Thor vs. Hulk

Avengers (1963) #3

by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart

The God of Thunder takes on The Strongest One There Is as two Marvel Universe heavyweights clash! A rivalry for the ages begins shortly after Hulk quits the Avengers, with a test of strength between former teammates! Things escalate when the jade giant recruits powerful allies of his own, paving the way for Thor vs. Hulk to be the main event of an Avengers/Defenders War! Hammer meets fist again and again, including a journey to Hel and back, and blockbuster bouts between the Odinson and the Red Hulk! It's god against monster, in the Mightiest Marvel Manner of all!
AVENGERS (1963) 3, SUBMARINER (1968) 35, DEFENDERS (1972) 10, INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) 255 AND 440, THOR (1966) 385 AND 489, HULK (2008) 5-6, WHAT IF? (1977) 45; MATERIAL FROM JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1952) 112, INCREDIBLE HULK ANNUAL 2001, HULK (2008) 26

Genres: Comics, Fiction

331 pages, Paperback

Published October 17, 2017

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thor vs. Hulk?

Hey, Jeff, is this one of those Hickman-type books where you don’t have a clue about what’s going on?

No, Thor and Hulk repeatedly trade punches.

Hey, Jeff, is this one those Grant Morrison-type books where you have to be stoned to get an angle on what the story is about?

No, this is a bunch of donnybrooks between Thor and Hulk.

Hey, Jeff, is this one of those Warren Ellis-type comics where the boundaries of comic book story telling are stretched to the breaking point and you end up with a navel gazing storyline.

No, Thor and Hulk pretty much beat the crap out of each other for 200+ pages!!!!

The title of this book pretty much delivers on the slim premise – Thor versus Hulk – although Smart Hulk makes an appearance, they’re not getting together to debate the merits of the macro-economy of Latvaria.

The problem with these themed comic collections is that they have a tendency to get redundant rather quickly. The editors tried to liven up the book by drawing from decades of these punch outs, but it still comes down to basically the same thing: in this case, a superhero punch-a-rama. I am the shallowist of shallow comic book readers, yet taking these fights out of the context of larger storylines underlines the futility of putting a slug-festival book together.



Yes, that was a Blood, Sweat and Tears joke. Ear worm for the day: Spinning Wheel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK62t...

The crux of the book begins and is tethered however loosely to the fact that The Hulk and Thor were once teammates on The Avengers for an issue and a quarter.

The Hulk wasn’t the brute child he is in most of this book –



- he’s a conniving, mistrustful, misanthrope, who talked like a punk from Newsies and who had yet to discover the joys of body waxing. His overarching goal: to steer clear of humanity and kick the bejezus out of the Avengers – especially that long-haired hippie, Thor.



Stan Lee even retconned and padded out that fight in Journey into Mystery, where Thor recounts a five minute battle, not originally included, so the reader can figure out who’s the strongest.



Thor begs Daddy-o-Odin to give him five minutes sans hammer, because Hulk continually taunts him with, “Let’s see how tough you are without your f**king hammer, you long-haired a@$hole!”

Expletives are, of course, mine.

Nothing is resolved. Each get in their fair share of punching and throwing stuff. Hulk has a continual rage-on for pretty much everything except a plate of beans and Thor always starts off the peacemaker…



…but gets a face full of gamma-irradiated feet…



…or an entire train to the dome for his efforts.



“All aboard for the express train to Thor’s face.” Ouch.



The editors try to make things interesting by creating some sort of “warrior-berserker rage” for Thor, so if Thor gets battle-crazed, he creates as much damage as the Hulk.



Whenever Smart-Hulk is featured, he can’t get too angry, otherwise, he reverts to chess club champ, Banner. These plot devices really don’t do much in the way of interfering with mayhem, so…

It’s not easy being green, so a Red-Hulk storyline was included here:



Which raises the question: if Red Hulk pummels and outwits Thor and Green Hulk pummels and outwits Red Hulk does this mean Green Hulk should be able to pummel and outwit Thor?

Lastly, there’s this:



How Hulk got to that point defies even comic book logic, but you can’t argue with the results.





No whore mongering or drunken storylines in the future for this Iron Man.

Bottom Line: This was penned by a number of different writers – none named Neil Gaiman – and as stated above, if you like your comics punchy, by all means pick this up. The art features Jack Kirby and Sal Buscema and some hideous art from the '90's.

My favorite story:



Hulk vs. Captain Pajamas

[Aidanmark30 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I Couldn't even finish this book. This book is not worthy of 38$. If you really want to get it, get it from the library trust me. R.I.P Stan Lee

[Todd Glaeser · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book is filled with the early Marvel battles between the title heroes. Unfortunately, these stories offer little plot and lots of fight scenes and that's not enough for me. The later stories are better in this regard, with the story where Hulk goes to rescue Thor from Hel but Thor doesn't feel he can leave being the best of the bunch.

[Omar · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.9 ok. Its entertaining but not more than that. A very fun comic to have bit the story is a 0. Just a fun time is what ur looking for this is the 1 for you. 2 giants battling it out.

[Omar Gómez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thor vs Hulk (tpb) (2017)

3.5/5

Los personajes son escritos diferentes atravez de las décadas, Hulk, Namor so escritos dependiendo de los escritores.

La mejor historia fue de Jim Shooter, con script de Stan Lee, el final con Thor con la cara desecha por los golpes de Hulk al pelear sin el martillo.

Otra interesante fue de Erik Larsen, el ya había hecho que Wolverine derrotara a Hulk, pudo ser mejor historia.

Luego con menos diálogos se agilizo el comic y se disfruta como Red Hulk ridiculiza y humilló a Thor ricitos de oro.

El What If? Fue un Fanfic de los fans del riciitos. Fue una tontería absoluta.

The Avenger Thor Odinson es una Mary Sue. Thor es un cobarde que pelea con un martillo mágico y siempre es ayudado por su daddy Odin.

Como dice Kurt Busiek atravez de Hyperion qué Thor sin su martillo no puede ni volar y todo se lo debe a su papi Odin.

Falto en esta recopilación Avengers Vol 2 (1996-1997) #4-5 principalmente lo que más me gustó fue como Hulk derrota a los Avengers fácilmente y sobre todo como humilló a Thor Dios del trueno, cuando este asgariano dejó de pelear con Mjolnir, demostrando así de claro que Hulk Smash.

Esto hizo enojar a los fans de Thor ricitos de oro, los ejecutivos de Marvel pidieron a gritos la salida de Rob Liefeld y su estudio incluidos Loeb y Ian Churchill para traer a Walter Simonson como experto en Thor como escritor y tratar de borrar la paliza a Thor Odinson y así fácilmente inventando que no era el Thor original sino un Doppelgänger jajajajaja.

Años después en Immortal Hulk le rompe la mandíbula a Thor.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know what you're getting with this. This is wall-to-wall slugfests. None of the Hulk/Thor fights have been IMHO classic stories, they're more of a marketing ploy to sell issues. But, hey, if you want to see two big musclebound superheroes trashing each other and everything around them, this'll satisfy that itch.

[Frank McGirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun buff-thoomery from these louts.

I didn't expect to enjoy it, but I did, even if I still really have no idea what the hell Red Hulk was all about.

[Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can we expect when the unstoppable force collides with the immovable object?

Only wanton destruction.