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This relates to the climax in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Tony is unable to come up with a solution other than to destroy the city but I'm wondering if maybe there wasn't another option he didn't think of: throwing it into space. But in order for that to work, a few things would need to happen:

  1. Hulk would need to be angry enough to have the strength to throw an object that size with enough speed to escape Earth's gravity.
  2. Hulk would need to brace himself against something capable of withstanding that amount of force.
  3. That thing Hulk is bracing himself against cannot be the Earth itself since it would need to be airborne and mobile.
  4. Sokovia can remain intact while having that amount of force exerted onto a single point.

I'm assuming #1 is possible since there are no upper limits defined on Hulk's strength. I'm also assuming that if Hulk were to exert that same level of force in an attempt to lift Mjolnir, the hammer wouldn't budge. However, I've only ever seen Mjolnir resist attempts to lift it. How does it respond to attempts to push it down? What if it's being held by someone worthy at the time? Is it capable of resisting unworthy force while simultaneously allowing someone worthy to move it around? Would such unworthy force be completely negated or simply redirected somewhere else? Would the magnetic field keeping Sokovia intact while Ultron's device lifts it be strong enough to handle the additional force Hulk would be exerting on it?

Even if the hammer is too small for Hulk to maintain his balance well enough to throw Sokovia, he could simply hold Sokovia in place while Vision flies the whole ensemble into space and then just let it go when it's far enough away.

Is such a solution possible? If not, what are the points of failure? Would there be anything any of the other Avengers could do to help overcome those points of failure?

phantom42
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aleppke
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    Hulk punched Thor while Thor was holding Mjolnir. Thor was still sent flying. Holding Mjolnir does not make the holder immovable. – phantom42 Oct 27 '15 at 17:42
  • But Hulk wouldn't be exerting force on the holder, he'd be exerting it directly onto Mjolnir. – aleppke Oct 27 '15 at 17:45
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    I first read Sokovia as Slovakia. It was a much more interesting question for a few seconds there. – Kyle Jones Oct 27 '15 at 18:16
  • Why all the downvotes? Is what I'm asking too broad? – aleppke Oct 27 '15 at 21:45
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    The first thing that occurred to me: even if all of your other assumptions are valid (which, eh, I don't buy), how could Hulk lift Sokovia without it crumbling? Wouldn't its "handle" break off? If you want to go down this route: why didn't Thor just put his hammer on Sokovia and prevent it from being lifted in the first place? – Kevin Workman Nov 06 '15 at 21:33
  • @KyleJones Same here. But that leads to the question, could he throw Slovakia? – Michelfrancis Bustillos May 16 '16 at 13:52

1 Answers1

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The most obvious point of failure is here;

I'm assuming #1 [Hulk would need to be angry enough to have the strength to throw an object that size with enough speed to escape Earth's gravity] is possible since there are no upper limits defined on Hulk's strength.

We haven't yet seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that The Hulk gets stronger the angrier he is. In fact, during The Battle of New York in Avengers Assemble, The Hulk is at one point overwhelmed by Chitauri firepower - this goes directly against the idea that The Hulk gets stronger when he gets angrier. As far as I know, The Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has one "level" of strength that he gains the second he transforms from Bruce Banner, and cannot be made stronger through anger - you'll notice that The Hulk in Avengers: Age of Ultron's Hulk vs Hulkbuster fight doesn't seem any stronger than he ever has before.

Dr R Dizzle
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  • That is true, Age of Ultron doesn't seem to follow that but in Incredible Hulk, does he not get stronger after Abomination stabs him with his elbow bone thingy? Incredible Hulk is part of the MCU so if he has the ability there, it should carry over into the Avengers. – aleppke Oct 27 '15 at 17:49
  • the fact that he gets stronger one time because he got stabbed with an elbow bone thingy does not at all indicate or mean that he has no maximum strength or size. – phantom42 Oct 27 '15 at 17:52
  • There are a few questions referencing Hulk's strength vs his anger, such as this one or this one. – Firebat Oct 27 '15 at 18:05
  • @S.Fruggiero Unfortunately, neither of those make reference to Marvel Cinematic Universe canon. – Dr R Dizzle Oct 27 '15 at 18:15
  • @phantom42 I disagree. Hulk's whole thing is that the angrier he gets, the stronger he gets and the comics have certainly established that he has no upper limit. Since the MCU draws inspiration from the comics, is it not logical to assume that a character's abilities and potential match what they are in the comics unless and until explicitly declared otherwise? – aleppke Oct 27 '15 at 19:26
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    MCU hulk's size seems to top out at about 10 feet. he gets much larger in the comics. if he's topping out in size, it's not a stretch to say he might be topping out in power too. the point is that there is no concrete evidence either way, and that it's not necessarily a safe assumption – phantom42 Oct 27 '15 at 19:40
  • That's the whole point of the assumption - MCU Hulk's max strength is unknown so I'm assigning a value to it to reflect what we know about the character in other media. I'm not asking whether MCU Hulk is strong enough to do it, I'm asking whether Mjolnir could be used as a counterforce - while being held in midair by someone worthy - for Hulk to brace himself against so that he can do it. – aleppke Oct 27 '15 at 20:18
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    you specifically asked if MCU hulk is strong enough to throw sokovia with enough speed to escape earth's gravity. all of the other criteria are written to provide him a platform to do so. if that's not what you really want to know about, then you need to clarify the question. – phantom42 Oct 29 '15 at 04:25