AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON's Hulk vs Hulkbuster Fight Has Destroyed My Anticipation For Hulk vs Thanos

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON's Hulk vs Hulkbuster Fight Has Destroyed My Anticipation For Hulk vs Thanos

The Hulk vs Hulkbuster fight effectively decertifies Hulk as the baddest and strongest being on the planet and makes him no match for Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.

Feature Opinion
By MarkJulian - Jun 06, 2015 06:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Hulk
Avengers: Age of Ultron Hulk vs Hulkbuster

Ask any Marvel Comics fans 'Who is the pound-for-pound strongest being in the Marvel Universe' and most fans will name the Hulk.  Of course, that's probably the casual Marvel fan.  Hardcore fans with more extensive knowledge will point to a number of cosmic characters that could rival the Green Goliath in terms of brute strength but there's one key aspect of the Hulk that separates him from the rest.  He's fueled by rage. The madder he gets the stronger he gets.  The longer the fight lasts, the stronger he becomes whereas his opponents gradually weaken.  This is typically the route many a battle has taken between Hulk and those supposedly stronger than him.  And that's exactly how most fights unfold in the comics between Hulk and Iron Man's Hulkbuster.  Initially, the battle starts out very evenly but as the fight rages on, Hulk's strength increases and he completely wipes the floor with Iron Man and his special armor.  Granted, the MCU is not the comics but the battle between Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man and Mark Ruffalo's Hulk should have played out closer to the source material. 

Hulk vs Hulkbuster
During Age of Ultron's climactic midway battle, Iron Man is the only Avenger besides Hawkeye not incapacitated by Scarlet Witch's mind attack and it's entirely up to him to subdue Banner.  He deploys his Hulk containment unit that he co-developed with Banner and a massive smack down ensues that levels much of Johannesburg.  [You can thank Man of Steel for Stark's halfhearted attempt to move the battle out of the city].  The battle is pretty even through much of the fight but then Iron Man manages to pile drive the Hulk through the steel skeleton of a skyscraper under construction.   That seemed to knock the Hulk to his senses but local law enforcement foolishly takes this opportunity to try to take Hulk down but only manage to enrage the Hulk anew.  Luckily for them, runtime dictates that it's time to move on to another scene and the Hulkbuster knocks out Hulk with one punch....One punch. 


Hulk vs Thanos

The reason why people fear the Hulk is because fighting him is virtually futile.  You're only going to make him stronger.  However, Age of Ultron made an unstoppable force mundane.  What would have been more appealing and more feasible would've been if Iron Man is losing the fight and the rest of The Avengers recover and showup to provide back up. Showcasing that it takes the entire team to take down Hulk preserves his status as certified badass.  Another option would've been for the Hulk to regain his senses after crashing through the skyscraper, take a look around and realize the senseless destruction he's wrought and leap away in horror.  This is actually how many of Hulk's fight end, he leaps away and returns to save the day exactly at the moment he's needed (kind of like how he resurfaces in The Avengers). There needed to be a more satisfying conclusion to the fight between Hulk and Hulkbuster that leaves Hulk's status as unrivaled destructive force intact.  

Hulk and Thing vs Thanos

Going back to the comics, Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor never, never, NEVER triumphs over the Hulk. Ever.  Debuting in 1994, Iron Man first created the armor to give him enough time during a fight with Hulk to explain the misunderstanding of Stark Industries manufacturing gamma bombs. Stark knew he couldn't best Hulk, he merely wanted to buy time to explain the situation.  Since then, numerous writers and artists have used the armor in various storylines involving confrontations between Iron Man and Hulk but Iron Man has never won any of those battles.  At best, the Hulkbuster battles Hulk to a draw.   However, considering some of the incredible comic book feats of the Hulk, just battling him to a draw is pretty impressive.  To that end, one of Earth's best lines of defense against the Mad Titan is the Hulk.  Still, Hulk pretty much gets stomped just about every single time he fights Thanos.  However, that just goes to show the level of strength Thanos possesses.  In the MCU, Age of Ultron would have you believe that Iron Man and Veronica are the pinnacle of strength on the planet.  This kind of undermines the role Hulk played in the first Avengers film in single-handedly turning around the fight against the Chitauri.  And in terms of Banner's fear of Hulk and his potential for destruction, doesn't it make more sense for him to stay close to Stark rather than disappear off the grid? What happens if Banner Hulks-out and Iron Man is not close by?
 
