A recently posted question How many Hulks are there? lead to my first knowledge of a female Hulk: She-Hulk. The images show lots of curves and significantly less muscle mass then the Hulk I grew up with. She does not appear to have the mass required to take on Lou Ferrigno (when not in character).
So how strong is she? Is there a relationship between mass and strength? Pound for pound is She-Hulk stronger than any of the male Hulks?
Unlike the other Hulks, Jennifer Walters didn't get irradiated directly with gamma radiation; she received it from Bruce's blood via transfusion. As such, while she did gain some level of his Hulk power, it's only a portion of Savage Hulk's full power. Her Hulk power works a bit differently from the other gamma-powered mutates.
She-Hulk is unique among the Hulks in that her strength in She-Hulk form is proportional to her strength in Jennifer Walters form. She can often be seen working out, e.g. using the same workout regiment as Thing (though eventually his weights became far too light for her). As she naturally increases in strength in one form, it carries over into the other. This makes her one of the strongest non-Hulk creatures in the Marvel universe. Even when she is completely calm, she is as strong as, or stronger than, god-like characters such as Thor or Hercules, and significantly stronger than Thing.
In their resting state, She-Hulk is stronger than the other three main Hulks (Savage Hulk, Red Hulk, and Red She-Hulk). Unfortunately, while her strength does scale up as she more scared or angry, it does not scale anywhere near as much as the others Hulks. As such, in a one-on-one battle, She-Hulk almost always loses:
As with most superhero capabilities, it varies from author to author. There have been numerous attempts to classify relative superhero strengths, although oftentimes they use abstract categories (e.g. "Class 12") to keep from having to commit to a specific number.
For example, her article on the Marvel Comics Database mentions that she was classified at "Strength Class 50" when she was created, and has since jumped to Class 75 and now Class 100, but it's never been fully explained what those levels mean.
But as for specific numbers, here are a few:
World War Hulk: Gamma Files (Aug. 2007) - Potentially incalculable, in excess of 100 tons (source)
WIZARD Magazine chart - 85 tons (see below)
I agree with everything KutuluMike has written except where you said her strength doesn't increase when she gets scared or angry. Her strength, durability and other attributes do increase just like her cousin when he gets angry. And that scan with She-Hulk getting choke out is not She-Hulk it was a Life Model Decoy that looks like She-Hulk. The real She-Hulk was found by Lyra (She-Hulk) in a stasis.
Avengers Disassembled
She-Hulk destroys Vision during Avengers Disassembled. When Scarlet Witch went insane and killed many of the Avengers, she used her powers to cause She-Hulk to go completely berserk. She-Hulk went on a rampage similar to the Hulk and was unstoppable. She even ripped Vision in half while she was out of control. She Hulk never goes full power because this and she doesn't like to go Savage. At her base state she can lift more than 100 tons easily. Anyway She-Hulk has great potential she even restrained a weakened Thanos and gave a blow for blow.
She was even strong enough and durable enough to take an blow from World War Hulk and give an blow to World War drawing blood from him.
Even though she was punched into the ground she still could have gotten up only having minor scratches but she just stayed down, shocked that Hulk, her cousin, hit her.
She-Hulk is unique in her own way and I definitely think she has what it takes to take on top tier Heroes especially Red Hulk and Hulk at her best. If She-Hulk let that savage side of her come out more she could beat almost anybody in her way. When she went savage she was able to stalemate with Hulk on two occasions. She doesn't just have a fraction of his powers she has all of it, she just has more control and doesn't let herself go full power. Hopefully her new series will be good. She's finally letting her savage side be free.
Looking purely at physics (and in recent times comic book stories, certainly in their big screen iterations HAVE been trying to attend to this crucial factor), with regards She-Hulk, she obviously can't have anywhere near the physical power of any of the Hulks. EVEN in their resting states. They all have much heavier, bulkier muscles than her, and so she can't compare to their strength, lifting power, and overall durability.
However, while she is quite obviously and unavoidably outside of their weight class, what she DOES have in her favour, is a more balanced physique, with more toning in the right areas. What this means is that she'll have faster twitch muscle fibers, better reflexes, more responsive muscles. And while Hulk will grow and get bigger, and eventually his muscle fiber twitch response scales up with adrenaline, She-Hulk is there MUCH faster. So in a situation where they fight, she's at a more effective, more responsive level than he is in the earlier stages. Bulkier muscle, the type you see on a weightlifter, isn't efficient muscle, it gets vastly outclassed by true athletes, in particular martial artists, so this might be the easiest comparison. A weight lifter versus a martial artist, the martial artist tires out and eventually hurts the weight lifter badly.
