6 Marvel Heroes Who Fought Hulk And Won

Published Aug 1, 2026, 7:30 PM EDT Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. Only a few select Marvel characters have personally beaten the Hulk, and some of them are much less powerful than the Green Goliath. Although the Hulk is technically immortal and thus unbeatable, there are several Marvel powerhouses who are at a similar level of power. Thor has shared perhaps the longest-running rivalry with the Hulk through countless clashes that rarely produce an easy victor. Meanwhile, Sentry possesses enough raw power to match Hulk blow for blow, Juggernaut's mystical empowerment from Cyttorak grants him nearly unstoppable momentum, and Hercules is used to fighting mythical beasts just as strong and rageful. Among these ultra-powerful characters, victories over the Hulk usually require exceptional circumstances or a unique strategic advantage. Thor has defeated Hulk on multiple occasions aided by Mjolnir and divine lightning, and Sentry famously brings World War Hulk to its peak after an exhausting battle that pushed both heroes back into their human forms. Thanos has also earned several decisive victories through a combination of overwhelming strength and cosmic resources, even without the need for the Infinity Gauntlet. The Hulk's immense power doesn't necessarily guarantees victory against Marvel's top tier, especially when an equally formidable opponent combines comparable strength with greater experience or a carefully prepared strategy. Zeus Incredible Hulks #622; Written By Greg Pak; Art By Paul Pelletier After the height of the Chaos War, Hulk confronts the king of the Olympian gods after Zeus refuses to help him heal his friends. Hulk enters the battle with complete confidence after countless previous victories, yet Zeus immediately shows him who's stronger. The Olympian ruler matches Hulk blow for blow before overwhelming him with relentless lightning attacks. Hulk pushes himself harder as the fight rages on, but Zeus never loses control of the battle, which ultimately ends with Hulk decisively beaten after Zeus repeats the punishment he cast on Prometheus: chaining Hulk to a rock and sending birds to eat his body every time it regenerates. By this point, Hulk has already survived fights with enemies as powerful as Sentry, Thor, the Avengers, and countless other elite Marvel heroes, not to mention countless villains. Despite his escalating strength and almost unbroken record of victories, Zeus completely humiliates the Hulk, relying almost entirely on his own inherent abilities as the ruler of Olympus. Their clash has never received a direct rematch under comparable circumstances, which leaves Incredible Hulks #622 as one of the most convincing pieces of evidence that Hulk's power has limits. Namor The Incredible Hulk #118; Written By Stan Lee; Art By Herb Trimpe Namor can easily keep up with the Hulk on land, but it's underwater that the Submariner can actually overpower the Green Goliath. In The Avengers #3, Namor almost instantly knocks the Hulk out as soon as they meet. Years later, Tales to Astonish #100 presents a stalemate, though Namor technically wins by breaking the Puppet Master's control over the Hulk. Then, in The Incredible Hulk #118, Namor exploits his control of water currents to ram into the Hulk, knocking him back to the surface world, where Hulk transforms back into Bruce Banner. What's even more impressive is that Namor almost always fights defensively while the Hulk rages out. Namor and the Hulk's underwater encounter established a pattern that has resurfaced across several later stories, even though Hulk has also earned victories of his own. Whenever the conflict moves into the ocean, Namor's chances rise considerably thanks to the tremendous physical enhancement he receives underwater and his centuries of experience as Atlantis' greatest warrior. Otherwise, Namor is both unwilling and unable to stop the Green Scar after the Hulk launches his revenge plan on Earth's heroes following his banishment from Earth, decided by the Illuminati. When it comes to sheer strength, Hulk and Namor are one of the gamma monster's most evenly matched rivalries. Storm The Incredible Hulk #444; Written By Peter David; Art By Angel Medina During the Onslaught era, after Bruce Banner falls under the influence of the psionic entity's corrupting power, Hulk's aggression is amplified to the point that none of the mutants active at the time seems to have a chance against him. Storm recognizes that a conventional exchange of punches would only strengthen the Hulk's momentum, so she relied on precision. While Cable attempts to sever Onslaught's control, Storm unleashes a devastating lightning attack that technically kills the gamma monster. Luckily, it only takes another