Hulk VS Thor is a battle that has gone on for well over half a century, and has been debated since the internet came out. There's no definitive winner to the battle because of how some writers have had Thor win, while others have had Hulk win. While Thor's abilities like his lightning (which has one-shot himself on multiple occasions) or his hammer (which has also downed himself multiple times) make the battle interesting, this thread is going to aim to prove that Hulk holds a solid strength advantage over Thor.
Standard Hulk:
This section is mainly referring to Savage Hulk, and will also use scaling from weaker Hulks like Professor Hulk, Intelligent Hulk, She-Hulk, Cho Hulk.
Let's begin with a variety of statements of Hulk being the strongest being on Earth, having the most powerful muscles on Earth, etc.
There are a lot more of these (which shouldn't be surprising since his whole tagline is Strongest one there is), but I can only post 200 images for the entire thread. Since Thor is a being on Earth, these statements would logically include him by proxy.
However, one might want some more direct statements of Hulk being stronger than Thor. Don't worry, he has those too.
^6th statement is especially important, since Hulk was exposed to the warp core in 2007, meaning any instance prior to this was a weaker Hulk.
Hulk also has statements putting him over Hercules (who has been even with Thor in each physical encounter)
Scans 1-2 are Mephisto saying Hulk is the strongest present despite Hercules being present, and Scans 3-4 are Loki's spell revealing Hulk as the "mightiest of all" and then after Loki passes up on him due to lack of skill, shows Hercules.
These statements are further backed up by scaling such as how Killpower stalemated Hercules in armwrestling, but later on in the series under the same writer couldn't last 18.3 seconds against Prof Hulk
There are dozens of other similar instances like this, but this thread is about Hulk's superiority to Thor, so let's start with a fairly straightforward instance. Hulk tanks the same attack that Immobilized Thor.
Next, a scientist gets his hands on a robot called Crypto-Man, who has half of Thor's power. He is eventually able to double the robot's power, making it possesses the full power of Thor.
He uses the robot to wreak havoc on the city until Hulk steps on the scene. Hulk and the robot trade blows until Jarella gets injured. Hulk gets angry and starts to beat up the robot. The robot is supplied with even more power, but Hulk still smashes it.
So essentially, Hulk overpowered an amped version of a robot that already had the full power of Thor. It's a solid showing of physical superiority, but let's get into actual fights of Hulk VS Thor.
For some context, Leader was putting Hulk and Thor under an illusion. Hulk saw Thor as Abomination and Thor saw Hulk as Ulik.
Hulk and Thor grapple and Hulk overpowers Thor, sending him flying. The actual fight is much longer than this, but just consists of them trading blows. However, it's a very clean instance of Hulk overpowering Thor.
Next up is Hulk VS Avengers
Hulk takes combined hits from Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, and Wasp without much trouble. Eventually, the combined grip of the first 3 is able to restrain him. Wasp gets endangered by some rubble which causes Giant-Man to let go. Hulk then breaks the grip of Iron Man and Thor, who is seen holding his arm.
Thor might have been distracted due to Giant-Man releasing his grip, but that still doesn't mean Thor loosened his own grip. His hands were still wrapped around Mjolnir, and Mjolnir wrapped around Hulk. The fact that it's mentioned the combined grip is what holds Hulk along with Iron Man screaming at Giant-Man not to let go implies the three working together was crucial to restraining the Hulk.
Below is Captain America (leader/combat instructor of the Avengers and the best tactician on the planet) saying that ordinarily Hulk could keep the Avengers busy for hours, implying it would take Thor/Vision/Iron Man/Scarlet Witch/Giant-Man/Wasp/Cap hours to take regular Hulk down, if at all.
Similar to Captain America's statement above, we have Bruce Banner stating that when Hulk finally decides to kill someone, not even the Avengers will be able to stop him.
Continuing the theme of Hulk fighting Thor even with backup, we have Hulk VS Avengers+Agents of Atlas
Hulk can be seen choking out Thor and Ant-Man while being blasted by Wasp. Thor tries to break out of his grip but can't until Iron Man punches Hulk and Hulk tosses Thor aside. Even with the aid of two teams of heroes, Thor can't put Hulk down. The battle later ends when Venus calms down Hulk.
The below is a retelling of a Hulk VS Avengers fight. We don't see anymore of the fight besides this one well-drawn page, but there are a few interesting details. The first is that the Avengers are all down and only Thor is left, implying that even with their help Thor couldn't beat him. Second, Hulk is gripping Thor with his hand, and Thor is trying to break that grip with his right hand, but can't. Finally, look at Thor's knees. He's definitely being pushed back.
