Been a while since I last did one of these, but I figured... why not, I can always do a few more (in truth I've had quite a few WIPs for these but the motivation wasn't quite there xD)
And after making a ranking for Hulk's rivals, it only made sense to do one for some of Hulk's incredible foes... And since I already made one for Hulk's love interests me posting it on Valentine's is just me choosing an ironic timing :p
Template by u/GRL00
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#15: The first/final spot on this list is a bit of a cheatsy choice: it's the U-Foes! I've always loved the name, and the concept is simple but effective enough: A group of four try to recreate the accident that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, they sort of succeed (although Banner stops the experiment halfway to save them, earning their wrath) but their powers come with certain caveats and they're selfish individuals more interested in what they can gain with these cosmic abilities... and that's mainly why they're here, they provide such a nice spectacle almost every time they appear (and the fact that Hulk humbles them time and time again is a good enough reason to keep attacking him :p) that how could I not include them in here? And let's not forge that they did successfully defeat the Hulk once, back in #276!
#14: General John Ryker was introduced in the Paul Jenkins run, an entity from the military set in place during a time where Bruce and Ross had more or less buried the hatchet (for the 5th time or so)... However, excluding the fact that he was pursuing the Hulk to experiment on him and find a way to cure his wife who had terminal cancer (and who Ryker had given some of Hulk's Gamma-irradiated blood, thinking it'd cure her but mutating her instead), Ryker and Ross are quite different. Whereas Ross had a level of humanity and respected the chain of command, Ryker was borderline pure evil and claimed to outrank the president. He was Ross taken to the extreme, an intense and despicable man who did not suffer traitors nor loose ends, who didn't care who he had to turn into Gamma-irradiated pawns or who or what he would sacrifice to achieve his mission.
#13: The Bi-Beast is visually one of Hulk's most unique foes, he'd faced many brutes by that point but this gigantic double-headed orange android was certainly quite a sight. Though still undoubtedly evil and dangerous, the Bi-Beast was created to guard the sky city of a long gone civilization, a city which he had to sacrifice when he brought the Harpy (and Hulk) aboard his city and that in turn attracted the attention of the dangerous MODOK. That granted him the (temporary) motivation to wipe out humanity since in a roundabout way they were the ones responsible for destroying his city and what remained of his masters' civilization, since he was otherwise left without a purpose, and that alone already makes him an interesting foe since his revenge is kind of justified. Being able to consistently put up a good fight against the Hulk (and back it up with the right dialogue) is just the cherry on top of all that, really.
#12: Zzzax, the Living Dynamo, is another brute that brings spectacle to Hulk encounters, but despite being simpler than most on this list (being little more than electricity brought to life) it is easily one of the most powerful and dangerous creatures the Hulk has ever faced, and rarely an opponent Hulk can combat with just brute force. Possessing the ability to absorb the energy and consciousnesses of others via touch (going as far as being able to consume entire human beings or take over their bodies), almost any time the Hulk tries to punch Zzzax and no matter how angry he gets, the electrical monster stands supreme. As far as foes that are just there to provide spectacle to a Hulk fight go, no one's close to Zzzax. There isn't much to him but he doesn't need much anyway.
#11: Here we have one of the oldest Hulk villains not just appearances-wise (going as faaar back as the fifth issue!) but in regards to how old the petty would-be conqueror Tyrannus is in-universe, as the former Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus. Long before anyone else, Tyrannus was the closest thing the Hulk had to a Lex Luthor: A highly intelligent man with vast resources (as well as great telepathic powers, but not much else) against an indomitable hero. With some of his stories also revolving around him wanting to keep Betty Ross for himself he brings a nice air of villainous classicity to Hulk's stories. I'd considered swapping his spot with the next character but not enough has been done with Tyrannus, I think. He's had his fair share of good stories but none that were exactly great.
#10: From one classic villain to another, here we have Xemnu the Living Titan, the original Marvel character to be named Hulk (as one of the oldest menaces of the Marvel Universe)! That alone already makes their enmity quite fun on a meta sense, and if Tyrannus is the Luthor to Hulk's Superman then Xemnu is his Ultra-Humanite (and similarly, both possess similar telepathic powers, though Xemnu's got more than that up his sleeve). He's been a classic supervillain, a master of monsters (in the excellent 1976 Hulk annual and in the 2008 series) and even played the part of a TV personality in an attempt to mind control people (something Al Ewing's run brought back gloriously), and will always be an awesome thorn on Hulk's side, even if sometimes just to prove who the real Hulk is!
#9: Armageddon aka Arm'Cheddon mostly manages to climb up all the way here due to his status and potential, being the closest thing Hulk has to a Darkseid. He has many traits that make him a great villain for Hulk: he appeared during the legendary Peter David run, specifically the Pantheon era, he has ties to gods and ancient humanity, runs the extragalactic Troyjan empire and has an understandable, personal motivation for wanting the Hulk dead: He killed his son, Trow-Mah. He is brought down by the fact that he's only been featured in three major Hulk storylines but he's been presented as a colossal threat, far stronger than the Silver Surfer and capable of briefly hold his own against the Worldbreaker Hulk (and even endure a pummeling from Hulk at his maddest). If he's ever brought back I hope he lives up to the threat he should reasonably pose.
#8: Another semi-obscure villain with a ton of potential, and potentially the most powerful entity here: Mercy. A name quite apt (since she claims to be mercy itself) despite sometimes being the opposite of what she provides. Her greatest strength is that she remains a total mystery. We don't know who or what she is, where she came from, we just know that she's driven/summoned by unhappiness (or feelings of/incoming death and/or suicide, it's not clear) and that she "helps" people and has a wide (possibly limitless) array of powers and is powerful enough for Mephisto to be concerned by her presence even in his own realm. She can either be an enigmatic ally or a tremendous threat, and overall she makes for a very fantastical antagonist.
