Marvel has been expanding its massive cinematic world for over two decades now. During this period, it featured a trove of famous heroes. Back in 2008, it all began with Iron Man, which was swiftly followed by Edward Norton’s role as Bruce Banner and the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk. The role of Banner and the big guy has, of course, since been taken over by Mark Ruffalo. While the character has featured prominently in the MCU so far, showing up in all the Avengers films and in the likes of T hor: Ragnarok and She-Hulk, we’re yet to see the Hulk in action in his own film since he helped kick-start the MCU.
That means we also haven’t yet seen the best the character has to offer. The Hulk is one of Marvel’s most popular and famous characters. Over his long and illustrious comic history, the Hulk has featured in some pretty amazing storylines. He’s also evolved a lot in the comics over the years and been shown to possess power and potential far beyond anything we’ve seen on the big screen so far. Far from being the Hulk that Thanos beat so easily, the comic Hulk grew to possess the kind of strength that could shift the position of a planet and breakthrough dimensional barriers.
While the true potential of the Hulk is still hopefully on its way in upcoming projects for the MCU, for now, there are a fair few heroes of the MCU who could take him down. While his strength and rage are legendary and still capable of epic feats, he’s not completely invulnerable — especially to magic or psychic attacks — though some can probably out-punch him too. With all this in mind, here’s a look at 10 MCU heroes who could take down the Hulk.
10 Thor
Far from just being a mainstay of the MCU and the God of Thunder and Lightning, in Norse mythology, Thor is also the God associated with things like strength, scared groves, trees, and even fertility. However, in the MCU, it’s his strength and lightning powers that usually come to the fore the most. What he’s also made clear on many occasions is that he truly is among the most powerful Avengers and more than capable of taking down the Hulk.
He Took Down Hulk Already in Ragnarok
In the first Avengers film, he almost knocks out the Hulk with a crunching and well-timed hit from Mjölnir. That caused the Hulk to memorably sucker-punch him later. In Thor: Ragnarok, he had the Hulk beaten altogether until the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) intervened. Thor proved that, while it won’t be easy, if he’s able to summon enough lightning, he can defeat the Hulk. Of course, the pair have also had their fair share of bouts in the comics too.
9 Scarlet Witch
Well-known by now in the MCU and a veteran of Marvel Comics, Scarlet Witch is certainly not someone to be trifled with. While her underlying personality as Wanda Maximoff is one of a decent person and a heroic character, she has an epic dark side as Dr. Strange and many others found out the hard way in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
She Could Disable Him Using Magic or Her Mind
Wielding some fearsome telekinetic powers, she’s better known for her array of powerful magical powers. With either of these, she could easily subdue the Hulk. She could also manipulate his mind or alter reality around him to pacify his rage. While she would never hurt her friends in her natural state, as the Scarlet Witch, the truth is, unless he can get close to her without being detected, the Hulk wouldn’t really stand much chance against her.
8 Doctor Strange
Speaking of magical powers, Doctor Strange is a true master of them. Despite being put through the ringer, in the end, it was Strange who finally found a way to get Wanda to see sense in The Multiverse of Madness. While doing so required all of his ingenuity and a fair bit of boundary-pushing spells, he’s already proven on many occasions now that he’s capable of taking down beings far more powerful than he is.
He Wouldn’t Even Need His Formidable Intellect to Defeat the Hulk
Strange usually does this through a combination of his brilliance with magical spells and his formidable intellect, which he uses to come up with plans that no one else would even think to use (just ask Dormammu). However, if it came to him and the Hulk in a fight, he wouldn’t need his wits or advanced magic, since he could just transport him to another dimension or trap him in an endless time loop.
7 Iron Man
We’ve already seen this tussle in one of the most memorable scenes of the MCU so far. Despite it resulting in the destruction of a city center, what we also saw in that scene was the fact that Iron Man proved in Avengers: Age of Ultron that his iconic Hulkbuster suit was up to the task of containing the Hulk, if necessary. While it was no easy task, the suit did hold up where most other MCU heroes wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Iron Man Could Probably Take Down the Hulk Without a Suit
In order to really take down the Hulk, Tony would need to significantly upgrade the Hulkbuster armor. However, Iron Man’s true value lies in his genius, meaning he’s more than capable of taking him down some other way too. While he is prone to questionable actions, with enough time, he could figure out a solution to taking down the Hulk in a variety of ways.
6 Captain Marvel
Boasting some cosmic-level strength, Captain Marvel has shown enough of his powers in the MCU already to easily warrant a place on this list. Her physical strength alone makes her one of the few characters who could come close to matching the true strength of the Hulk. While her future may be in doubt in the MCU, she does still have other traits that could help her take down the Hulk if she needed to.
She Has an Array of Powers She Could Deploy Against Him
In addition to his strength, Captain Marvel also packs some serious energy manipulation powers that can overpower the Hulk physically and blast him with energy to keep him at bay. She can also fly at incredible speeds, cocooning herself in cosmic energy that gives her the ability to breathe in space. Speaking of space, she pretty much travels its furthest recesses on the regular. If you combine all these factors, she could theoretically fly the Hulk past orbit and just leave him to float away into the vastness of space.
