How The Hulk's Only Weakness Stopped Him From Killing Marvel's Avengers

Regardless of their power levels, every version of the Hulk tends to be the strongest character in the room. The Marvel Cinematic Universe Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) is perhaps the best-known version of the green giant, but he's not the most powerful by a long shot. In fact, the strongest version of Hulk is too dangerous and scary for the MCU, and Marvel Comics explore this horrifying figure in the series "The Immortal Hulk." Writer Al Ewing and artists Joey Bennett, Ruy Josè, and Paul Mounts reimagine Hulk as a vastly overpowered entity who's functionally invincible and can't die. He's also even angrier than usual, and perfectly willing to take lives. 

As such, when he runs afoul of the Avengers in "The Immortal Hulk" #7, the fight is so one-sided that Marvel has to introduce a very specific Hulk weakness to give Earth's Mightiest Heroes a chance to survive the encounter. Said weakness comes in the shape of Iron Man's gigantic Helios Laser. After realizing that it's the only thing in the Avengers' arsenal that can win the fight, the armored hero flies up to the weapon and blasts the Hulk from above. The Helios Laser's beam destroys the entire town they fight in, and is powerful enough to kill the Hulk. 

The solution straddles dangerously close to deus ex machina territory since the Helios Laser hasn't appeared in the comics before or after this incident, and the fight makes it explicitly clear that the Avengers wouldn't stand a chance against the Hulk without it. It also doesn't take because at the end of the day, the comic is still called "The Immortal Hulk." The destructive event mostly serves to pave the way for the next issue, where the Hulk wakes up dissected in a secret government base, and escapes in a gory way that would be far too gross and horrifying for the MCU. Still, at least Tony Stark can console himself with the fact that the Hulk now has a canonical loss against his giant sky laser.

The Immortal Hulk is a particularly strange phase in the character's life. After Bruce Banner and Hulk go through several seemingly unconnected deaths and resurrections, they figure out that they're unable to permanently die. Unfortunately, this is because of a complicated and psychologically taxing situation where their surprisingly large assortment of personalities move between Earth and an abyssal plane called the Below-Place. What's more, a powerful and dangerous Gamma energy entity called the One Below All haunts them under the guise of Bruce's nasty father, Brian Banner. Things get quite intricate, and the heavy horror undertones of the Immortal Hulk's adventures mean that virtually everyone who ends up on his path of destruction is scheduled for a very bad time.   

The Avengers fight is a nice showcase of this semi-possessed Hulk's power. He starts by easily defeating team powerhouses Ghost Rider and Thor. He then shrugs off Captain America and Black Panther, demolishes Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor, and sends She-Hulk flying before Iron Man decides to use the Helios Laser. What's more, the Hulk does all this with a demonic grin on his face, hurling scathing personal insults that are guaranteed to keep at least some of the team members up at night well after the fight is over. 

After Thor's swift knockdown, the shocked thunder god even contributes some handy exposure about the Hulk's vastly increased power level. According to the Asgardian, the green powerhouse's new abilities include things like the ability to smell people's lies, and effectively make the Hulk a deity ... or, as Thor points out to the Hulk's delight, a devil. Good job the Avengers happened to have that game-changing surprise laser handy, right?