Black Bolt vs. Hulk: Who Would Win in a Fight?

Any major fight between superheroes in comics is exciting, especially between two unlikely characters like Black Bolt and Hulk. They did fight against each other; at least World War Hulk fought against the Super-Skrull disguised as the leader of Inhumans, which he defeated. However, the showdown wasn’t necessarily fair, so we created a scenario where Black Bolt and Hulk have a potential fight. So, who would win?

Black Bolt would tightly win against Hulk because of his superior energy projection, power, and abilities that can destroy literal planets, at least if we apply scores. Hulk is an incredibly strong and powerful being that, with more anger, becomes stronger; however, even Hulk needs a breather when he reverses into Bruce Banner. Moreover, Banner is among the smartest individuals in the universe, but his decision-making and healthy mind deteriorate when he turns into Hulk. If another incarnation of the Hulk, like cosmic-powered or World Breaker Hulk, goes against the Leader of Inhumans, he would win in a landslide, but the standard version has a lot of weaknesses that Black Bolt could use against the Green Monster.

Black Bolt is incredibly overpowered in Marvel Comics, and his are quite impressive since his first appearance. Hulk and the leader of Inhumans fought multiple times, which we will mention at the end of the comparison. We will use the standard versions of the characters, so no World War Hulk, Titan, or any other versions of Black Bolt. The usual best-of-seven scoring metric will be used in this article – first, who gets to four points, wins.

Powers and abilities

When it comes to power and abilities, those certainly include energy projection and something similar. Let’s start with Black Bolt. The Leader of Inhumans is more powerful than his fellow species since he was exposed to the Exogen Spice, which healed and enhanced Black Bolt after the explosion of the Terrigen Bomb.

Black Bolt’s quasi-sonic scream is linked with his electron-harnessing ability, making his bare whisper destructive to everything around him. However, when angry or emotionally unstable, Black Bolt could destroy whole planets, which is great feat. Other abilities include energy and matter manipulation, gravitational flight, and electron manipulation, which he uses to channel his powers into his limbs and strike with his famous Master Blow.

Moreover, Black Bolt also has the ability of telepathy, which he mostly uses to speak and communicate with his wife, Medusa. Regarding Hulk, the Green Monster is incredibly powerful, and most of his abilities rely on melee combat. This doesn’t take away from Hulk’s abilities, but his pure power is mostly embedded in his pure and raw strength.

Hulk doesn’t energy project anything, at least in his standard version, but there are cases in Marvel Comics that suggest that the Incredible Hulk has limited power in manipulating gamma rays and radiation. However, in the grand scheme of things, Black Bolt has superior and more versatile powers and abilities, hence why he deserves the point in this section.

Black Bolt (1) : 0 Hulk

Strength

Pure raw power and strength are what make Hulk much superior to Black Bolt. Let’s discuss this further. When Banner was exposed to gamma radiation, his human physiology gained the ability to transform into a powerful green monster that was 800 lbs of pure muscle and strength.

When he is angry or gets even more stressed, Hulk becomes even more powerful. When discussing his creation, Jack Kirby said that he wanted to create a character with unlimited strength, which the Beyonder himself confirmed. At his “normal” stage, Hulk can lift more than 100 tons, but the angrier he gets, his strength increases and eventually pushes him even further. Hulk truly has immeasurable strength, confirmed by many other characters in Marvel Comics, even the experts investigating the Green Monster’s powers.

Black Bolt could lift up to one ton as an Inhuman, but he cannot be compared with the likes of the Incredible Hulk – the Green Monster gets a point in this section.

Black Bolt 1 : (1) Hulk

Speed

This will be an interesting section since both participants are incredibly quick. Black Bolt is interesting since his speed lies in his Inhuman enhanced body and gravitational flight, which can overrun most of Earth’s superheroes, mostly the ones like Captain America, Iron Man, and more. Moreover, he is so fast that the human eye cannot see the Inhuman during his fastest speed and even catch the miniature missiles shut at him – Black Bolt outrun Quicksilver in rage, which says a lot of his potential.

Hulk isn’t the fastest being alive, but he has another ability in his arsenal that makes him extremely quick and dangerous in combat – his incredible leap. Hulk can leap so fast and far away, up to 1000 miles in one try. At one point, Hulk’s leap was measured to reach around 470 miles per hour. Of course, the angrier he gets, the faster he can be, and the same goes with Black Bolt, who can channel the energy into his body to push himself further. Both superheroes get the point.

