Marvel Just Unlocked Hulk's Biggest Upgrade Of All Time, No Exceptions

Published Sep 16, 2026, 9:45 AM EDT

Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. 

Marvel unveils an evil version of Hulk who can potentially rewrite reality. Without any external upgrades or cosmic enhancements, a baseline Hulk variant is already an unstoppable force capable of planetary destruction. In his un-enhanced state, Hulk has achieved breathtaking feats like holding tectonic plates together, carrying the crushing weight of entire mountain ranges, and punching through the fabric of time-space. The Green Goliath's gamma-mutated body makes him a self-sustaining weapon of mass destruction, but his childlike nature always keeps him contained to fits of rage or episodes of destructive self-defense.

Throughout the years and across the multiverse, several storylines and alternate timelines have granted the Jade Giant power upgrades that elevate his threat level to god-like proportions. In World War Hulk, Earth's heroes faced the intelligent and vengeful Green Scar persona, whose rage was so concentrated that his footsteps threatened to shatter the eastern seaboard. In The Immortal Hulk, Hulk was augmented by the One Below All, who transformed him into an undying vessel capable of surviving total bodily dismemberment and eventually consuming the universe's light.

As Marvel's main Hulk continues to be possessed by Eldest in The Infernal Hulk, the Marvel multiverse explores a different kind of evil in the form of Spider-Man: Long Way Home's Bruce Banner and his gamma alter ego.

Evil Hulk Is Getting A Cosmic Cube Upgrade

Spider-Man: Long Way Home #3; Written By Jonathan Hickman; Art By Adam Kubert & Arthur Hesli

In Spider-Man: Long Way Home's universe, Spider-Man and the Punisher meet an evil version of Hulk, who's the gamma counterpart of an equally twisted Bruce Banner. All three focused on retrieving the Cosmic Cube, they cross paths in Spider-Man: Long Way Home #3, where the Punisher's huge arsenal doesn't even tickle Hulk. Annoyed by the Punisher and Spider-Man, Hulk simply picks up the Cosmic Cube with his bare hands and smiles, ready to weaponize it.

Spider-Man: Long Way Home's Hulk and Bruce Banner seem to be purely evil for evil's sake. The Hulk is powerful enough to handle the Cosmic Cube without hurting himself, and Bruce Banner is smart enough to understand exactly how to exploit the artifact's most dangerous qualities. Together, Banner and the Hulk could use the Cube’s reality-altering power to maximize human suffering, possibly flattening entire continents or rewriting the laws of physics so that the gamma radiation within his own body expands across oceans to poison the global population.

Spider-Man: Long Way Home Proves An Evil Hulk Would Be A Global Death Sentence

The Marvel multiverse is incredibly fortunate that Bruce Banner usually possesses a deeply embedded moral compass, as most timelines are entirely unprepared for the sheer catastrophe of a genuinely evil Hulk. While the green behemoth frequently causes massive collateral damage during his rampages, his destructive outbursts are almost always fueled by a childlike desire to be left alone or a reactive instinct against attacking military forces. In rare alternate realities where his psychological constraints are removed, such as Maestro's dystopian future, the Hulk goes from a misunderstood monster into a full-fledged tyrant.

Without Bruce Banner’s subconscious mind actively pulling back the gamma monster's punches, a truly malevolent Hulk is a walking extinction-level event. Spider-Man: Long Way Home's evil Hulk could easily doom the entire world with a three-pronged threat. First, a bloodlust-driven Hulk could tear through his universe's early-days protectors before they can assemble. Second, Bruce Banner can formulate a plan to take out anybody, even without the Hulk's strength. And third, Hulk can handle the Cosmic Cube's massive power effortlessly and without the need of any external gear or help.

Do you like the idea of an evil Bruce Banner and Hulk duo?

Spider-Man: Long Way Home #3 is now available from Marvel Comics