestly rather not have to deal with him at all. In fact, if you go back through most Marvel stories with the Hulk and Thanos, you’ll find that Hulk is able to hold his own against the Mad Titan in a way a lot of other characters can’t. If Thanos is afraid of you, you’re know you’re doing something right.

4) Was Able to Beat the Red Hulk When No One Else Was

Nowadays, the Red Hulk is being used as a big bad for the latest Avengers event, which is a position that honestly fits him perfectly. Thunderbolt Ross is one of the US Army’s most decorated generals and while the Hulk has defeated him many times, he’s honestly proven to be a cagey combatant when he doesn’t have to depend on everyone else. The perfect example of this is when he first showed up as the Red Hulk. The Hulk had disappeared after World War Hulk and suddenly, a new Hulk starting attacking everyone. He trounced everyone he fought, making a fool of Iron Man, SHIELD, the Avengers, and the rest of the Superhero Initiative.

Ross had mastered his gamma powers and no one could match him, not even powerhouses like Thor or Silver Surfer. He was beating everyone, but then the Hulk returned. Ross dropped the subterfuge when his true foe showed up and the two battled it out, with Banner’s gamma powers allowing him to overpower the Red Hulk. Everyone else tried to stop the Red Hulk and not only failed, but often got humiliated by him. However, the Hulk was able to succeed where they all fell short.

3) Freed Sakaar

“Planet Hulk” is a legendary Marvel book. It came out in 2006, which was one of the most stacked years in comic history; the mid ’00s saw Marvel and DC putting out some of the best books they had in years. It took a lot to get noticed at this point, and “Planet Hulk” was able to grab everyone’s attention right away (the first part sold out on word of mouth in about a day; it was wild). The story saw the Hulk sent to the planet Sakaar, where he was made into a gladiator, eventually starting a revolution that would smash the planet’s oppressive regime.

Now, the Hulk defeating his enemies might not seem all that impressive; he has, after all, infinite strength. However, the story kicked off with him at his weakest, fitted with technology that held his powers back. He knew no one and had access to nothing but armor and primitive melee weapons. He was able to overcome all of that, creating a revolutionary movement that ended up teaming together numerous enemies to battle one greater foe, and defeated an entrenched power structure. He did all of that with nothing but the purple pants he was wearing when he was launched into space. If that doesn’t impress you, I don’t know what will.

2) Beat the Illuminati Like They Were Nothing

The Illuminati were an idea that came about during the Marvel boom of the ’00s. After “Kree/Skrull War”, Iron Man gathered Reed Richards, Namor, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, Professor Xavier and Black Panther, telling them they needed to form a secret group to make the hard choices and do the difficult things. Black Panther demurred, but the rest decided that it was a good idea and the Illuminati were born. The group moved behind the scenes throughout Marvel history, trying to save the world but often making things worse. Eventually, they decided that the Hulk was entirely too dangerous and that he should be sent to another planet, leading to “Planet Hulk”.

Hulk would have some of his greatest accomplishments on Sakaar, but the planet ended up being destroyed, with the Jade Giant believing it was the Illuminati’s fault. He returned to Earth for revenge and went after the members of the group. He was able to destroy each one of them in battle (Black Bolt was a Skrull at the time), pitting them against each other in a gladiatorial arena. He was able to defeat some of the most formidable heroes in the universe and he did it basically flawlessly.

1) He Defeated the One Below All

Immortal Hulk is one of Marvel’s greatest 21st century masterpieces, a 50-issue series that will blow your mind whether you’ve been a lifelong Hulk reader or an MCU fan mad that Thanos whupped him Avengers: Infinity War and wanting to see your favorite hero beat everyone. Over the course of the series, readers learn secrets about the Jade Giant that they never expected, with writer Al Ewing, artist Joe Bennet, and the back-up artists using the building blocks of Hulk’s past to create something new. The book posited that the One Below All used gamma power to create vessels to use, spreading entropy and destruction, leading to it becoming the story’s main villain.

Immortal Hulk is about a man looking at the monster inside of himself and coming to terms with it. The One Below All is the book’s “big bad”, but only in the way that it is the embodiment of all the dark things inside the Hulk. He comes face to face with the evil in the universe and is able to stop the Leader from harnessing its power, making a shocking realization about the cosmology of the Marvel Universe. One of the interesting things about the story is that no other hero would have been able to make the difference that the Hulk did; he was able to see the truth about the One Below All and the One Above All because in a lot of ways, he was them in microcosm. He didn’t win because he was powerful, he won because he came to understand the truth about the situation. No one else could have done what he did in that moment.

What’s your favorite Hulk accomplishment? Do you think that we should call the Hulk a superhero? Sound off in the comment section below.

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