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Many people extremely underestimate Hulk. They don't know that Hulk's strength grows the more he fights. It doesn't matter if you are x100 stronger, he soon will be just as strong and then some.

It seems he is the comic version of the "irresistible force".

Superman, on the other hand, is practically invulnerable; sort of the "immovable object".

Have these two ever fought? What was the outcome? Can the irresistible force beat the immovable object?

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6
  • The blob was also an "immoveable object" being that his superpower is altering his center of gravity. However, the hulk moved him, so hulk is definitely stronger. But superman has every power ever, so logically I think Superman has to win, though I would rather Hulk win.
    – David Starkey
    Jul 11 '13 at 1:52
  • 11
    Who's the brilliant person who voted that this is "primarily opinion based" AFTER I posted my answer????
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Jul 11 '13 at 16:03
  • 3
    Want to point out that you can't have a universe in which an irresistible force and an immovable object both exist -can have one or the other but not both. If an immovable force exists in some universe, than (by definition) there is no force in that universe which can overcome it and hence no irresistible force. Same reasoning for the converse, if you have a truly irresistible force there can be no immovable object.
    – Stan
    Oct 6 '13 at 18:12
  • Obligatory HULK WINS Goblins comic strip
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    May 22 '14 at 12:29
  • 3
    “Many people extremely underestimate Hulk.” [citation needed]
    – Paul D. Waite
    Sep 3 '14 at 14:30
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TL;DR: The two DID fight in at least 3 different comics. Superman had 2 clear victories and one sorta-clear victory on points.

  1. Fight #1: 1981 "DC and MARVEL present: #28: SUPERMAN and SPIDER-MAN".

    • That comic featured a fight between Hulk and Superman.

    • Hulk gets all hulked-out... but can't hurt or move Superman.

    • In the end, he's so exhausted, he converts back to Bruce Banner.

    This clearly shows Superman winning.

  2. Fight #2: 1996 "MARVEL COMIC vs DC #3: The showdow of the century".

    • It was a part of this special series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_vs._Marvel

    • Hulk vs Superman were one of the 5 fights which were decided by fan votes.

    • Superman made Hulk bleed from mouth and then knocked him out.

    This clearly shows Superman winning.

  3. Fight #3: 2001 "The Incredible Hulk vs. Superman". Play-by-play:

    • Hulk hits Superman pretty hard - knockdown.

    • Hulk throws Superman high up. No damage.

    • Superman flies fast and knocks Hulk away, through a bunch of rock. Knockdown.

    • Superman twirls Hulk, and throws him far far away

    • They fight some more, no damage.

    • Both are blasted from the sky with some rockets shot by presumably militarty. Both had wind knocked out of them.

    • Hulk throws a bunch of rockets at Superman.

    • All the while Superman tries to tell Hulk they were set up and shouldn't fight. While punching him, successfully :)

    • Then Hulk listened.

    This one was more even handed but Superman has an edge as he hurt/knocked down/punched off Hulk more than vice versa.

Hat/tip: all these were collected in this awesome YouTube video, together with pages showing the fights:

. Just ignore the useless made-up "new" 3D-movie-fight at the end of the video.

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4
  • 6
    The fan votes based conclusion of #2 makes it, imho, non-canon... (again, imho).
    – Kalissar
    Jul 11 '13 at 8:43
  • 7
    @Kalissar There is precedent of other fan voted events that are very much canon (eg. death of Jason Todd). Then again, any sort of crossover has questions on canon and continuity.
    – amcintosh
    Jul 11 '13 at 13:30
  • 2
    IMO, Superman's prevailing advantage in 2 of the 3 cases was his speed. A really miffed Hulk would probably stand a chance in a straight-up fistfight, since he can generally do so against Thor or other Hulk versions. The first instance was during a time when Superman was afforded ludicrous levels of strength, such as pushing a planet out of orbit with one hand - one of the many things the original Crisis was meant to fix.
    – Omegacron
    Feb 17 '14 at 15:16
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    BTW, your YouTube link is dead.
    – Mithical
    Feb 25 '17 at 18:00
8

In answer to his :

Can the irresistible force beat the immovable object?

Hulk has survived nuclear explosions and gamma explosions, which generate far more heat than Superman's heat vision, with ease. The brunt force of nuclear explosions knock out Superman (see recent issues of Superman Wonder Woman). Hulk is also written considerably stronger. One of his best strength feats was holding the weight of a star, destroying an asteroid twice the size of Earth with a single punch, punching a hole in time and reality, Hulk's punching power is insane. Superman hasn't demonstrated this level of punching power and in terms of durability he is way below Hulk. Superman had his nose broken by Mongul and Superman doesn't have accelerated healing, he has poor defence against toxins and poisons for example. Superman's big advantage is speed however this hasn't been shown to generate what is referred to planet busting punching power. In a fist fight, battle to the death with no battlefield removal, Hulk would win fairly comfortably, especially current Hulk, who is more intelligent than Banner but retains his high strength levels - tearing Adamantium with barely a struggle for example.

Here's a list of comparable high end strength and durability feats.

  1. Superman smashes a shadow moon but is knocked out - JLA 30 Grey Hulk smashes an asteroid twice the size of Earth - Marvel Comics Presents 52

  2. Superman struggles to hold a magnetic field which houses a black hole the size of a spec of dust - JLA 77 Hulk holds open a black hole "can hold Forever" - Defenders 3

  3. Superman is imprisoned by a new god - Death of the New Gods 7 Hulk is imprisoned by a being half sky father level (Chaos) - Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 2

  4. Superman is cut by Wonder Woman's tiara - Wonder Woman 219 Hulk is cut by a glaive that cuts at an atomic level - Infinity 6

  5. Superman takes 10 gigawatts of electricity but is knocked out - Action Comics 14 Hulk takes 100 trillion tons of kinetic energy when fighting his son - Incredible Hulk 611

  6. Superman survives the destruction of two planets but is knocked out - Death of the New Gods 8 Hulk & Red She Hulk Destroy A Planet - Incredible Hulks 634

  7. Superman Takes A Nuke and is knocked out - Superman-Wonder Woman 6 Hulk takes 2 Giant Gamma Bombs - Marvel Knights Hulk 4

  8. Superman lifts a planet - Superman 13 Hulks lifts a star - Infinity 6

More to add!

Scans on request.

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  • 5
    What could you possibly be standing on to lift a star?
    – Nick Matteo
    Nov 20 '15 at 17:21
  • How does someone fly without jet propulsion? How does someone punch a planet apart with their fists but not split Earth in half during combat? How does make hard light constructs that can move moons? Comic book physics don't make sense.
    – Nullbreaker
    Nov 21 '15 at 17:42
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    No, but really, what was he standing on?
    – Nick Matteo
    Nov 21 '15 at 17:44
  • Regular ground.
    – Nullbreaker
    Nov 22 '15 at 14:20

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