“How?” is a good question. I know she’s beaten Doom, MODOK, Mandarin, Terrax, and oh yes… Thanos.
Mostly off panel.
And according to Dan Slott you know what she was doing during World War Hulk? She was off in space fighting Galactus.
I guess talking to squirrels is a very versatile power.
Thanos’ power levels have been pretty well defined for a while now. He’s below Galactus and Odin but above Thor and the Surfer.
The Surfer is an incredibly powerful character with Flash levels of speed. He’s pretty much unbeatable if he goes all out.
Thor is the only thing close to him (outside of Thanos and other cosmics) as he has a plot device hammer.
The Hulk has unlimited strength but he can be knocked out or killed before it becomes a factor.
Thanos was, however, recently killed by a steak knife :rolleyes:
Half off topic half on.
When I was younger I had a pair of winter gloves (cooooold Indiana). They were a dark blue, except on the knuckles there were multi-colored diamonds…it looked JUST like the Gauntlet. Every time my friends and I would play Marvel I was always Thanos because of these gloves. I think I still might have one of em…
I’m betting that Squirrel Girl is mostly an in joke from the writers. Well, guessing really as I’ve never read a book with her in it. She sounds kinda ridiculous, though, like a character I’d expect in the old Tick cartoon.
He’s been taking lessons from John Constantine.
Oh my good god Jihi, that link for Squirrel girl…the Marvel Wiki…is frigging awesome.
There goes my night/week/life…
Squirrel Girl is completely a joke character. She’s also completely friggin’ awesome. 
She originally appeared in a comic way back in '92 as a teenager who wanted to be Iron Man’s sidekick. She teamed up with him to fight Dr. Doom and after Iron Man was incapacitated she took Doom down single handed. (Though since then it’s been retconned into being a doombot of course). After that she wasn’t seen again until 2005 when Dan Slott dusted her off and put her into the revitalized Great Lakes Avengers. That one defeat of Doom pretty much informed her entire character at that point and, in a running joke, each time she’s appeared since then it turns out she’s managed to inconceivably defeat another villain that completely outstrips her power wise. None of it is treated terribly seriously but her character is so unassuming and it’s done in such an offhand fashion that it just seems to work.
I love Doreen and I’m completely convinced she could beat anybody at this point. Yes, even Batman. He probably has some previously unknown phobia of squirrels or something. 
Smash the planet they are both standing on, if he gets mad enough ? Trying to wear down the Hulk is counterproductive . . .
Realistically, he’s screwed. Storywise, he’ll no doubt just happen to end up in grabbing range of a passing meteor/satellite/alien invader, or hit the Moon.
Of course, Superman wouldn’t technically be standing on the planet – but I take your meaning: yes, the key is taking him out fast instead of trying to wear him down, since letting him get mad enough to smash a planet would be a Very Bad Idea. (That said, I’m not sure we’ve ever seen the Hulk get that mad; IIRC he’s needed the help of a telepath to angrily smash things above his usual weight class but still well below the mass of a planet. Still, there’s no point in screwing around, sure as Superman dropped him pretty danged fast in the DC v MARVEL crossover.)
Storywise, the Invisible Woman has dropped him with a quick forcefield around his head; he ran out of oxygen before he could awkwardly swing in to his own face for the win, and whatever level of nostril-flaring hard-breathing rage he was at while flailing around just sped up the process.
It’s all in knowing how to best use what you’ve got. Maximizing your advantages is a great win.
I prepared explosive runes this morning
Just an example.
The last time I recall that happening ( but it’s been a long time ), it was with Mr Fantastic and the Thing pinning his arms long enough. She did do it to She-Hulk without help though.
Well, I realize that I’m contributing to this, but one thing I didn’t want was to make this into a Hulk can do anything thread. (I’m not accusing you of that DT.)
But smash a planet? Hopefully you don’t mean Hulk can punch a planet to death. Thats kinda…well, ridiculous. I’ve had this fruitless debate inthe CoX forums, but I’ll cut my argument down to this.
the Hulk realistically could not beat the Silver Surfer or any other cosmic powered being. The Surfer himself has depowered him. Even if he didn’t do that as someone said earlier, he could blast the Hulk from a distance. Heck, I think Doctor Strange could beat him if he had to. This happened in the comics. Its not a theory on my part.
I like the Hulk as a character but I really hate it when every concievable way of beating him is boo booed as “But Hulk would just get madder and then…” etc. Its like the problem I have with Superman. When you don’t stand a chance of being defeated whats the point?