When the strongest in the cosmos shows up, with plans for annihilation, shouldn't the planet's defenses deploy Earth's strongest?  However, the Hulk vs Hulkbuster fight decertifies Hulk as the baddest and strongest being on the planet.  According to Joss Whedon's sequel,  the Hulkbuster, not Hulk is stronger.  According to Joss Whedon's sequel, Hulkbuster would be the one that represents the greatest threat to Thanos, not Hulk..  However, if Captain America: Civil War rumors are to be believed and Red Hulk is being introduced, perhaps the Russo's are building Hulk back up to his rightful place as a catastrophic threat in anticipation of his Avengers: Infinity War battle with Thanos?   
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MarkJulian
MarkJulian - 6/6/2015, 6:48 AM
@Jeight Exactly, Hulk was badass in The Avengers but essentially couldn't be a man made machine in Age of Ultron.
ATrueHero1987
ATrueHero1987 - 6/6/2015, 6:50 AM
O_0....Ok....smh
McNyagano
McNyagano - 6/6/2015, 6:51 AM
I disagree. Like Height pointed out, Hulk was wrecking Veronica. Any piece that tried to come into the suit he knocked it back. By the time he recovered from the rubble, Banner had regained control of the Hulk and Stark knocked him out.
grif
grif - 6/6/2015, 6:52 AM
i have not seen the movie but i have seen the fight, and this is a weak ass hulk. making a ww hulk movie would be a joke. he would get his ass kicked 1000 times over.
kinghulk
kinghulk - 6/6/2015, 6:54 AM
why? thanos will just bitch slap hulk while also beating the crap out of thor just like the comics.
nrocket3
nrocket3 - 6/6/2015, 6:55 AM
Despite really liking the movie, and not buying into Superhero fatigue. I must say that AOU as a whole has diminished my excitement for CBMs moving forward. I didn't think it would happen but I do have superhero fatigue now.
Highflyer
Highflyer - 6/6/2015, 6:59 AM
@Jeight
I wouldn't use the alien army as proof as they seemed really weak in my opinion. but that's just me.
Bulldawg2014
Bulldawg2014 - 6/6/2015, 7:02 AM
@jeight seduce him? Tell me more...
LEVITIKUZ
LEVITIKUZ - 6/6/2015, 7:02 AM
Who's Thanos?

That's Purple Hellboy.
xstryker
xstryker - 6/6/2015, 7:02 AM
"Story, shmory! All I care about is who would win in a fight!"

Ugh worst subset of comics fans.
teinen
teinen - 6/6/2015, 7:03 AM
When they combine Hulk with Banners intellect, he will be that much stronger.
PAF
PAF - 6/6/2015, 7:03 AM
This opinion tho
kinghulk
kinghulk - 6/6/2015, 7:03 AM
Doopie- just watching the hulk before the sucker punch it kind of felt like bruce woke up inside the hulk IMO. so while bruce inside hulk was under SW spell hulk ran wild but then when he got knocked out of it bruce regained some sort of control atleast enough to stop fighting. great fight but yeah i think they should have just allowed hulk to calm down and turn back to bruce right there rather than the sucker punch.
Frshcoupe
Frshcoupe - 6/6/2015, 7:06 AM
That fight was so underwhelming. I wanted to be blown away after the fight but I wasn't. The more I think about Age of Ultron the more disappointed I become. I have faith the Russos will make Infinity War's fighting top notch.
NovaCorpsFan
NovaCorpsFan - 6/6/2015, 7:07 AM
Found it.

xstryker
xstryker - 6/6/2015, 7:08 AM
Also:

Hulk vs Thanos lol
csdot
csdot - 6/6/2015, 7:09 AM
Why the [frick] would they make a two part epic movie overflowing with superheroes if it only would take Hulk to end it? Of course he's no match for Thanos. Common sense.
ATrueHero1987
ATrueHero1987 - 6/6/2015, 7:09 AM
@LEVITIKUZ LOL, I remember when me and my family first saw Avengers, my sis-in-law asked me "Is that Hellboy"?!
SageMode
SageMode - 6/6/2015, 7:09 AM
Some people seem to forget that one time in the comics, Iron Man actually defeated The Hulk in one of his regular armors but was completely drained of power as a result. A Hulkbuster armor designed specifically for the Hulk is gonna give him some trouble obviously. But they were pretty evenly matched in the movie with the Hulk losing from a sucker punch.

But Thanos is in a completely different league. Thanos always owns the Hulk in all of their battles.
LEVITIKUZ
LEVITIKUZ - 6/6/2015, 7:12 AM
@NovaCorpsFan



Not good enough, find the panel it happened on.
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