Superman and the Hulk haven't officially appeared in the same comic book story together for over a decade now. And even though those two iconic heroes have fought on a few different occasions, there's still considerable debate over which powerhouse hero is stronger. While the two of them haven't had any official meetings in a while, the two had a proxy battle of sorts in 2012's Hulk #49, by Jeff Parker, Elena Casagrande, David Curiel, Ed Dukeshire, where the Red Hulk fought one of the Marvel Universe's answers to the Man of Steel, Ikaris.

This battle between an Avenger and an Eternal emulated the classic trope of a misunderstanding between do-gooders triggering a fight, harkening back to the days when the DC Universe and Marvel would cross over more regularly. When the Red Hulk was in Hawaii working to remove a monster that was attacking people near a volcano, Sersi of the Eternals was helping to direct the public away from danger before approaching the Red Hulk. She happened to be on a reconnaissance mission that all of the Eternals were deeply invested in.

At this time, the Eternals were growing concerned with their place in the world. The Eternals were struggling with considering how involved in the affairs of humanity they needed to be, especially considering their obligation to protect humanity in the face of its growing achievements and other superhumans. What concerned the Eternals though was not the powerful beings who saw the responsibility they'd been handed with their power, but rather the ones who could not handle their power with reason, a group that naturally included the Hulks.

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Accordingly, the Eternals had been spying on Red Hulk, trying to assess if he was worthy of their trust. Unfortunately, Red Hulk saw that Sersi was not human and grabbed her, demanding that she explain herself. This infuriated Ikaris, who attacked.

The subsequent fight between the two actually managed to trigger a volcanic eruption. After Ikaris launched with a devastating opening blow, the Red Hulk punched the Eternal into the ground so hard that he shattered a deposit of cooled magma that had been plugging the dormant volcano. The resulting catastrophe forced Ikaris to stop the fight and create trenches to divert the lava flow. Though the fight ended with no definitive winner, it was a callback to the many times Superman and the Hulk have fought in the past.

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During most of those occasions, Superman was proven to be more powerful than the Hulk, even if he didn't win outright. The very first time they encountered each other, Superman withstood several blows from an increasingly irate Hulk, not moving an inch until he figured out what was truly enraging the Jade Giant. After one of their later fights, Superman clearly had the advantage but admitted the Hulk was one of the strongest people he had ever faced.

Given the commensurate power levels of the characters involved in this fight, it's not terribly surprising that there's no clear winner between Ikaris and the Red Hulk either. However, this fight does prove that each of its combatants could more than hold their own against another one of the strongest fighters in the Marvel Universe.

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