5 Vision
Undeniably one of the most intriguing MCU heroes of all, in some ways, we never came close to ever unlocking the true complexity of Vision as a character. Seeing mouth-watering glimpses of it (like when he picked up Mjölnir like it was no big deal), the films never got the chance to truly tap into the deep and truly deep nature of who and what he truly is, nor the full extent of his powers.
He Can Configure a Solution to Defeat the Hulk
To that end, in the comics, he’s done stuff like take down an alien super-AI by effectively scattering the molecules of its physical form out of existence. He’s also saved the world by taking control of every computer in the world, became the White Vision, which is a more formidable version of himself without his human emotions, and resurrected himself using backup data after dying.
Even just sticking with what we saw of him in the MCU, he is certainly capable of beating the Hulk. Aside from being incredibly strong himself, he can make himself intangible to avoid attacks but also, increase his own density to extremes to land heavier blows himself. While he might not win in a straight punch-up, he could use a mix of his strength, phasing powers, and AI abilities to configure a solution for defeating the Hulk.
4 Ant-Man
Sure, he’s not always the most glamorous of the Avengers or depicted as one of the strongest, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that Ant-Man is a pushover by any stretch. In fact, he’s become a fan-favorite and between his brilliant engineer brain and the abilities of his cool suit and Pym Particles, Scott Lang can be very formidable on his day. Most overlooked the fact that it was his brain-worm about the quantum realm that basically kicked-off the plan that eventually undid Thanos’ snap and saved half the universe in Avengers: Endgame.
Could He Really Beat the Hulk Though?
Theoretically, yes, Ant-Man could defeat the Hulk. This is because he could use his size-shifting abilities to evade Hulk’s attacks and potentially disable him internally by shrinking to a subatomic size and attacking his cells or organs. We know from the comics that the Hulk is susceptible to brain damage if anyone could ever find a way to pierce his virtually impenetrable skin.
However, with Ant-Man, he could shrink down small enough to do it without the Hulk even knowing it until it’s too late. Of course, he’d have to be very careful not to be detected, because if he is, it doesn’t matter what size he is, the Hulk could still smash him like a bug.
3 America Chavez
More audiences than ever are now acquainted with this ultra-cool dimensional traveler after America Chavez played a prominent role in The Multiverse of Madness beside Doctor Strange. By the end of the film, we see some acute glimpses of just how powerful she will one day grow. This is part of the reason why she could actually take down the Hulk under the right circumstances.
There are a Few Ways She Could Actually Beat the Hulk
She can also open portals to other dimensions, meaning she can find a way to lead the Hulk into one and leave him there. Alternatively, she could use them to redirect attacks, basically using his strength against him. Though The Multiverse of Madness never explored it much, when she grows to have incredible strength and durability herself, meaning she could possibly even withstand the Hulk’s attacks or punch him into another dimension if she’s fast enough.
2 She-Hulk
If there’s one thing comic book fans agree on, it’s that they never agree on anything. Never was this more obvious than it was with the MCU show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. However, amid all its quirks, Tatiana Maslany’s very enamoring performance, and all the controversy it caused between the constant arguments between its haters that thought it was too woke and its fans that thought its haters were just misogynists, there were some very eye-opening elements to it.
Who Would Actually Win Between She-Hulk and Cousin Bruce
For one, there was the fact that it depicted She-Hulk as being basically better in every way than the Hulk is. To that end, she basically beat him all ends up when Bruce took her away to his hideout island and trained her. As David Opie of Digital Spy noted:
Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce tells Jen that it could take her up to 15 years to master this, just like it did for him, but after some brief training, She-Hulk proves him wrong by figuring things out pretty quickly. Far quicker than Bruce ever did. Throughout their training together, She-Hulk consistently outshone him as they trained using yoga, jumping techniques, and even showed off their strength throwing boulders.
However, despite this, it should be pointed out that the pair did get into a more intense scuffle shortly after and it resulted in more of a draw, especially after they both thunder-claps against each other. As Digital Spy continues to point out in their piece, She-Hulk is more than capable of taking down her cousin.
This is evident from the fact that she once defeated a Thanos copy in the comics who had all the real one’s powers and strength. However, as they also rightly point out, who would actually win between both the Hulks is actually more a matter of which writer is dealing with the story line.
1 G’iah
Although it was heavily maligned by fans, Marvel’s miniseries Secret Invasion did draw out some important characters. As the Skrulls take center stage often, the character G’iah goes through a significant transformation. Though she starts off as a relatively benign character amid the power hierarchy of the Skrulls, by the end of the show and its escalating conflicts, she emerges with far more power and influence. By navigating a complex web of human and interstellar diplomacy, she is able to leverage both her Game of Thrones-style politicking and schemes and her embrace of technology to significantly level up.
She Can Theoretically Take Down Most Avengers Now
Between those technological advancements, genetic modifications, and her already formidable intellect, she basically ends the show, theoretically, with the powers of everyone on it. That leaves her with enough power to defeat most of the strongest heroes around, including the Hulk. However, even if her powers aren’t enough, her mind is a deadly weapon, so she could probably be just as potent with it against the Hulk, given enough time.
Of course, amid all the characters listed here and how they could theoretically take down the Hulk, our big green friend isn’t exactly a slouch himself. As one of the strongest and most iconic superheroes in history, on his day, the Hulk could also defeat every one of them too. In fact, if he’s able to use both his strength as the Hulk and his intellect as Banner, there are actually very few characters who could actually stand a chance against him.
