Warning: Contains spoilers for Aliens vs. Avengers #1! The Hulk is one of the strongest characters in the Marvel Universe, and he has no shortage of cosmically powerful entities. From the Hulk defeating monsters under the control of the mother of horrors, to even Loki himself, Hulk is no stranger to fighting the fiercest enemies, even if they are not from this world. However, it recently became clear that there is one otherworldly enemy that even the Hulk cannot defeat: Aliens xenomorphs.
in Aliens vs Avengers #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić, four ships filled with xenomorph specimens are sent to Earth (one of the many planets the ships are sent to) by two sadistic synthetics seeking to expand the xenomorphs reach across the cosmos. In one year, the Xenomorphs on the Earth-bound ships completely conquered the planet, all except for one mega-city fortress where the Avengers came up with a plan to defeat them – including the new Avengers leader, the Hulk.
During one Avengers mission, Valeria Richards infiltrates a Xenomorph hive to steal an Ovomorph in order to experiment on the Facehugger egg in the hopes of developing a Xenomorph-killing virus. However, Valeria is impregnated by a Facehugger before she makes it out of the hive with the egg, and before long, she is killed by the Chestburster before it quickly matures into a fully grown Xenomorph. Fortunately, the Hulk kills the Xenomorph before it can do more damage behind the city’s walls, though the Hulk is injured by one of the Xenomorphs’ ‘weapons’: acid blood.
The Xenomorphs acid blood can injure the Hulk
The Hulk could never defeat a horde of Xenomorphs
While Xenomorphs are expert killers when hunting solo, the real lethality factor comes from their numbers. Xenomorphs create massive hives when introduced to a new planet, and the fact that they are so difficult to kill makes the procurement of hosts a fairly easy task. As shown in Aliens vs AvengersXenomorphs can conquer an entire world incredibly quickly, and it’s at this point that these aliens would be worthy of the Hulk’s attention.
If the Hulk tried to fight the Xenomorphs at their maximum strength (ie after conquering a planet), he wouldn’t be able to defeat them. Hulk could crush them easily enough, and if he wasn’t impacted by their acid blood, he could Absolutely destroy a planet’s worth of Xenos. However, if he could be injured by a tiny splash from a single Xenomorph, there was no way he could withstand an ocean of acid blood that would spill. On battling the Xenomorphs with their full power.
Hulk’s weakness to Xenomorph blood could explain his Aliens vs. Avengers character
in Aliens vs. AvengersBruce Banner is an old and broken man. He was struck by the horrors of his world, mentally destroyed by watching practically everyone he ever cared about die horribly at the hands of the Xenomorphs. However, it’s definitely odd that the Hulk wouldn’t have storm-killed every xeno on the planet by now, especially after the deaths of so many of his friends. However, since this issue also shows that the aliens’ acid blood harms him, it is possible that he tried, and – as if surprised – could not defeat a planet-wide horde of xenomorphs.
While the Hulk may be able to come back from getting torn down by xenomorphs (specifically, their acid blood), it’s clear from this crossover event that he can’t get them, as Hulk‘s new weakness reveals the one enemy he can’t even defeat: Aliens xenomorphs.
Aliens vs. Avengers #1 by Marvel Comics is now available.