Ranking The Hulk’s First 10 Villains By Power

The Hulk is the Strongest One There Is, and he’s proved that time and again by going up against the baddest monsters that the Marvel Universe has ever known. He’s tangoed with the Earth’s most evil men like Doctor Doom, traded blows with the galactic skurge Thanos, and even defied the will of the One Below All, the dark Hulk of Marvel’s God. It only makes sense that the Hulk fights the toughest people around, given that he needs those kinds of villains to give him a run for his money. However, not all of the Hulk’s villains are muscle-monsters. In fact, some aren’t very strong at all.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the first ten supervillains that the Hulk ever fought and check to see exactly how strong each of them was. Then, we’ll be ranking them by how powerful they are. To be clear, we’re only counting actual supervillains who were villains at their introduction. So we won’t be counting the standard military men the Hulk battled, like Boris posing as the space-gladiator Mongu, or Thunderbolt Ross, who didn’t become Red Hulk until much later. With those rules set, let’s dive right into ranking Hulk’s villains.

10) The Gargoyle

Let’s start things off with the Gargoyle, who is not only one of Hulk’s weakest villains, but also his very first. Yuri Topolov, much like Bruce Banner, was a scientist who was mutated by his work on radiation. Instead of attaining raw power, his intellect was greatly enhanced. He practically served as the blueprint for the Leader in that regard. The Gargoyle debuted and died in Incredible Hulk (1962) #1, and although he invented some fairly powerful technology, such as a pellet gun that could render someone unconscious, he lacks the raw power and high-tier tech that would make him a true threat. The Hulk started with an easy one, as it would seem.

9) The Chameleon

Although this Russian superspy is more famous for being a Spider-Man villain, he battled the Hulk at the behest of another entry on our list in Tales to Astonish (1959) #60-66. Chameleon is certainly a dangerous opponent, able to disguise himself as anyone he wishes. Having also taken the same serum that granted Kraven the Hunter his elongated life and supernatural strength, he boasts some aspect of longevity and potentially above-human physical prowess. Still, at the end of the day, the Chameleon is dangerous because of his knowledge and stealth skills, not because of raw power, so he takes ninth on our list.

8) Toad Men

The Tribbitites are a race of short, reptilian aliens that appeared in Incredible Hulk #2. They came from the planet Tribbit and were looking to take over the Earth by wringing secrets about its technology from Bruce Banner’s mind. Expectedly, this brought them into conflict with the Hulk, who smashed their invasion plans all the way back to their home planet. These little aliens might not look like much, but they were sturdy and reasonably strong, coming from a planet with gravity nearly a third as strong as Earth’s. Still, while there is strength in numbers and advanced technology, none of the Toad Men really offered much of a challenge to the Jade Giant.

7) Circus of Crime

The Circus of Crime was a group of villains who posed as regular circus performers, led by the most dangerous of their troupe, the Ringmaster, who clashed with the Green Behemoth in Incredible Hulk #3. His special hat granted him the ability to hypnotize anyone he looked at, and he later developed the ability to do so with just his eyes. Hypnotizing entire towns of people is no small feat, certainly, but not entirely unbeatable. This is especially true because people with strong enough wills, or those who simply refuse to look at his eyes, are easily able to defeat him. The rest of the Circus is pretty much a joke, but when they work together, they can be a threat in the right circumstances.

6) Whirlwind

Originally called the Human Top, David Cannon is a mutant who possesses the ability to spin his body at high speeds. With it, he can do anything from generating small blasts of wind, attain flight, and cosplaying a Beyblade. He did battle with the Hulk in Tales to Astonish #59, where he tricked the Jade Giant into battling his arch-enemy Giant-Man, after nearly being done in by the Hulk himself. Whirlwind is practically the poster child for D-Tier villainy. If there’s ever a panel featuring a large number of jobber supervillains, you can bet it’ll include Whirlwind, but beyond that, he’s not much of a threat at all.

5) Tyrannus

Tyrannus’s real name is Romulus Augustulus, and he was the last emperor of Rome, who was gifted immortality by drinking from the Fountain of Youth. He first battled Hulk in Incredible Hulk #5. Since then, he has taken over the underground kingdom of Subterranea, which is split between himself and Mole Man. Alongside centuries of battle experience and rulership, Tryannus’s true power is his incredible telepathy, which allows him to control his army of Tyrannoids, which are a subspecies of Moloids. He can control countless people, though, much like Ringmaster, he struggles with strong-willed people. He has also been shown to be able to absorb life-energy and transfer his mind into other bodies, like the time he took over Abomination.

4) Metal Master

Moylb is an alien from the planet Astra with the power to command all forms of metal. He was exiled from his home planet for sowing chaos, and sought to take over Earth in Incredible Hulk #6. He’s basically a budget Magneto, only controlling metal instead of magnetism itself, but being a less powerful Magneto is still pretty darn strong. He’s able to bend anything with the slightest bit of metal in it to his will and throw it hard enough to even knock out the Hulk. This is the part of the list where the villains start being legitimate threats, and Metal Master is a one-man monster.

3) Amphibion

Don’t let the fact that his name is almost amphibian fool you, because this alien warrior can give even the Hulk a run for his money. He first appeared in Tales to Astonish #73, where centuries of selective breeding on his home planet resulted in Amphibion being raised as the ultimate warrior and sent to collect the Ultimate Machine from the Watcher. He boasts incredible strength and durability that rivals even the Jade Giant himself. While the Hulk eventually beat him out in the battle of raw power and attrition, this was the first time that the Hulk was pushed in physical combat like this. Even if he didn’t win, Amphibion proved that the Hulk wasn’t invincible, and that is a gold star on his record.

2) Loki

While the trickster god didn’t appear in a Hulk-centric comic, they were still one of his first villains, having been the first supervillain that the Avengers ever fought. Although he left in issue #2, Hulk was present to battle Loki in Avengers (1963) #1. Loki’s power has always been incredible, but they’ve only gotten stronger as the years have gone by. As the definitive master of Asgardian magic, Loki can do anything from making objects appear out of thin air to wiping the existence of Asgard from all the minds in the universe. In their current role as God of Stories, there’s no telling what kind of narrative power they can draw from these heroic adventures. 

1) Leader

The Leader is the Hulk’s original arch-enemy, having first appeared as the mastermind behind the Chameleon in Tales to Astonish #62. Although he lacks raw power himself, he more than makes up for that with his gamma-enhanced intellect, which lets him regularly create monstrosities that can go toe-to-toe with the Hulk. However, what really put the Leader in the number one spot is that he, even if only briefly, was one of the most powerful beings in reality when he fused with the One Below All. 

His connection to God’s Hulk let him manipulate the properties of the Green Door, and even take over the body of the Hulk and his many allies. The Leader’s smarts combined with his inherent connection to gamma and all the power that brings are enough to earn him the top spot on this list, although if you would rather have the Asgardian god take the top spot, I couldn’t blame you, either. Still, the machines that the Leader is capable of building are worth a top placing spot on their own. If you can’t beat the Hulk with brawn, the Leader shows that brains are a valid alternative.

So there we have the first ten supervillains that the Hulk ever fought. Some of these bad guys definitely could never pose a real threat to the Green Behemoth, but the others show that even the earliest villains could be absolute menaces if given the chance. Which Hulk villain do you think is the strongest, and which is your favorite?