the thing and the hulk draw obvious parallels they're both incredibly big and they're both incredibly strong so the obvious question is what would happen if we made them try and kill each other well here's the answer i'm will for what culture and here is what happened every time the thing fought the hulk 9. fantastic four 25-26 what better place to start than at the very beginning the initial run of fantastic four by stan lee and jack kirby is nothing short of legendary due to how much groundwork it laid that marvel writers are still building on today so of course this is where ben grimm's rivalry with the hulk had its explosive beginning the fight ends with ben coming out on top thanks to his more level-headed and stubborn nature giving him the edge against the animalistic hulk it was this interaction that led to the two becoming the bitter rivals they are today and this two-parter showed marvel's readership that then coming to blows was the coolest thing ever and the rest is history eight the incredible hulk one two two as much as i'd like to keep this to one-on-one brawls there aren't actually that many between the thing and the hulk the fact is if you're picking a fight with ben grimm you're picking a fight with the entire fantastic four so it's no surprise that a lot of fights on this list have ben's teammates pitching in to put the jade giant down in this issue of the incredible hulk hulk takes on the entire fantastic four with ben just barely managing to hold him off by punching him through several buildings after holding him off for long enough though reed ends the fight by using a machine which he had specifically built for this occasion to knock out the hulk giving the fantastic four the win for this round although it was reed who finished the fight in terms of fighting the thing at this point in time hulk hasn't secured himself a single victory seven fantastic four one one two it tells you a lot about how much readers love to see these two go at it that at this point they knew they just had to have them charging at each other on the cover and it would sell don't even bother with the background it's not like where they fight is important this issue was where the hulk got his third round revenge against his bitter rival in a blowout fight that lasts from the front to the back of the entire comic and this comic makes you truly understand the difference in strength between ben and bruce while the thing's adaptability level-headedness and being roommates with a woman who can explode your head with a thought have helped him out for a little bit in the past this time it's just him versus hulk and no matter what he throws at the jade giant nothing so much as slows him down it seems ben is about to win when he gets out of the hulk's choke hold and goes in hard but the debris caused by their fight almost hits ben's eternal love interest alicia masters distracting him just long enough for the halt to secure his victory with a near fatal hook to the face six fantastic four one six six two one six seven the first half of this two-parter is a very well done fight between the fantastic four and the hulk with the four utilizing their powers in creative combinations to incapacitate the monster the fight ends with johnny burning away the air around the hulk sue putting up a force field around his head to stop him from replenishing his air supply and reed wrapping himself tight around the hulk to give the thing an opening to knock hulk down then we move on to part 2 where the thing busts the hulk out of prison when the military decides they want to turn bruce into a lab rat for the rest of his life however this alliance is hilariously short-lived as the two are almost immediately back at it again atop the saint louis gateway arch while the thing puts up a valiant fight it ends badly for him when he suddenly starts turning back into ben grimm which is of course very bad when fighting someone like the hulk who slugs him off the bridge 5. fantastic four 320. the first time the thing properly fought mr fixit the greyhulk was in fantastic four 320 when doctor doom hired the devious mercenary hulk to kill ben grimm for him fixid of course is all too willing to take up this job however he quickly runs into a problem see the drawback for grey hulk getting to keep his intellect is that he isn't even half as strong as normal hulk oh sure he's tough but the thing can go toe-to-toe with the strongest avenger there is and as fix-it finds out in this comic he chooses a very bad time to take on the thing events in the larger story had mutated ben's body even further now making him look like a particularly angry pineapple in a pair of swimming trunks absolutely ridiculous to look at sure but now one of the strongest heroes on earth and before doctor doom interrupts then thoroughly trounces the grey bruiser 4. the incredible hulk 350. technically a continuation of the previous entry it gets his own spots because it's in a different comic and it is its own self-contained fight after getting absolutely trounced by the thing and when dr doom's hulk robot doesn't fare much better doom manages to convince the hulk to have another go at him through good old-fashioned reverse psychology fix-it isn't keen on getting his butt kicked again at first but then he realizes he can use the brain he still has to his advantage and leads the thing to central park once there he uses the dense woods of the park as well as the cover of darkness to lead him on a wild goose chase occasionally leaping out to pop off hits at him exhausting him with the chase while pissing him off enough with the sudden attacks to keep ben from realizing what's going on before it's too late and sure enough right as the thing gets wise as to what the hulk is playing at here hulk leaps out one more time and knocks him out with a well-placed punch three fantastic four five three four two five three five after bruce fused his hulk personalities into one during the 90s era of the character obviously him and ben didn't see much of a reason to fight so it was quite a few years before we got another proper showdown between these two famous bruisers however when bruce gets caught in another gamer explosion that turns him into an even more powerful even more mindless hulk the thing has to intercept before he reduces la to a parking lot ben leads him to the desert with the plan being for him to hold him off while reed tries to think of something ben's only advantage in this fight is the hulk isn't really focusing on him like in the other fights on this list instead just wildly swinging out anything like an animal however that does not improve his chances by much since the hulk is holding back even less than he usually does eventually shattering the thing's ribbed underfoot and almost killing him even though the fight is eventually cut short by the visions driving hulk into this mad rage being expelled from his mind that doesn't change the fact the thing was about to be as thoroughly defeated as he would ever be by the hulk short of being actually killed 2. world war hulk 2. the thing can just barely hold his own against a hulk that's pissed off at normal stuff so it's not really a surprise that his fight against world breaker hulk in the world war hulk storyline doesn't last all too long when the hulk returns after being exiled by the illuminati to another planet seeking revenge when the ship they sent him packing with explodes and kills his family the thing rolls up to take on the world breaker in defense of his best buddy reed their fight here is short but glorious the two holding nothing back against each other however this isn't the mindless monster that the thing could outsmart to eke out a win in the past world breaker hulk is just as smart as bruce and just as strong as default hulk so really there was only one way this was going to end for poor ben as he's eventually overwhelmed by the righteously furious hulk who then moves on to capture reed 1. fantastic four 12-13 before when the thing turned human back in the middle of fighting the hulk it ended less than ideally for him however that time he didn't have a leasher around to protect when ben and his new bride alicia head off to finally take a much needed vacation the hulk controlled by alicia's father puppet master interrupts and attacks him the thing knowing there are too many innocent people around to safely fight and also knowing he's about to turn back into a human for the next two weeks in a few minutes actually swallows his pride at first and acquiesce is the title of the strongest one there is to hulk which might have worked on a hulk in his right mind but the puppet master makes him attack anyway their fight because the thing has so many handicaps placed on him is brutal as hell but right as thing's time limit runs out he manages to put an end to the fight with one last punch that shatters the rock on his arm with the force knocking the hulk out cold right as ben transforms back to a human and there you have it folks what happened every time the thing fought the hulk for anybody too lazy to keep score the results are four wins to the thing and five wins to the hulk feel free to drop this video a like if you enjoyed it and drop me a follow on twitter at you i'm will for what culture thanks for hanging out and i'll see you next time