The Hulk is the strongest one there is, and he smashes any and all who stand in his way. Be they man, monster, or celestial being, the Incredible Hulk will always find a way to be strong enough to bring them down. This even extends to when he battles against actual gods, which has been shown plenty of times during his clashes with Thor and Hercules. Sometimes, however, the Hulk shows us not just that he can go toe to toe with the strongest in the multiverse, but reminds us exactly what being the strongest there is means. Hulk’s power goes beyond normal strength, and when he cuts loose, he demonstrates feats equivalent to just about any god out there. Here are five times that the Hulk’s unfathomable strength made him practically indistinguishable from a god.
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1) Shook the Multiverse with A Punch
The U-Foes are some of the Hulk’s most classic foes. The team was a group of power-hungry friends that sought to recreate the spaceflight that gave the Fantastic Four their powers. Bruce Banner attempted to avert this launch, which made the U-Foes swear eternal vengeance on Puny Banner and his green alter ego. In The Incredible Hulk #304, the Hulk was transported to a different dimension by Doctor Strange, where he encountered the U-Foes once again. Ironclad, the member with the ability to control his own density and with strength that rivaled the Hulk’s, immediately rushed him. The two heavyweights clashed, and the force of their blows reverberated across every single dimension. The Hulk had assistance with this feat, but the strength required to send a shockwave across literally infinite dimensions is unfathomable, and definitely shows just how strong these two monsters are.
2) Ripped Apart the Cosmos with a Clap
The Incredible Hulk #126 sees the Hulk once again transported to a different dimension against his will, which seems to happen to the hero an awful lot. This time, he was transported by a group of cultists, who wanted the Hulk to fight the villain Night-Crawler, unrelated to the heroic mutant. The two had a long, drawn out fight that finally ended when Night-Crawler launched a sonic blast at the Jade Giant, which he deflected with a clap. Except the Hulk didn’t just deflect the sonic attack, the force of his thunderous boom tore apart the very cosmos around them, leaving only the rock they stood on. And he did all of that on accident, not knowing his own strength!
3) World Breaker Hulk
The World War Hulk storyline was the result of Marvel’s own group of morally grey and way too smart heroes, the Illuminati, jettisoning the Hulk into space because they felt he was too dangerous to let live on Earth. Long story short, he wound up taking over a gladiator-style planet and launching a revenge-fueled invasion of Earth after his ship exploded and killed his wife. Hulk tore through some of Marvel’s strongest heroes with ease that even he never showed before. He crippled Doctor Stranges’s hands, sent the unstoppable Juggernaut flying, and went blow for blow with the Sentry. At the end, however, he learned that his friend and servant Miek allowed the ship to explode to reignite the Hulk’s rage to conquer and destroy. The Hulk was angrier than he’d ever been before, radiating pure gamma energy, and with a single step sent an earthquake across the entire United States. He screamed for Iron Man to take him down before his rage destroyed the world, and he did, but the Hulk very nearly tore a continent apart with a step. If he had thrown a punch, I can’t imagine the destruction that’d been left behind.
4) Punched Through Time
Most of the Hulk’s life is people throwing him around to do whatever it is they want, I’m noticing, which is definitely enough to make anybody mad. The Incredible Hulk #135 saw Kang the Conquerer get in on this action. Wanting to go back in time and finally destroy the Avengers for good, Kang attempted to travel far into the past, only to find himself repelled by a storm in the timestream. Undeterred, Kang realized he only needed someone with enough power to smash through the storm, and there’s no one better at smashing than the Incredible Hulk. Kang convinced Hulk that doing what he said would help rid himself of Puny Banner for good, and the green behemoth agreed without hesitation. Kang launched the Hulk into the timestream, right before the raging storm, but unlike the would-be conqueror, Hulk punched his way through the blockade with next to no effort. Everyone talks about the absurdity of Superboy-Prime punching reality, but nobody acknowledges equally insane feats like the Hulk punching through time. It’s not as insane as the retcon punch, but he did literally punch time so hard it let him through! That deserves some kudos.
5) The Hulk Below All
All of these anecdotes have covered times when the Hulk has shown power similar to that of a god, but this is the time when the Hulk was actually God. The being that rules the entirety of Marvel Comics is the One Above All, their version of God, but while He is pure love and the spirit of heroism, He is not without rage. The Immortal Hulk storyline showed us a thankfully averted timeline where the very manifestation of the One Above All’s rage, the One Below All, merged with the Hulk to bring an end to all of existence. The Hulk was His avatar, the mortal shell that allowed Him to wreck His rage across the endless cosmos that He created with His own hands. The One Below All is the One Above All’s very own Hulk, and thus our loveable green Hulk was chosen to be His hand of hatred. The Hulk was quite literally God and brought an end to everything. This is without a doubt his strongest form of all time, and the time when he smashed more than anyone or anything ever.
So there we have four times when the Incredible Hulk was basically everything but a god, and one time when he actually was one. If this list proves anything, it’s that Hulk is not someone that you ever want to be on the bad side of. Which of these moments was your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!
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Image courtesy of Warner
