8 Comic Villains Humiliated By Hulk

Those times the Green Goliath embarrassed some of Marvel's most infamous rogues.

Planet Hulk Red King
Marvel Comics

Few comic book heroes are quite as fascinating as the Hulk. In his Green Goliath form, this is somebody whose power is often unmatched when it comes to the world of Marvel Comics. Likewise, the Bruce Banner side of this character has some of the greatest smarts on the planet and beyond.

The problem with this fan favourite, of course, is trying to balance the brawn of Hulk with the brains of Banner - especially as there have been plenty of times where Hulk and Banner have hated each other!

It's that particular conundrum that has so often anchored the Hulk titles of the day, and it's part and parcel of why readers have flocked to this character since he made his comic book bow way back in 1962.

Along the way, we've seen the Jade Giant battle super-smart villains, monstrous powerhouses, and even his fellow heroes a time or two. And during some of those fights, Hulk has managed to best his rivals in ways that can only be described as comprehensive, humiliating and all-out embarrassing.

Looking back at the history of the Green Guy, here are some of those rogues who have had the wind taken out of their sails courtesy of the Hulk.

8. Thanos

Planet Hulk Red King
Marvel Comics

The caveat to this particular entry, is that it took place in the skewed world of Marvel Zombies.

While many will remember Thanos slapping Hulk around with ease during the opening scene of Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel Zombies saw the Jade Giant topple his rival without even breaking a sweat. And by topple, here that meant actually killing Thanos.

This all took place in Marvel Zombies 2, set 40 years after the initial Marvel Zombies run that saw a who's who of Marvel Comics' most famous and infamous names turned into shuffling undead versions of themselves.

Here, with the remaining zombies having eaten pretty much anything and everything possible on Earth, they had up to the stars in search of food. With grub in short supply, bickering and unrest kicks in amongst this zombie horde - to the point where Zombie Thanos decides to pick a fight with a Zombie Hulk who the zombified Mad Titan believes has eaten more than his fair share of flesh.

Rather than a back-and-forth argument or an all-out, multi-panel, multi-page battle for the ages here, readers instead saw Zombie Hulk unload one of his patented Thunder Claps on Zombie Thanos' skull - squashing Thanos' head and putting down the Titanian Eternal permanently.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.