When it comes to The Incredible Hulk, most people are familiar with his main base of powers. As The Hulk, he has superhuman strength and nothing really hurts him -- from bullets to tank shells to a bomb. He can also jump a really long distance and has the brain size of a walnut.
From the original '70s TV series with Lou Ferrigno to the movies with Eric Bana, Ed Norton, and finally Mark Ruffalo, there have been plenty of chances to see The Hulk grow and develop as a hero on both the big and small screen.
However, as true fans of The Hulk from Marvel Comics know, there is a lot more to the big green goliath than just muscles and thick skin.
Hulk made his debut back in 1962 in Incredible Hulk #1, which was the main reason why The Avengers formed as a team, and went through many iterations, including a stint as a grey-skinned goliath.
Over the years, Hulk has gained intelligence, lost it again, developed "family" in She-Hulk, Red Hulk, Red She-Hulk and even kids like Skaar. Then he was replaced by a genius named Amadeus Cho, who was quite "Awesome."
Through the years, Hulk gained more and more powers and has easily become one of the strongest superheroes the world has ever seen.
He also has a lot of weaknesses that many fans might not understand completely.
With that said, here are the 10 Powers Only True Fans Know The Hulk Has (And 10 Weaknesses).
Power: LIFE-GIVING BLOOD
Despite the fact that The Hulk seems like one of the most destructive characters in comic book history, he actually possesses life-giving powers.
Hulk's blood can help revitalize life.
When Bruce Banner's cousin Jennifer Walters was injured and her life was on the line, Banner gave her some of his own blood as a transfusion, which saved her life -- and then turned her into the She-Hulk.
Years later, the full extent of Hulk's blood was explored when he was stranded on the planet of Sakaar in Planet Hulk.
The planet knew a savior was coming, and when Hulk spilled blood onto the ground, a flower grew from the spot it landed -- something the planet had not seen for years.
Hulk's blood replenished life on the dormant planet and it proved that he was their savior.
Weakness: ADAMANTIUM AND VIBRANIUM
While some comic books have shown otherwise, the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe claims that Hulk's skin is durable enough to withstand the cut from almost any bladed weapon.
Swords, knives, and more have been used against Hulk and almost none of them even leave a scratch or mark on him.
However, with that said, there are two bladed weapons that can cut into Hulk's skin.
Adamantium is something that can cause damage to Hulk. Wolverine's claws have cut Hulk before, proving that this is possible.
However, in World War Hulk, Wolverine found it harder to cut into Hulk's skin and said that the angrier Hulk gets, the harder it is to hurt him.
A second metal that can cut Hulk is Vibranium, so Black Panther could come up with a weapon if he wanted to injure him.
Power: ability to SEE GHOSTS
Hulk has proven to be able to see ghosts as well as people on the Astral Plane. This was first examined in the pages of The Defenders.
The original super team consisted of outsiders in the Marvel Universe in Hulk, Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, and Namor, the Sub Mariner. In an early issue, Doctor Strange was seeking out help and found Hulk.
Strange was in the Astral Plane, which meant no one could see him and he commented on this while insulting Hulk's intelligence in an offhanded manner.
Hulk responded and Strange was shocked that he could see him at all, much less hear what he was saying.
A second, more disturbing moment, came later when Hulk saw the ghost of his deceased abusive father, something that began to drive him insane.
Weakness: MAGIC
Hulk has proven over time to have a resistance to psychic manipulation (such as when he resisted the efforts of Professor X to stop him in World War Hulk) and even the magical blade of The Valkyrie in the comics was unable to pierce his skin.
With these exceptions, Hulk still has a weakness to magical based attacks.
While Valkyrie's blade did not harm him, Defenders #1 showed that magical villains, such as The Nameless One, could use their mystical weapons to injure Hulk.
While he can also be powered up by dark magic, he can also lose control and become a danger to those around him when someone of great power manipulates the magic coursing through his body.
Loki proved this in Tales to Astonish #101.
Power: he NEVER TIRES
When Hulk finishes a great battle, he often seems tired and worn down and departs to rest. However, this is not something that really affects Hulk when he is fighting.