Narration also said that Loki knew that if Thor was called into battle against Hulk he would be "most certainly defeated."
The narration doesn't just say Loki believed that Hulk could beat Thor, it says that he knew Hulk would certainly beat Thor, meaning the narration confirms that Loki was correct.
Below are 6 images are everyone probably recognizes, but are still important to this thread.
- Scan 1: Hulk overpowers Thor's arm and bashes him with his own hammer
- Scan 2: Hulk bashes Thor with his own hammer, knocking him out (Hulk gave Thor some warning)
- Scan 3-4: Hulk punches Thor, who the next time we see him was captured
- Scan 5-6: After 3 punches from Hulk, Thor "slowly" struggles to get up and says Hulk may be stronger (coming from a proud warrior like Thor this says a lot)
Next up is Thor's fight with an armored villain dubbed "Annihilator"
This "Annihilator" downs Thor in just three blows, with it being mentioned that one of them would have taken his head off if it hadn't hit Thor's helmet. Why is this important? Because "Annihilator" was revealed to be Hulk.
Hulk is wearing Adamantium armor here and being bombarded by Anti-Matter, but the former wouldn't increase his striking. The latter is mentioned to be making Hulk angrier, and thus, stronger, but Hulk automatically gets stronger as a fight goes on.
Next instance has lots of context below, so make sure to read it all.
During a big battle with Onslaught, the entirety of the FF, X-Men, Avengers, and a few others were about to be killed. In order to save them, Franklin Richards created another Universe and teleported everyone to that Universe. They had their memories modified. The takeaway here is that the heroes in the Heroes Reborn Universe were not copies of the 616 heroes. Rather, they WERE the 616 heroes, just with modified memories. All of this is recapped here.
Funnily enough, the only members of the Avengers in Heroes Reborn that weren't actually their 616 counterparts were Thor and Hulk (due to convoluted reasons). However, HR Hulk was revealed to just be a fragmented 616 Hulk and they later merged. As for HR Thor, he stalemated with 616 Thor. Based on this, HR Hulk and Thor should scale to their 616 Counterparts.
Now that we've established this, let's look at their fights in HR, starting with their first one. Solid win for Hulk.
2nd fight. Onslaught possesses Thor and fights Hulk. Hulk has a physical edge per Onslaught's own admission, but gets the upperhand with lightning. Onslaught can't swing Mjolnir, so he switches bodies with Hulk and restrains Thor and punches him to the moon, who isn't seen for the rest of the issue. Another solid showing of physical superiority for Hulk.
3rd instance isn't a fight, but is still another demonstration of physical superiority. A Gamma core begins to overload. Thor and Thing try to close it, but can't do it quickly enough and succumb to the radiation. Hulk endures the radiation and closes it.
It's important to note that Gamma radiation weakens Hulk and this has been the case on multiple occasions.
A Hulk proof-cell was also seen as a step up from a cell that was tougher than Thor's hammer, which itself is more durable than Thor.
Getting back to the classics, we have Hulk from a time period where his powers were still developing hitting hard enough to do only what Thor's hammer could have done (i.e, Thor's fists wouldn't be enough)
Hulk also matched and gained the upperhand against Thor being bewitched into Warrior's Madness by Loki, which in the same scene was said to amp his strength tenfold.
Thor also had a one hour long stalemate with Professor Hulk (who was pretending to be Maestro). During this fight, Thor entered Warrior's Madness and they were still even.
What makes this such a solid instance of Hulk being physically superior to Thor is that he was weakened due to the shrapnel in his body and could still match WM Thor.
Prof Hulk was also hit by Thor who had been brainwashed by Goddess. Hulk himself was unharmed by it, but had his space gear destroyed, which led to him drifting off into space.
Professor Hulk also caught a hammerstrike from Red Norvell, who was created to be Thor's equal and stalemated him.
Calm Hulk also stopped a hammerstrike from the real Thor.
Thor also had a fight with a giant named Hrungnir, who was wearing special armor given to by him Loki which hugely amped his strength and durability, giving him striking Thor compared to the Hulk
And how does the battle go for him?
Not too well. Hrunginir matches his 2 hands with one and cracks his bones with his hits and shatters Thor's arm with his club. Thor is in such a bad state by the end of this fight that he needed all his willpower just to stand. Thor only wins because the amp given to him has a time limit.
Thor also struggled to stand after being hit by the shockwave of Hulk's attack, and he was what tipped the scales of the Avengers (including Thor) in their favor.
