Warning: Spoilers for The Invincible Iron Man #6An unexpected villain from Spider-Man‘s rogues gallery gets compared to the Hulk courtesy of Iron Man. In a flashback in the latest issue of The Invincible Iron Man, Iron Man has a not-so-friendly encounter with Emma Frost, who uses her mind control powers to manipulate the villains of New York (all of whom happen to be Spider-Man villains) into fighting the billionaire on her behalf.
Out of all of these villains, she unleashes Doc Ock, Sandman, Hydro-Man, Electro, a normal local mugger of all people, and even The Rhino. It is exactly this usually despised Spider-Man villain that Tony recalls hitting just as hard as the Hulk in The Invincible Iron Man #6 by Gerry Duggan, Andrea Di Vito, and Bryan Valenza. “I’ve fought them all,” Tony monologues to himself as Rhino charges into him. “I’ve got a whole chapter in my book about the Hulk, but trust me and my ribs … I’m glad I only fought the Rhino once.” He even adds that knowing what it feels like to survive a Rhino attack gives someone a greater opinion of Spider-Man.
Iron Man Thinks Rhino Hits as Hard as The Hulk
This marks the first and only time that Rhino ever faced Iron Man, but Rhino is no stranger to the Hulk. The two have had a handful of battles against each other, many of which end abruptly with their fight being interrupted or, in the case of Incredible Hulk #378, they call a truce in the spirit of Christmas to help a little girl achieve some holiday spirit. However, one time when they went to an actual finish was in Incredible Hulk #378, where Hulk was clearly able to overpower The Rhino and even put him in a coma.
While Rhino and the Hulk are no strangers to each other, the same can be said for Iron Man and Hulk. Iron Man fought arguably Marvel’s strongest monster countless times but still compares that level of strength, or at least that level of impact to Rhino. He only met Rhino once, that’s a blip on Tony’s memory bank, but it left just as much impact as a full Hulk chapter. One has to wonder if this means that Rhino himself is underestimated by the masses who don’t expect him to be on Hulk’s level, or if Tony is overestimating Rhino because he’s a normal human by comparison.
Comic history would suggest that Hulk is stronger than the Rhino, but Iron Man’s expert opinion is now completely flipping what fans believed. Even leaving the comparison between the two aside, Iron Man’s words give credit to the often-underrated Spider-Man, who has fought (and bested) countless times a villain that left on Iron Man a stronger impression than the Hulk.
Invincible Iron Man #6, is available now from Marvel Comics.
