Despite the fact that the sole purpose behind its design is to beat the Hulk, Iron Man’s Hulkbuster is trash, and Marvel’s real Hulk-Killer proves it.
Almost right when he first met the Hulk, Iron Man began considering ways to take the Green Goliath down through his technologically advanced armored suits, though despite his efforts, Marvel’s true Hulk-killer makes any Hulkbuster armor designed by Tony Stark look absolutely pathetic.
Iron Man first encountered the Hulk in Avengers #1, and while he would use his regular armor to fight the Hulk in that very issue, Stark wouldn’t develop his first official Hulkbuster armor until many years later in Iron Man #304. While the Hulkbuster armor looked intimidating right from the start, it was never really that efficient. Since its introduction, the Hulkbuster armor has never even come close to defeating the Hulk, and in the most recent Hulk #1, the Hulk was able to take down not just one, but four Hulkbuster armors simultaneously. Essentially, the Hulkbuster armor is trash, and one anti-Hulk weapon only highlights that fact.
Within the pages of 1964’s Tales to Astonish #86, “The Birth of… the Hulk-Killer!” by Stan Lee and John Buscema, readers are introduced to a super android created by the Leader that was designed to kill the Hulk–the aptly-named Hulk-Killer. When the Hulk-Killer was activated, it immediately set off to do as its programming ordered and attacked the Hulk–and the issue ended with Hulk-Killer standing over a seemingly defeated Hulk, marking its first victory (albeit temporary) over the Strongest Avenger. While the Hulk-Killer had the initial advantage, the Hulk was victorious in the end after the android was short-circuited a few issues later. With that, the Hulk-Killer was beaten, seemingly for good–that is, until it came back with a brutal vengeance decades later.
Hulk-Killer is a Serious Threat, & Wolverine Proves It
The Hulk-Killer wouldn’t make another appearance until 2019’s Dead Man Logan #8. In this issue–which is set in the post-apocalyptic future introduced in Old Man Logan–the Hulk-Killer is activated once again to kill the last remnants of the Hulk’s offspring, which included Bruce Jr., and Logan was not going to let that happen. After Bruce Jr.’s attacks proved just as ineffective as his father’s attacks were so many years earlier against the Hulk-Killer, the villainous android takes things one step further by eviscerating Logan when Wolverine comes to this Hulk’s aid. This proved that the Hulk-Killer isn’t just a threat to the Hulk, but to even someone as indestructible and seasoned in combat as Wolverine.
With everything the Hulk-Killer has proved to be capable of in its criminally brief time as a Marvel Comics villain, the android has shown why it is superior to Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor in essentially every way. The Hulk-Killer takes practically no damage while inflicting brutal attacks that even Wolverine had trouble walking away from. Meanwhile, Iron Man can barely even hold Hulk’s attention with four Hulkbusters attacking at once. Despite the fact that both are robotic in origin, the Leader’s Hulk-Killer is vastly superior to Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor when it comes to fighting the Hulk–and it’s not even close.
