Today we're taking a look at the time Batman fought the Hulk. That's right, back in 1981, DC and Marvel did a crossover comic titled Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk. So this episode is especially for those of you who didn't know that Batman actually fought the Hulk in the comics. The cover even says “the blazing battle you never expected to see”.
The comic starts off with good old Bruce Banner working for Wayne research. What is he doing at Wayne research? Well he's helping to create a gamma gun that would be able to cure diseases. Banner is all about helping with this because A- he's a good person and B- it can cure him from turning into the Hulk. But this is also a Batman story, so the Joker of course has to screw things up. Joker has teamed up with a powerful force and wants to steal the gamma gun for his master plan. But when the Joker attempts to steal the gamma gun, he causes banner to turn into the Hulk. Needless to say the Hulk creates a big scene and Batman shows up.
Joker then uses some clever convincing to manipulate the Hulk into thinking that Batman is his enemy instead of him, which allows the Joker to get away with the gamma gun while the Hulk attacks Batman. The Dark Knight then tries to fight the Hulk but with every punch he throws the Hulk just sits there looking at him like, really dude? Hulk eventually says you tried to hurt Hulk, now the Hulk hurt you and starts roughing Batman up. Batman realizes that he doesn't have much time to think and finally take sleeping gas out of his utility belt and throws it on the ground but Hulk says ‘gas cannot hurt Hulk, if Hulk does not breathe it in.’ Hulk then starts to hold his breath. Knowing the Hulk can hold his breath for an extremely long time, Batman kicks him in the solar plexus causing the Hulk to breathe in the gas and to go night-night. Batman then says ‘that's as close as I ever want to cut it’.
When Hulk reverted back to Bruce Banner, Bruce Wayne walks in and offers banner a job to make a replacement gamma gun. We then find out why Joker took the gamma gun in the first place. He took it to use it on the Shaper of Worlds. The Shaper of Worlds is a powerful being that developed from a scroll Cosmic Cube. But he is losing his ability to absorb the dreams of others, which in turn is denying him an outlet for his powers and potentially driving him insane. Turns out he's responsible for the Joker's activities as he's promised the mad clown unlimited power once his powers are restored.
However the gun doesn't work properly, so Joker goes to kidnap banner, to fix it. He then gets the Hulk into more action and fight scenes. Obviously by the end of the book Joker is stopped by Batman and Bruce Banner has lost hope once again of curing himself of the Hulk. But in the end, Batman beat the freaking Hulk. Not with his physical strength but with his intellect and the use of gadgets. Which is what Batman is all about. People don't say he can beat most characters because he's the strongest or fastest but because he always has a planner gadget to bring him out on top. With that said I'm not one of those delusional Batman fans who thinks Batman could beat anyone but in this case DC and Marvel decided that he was able to beat the Hulk. It's a fun comic with amazing art it's always really cool to see Marvel and DC characters in a comic together.
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