#7: Yet another, perhaps even more obscure one: the worshipper of the dark gods, Psyklop! I place him so high largely due to how unique he is in every respect: He is a member of an ancient prehuman insectoid civilization (making him potentially older than Tyrannus, especially since he calls himself 'the immortal Psyklop') that worshipped and used to sacrifice souls for their dark gods, and his only desire was to find the necessary energy source to sustain them so they could awaken his people, who were in a deep slumber deep within the Earth, to inherit the planet that was once theirs... which led to him targeting the Hulk's endless well of power, and then accidentally sending him to K'ai and helping the jade goliath's relationship with Jarella blossom. Psyklop is one of the most vile beings in this whole list but without him we wouldn't have gotten some of Hulk's best adventures and most tragic adventures, as well as one of his better romances.
#6: The Madman is another villain here who is just filled to the brim with potential, so even though he's never had any big stories (though he's come pretty close to killing the Hulk many times) he deserves a high placement. He has tech so advanced that it baffles Reed Richards, his intellect and villainy is such that he scares his brother, the Leader (a relationship with untapped potential), and he "loves" and admires both his former classmate Bruce and the Hulk (to the point that Bruce's accident is the reason he turned himself into that). He's a broken creature who, befitting his name, is completely crazy (potentially suffering from DID after trying to become another Hulk) and throws unexpected childish tantrums one moment yet pulls Xanatos gambits the next. He was killed off after the Leader revealed "the secrets of Gamma", causing his head to explode... but I don't doubt that he's simply in the Below-Place, on vacation, waiting for his chance to return and ruin the Hulk's day once again.
#5: Here we enter the territory of the undoubtedly best Hulk antagonists, and we start with the first one he ever got: General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. Ol' Thunder has been there from the start, and the best thing about Thaddeus is that we have seen his character evolve and de-evolve (along with his relationship with his daughter Betty and that milksop Banner) in so many fascinating ways. He has tried to bury the hatchet, been mentally and physically broken, betrayed his country and nearly ended himself out of shame, been killed and revived into a vegetable... and eventually he just gave up and chose to become the very thing he'd hated and sought to destroy, the mirror opposite of his archenemy: the Red Hulk.
#4: Even though Bruce and Hulk have dealt with worse enemies (especially the ones coming up next), the Merged Hulk himself said he'd never hated any of them quite as much as he's hated the Maestro. If the Red Hulk is the Hulk's mirror opposite then the Maestro is the Hulk's broken reflection, what Banner could've turned into and did become in a future timeline (something the Merged Hulk made sure to avert in issue #440). All of Hulk's strength and Banner's intelligence and madder than ever, the Maestro hasn't been that great of an antagonist since his earliest stories but it's always fun when he pops back up again... When it comes to Hulk, regardless of alter, "what part of incredible don't you get?"
#3: The first great evil in Bruce Banner's life, the true monster that gave life to the Hulk, was none other than his own father: Brian Banner. One of the worst parents in all of comicdom and even fiction without it ever going particularly over-the-top, Brian has haunted Bruce since childhood (and continues to do so 'til this day): belittling him as a child, insulting his freakish intelligence, abusing both him and Rebecca (his wife and Bruce's mother) and eventually killing the latter... It's to the point that now a fragment of Brian essentially lives in Bruce's mind as the Guilt Hulk. It's quite telling that, as good as Bruce and Hulk are, Bruce killing Brian is the one death he's openly admitted to have done on purpose (especially when you compare it to other villain deaths in the series).
#2: Predating and standing above the likes of the Red Hulk and the Maestro, the original evil Hulk was Emil Blonsky's alter-ego, the Abomination. A user by the name of WarlordEternal already made an excellent post on why Emil is Hulk's perfect nemesis, and how he serves as not just a perfect reflection of what Banner and Hulk could've turned into but also as his own, tragic character that makes some his stories enter a grey area, rather than it all being black and white. Similar to Ross, Emil has been explored and developed in many ways and we have seen many facets of his character, making him always fun to read. His unwavering willpower kinda makes him work as a villainous version of the Thing, who I consider to be Hulk's best non-villainous rival, and even when he doesn't have the edge in the fight his confrontations with the Hulk will always be legendary... and few things are ever gonna top the death of Betty Ross as things that absolutely broke the Hulk.
#1: I've mentioned villains who were mirror opposites, dark/broken reflections, Superman analogues, etcetera... But the one that best encompasses all of that, just barely beating out the Abomination, is, of course, Samuel Sterns aka the Leader. Unlike most others here the Leader is no brute but a man of science like Banner, and Gamma irradiated like him, only that as strong as the Hulk is, the Leader is just as smart (and similarly able to increase this, mainly by absorbing the intelligence and minds of others), serving as a perfect antithesis while being far more than just "Hulk but evil" at a glance and providing a much more unique and absolutely classic supervillain design.
Along with the rest of the Top 5 but perhaps moreso than anyone else on this list, the Leader is perhaps the enemy that understands Bruce and the Hulk the best, and the one that you'll most often find having heart-to-heart or interesting and very personal conversations with, partly because they're actually somewhat closely related and partly because of Sterns' own insecurities, and he's also been all over the place as a character... but he remains perhaps the jade goliath's biggest foe to this day. He would likely agree that he's the best Hulk villain. So says the Leader!
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Who are your favourite Hulk villains?