Jane Foster (who had Thor's power) also had a fight with Lady Kurse, who under the same writer was stated to be Hulk tier, where Lady had her at her mercy and Jane even hurt her hand hitting her.
Scaling down, we have Abomination (a Hulk rogue that Hulk has stomped multiple times) and Thor fighting for hours, each of them being exhausted, bruised, and battered, desperate to end the fight.
Below will cover more instances of weaker Hulks compared to the likes of Thor/Herc/Jane
- Scan 1: Intelligent Hulk tanks blasts that hit like Thor's hammer
- Scans 2-3: Intelligent Hulk tanks a Mjolnir throw and grapples with Brainwashed Thor
- Scan 4: Grey Hulk and Hercules bend Omnium Steel Bars the exact same amount with the exact same amount of help from Beast (indicating they are peers)
- Scans 5-6: She-Hulk gives Thor a headache that "not even wonder drugs could cure" in 3 hits
- Scan 7: She-Hulk holds back Hercules
- Scan 8: She-Hulk and Cho Hulk (using one arm) each hold back one of Herc's arms
- Scan 9: Savage She-Hulk overpowers Jane Thor
- Scan 10: Cho Hulk blocks a Mjolnir strike from Jane Thor
A random Hulk clone was also able to keep its hold on Mjolnir's handle despite Thor using both arms in attempt to break its grip.
What's also interesting about this sequence is that one of the Hulk clones was able to tank a Mjolnir throw with only being groggy, but sturdier versions were one-shot by Jen when she got angry.
Which makes sense when Cap stated She-Hulk and Thor are rivals in the strength department.
Intelligent Hulk was also evenly matched with Rulk, who under the same writer defeated OF Thor
Or Intelligent Hulk completely demolishing Arsenal, who under the same writer was intact from a combined attack from Thor and Scarlet Witch
Or Intelligent Hulk jumping clean through a ship that Thor's strikes were only minorly chipping
Or Thor and Intelligent Hulk's respective performances against Ultron in Secret Wars, where Ultron no-sold a hammer throw and lightning from Thor while Intelligent Hulk staggered and damaged Ultron with a punch.
Or how Rulk (who is much weaker than the real deal) after being heavily weakened was able to block a Mjolnir strike from Bloodlusted Gamma amped Thor and was only minorly bleeding after several more, and in his normal state couldn't be put down by BRB (who has Thor's powers)
Or how Wonder Man (someone with over 25 instances of rivaling Thor) has a consistently poor record against Hulks, ranging from being overpowered by Grey Hulk, being on the losing end against Abomination until he pulled out wires, being no-sold by Prof Hulk, and so on
Adding more instances of scaling from the same writer/story arc, there's Hulk one-shotting Ikol while Thor failed to do so over the course of several pages in Agent of Asgard.
Or Heroes Reborn Hyperion failing to break Hulk's grip and having to resort to heat vision while admitting Hulk could kill him, while later in the arc Thor was either damaging his hammer or bones striking a weakened Hyperion and Hype gained the upperhand.
Or Hulk knocking out Grandmaster's Hyperion, who in the same issue was shown stomping Thor in a flashback and mentioned he had withstood Thor's hammer.
Or Sunshine Fixit tanking several Mjolnir strikes from bloodlusted OF Thor but oozing blood from Savage Hulk's hits 4 issues later.
Or Vision being unphased by Thor's Mjolnir strike while the page after Hulk knocked him down and tore his leg off.
Or Hulk overpowering energy tendrils that restrained Thor and others
Going back to Cho Hulk, it's important to cover his fight with Thor.
Cho finally gives into his inner Hulk, and Thor is called into stop him. Thor says he won't hold back and is prepared to kill him. After a quick fight, Thor loses. In the last scan, Cho Hulk even restrains Thor with one hand, who can be seen trying to break free, but can't.
On the topic of not holding back, Thor's speech before their fight is telling too. He mentions how he's slain countless giants, trolls, and wicked gods. Thor is not a character with subconscious mental blocks or something, he just holds back when fighting weaker opponents like any other powerful hero.
Even in Thor's first fight with Hulk it was established that Thor couldn't afford to hold back. In later fights, Thor had turned as Savage as Hulk and lusted for victory and pride, leading him to overlook the lives of innocents, or was using every power at his disposal and still could barely hold his own and was being pushed to his limits. Even if one wanted to ignore all this evidence for the baseless headcanon that Thor only uses a fraction of his strength against Hulk, you could make a similar argument based on Xavier saying that Banner keeps Hulk in check.
