How Powerful Is The MCU's She-Hulk Compared To Smart Hulk?
The MCU will soon add She-Hulk to its universe, but how powerful is the new hero compared to the most recent version of the Hulk, the Smart Hulk, is a tough question. Expected to be released in 2022, the new MCU series She-Hulk will finally bring lawyer Jennifer Walters to the screen. Created in 1980, She-Hulk had already appeared in 90s Marvel animations such as Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk, but had yet to make her live-action debut. Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany has been chosen to play the superhero in a series that promises to be unlike anything the MCU has seen before.
She-Hulk will mark the first time the MCU dives into the universe of the Hulk and its adjacent characters since 2008's The Incredible Hulk. For legal reasons, Hulk spent the MCU's entire first decade without receiving a solo film, and thus important elements from the Marvel comics such as The Leader, Abomination, and She-Hulk herself ended up being forgotten by the franchise. This is ought to change now with Abomination returning to the MCU and She-Hulk getting her own series on Disney+. There are also rumors of a World War Hulk movie happening in the MCU, which indicates that the franchise may be making up for the lost time when it comes to the emerald giant.
As She-Hulk is about to make her MCU debut, discussions about where the character fits in the rankings of the MCU's most powerful heroes will begin to emerge. More specifically, how She-Hulk's powers compare to Hulk's. The answer is not simple, it varies on the situation and the writer, and it has to take into account both four decades of comic books and what has already been shown in the MCU. That said, Hulk has the advantage.
Like the Hulk, She-Hulk's powers vary according to writers. Although she is often described as less powerful than the Hulk as a consequence of not having gone through a full transformation, She-Hulk has performed incredible feats and at certain times rivaled the Hulk's strength. Her powers include superhuman strength, durability, the ability to jump great heights, and regeneration. Not only that, Jennifer Walters is also a martial artist and is in constant training, something Marvel's Bruce Banner cannot relate to.
As a testament to She-Hulk's strength in the comics, the character was once able to defeat a copy of Thanos that had the same powers as the original version. On the occasions that Jen had Hulk-like outbursts of rage, She-Hulk was able to go toe-to-toe with Avengers like Captain America and Vision. She is described by the Avengers as being a Beta Level Threat, but can increase to an Omega Level Threat depending on the amount of radiation she is emitting and her rage state.
Introduced in the MCU during the early days of the franchise in The Incredible Hulk, the Hulk rivaled Thor for the most powerful Avenger title in the group's original lineup. The god of thunder and the emerald giant even had a quick confrontation in The Avengers, but it was never defined who was the strongest at the time. Over the years, however, the Hulk began to lag behind the MCU's most powerful characters, having lost a battle against Tony Stark's Hulkbuster and failed to defeat an upgraded Thor in Thor: Ragnarok. Even so, the Hulk managed to trade a few blows against Thanos and live to fight another day, something few can boast of. The MCU's Hulk has superhuman strength and stamina and can jump almost to the height of a skyscraper.
As for Smart Hulk, Hulk's most recent form in the MCU in which Banner and his inner creature are finally co-existing, the power scale shifts a bit. While technically he has the same physical attributes as he always had, the Smart Hulk doesn't have the rage factor known to the usual version of the character and therefore isn't exactly the best choice for a fight. This is evidenced in the time jump to 2012's New York in Avengers: Endgame, in which the Smart Hulk struggled to re-enact the rage and destructive power of his past self. On the other hand, this new version of the Hulk gains all the intelligence of Bruce Banner, a character who has one of the greatest intellects in the Marvel universe. All this considered, the Hulk has continued to be one of the most powerful characters in the MCU. He managed to use Infinity Gauntlet with the six Infinity Stones on it — which would have killed most beings in the universe — and left with only an arm injury.
Unlike the Hulk, She-Hulk did not get her powers through direct exposure to gamma radiation. Instead, Jennifer gained her abilities by receiving a blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner. That is why Jennifer's transformation into a Hulk creature is not as significant as Bruce Banner's. Banner completely defaces himself by transforming into the Hulk while Jen retains much of her human form — only green, bigger, and more muscular. Still in the matter of the powers of She-Hulk and Hulk, the size of the former does not generally increase with her anger, something that is common to the latter in several versions of the character. Another big difference between She-Hulk and Hulk is that Jen has had control of her actions from the beginning, while Bruce Banner only has control over the Hulk on certain occasions.
Considering that MCU's Hulk has now found the balance between man and creature to become the Smart Hulk, it's safe to say that She-Hulk could turn out to be the most powerful "Hulk hero" in the franchise. Unlike Banner, Jessica will be in the early days of her career, with her full strength at her disposal and ready for combat. It's also worth remembering that the MCU's Smart Hulk currently has a serious arm injury that not even his healing power was able to deal with. In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, it's possible to observe that even after returning to human form, Banner still has his arm sling, meaning that Hulk's Endgame injury could be permanent.
Given Banner's arm injury and the way Smart Hulk handles his strength, She-Hulk could be more powerful than her cousin in the MCU. While the Hulk is by definition one of the most powerful characters in that universe, his current status in the MCU makes his battle abilities not as significant as they once were. All of that considered, audiences will be able to learn more about the MCU's new superhero powers once She-Hulk premiers on Disney+.