So yeah, Hulk is really strong. Other than the convenience of him holding onto the “Strongest one there is” title I don’t think he could take on a group of dedicated powerful heroes determined to stop him. After all, Iron Man knocked him out once. This happened in the comics. Its not a theory on my part. With one punch… Being the strongest one there is doesn’t mean he’s invincible.If Iron man can knock him out it s reasonable that Herc, Thor, Doc Samson or the Thing could do that too. They only don’t because the Hulk has to maintain his status as the strongest one there is in the MU.
As I recall ( I saw some online clippings, not the full comic ) he did just that fairly recently. He broke up a planet that was headed on a crash course for another.
Sure; but both of them have powers that let them do more than just blast. Strange didn’t punch him away; he used magic to send him to another dimension, for example.
Actually Doc Samson knocked him out once, when Hulk was calm ( and broke his hand in the process ). And in one What-If Thor broke Hulk’s neck and killed him.
The thing that makes Hulk the “strongest one there is” without being invincible is his no-upper-limit ability to gain strength ( and apparently durability ). If he’s not that mad, he can be beaten; or if you have powers that get around strength. As an aside; I recall that in the non-canon crossovers Superman beat Hulk ( but that was agreed on by DC and Marvel beforehand; Superman wasn’t allowed to lose ). That always irritated me because Superman is exactly the sort of hero who’d pull his punches out of fear of killing, which is exactly what would let Hulk get strong enough to smash him. I thought it would have been much better for Superman to get smashed by the Hulk the first time they fought, for just that reason. Then the next time, he’d zip in and knock Hulk out with one punch; after all, unlike Hulk Supes isn’t stupid.
It is ridiculous.
I’m still hoping that this doesn’t devolve into a “character X can beat character Y” debate because those… ugh… I hate those arguments. They’re completely pointless.
I hate to be a killjoy, but it just seems to me that they completely ignore the fact that these are fictional characters, subject to the whims of who ever is writing them at the time. And those writers number in the dozens, maybe hundreds, over the course of decades, no two of which are going to have the same exact interpretation of relative power levels.
The Hulk has been around for nearly fifty years, Superman for over seventy, their staying power has nothing to do with their power levels. Those characters, (and numerous others), have tapped into something primal within us, on a psychological level. The Hulk is a post atomic representation of the Jekyll and Hyde dilemma. Reason and rationality vs. our baser instincts and our desire to give in to anger and rage. Divorcing the Hulk from Banner’s psychological struggle simply undercuts what makes the character interesting. Similarly, divorcing Kal-El from his immigrant trappings and moral standpoint removes what makes him an intriguing character. Superman’s at his most interesting when he’s presented with two bad choices. What does the paragon of virtue do when when the only options are bad and slightly less bad? One of the more interesting takes on this, I thought, was Action #775 when Superman opted to put a bullet in the “villain’s” brain.
Asking who would win in a fight is completely missing the point, though it may be entertaining as an intellectual exercise.
Jolly I like you and I’m generally agreeing with you in this thread but Supes is a far more interesting character than you give give him credit for. He tends to shine in in morally relativistic conundrums when his powers are an afterthought. I urge you to give him a second chance.
I would be a liar to say I’m not a Supes fan. My problem with Supes isn’;t so much as the character but I guess lazy writers who make him so powerful it would indeed take Galactus or Darksied to even make him work up a sweat. But thats another thread. Maybe we can make one and discuss it some day.
I hate getting myself into these debates but here it goes…
I totally agree with DT here. In an initial conflict Kal would pull his punches for fear of killing the Hulk, which would play into the Hulk’s strengths. If he went in with the knowledge of Hulk’s near invulnerability through experience or prior intelligence he’d either “one shot” him or find some other way of incapacitating him. Supes has far more options available to him than just fisticuffs.
I completely agree with you about “lazy writers”. I hate when writer’s simply present him with a physical challenge and expect it to compensate for a lack of real drama. We know he’ll overcome it so what’s the point? (I should admit at this time that I liked “The Death of Superman” because he was presented precisely with this problem and he actually failed. I found that refreshing. It showed his determination, but it can’t be used to often of course…)
I do know that Supe’s has a general air of invulnerability about him which tends to lead to the “boring” charge so if you or anyone else ever creates a thread addressing such I assure you I will be there to defend the honor of the BBS. 