What causes people to get tired when exerting themselves is fatigue poisons.
However, when it comes to Hulk, his body combats these fatigue poisons and eliminates them from him, with their effects diminishing quicker the angrier that Hulk becomes.
This means that The Hulk has limitless stamina.
While most heroes and villains wear down after fighting for long periods of time, Hulk can remain at peak performance in a battle for several days and Incredible Hulk Annual #7 states that his stamina is actually unlimited when he is in a state of full rage.
Weaknesss: FOOD
After the world believed that Bruce Banner had ed away, a new Hulk emerged on the scene in Amadeus Cho.
Before he was the Totally Awesome Hulk, Cho made his name as one of the smartest humans on Earth and was a sidekick of Hercules for a number of years.
When he used his heightened intelligence to save Hulk's life, he had to absorb much of the gamma radiation and became a Hulk himself.
After Banner ed, Cho took over and, unlike Banner, he was able to completely control himself in his Hulk persona.
However, he had a huge weakness. While he relied on his brain most of his life, he found that using his brain at intense levels as Hulk exerted so much energy due to his accelerated metabolism that he had to eat massive amounts of food just to get his energy back.
Power: IMMUNE TO TELEPATHY
In the Marvel Universe, there are way too many people that have the ability to mess with people's minds.
From Professor X and Jean Grey to Apocalypse, Thanos and The Ringmaster, there are a lot of people who have tried to control The Hulk's mind and make him do their bidding. Just about every one of those heroes and villains failed when they tried to control Hulk.
This does not mean that someone like Doctor Strange can't trick The Hulk, and Loki did just that in the past using magic.
However, when it comes to telepathic attacks, Hulk has psychic resistance.
The reason for this is that there are multiple personalities in his head and it becomes even harder to try to control him when his rage increases.
Even Sentry, the most powerful hero on Earth, used his psychic powers to make people forget he existed and Hulk still ed him.
Weakness: GREY HULK
One of the more interesting versions of Hulk was the Grey Hulk. Originally, Stan Lee wanted Hulk to be a grey character but problems with the comic book's printing press caused the grey not to show up right.
When considering this problem, Lee made Hulk green instead and the rest is history.
However, there was a period of time where Hulk was grey and went by the name Mr. Fixit.
There is an interesting contrast to the green and grey Hulks. When green, Hulk is very strong but has limited intelligence. When grey, Hulk loses much of his strength but has heightened intelligence, although his actions are a bit less moral -- a nice reference to the grey areas in life.
Interestingly, She-Hulk is the opposite, with her strength increasing and her intelligence dropping when grey.
Power: FIRE RESISTANce
When it comes to fire-based superheroes and villains, no one can really hold a torch to The Human Torch. As a matter of fact, Johnny Storm's flame can reach 780 degrees Fahrenheit on a normal basis and this causes no harm to Storm at all.
With that said, it can cause a great deal of harm to anyone it touches -- except The Hulk.
Johnny Storm has attacked Hulk full-on with his flame and could only watch as Hulk smiled at him.
Human Torch can grow stronger and go "nova" when he uses all his stored energy and launches one directed attack -- a flame that reaches one million degrees Fahrenheit.
In World War Hulk #2, Johnny did just this and it ended with Hulk standing unharmed while the Human Torch was left unconscious.
Weakness: The Moon
When Stan Lee was creating Hulk, he had an interesting idea that he never utilized at first. When he changed Hulk to the green skin color that fans know and love, he just let him change when his rage or pain triggered the transformation.
However, with the Grey Hulk, it was not pain or rage that caused him to change from Bruce Banner into the superhero. Instead, it was the moon.
Just like a werewolf, Banner changed into Grey Hulk when the sun went down and he reverted back to Banner when the sun came back up the next morning.
Hulk has always been strongly compared to classic Universal monsters like Frankenstein's Monster and The Wolf-Man, and the grey-skinned version only coming out at night is a great call-back to that influence.
It just means that he was basically worthless when needed during the day.