without wishing to fan the flames of an already contentious subject, I've been mulling over this topic since watching MOS. Here are my thoughts. Like many older comic book readers who perhaps has lost touch with the comic book world in recent years, I based my opinion of Hulk v Superman on the 70s versions of the characters, where it seemed that the planet moving Superman was way out of league for the strong, but approximately 100 ton lifting hulk. However during the 90s and 00s, when I was away from the comic book world, I hadn't realised that Superman had been re-booted following his "crisis!" and Hulk had been power boosted to unimaginable levels. It was after reading the death of superman books and Planet Hulk and then world War hulk graphic novels recently that I finally revised my view. MOS then changed my mind again somewhat. However, ultimately I just don't see how Superman could put Hulk down unless he was able to carry him out into space, something he tried without success on Doomsday, who is basically a Hulk rip off, in DOS. Hulk was shown on WWH to have massive powers of recovery, taking enormous shots without being knocked out. He shook the entire planet towards the end of his battle, he took out the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, battled Sentry to a stalemate and then seemed to ask to be taken out when it all got too much. Superman has fantastic speed but I don't think the post crisis version is any stronger than a very enraged hulk, particularly a WWH or WB Hulk. In fact, in a pure brawl, I suspect he may lose. Most superman fans say "Superman stomps", when the subject of a battle with Hulk comes up, but what is this view based on? Yes the silver age superman would probably take out any Hulk, but looking at his strength showings in the more recent comic books I have, I really don't see how the Superman we have now could KO the Hulk. Hulk just has this ability to get madder and madder and stronger and stronger and heals so damn fast, I'm not sure what superman has in his arsenal to do the job. Basically he would need to fly Hulk into space, where, as the argument goes, the non flying Hulk would be stuck in a vacuum and probably die. Now how does he do this to a 7 foot something 1000 lb mountain of anger? Is Hulk just going to sit still and enjoy the ride?
The other factor for me, is that Superman's fighting style generally relies on him coming into close quarters range of his adversary, because unlike someone like Iron Man, he doesn't really have any long range weaponary! Heat vision aside, his main weapons, are his strength and speed. So, he is likely to end up slugging it out, toe to toe, as he did with Doomsday, which naturally is an advantage to a bruiser like the Hulk.
So as a long standing fan of Superman and also a fan of Hulk I'm gonna take the easy option and say that this battle would end up in some sort of stalemate, with both parties exhausted and no one landing a Knockout. I guess that's how it would end anyway, if DC and Marvel ever did another cross over!
Of course I expect many of you will disagree, but if you do please do me a favour and articulate your views in some sort of reasoned logical argument, rather than come up with the usual "Hulk, or superman stomp" type retort!
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