“The madder Hulk gets the stronger Hulk gets!” This popular Incredible Hulk adage perfectly sums up the rage monster’s main appeal – not only does he have potentially limitless strength, but his power is directly tied into his rage. This makes Hulk an unstoppable engine of destruction, but is this true of all Hulks?
After all, Doctor Bruce Banner has shapeshifted into multiple versions of the Hulk over the years – each with his own unique anger/strength ratio. Different Hulks process rage in different ways, which begs the question, which Hulk uses his anger the best?
The Savage Hulk: Green Fury
Originally, the Hulk’s anger/strength relationship was very ill-defined. Although Stan Lee eventually established that Bruce Banner would transform into the Hulk during moments of stress, he also established that the Hulk would turn back into Banner if he ever got too stressed. Eventually, this aspect of the character was dropped and the savage green Hulk simply grew stronger as his rage increased.
This allowed the Hulk to get mad enough to perform amazing feats of strength – like smash asteroids or swim across an entire ocean. However, he inevitably calmed down after his initial few tantrums and quickly reverted back to Banner, often remaining the Hulk only for a few hours. While his strength was certainly considerable, his ability to hold onto his Hulk form was not.
Joe Fixit: The Grey Hulk
Following a storyline by John Byrne where Banner was separated from his green Hulk form and then reed, Banner began transforming into his original grey-skinned Hulk form. Eventually coming to call himself “Joe Fixit,” the grey Hulk enjoyed a few advantages over his earlier forms – unlike the green Hulk, Joe’s transformation occurred at sundown and allowed him to stay the Hulk for the entire night. During a storyline by Peter David, Joe even suppressed the Banner persona completely and made a life for himself as a leg breaker for a Las Vegas casino.
Like the other Hulks, Joe could grow stronger as he grew angrier. However, his baseline strength was lower than the green Hulk, meaning he couldn’t get strong fast enough in certain battle situations. Although he did have moments where he gained the strength to lift over 100 tons, Joe’s inefficient way of turning his rage into strength often made others think of him as a weaker Hulk.
Professor Hulk: The Weakest Hulk?
Strangely, the weakest version of the Hulk started out as potentially the strongest. After Doc Samson merged the personalities of the Green Hulk, Grey Hulk, and Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk #377, a new Hulk – one with Banner’s intelligence, the Grey Hulk’s swagger, and the Green Hulk’s strength – emerged. This Hulk, later named the Professor Hulk, originally claimed he didn’t have a problem getting angrier or getting stronger and enjoyed getting into fights where he got to smash his enemies.
However, following a trip into an alternate future in the Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect storyline, Banner came face-to-face with his evil future self the Maestro. Horrified by what he could become, Hulk created an unconscious failsafe in his psyche that caused his body to revert to a powerless Bruce Banner whenever he got too angry. This also caused the Savage Green Hulk’s mind to re-emerge in Banner’s body, who couldn’t understand why he was so weak. As this meant the Hulk now grew weaker with rage, this gave him the worst anger/strength factor.
Green Scar: World Breaker
Banner would go on to transform into several more versions of the Hulk – but when Marvel’s Illuminati decided to shoot the Hulk into space, the Hulk gradually evolved into one of his strongest forms, the World Breaker Hulk. Arriving on the planet Sakaar in a weakened state, the Hulk was enslaved and forced to fight in a gladiatorial ring. However, his strength soon returned and he became first a gladiator champion and then the king of the entire planet.
Called the “Green Scar,” this Hulk appeared to have found some happiness – but when his ship blew up and destroyed his kingdom and new wife, he became angrier than ever and returned to Earth, hungry for revenge. Stronger than ever, the Green Scar’s rage only increased with every battle – making him capable of starting earthquakes simply by walking. At one point, it seemed as if he could annihilate the entire Eastern Seaboard with just a few steps.
The Devil Hulk: The Immortal Hulk
Banner later developed a different Hulk persona in the pages of Al Ewing and Joe Bennett’s The Immortal Hulk that people began calling the “Devil Hulk.” A massive, green-skinned creature who originally emerged at night, this Hulk was notable for being functionally immortal. It didn’t matter if Banner was shot in the head or the Devil Hulk was completely dismembered – somehow his body always managed to repair itself from the most extreme forms of damage.
The Devil Hulk, as his name suggests, is an amoral Hulk who had no problem killing or horribly injuring people. While he later revealed that he was protective of Banner and had a personal code of honor, he also had no problem letting his anger drive him to do terrible things.
Who is the Angriest Hulk?
So, which of these main versions of the Hulk can process his anger the best? While the Devil Hulk certainly seems to have the most inhuman abilities, in of sheer physical strength, it would seem that the Green Scar’s “World Breaker” form can do the most with his anger. Other Hulks, notably the Savage Green Hulk, might be potentially capable of reaching the Green Scar’s strength, but thus far only this Hulk has come the closest to literally destroying a world.
It’s also worth mentioning that while Banner usually places unconscious limits on the amount of strength his Hulk forms can manifest, he gave his Green Scar form (almost) free-range. Part of this was due to survival – since Planet Sakaar was so dangerous, Banner couldn’t revert back to his normal self on a regular basis and had to let the Green Scar grow in strength and savagery to protect them. Thus, the Green Scar was free to let his power grow unfettered, resulting in a Hulk who can make full use of his anger.