Black Bolt (2) : (2) Hulk

Durability

This is another interesting section because both characters are quite durable but also suffer some great weaknesses, which would be deadly in combat. Black Bolt is resistant to almost all forms of physical damage. The Leader of Inhumans managed to sustain blows from some of the most powerful beings in Marvel Comics, like the Thing, Thanos, Gladiator, and even the Incredible Hulk himself.

He is almost invulnerable, and that aspect is enhanced even further with the help of his energy and matter manipulation. However, when Black Bolt uses his Master Blow, he focuses his vast energy on one powerful blow; he is rendered extremely vulnerable, even exposing him to diseases.

On the other hand, Hulk’s gamma rays-altered physiology makes him resistant to injury, pain, or any disease. Of course, great materials like Adamantium and Vibranium can harm Hulk, but Valkyrie’s Dragonfang, Hawkeye’s arrows, grenades, bullets, and more, cannot hurt or pierce Hulk’s skin. To be fair to both, Hulk and Black Bolt are immune to telepathy, at least in most cases.

Self-regeneration and regenerative healing factors give Hulk incredible power and energy to continue long and hard fights, hence why he is superior to Black Bolt in this section.

Black Bolt 2 : (3) Hulk

Combat skills

Combat skills entail martial arts, swordsmanship, and other versions of hand-to-hand combat, and Black Bolt is surprisingly very good at it. Now, we know that kicking or punching someone entails, at least in most cases, an individual uttering sounds or something similar. Well, Black Bolt has to control himself so hard to prevent any sounds coming out of him during the extremely hard melee fights. Of course, that doesn’t happen that often – but in the ‘Inhumans’ comic book run from 1999, we saw Black Bolt confirming he had beaten the Eternal Ikaris in a hand-to-hand fight.

In older comic book issues, Black Bolt regularly sent the Thing through the rubble with his punches which is an incredible feat. He is an expert combatant, which Hulk can overpower but only because of his incredible strength. Hulk has his “Hulk Smash,” but he punches up everything mostly in pure rage, not because he is skilled in it.

Black Bolt is more skilled, hence why he gets a point in this section.

Black Bolt (3) : 3 Hulk

Intelligence

Now, to the controversial part. We know that Bruce Banner has one of the most brilliant minds in the universe but as the standard Hulk? Not that much. Black Bolt doesn’t have to transform into anything to fight someone, which doesn’t mess with his brain and make him lose his mind.

Bruce Banner can somewhat control Hulk when he transforms, but the “big guy” has a mind of its own and can shut down Banner’s consciousness to release his power further. Betty Ross and Sentry were the few people who calmed Hulk down, but when they weren’t present, anyone without telepathic empathy could not control the Incredible Hulk.

Black Bolt’s power mostly lies in his powers and abilities of his energy and matter projection, but even he can be more sane and smart than the Hulk in combat. Both have an incredible will that fuels them in battle forward, but even the most brilliant-minded Banner cannot sate the Hulk, hence why Black Bolt will get the final point and win this fight.

Black Bolt (4) : 3 Hulk

Black Bolt vs. Hulk – who wins?

Black Bolt won multiple battles against Hulk in the older comics – ‘The Incredible Hulk’ first annual showcases his quasi-sonic scream that ultimately proves to be enough against the green monster. It happened multiple times in the comics, where Black Bolt used his energy projection and defeated Hulk, proving that he was, at one point, one of the most overpowered characters in Marvel Comics. Older versions of Black Bolt were ridiculously powerful, and whenever he cast his Master Blow or quasi-sonic scream, he would defeat most of his opponents.

However, if we compare the current versions of the characters, where Black Bolt lost his voice, and Hulk became a Titan and a literal cosmic being, the Green Monster would wipe the floor with the leader of Inhumans.

This article used the base versions of the characters, who could go back and forth if the circumstances around the battle changed. Nevertheless, Black Bolt, before the long-expected nerf, was incredibly powerful, and Hulk finally realized his power in Marvel Comics in the last 20 years, making him an incredibly formidable superhero. Stats show that Black Bolt is more powerful, but eye-test suggest the opposite result.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!