lightning bolt to wake him up. Storm's victory is even more impressive considering she fights a Hulk whose mind has fallen under Onslaught's influence, which means she faces an enemy stripped of much of Bruce Banner's judgment and restraint. Sure, Ororo Munroe receives help from Cable, but her unique power set and her timing prematurely concludes a battle that could get out of hand extremely fast. In cases like these, Hulk's defeats often come at the hands of heroes who refuse to challenge him on his own terms. After all, it's the only way they can stop an unstoppable beast. Havok Incredible Hulk #150; Written By Archie Goodwin & Herb Trimpe In The Incredible Hulk #150, Hulk mistakes the mutant Polaris for Jarella and captures her, enraging Havok. After exchanging a few blows, Alex Summers takes his chance when the Hulk lifts a heavy rock, unleashing concentrated blasts of cosmic energy that repeatedly stagger the monster and disorient him, which leads the Hulk to collapse and lose consciousness. Instead of giving the Hulk an opportunity to build momentum through extended hand-to-hand combat, Havok maintains constant offensive pressure with increasingly powerful plasma discharges. At the time, Havok had only recently begun to establish himself as one of Marvel's most capable energy manipulators, and his powers still carried an element of unpredictability. Meanwhile, Hulk had already built a reputation for surviving encounters with Marvel's biggest powerhouses. Like Storm's lightning attack against the Onslaught-possessed Hulk, Havok's spur-of-the-moment anti-Hulk strategy prioritizes timing and tactical ability, which completely overshadows Hulk's sheer strength at the right moment. The right powers, applied at the right time and with enough force, can lead to an unexpected victory. Spider-Man The Amazing Spider-Man #328; Written By David Michelnie; Art by Todd McFarlane Spider-Man achieved a victory he may never be able to replicate in The Amazing Spider-Man #328 after receiving the Enigma Force and becoming Captain Universe. During the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover, Hellfire Club leader Sebastian Shaw pays the Grey Hulk to eliminate the web-slinger. When the two meet in the ruins of Roosevelt Island, Peter Parker uses the Uni-Power to effortlessly dodge Hulk's strikes and temporarily blind him with cosmic eye-beams. The fight reaches its iconic climax when two young bystanders stumble into danger, and Spider-Man unleashes a single, power-packed uppercut that hits the Grey Hulk so hard it launches him completely out of Earth's atmosphere. The circumstances surrounding that victory make it a fascinating exception in Spider-Man and Hulk's long history together. Under normal conditions, Peter has never had the strength necessary to overpower Hulk in direct combat, even though he has survived numerous encounters through reflexes and speed. The Enigma Force completely transforms the equation by placing Spider-Man on an entirely different cosmic tier for a brief period. Marvel has revisited Captain Universe several times with different hosts, but Peter Parker's original tenure is one of the most celebrated, in large part because of battles like this one. Puck The Immortal Hulk #37; Written By Al Ewing; Art By Joe Bennett Puck accomplishes what may be the most shocking victory over the Hulk in The Immortal Hulk #37, although the circumstances differ dramatically from a conventional brawl. During a chaos-filled clash involving Gamma Flight, the Hulk is distracted while enduring an assault from Absorbing Man's gamma-storm form. Puck seizes the opening and fires a specialized laser gun straight into the Hulk's head, neutralizing the area of his brain that controls his regenerative healing factor. The headshot kills the Green Goliath on the spot, temporarily severing Hulk's mind from his body and sending his spirit straight to the Below-Place. Puck's attack succeeded only because Bruce's body had already suffered catastrophic damage, but still, Puck displayed the resolve to capitalize on the brief opening before Hulk could regenerate or retaliate. In the context of The Immortal Hulk, where death becomes a temporary condition for gamma mutates, Puck's murder of the Hulk still counts as one of the few occasions where Hulk actually falls in battle. Traditionally Alpha Flight's least physically imposing member, Puck has carved his name in Marvel history with a confirmed Hulk kill. Which character deserves their first victory over the Hulk? Created By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby First Appearance The Incredible Hulk (1962) Alias Robert Bruce Banner Alliance Avengers, Defenders, Horsemen of Apocalypse, Fantastic Four, Pantheon, Warbound, S.M.A.S.H., Secret Avengers Franchise Marvel