10 Most Ridiculous Things Batman Has Survived

A fairly dumb crossover book only of any particular worth due to the fantastic artwork of the revered Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (inked by Dick Giordano), 1981’s Batman vs The Incredible Hulk is what it says on the tin.

The context is that Bruce Banner is working for Wayne Enterprises when the Joker attempts to steal a gamma ray gun. This prompts Banner to transform, and the Joker convinces the Green Goliath that Batman is his enemy. Simple enough, and now we have our fight.

The way in which Batman defeats the Hulk, though, is atrociously lazy writing. Len Wein may be a legend, responsible for classic characters such as Wolverine and Swamp Thing, but this is not writing befitting of those standards.

So get this; Batman kicks the Hulk. In the solar plexus. Yep. No cunning master tactician-ship is required here. No elaborately developed anti-Hulk strategy. Not even a Hulk-buster suit ala Tony Stark. Just a good old fashioned kick to the chest. Look, we get that the solar plexus is a weak spot. We get that, in boxing, going to the body is a tried-and-true strategy for slowing a more physical opponent down. But this is the Hulk.