Granted, Hulk is a big, dumb green brute in his transformed form but, even so, he still manages to conduct himself well in most battles by virtue of his incredible physical attributes.
Usually, when he is defeated or has a bad day, it’s because of powerful characters such as Zeus, the Void or Thanos (and there’s no shame in that), but every now and again he is humiliated by less powerful characters, idiots or, on occasions, even himself.
In this article, we’ll run you through some of the moments that Hulk and his alter-ego Bruce Banner would rather forget. Here are Hulk’s six most embarrassing comic book moments.
Hulk Is Knocked Out By The Wrecker
The Wrecker is by no means a weak character – but the fact is he’s an absolute idiot and a habitual failure. However, the fact is he managed to knock the Hulk out with a single shot.
He is Dirk Garthwaite – a violent former manual labourer who was given powers by Loki, who enchanted his crowbar, which subsequently operated essentially as his “Mjolnir“.
He’s an incompetent idiot, notoriously dumb and often manages to defeat himself. He regularly loses to characters like Spider-Man and yet, in this instance, he took out several heroes – including the embarrassing aforementioned one-shot KO of the Green Goliath.
Hulk Fails To Satisfy Umar
Umar is the sister of Dormammu and a powerful sorceress in her own right. She is quite a sexualised character and often uses energy constructs shaped like suggestive objects – such as tongues.
She likes to control men and, on one occasion, did so with the Hulk to turn him into her personal sex slave.
Unfortunately for her – and in spite of the unfathomable difference in proportions between the two characters (Hulk is huge, she’s very slight in build) – Hulk lasted all of six minutes in the encounter and laid exhausted and satisfied, while she was highly unsatisfied and evidently very bored by the whole thing.
Oh dear, Hulk.
Hulk Is Out-Fought By Captain America
It goes without saying that Captain America is by no means a joke of a character – he is, of course, far from it – but the fact is he absolutely isn’t in Hulk’s league. Or at least he shouldn’t be.
He is simply a man who, via the Super Soldier Serum, was elevated physically to the peak of human potential (granted, the comic book idea of “peak human potential” is vastly superior to the real world’s idea of it, but it is still vastly beneath the Hulk’s level).
However, Captain America has managed to one-up the Hulk on numerous occasions – not least in this particular instance, when he not only hurt him with pressure point shots, but also managed to throw him judo style in a physical tussle.
Hulk Is Choked Out By A Snake
On a couple of occasions, the Hulk has encountered the group known as the Circus of Crime – and he has mostly come out on top. However, on this occasion, he was absolutely humiliated.
Facing the evil Princess Python, the villainess set her pet python onto the Hulk – and you’d think that would be something the Green Goliath could easily fend off, right (something he had indeed done in the past)?
It didn’t quite work out that way, however, as the reptile wrapped itself around the Hulk’s neck and choked him into unconsciousness.
He was unable to prise it from himself and, as if being choked out by a snake wasn’t embarrassing enough, he can now say he was defeated by a group of circus-themed morons.
Hulk Is Stopped In His Tracks By Puppies
"Due respect, agent, but none of your behavioural scientists are ever going to understand the Hulk better than me. And the Hulk loves puppies."
Those were the words of Bruce Banner to S.H.I.E.L.D. when they were discussing ways to calm the Hulk down – and, sure enough, S.H.I.E.L.D. provided Banner with the bizarre device known as the puppy bomb.
Guess what? It worked! When Banner had transformed into the Hulk, the puppy bomb was utilised and the Green Goliath pretty much turned into a giggling child, before swiftly reverting to his more human form.
This was indeed Banner’s own idea but, even so, it’s pretty embarrassing that the mighty Hulk can be stopped in his tracks by a load of cute little furry puppies.
Hulk Is Taken Down By An Old Lady Using Aikido
As a world-renowned expert on geophysical conditions, Professor Hideko Takata was recruited by Bruce Banner to be a member of the new Project Hulkbuster – a team brought together to track and take down the Hulk, should he go rogue.
Takata was brought in merely for her scientific know-how – she was a frail old lady after-all – but she clearly held a bad-ass secret.
It turns out Takata was an expert martial artist – specifically in aikido – and actually managed to take the Hulk down while the Hulkbuster team waited for help.
Using the Hulk’s own momentum against him – and bear in mind this was a mindless Hulk who had taken down entire teams of Avengers – she flipped him face first into the floor.
Takata knew she couldn’t keep it up for long and, thankfully, the Avengers arrived to intervene before Hulk turned her into a bloody paste but, even so, the fact that she was able to subdue him at all was highly embarrassing.
What do you think? Are these Hulk’s most embarrassing moments? Which other Hulk moments have made him look silly? Have your say below.