bigfatcarp93 said:
Therumancer said:
Well, I'd say that The Hulk being unable to lift the hammer is sort of pushing it, though I guess they did power down all the Avengers to an extent. In various versions The Hulk, especially when mad, has indeed picked up the hammer, he's occasionally had trouble (gotten resistance) only to get madder, and stronger, and then pick it up. In one cartoon battle pitting them against each other The Hulk even started beating Thor with his own hammer. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he has been able to move it before in the comics. Of course with The Hulk a lot depends on rage, but as a general rule he is actually "the strongest there is" when he tops out, oftentimes having battled multiple very powerful characters simultaneously during his rampages, without being successfully stopped (at least not by them).
That was the Ultimate Universe, doesn't count.
Well actually the Cartoon version was Hulk Vs. Thor (part of a Hulk Vs. set) if I remember, the nature of the material is why I specified. That said while I have a great knowledge of comics I cannot place a point where Hulk has picked up the hammer in the mainstream universe, but I am pretty sure it has happened none the less. At some point well after this discussion I will probably find it and have a "durr" moment.
If your talking about Hulk's rage factor, that's pure canon. In fact it was famously exploited during "Secret Wars" when the bad guys pretty much dropped a mountain on the good guys. You had the entire team of good guys struggling to hold it up, until they came up with the idea of getting Hulk mad by insulting him, and eventually they had him holding up the entire mountain all by himself (basically giving him a strength in excess of all other heroes combined) before Reed modified Iron Man's repulsors (Rhodey was Iron Man at the time I believe) and blew a hole through the mountain so the heroes could escape. The entire point of that bit was to show just how ridiculously strong he was. Also canon Hulk HAS gone toe to toe with numerous heavy hitting heroes simultaneously during his rampages. As odd as it sounds one of the few characters that has actually managed to go toe to toe with him when he was in full on ramage mode is The Thing, but that invariably ends with The Thing being about to lose before something breaks up the fight, and leaving it unresolved. One of the reasons why I think people underestimate The Thing and I occasionally bring him up when people make lists of "strongest characters" and such, I actually think The Thing has done better, more consistently, against The Hulk one on one than pretty much any other hero, with the exception of Wolverine (who was originally created to fight The Hulk in one of his comics, and the two have had some epic throw downs over the years. Hulk Vs. Wolverine has
a tendency to get as brutal as Wolverine Vs. Sabertooth).
As far as The Leader and Magneto doing stuff to the hammer, I'm actually thinking earlier than The Ultimate Universe when I remember bits like that happening. Of course all my ranting speculation aside, it does depend on writers (consistency is not a big part of comics) and it could be argued that "picking up the hammer" only counts if you do it by hand, while it's on the ground so manipulating it with powers doesn't count, such as if you grab Thor's hammer and throw it back at him in mid-flight with a super power after he throws it at you. I honestly don't think a comic writer actually sat there and went "you know, I think despite wanting to irradiate the plant, The Leader has good intentions so thus he can pick up the hammer with his stuff". I seem to remember vaguely he carried it away in a force field at one point for research or something (which didn't last long).