However, with that said, this is Hulk, so he's immensely tough too. She more than likely can never beat him, but if she did land any significant blows, it'd be early on. Maybe a sucker-punch from her could put him out. As for lifting power.....she's able to match Hulk exactly with a body half the size and about a quarter the bulk? Yeah. I don't buy that, and neither will film audiences, I expect that kind of power-creep is going to remain in the comics, until someone nerfs it again.
I've answered this one with regards to an upcoming movie, in the Marvel Universe if She-Hulk does get made into a movie, they'll try to make it as realistic as possible.
Per the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 1) published in 1983:
The She-Hulk can lift (press) about 50 tons. Her powerful leg muscles enable her to leap straight up to a height of 600 feet, or jump a distance of 1000 feet. Because she retains her normal intellect the She-Hulk is incapable of the primal rages that trigger increased levels of strength and body efficiency in the Hulk
The She-Hulk’s body possesses a high degree of imperviousness to injury, pain, and disease. The She-Hulk's skin is capable of withstanding extremes of temperature, from 3000° Fahrenheit to -190 F and great stresses and impacts without puncture wounds or lacerations (she can withstand direct hits by artillery cannon shells). The She-Hulk cannot, however withstand the heat of the detonation of a nuclear weapon. The She-Hulk’s highly efficient physiology renders her immune to all terrestrial illnesses
Per the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2)(Deluxe Edition) published in 1985:
In superhuman form the She-Hulk possesses superhuman strength and can lift (press) at least 75 tons. She is continuing to train to lift even greater weights, and the uppermost limit of her potential strength is as yet unknown.
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol 4. #3) simply repeats her strength guide but also now offers us her power-grid. Her strength is 6 (e.g. Superhuman: 75-100 ton range) suggesting that it's not grown massively in the intervening years.
I think that compared to the original Hulk it's difficult to say how her powers scale up in comparison. Especially since we see a time when the Avengers were trapped under a mountain. The Hulk was lifting the whole thing on his own and when she tried to come in to help, she was unable to even take any of the weight off of him.
In her current, enormous form, she’s on a at with the Hulk. In her classic, more slender “Sensational” form, she has demonstrated the ability to easily match Hercules while in a calm state but this was after extensive weight training as Jen Walters and there’s no sign she kept that up. In her most recent strength contest with the Thing, Ben came out slightly ahead, so in a calm State she’s probably back to 85-90 tons level, the same weight class as the likes of Thing, Rhino and Colossus. She can move into Class 100 territory with enough rage but isn’t normally anywhere near as strong as, say, Thor, Wonder Man or Hercules.
As for comparisons with “calm” Hulks, she’s about level with Doc Samson or a calm Savage Hulk whilst calm herself, mainly because of her dedication to weight training as She-Hulk - as explained above, when she lifts as Jen Walters, her strength as Shulkie massively increases. She’s ahead of Mr Fixit but well behind the Professor/ Merged Hulk/Doc Green, who’s Thor-level, and even further behind the Green Scar.
Some argue that the She-Hulk simply cannot be as strong or stronger than any of the male Hulks simply because they are drawn to have more muscle mass. By that logic, a scrawny looking teenager like early Peter Parker can't possibly be stronger than Captain America, let alone ten times stronger, because Cap has more muscle mass. This is a fantasy setting. Reality doesn't matter.
These sorts of things depend on the writer. One writer some years back decided that the She-Hulk is exponentially stronger than her human form, Jenn Walters. In other words, Bruce Banner might be able to bench press 50 pounds. The Hulk is a Class 100+ strength. But if Bruce Banner went on a big weightlifting kick and got where he could bench a hundred pounds, it would make no difference to the Hulk's strength. He'd be a Class 100+ and maybe another 50 pounds. Meanwhile, the She-Hulk was a Class 50. But if Jenn Walters can bench 50 pounds and then starts lifting weights until she can bench a hundred, her strength as the She-Hulk becomes a Class 100. If she works out enough that she gets even stronger as Jenn, her strength as the She-Hulk goes into Class 100+. The trick was to work out in human form, not in She-Hulk form.
It was always vague as to exactly what the strength multiple was. But she punched out the Champion in a boxing match. She let Hercules beat her in an arm wrestling contest to spare his ego even though she could tell he was putting everything he had into it and she wasn't.
Writers since then have either ignored that run or explained that she decided not to maintain that workout of spending hours a day lifting weights. She kept working out but not as much and slowly slipped back to about a Class 75.
