Hulk Vs. (2009) is a Direct-to-Video animated film from Marvel Animation and Lionsgate, featuring the Incredible Hulk in two short film battles, one against Wolverine, the other against The Mighty Thor.Hulk Vs. ThorIn Hulk vs. Thor, Bruce Banner is abducted by Loki and brought to Asgard with the help of the Enchantress. Loki angers Banner to induce the Hulk transformation, at which time the Enchantress magically separates the Hulk from Banner, giving Loki control over the Hulk. With his newfound pawn, Loki charges the gates of Asgard to try to claim Odin's realm during the week when he is resting. Only Thor has a chance of stopping him...Hulk Vs. WolverineIn the segment Hulk vs. Wolverine, Department H sends Wolverine to hunt down a mysterious beast known by the US Military as the Hulk, who is rampaging across the Canadian wilderness. Tracking the beast by a distinctive toxic scent left at the wreckage of a small town, Wolverine soon finds Bruce Banner sitting and crying at the edge of a small lake. Noticing the same toxic scent clinging to Banner, Wolverine starts to violently interrogate him, ignoring Banner's warnings until... oops. Hello, Hulk. And this is only the beginning of Wolverine's problems.This is also the first time Deadpool has a speaking role in an animated appearance, as well as his first non-cameo role in an animation.
Adaptation Distillation: Wolverine's origin from Weapon X is included through small snippets of every major scene and its just as rich in Nightmare Fuel as the original story.
Ass Kicking Pose: After Wolverine and Bruce Banner escape captivity, the Weapon X team all strike Ass Kicking Poses before running off to hunt them down. Deadpool lampshades this by shouting "Strike a pose!"
Anti-Hero: Wolverine is a Type IV, in the height of his pre X Men days and Not so Different from the Weapon X stooges. Hulk is a Type III. He saves passers by and only fight back is provoked, by lord help you if you make him angry...
Body Horror: People are stabbed, arms are ripped and sliced off, and other assorted not-so-Bloodless Carnage. Made funny when Deadpool spends about a minute re-attaching his Logan-severed arm pieces!
Bloodless Carnage: Averted. The Wolverine segment is the first non-comic appearance of the character to not use it.
Continuity Snarl: According to Word Of God, the Wolverine short takes place in the same universe as Wolverine and the X-Men. However, a number of things contradict each other. In the series, Wolverine doesn't remember Weapon X or Sabretooth when he runs into Sabretooth after years, whereas in the short, he does remember them and Deadpool, Lady Deathstrike, and Omega Red well. Also, on WatXM, Bruce Banner, after transforming from the Hulk, has no idea who Wolverine is, whereas in the short, Wolverine's first meeting with Bruce is while he's Bruce and Wolverine is the reason for his two main Hulk-outs in the short.
It gets worse as Avengers: The Earth's Mightiest Heroes is apparently in the same universe with no proof except Wolverine having a very short cameo.
Plus, in the DVD commentary they explicitly say at the end that Sabretooth is dead.
Fridge Brilliance. Wolverine lost the battle and developed memory loss due to that.
Darker and Edgier: Than almost all other Marvel animations, what with all of Wolverine's semi-mild cursing and not-so-Bloodless Carnage...
Empathy Doll Shot: A single lonely teddy bear is left behind after the Hulk's rampage... though it's shown later that it's thanks to the Hulk that the girl and her father weren't made into swiss cheese by Deadpool.
Let's Get Dangerous: After Logan receives a major asskicking from the Hulk, he wakes a few seconds later, says, "Ok bub, let's try that again" and proceeds to open his own can of whupass.
Well tearing off Deadpool's head is one of the few ways to stop him (from fighting, anyway).
Only Sane Man: Ironically enough the Hulk. Considering that everyone else is a Axe CrazyBlood Knight (Wolverine included) whose in it only for the sake of violence or revenge, the Hulk looks positvely saintly in comparison, given that he goes out of his way to save people from Weapon X. The worst thing he does is attack Wolverine, and given that Wolvy threatend to gut him and stabbed him in the chest, it's hard not to argue that he had good reason.
Popularity Power: While the final battle is not shown, at the end of Hulk vs. Wolverine, the Hulk is the only one left standing (and squishing Deadpool). In Wolvie's defense, he had just finished kicking everyone else's ass immediately before that.
It's a bit more than just Word Of God; the WATXM episode Wolverine vs. Hulk has flashbacks to this movie, from both combatants. Though it gets kind of foggy when Logan has no clue who or what Weapon X is later on...
Furthermore, the floating babies in test tubes includes X-23, Wolverine's Opposite-Sex Clone. As we see in a future-set episode of Wolverine and the X-Men, Wolverine and all his clones (each one identical, but apparently with different names) are working together against the Sentinels.
The Worf Effect: A rare variation where it's the villains and not Wolverine who suffers from this. Probably helps that he can actually stab people. Wolverine is shown to kick Deathstrike, Sabretooth and Deadpool around with relative ease (in the comics one is normally enough to slow him down at least). Omega Red is the only one really capable of holding his own, but that's at least true to the comics.
The "Thor" segment contains examples of:
Balancing Death's Books: Hela eventually sends Bruce Banner back to the mortal plane after claiming him. She eventually takes Loki instead (since he tricked her in the first place.)
Bloodless Carnage: Played straight. Possibly due to the Asgardians being immortal.
Curb-Stomp Battle: All of Hulk vs. Thor. Despite fighting one of Marvel's most powerful heroes, a race of war gods, and other badasses from mythology the Hulk is never in any danger or even really tested. By the end you can tell they're just going through the motions.
Jobber: All of Asgard takes this role, with Thor being the most prominent, and for his fans, angering example.
Magic Pants: The Hulk always has these, but this time it's taken to an extreme: When Banner and the Hulk are separated, both are wearing the trademark purple pants. The things can duplicate themselves? Of course, gods and magic were involved...
The Worf Barrage: After getting the crap beat out of him repeatedly by the Hulk, Thor finally decides to get serious and launch a powerful lightning attack complete with hammer throw and obligatory HAM. After the smoke settles the Hulk gets up unharmed and beats Thor around like a rag doll.
Worf Effect: Thor suffers from this in the Marvel Animation films. He is pumped up early on by being declared as Asgard's mightiest warrior, only hope, capable of crushing entire armies, etc. Yet whenever he fights the Hulk he barely fights back instead serving mainly as the Hulk's punching bag. When he does bother his attacks barely register. Compare that to Wolverine who was as outpowered if not more so than Thor and is able to be about even.
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