We've only seen Hulk completely removed from Banner's influence a few times. Below, I'll link my favorite instance since it's too long to post here.
Mindless Hulk VS Avengers
There are three things that should stand out during this fight.
- Hulk flexing off Hercules, Wonder Man, Namor, and Iron Man
- It took a combined effort of the above 4, plus She-Hulk, Spectrum, and several other Avengers all becoming "savagely bloodlusted" to gradually wear him down
- Due to being separated from Banner, he was dying and losing strength throughout the fight
Honestly, can you see Thor replicating this showing if he was in Hulk's position? Not a chance.
Another instance of Hulk being removed of Banner's influence is in a fight with Onslaught.
Jean switches off Banner and Hulk begins to brawl with Onslaught, where Hank mentions he "has him on the ropes" The other heroes have to work together to even get near them clashing. Onslaught begins to overwhelm Hulk and pins him down. However, Hulk gets angry and breaks Onslaught's grip and cracks his armor.
It's self-explanatory why Hulk was portrayed as vastly stronger than Thor in this instance, but it gets even better with later information, where it was said that the other heroes couldn't even dent Onslaught's armor while Hulk managed to crack it.
Next up we have Secret Empire, where Mindless Hulk breaks through a barrier which Thor explicitly couldn't.
Then there's Ulysses's vision (an inhuman with the power to predict the future) that Hulk would kill the Avengers, including Jane Thor.
And finally, this section wouldn't be complete without the below statement.
....or it would have been, if not for Starship Hulk's fight with OF Thor today.
Thor believes Hulk is responsible for 17 murders and comes after him. Banner gives Thor a black eye and bloodies him before the battle is moved elsewhere so Thor can cut loose. At one point, Thor pins Banner with Mjolnir but Banner is able to quite literally stand through it under his own power, while when Banner has Thor pinned he needs to sucker Banner with Mjolnir to escape. The fight keeps going until Odin invades Banner's mind.
The reason why I included this in the "standard Hulk" section is because of how the Starship works. Banner gives Hulk enemies to fight, which makes him angry, and Banner harnesses that anger to fuel Hulk's body while retaining full control. Hulk's power isn't actually being amplified in anyway, just stimulated and harnessed. In fact, given how Banner mentioned Hulk fought harder than he does, it's likely he wasn't even as strong as usual.
Now Thor on the other hand is having his power massively amplified. Thor is now the king of Asgard and Odin transferred the full Odin-Force to Thor. For reference, under the same writer when Thor didn't even have the full OF he almost killed BRB by recalling his hammer. Under different writers he was tanking hits that would have killed him had he not had it or let Heimdall no-sell hits from Masterson who had Thor's power or how a mere portion of it turned Annihilus from a consistent punching bag to the Thing to being capable of killing Masterson Thor in one swipe.
It's also confirmed that Thor isn't holding back with this being an all-out brawl and his hammer is upgraded.
Later on in their fight the Starship is destroyed by Iron Man wearing Celestial Armor, unleashing Savage Hulk.
Thor reveals that he called Iron Man for help, and while Thor is explaining the situation, Hulk sucker punches Thor. In the next page Thor is seen face down in the ground and it's only until the page after that where Thor mostly recovers. Hulk eventually gammabursts, and the resulting gamma affects Thor, causing him to Hulk out. It's also important to note that the gammaburst completely shredded the Celestial Armor, while Mjolnir did far less damage to it.
Continuing from the previous fight, Gamma OF Thor faces off against Savage Hulk.
Savage Hulk bloodies GOF (Gamma OdinForce) Thor before Gamma Thor jumps in and pummels Hulk. Hulk then catches his punch, headbutts him, and has him reeling from an earclap+kick. Banner regains control of Hulk and then catches Mjolnir (when Mjolnir in the same page broke GOF Thor's fingers), stacking the power of regular Thor on his own. They trade barehanded blows before Hulk uses Mjolnir and GOF Thor revves his strike up with lightning, causing half the planet to explode.
The fact that Hulk could catch a punch from this extremely amped version of Thor and have him reeling with his attacks is not a good look for Thor, nor is the fact that Hulk caught a hammer recall that broke Thor's fingers. Worthy Hulk (Hulk+regular Thor's power) also matched GOF Thor. Using basic math, we have Hulk+Thor=Thor+Odin-Force+Gamma. The Thor's cancels out, leaving Hulk=Gamma+Odin-Force, showing Hulk's clear superiority.
Continued below.
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