Pure, unadulterated rage. Usually, in a stressful situation, you'd want to avoid this sort of emotion in order to keep yourself focused. Unless you're a giant, rampaging pile of muscles. Like these two.
Dr. Bruce Banner, The Incredible Hulk. And Doomsday, the monster who killed Superman.
The third season's twelfth episode pits two huge heavy-hitters of the Marvel and DC Universes. Both are a result of science, which resulted in copious amounts of rage to supplement their intimidating fighting styles. Both of their skills shall be evaluated to see who would win a death battle.
The hosts first bring us to the Incredible Hulk, or as he was known in his normal state, Dr. Robert Bruce Banner. Bruce grew up highly intellectual and excelling in his classes, but in spite of his natural gift he could never win the affection of his abusive, alcoholic father, who merely sees Bruce as a monster. Eventually, said father murdered his wife then got institutionalized for this, leaving Bruce to cope by creating an imaginary friend as an emotional outlet through his education, though said imaginary friend's advice winds up being destructive. Through his studies, the US military recruited him to develop a gamma bomb to, in theory, destroy military weapons and buildings while leaving human lives intact. Upon seeing a kid enter the testing area, Bruce ordered a halt to the countdown while trying to get said kid out of there, but one of the personnel was a Soviet spy who proceeded to set it off anyways. The gamma radiation not only turned out to be harmful to human life, but it made the imaginary friend come to fruition in Bruce's body: and thus The Hulk was born, appearing whenever Bruce turns angry.
Where the Hulk loses the intelligence of Bruce, he makes up for it in sheer strength and agility, being able to leap great distances, survive extreme conditions and smash whatever foe is unfortunate enough to cross him. He also utilizes a Thunder Clap, loud enough to send a shockwave to deafen foes, level forests and reverse the course of an explosion. He also sports a healing factor that quickly heals wounds, but it should be noted that Bruce cannot control what the Hulk does, both forms being at odds with each other but begrudgingly accept that they both depend on each other for survival. As such Bruce uses his abilities to aid various groups of Marvel heroes in their heroic deeds, only venting his anger on whichever villains would deserve it.
Hulk is strong enough to hold up a 150 billion ton mountain, can escape the earth's gravitational pull in a single jump, and can pull two tectonic plates together when they split, threatening to devastate the earth (with each tectonic plate being around 45 quintillion tons). He can augment his physical prowess through being angrier at a limitless potential, and would eventually tap into Worldbreaker Hulk, whose single foot stomp can create potent earthquakes felt hundreds of miles away. A fight between Worldbreaker Hulk and Sentry brought widespread devastation and almost entirely wrecked New York City, and two Worldbreaker Hulks colliding resulted in the destruction of an entire planet. Aside from cosmic beings such as Silver Surfer and Zeus, few in the universe can stand in his way, but Bruce goes to great lengths to keep the Hulk form in check, and only becomes Worldbreaker Hulk when he willingly relinquishes control of his entire mind. Even while gods are among the few to take him on, they too are beholden to his wrath.
Next, the hosts take us to an ancient planet that would eventually become Krypton, though at the time it was an uninhabitable place filled with sharp rocks, a toxic atmosphere and several predatory creatures roaming about. There was a research base there headed by the scientist Bertron, who desired to create an ultimate life form that can live in such conditions, believing that whatever he is can also survive anywhere else as well. Using an infant that Bertron had acquired, he shot it into the hostile planet, and each time it dies siphon it back to the lab for cloning to repeat the process and substantially speed up the genetic engineering. After thirty years of testing, the experiment turned out to be a success, and Bertron named him The Ultimate, though whichever is unfortunate enough to cross his way call him their Doomsday. That said, the experiment returned to the laboratory to kill Bertron, because although he is a mindless killing machine, it remembered each and every single time the scientist had him killed, which genetically conditioned Doomsday to hate everything that lives.
Doomsday is incredibly strong and durable, also sporting extendable poisonous spikes for combat, and notably being able to adapt to the abilities of his opponent as a result of Bertron's experiments. Through stowing on a cargo ship shortly after his revenge, he embarked on a huge trail of destruction leading up to his landing on planet Earth. It was there that he infamously killed Superman, though in that case the latter was put into a long coma before returning to fight another day. Granted, Supes did take Doomsday down with him at that very moment, though Doomsday too did come back to life, this time immune to that ability, as well as subsequent ones such as an outright beatdown, the heat ray and a brutal bisection. The deaths that he experienced and adapted to included being blasted apart by The Radiant, incinerated by Imperiex, and being ganged up upon by a large number of Kryptonians.
Not only has Doomsday singlehandedly fought off the Justice League and withstood an explosion that covered a fifth of a planet, Doomsday had shown himself to be a menace towards cosmic beings as well. He was able to tank Darkseid's Omega Beams while beating him almost to death, he can punch a hole into the Phantom Zone, he spent more than a century fighting off Gogs, and he broke Wonder Woman's arms, the same arms that can help pull the Earth. In Doomsday's rematch with Superman, the latter saw that the former could withstand a blast with the force of a million nuclear bombs, he concluded that the only way to stop the fight is to bring him to the end of time itself. Doomsday at his full potential is devastatingly lethal even while merely walking around, but while he is physically deadly, he has a one-track mind through a lack of a brain. This makes his attacks highly predictable, and those that take advantage of that can use that to kill him through a new and creative way. With all that Doomsday had faced however, finding anything new would be a tall order.
- Doomsday: (kicks Superman into the rubble, then punches Superman's face against it before the hero collapses on the the ground, stomps Superman's head into the ground)
After an advertisement for Harry's Razors, there is nothing else that needs to be covered, so it's time for a Death Battle!
A meteorite came crashing down on the earth, landing in the middle of the city, where Doomsday emerged, causing destruction and killing whichever people are unfortunate enough to be in front of him. The Avengers noticed this and sent a pod to the site of the meteorite's landing, and from there emerged the Hulk to face off against Doomsday.
FIGHT!
Both of their punches collide, sending a shockwave to devastate the block around them, before trading a series of punches to each other before Doomsday kicks Hulk away down the street before throwing a bus at him. The Hulk catches it, then braces as Doomsday jumps into it before sending the slightly dazed hulk through one skyscraper then on top of another. The Ultimate then threw the cars around him to the site of said skyscraper to no avail, since Hulk can just catch them, splitting one of them and making those halves into a makeshift pair of gauntlets with which to wail on Doomsday and send him careening through a nearby garage. Hulk then initiated his Thunder Clap to knock him back further and damage his hearing, albeit just temporary enough to get back on his footing and land a punch hard enough to break the momentum and collapse the building.
Doomsday emerged from the rubble to continue on his campaign of destruction, before Hulk too emerged, impressed and enraged by the former's prowess, and tapped into the Worldbreaker form. For a moment, it seemed like Bruce Banner's alternate form has got the upper hand, being able to throw down Bertron's creation before stamping on one the latter's arms, destroying it. Doomsday was not finished though, and he used his other arm to unsheathe a set of poisonous spikes to lodge into Hulk's leg. While the Hulk backed off to absorb the effects, Doomsday stood back up as the lost appendage regrew. It was from there that he relentlessly struck at Worldbreaker Hulk with several sets of poisoned spikes, further paralyzing him and overtaxing the healing factor, before landing a final set of punches and ripping off his head. The screen turns black just after Doomsday triumphantly hoisted it into the air.
K.O.!
In a match of Hulk's potentially endless tenacity and Doomsday's difficulty in killing him off, it seems like a close match before something has got to give. When it comes right down to it, Doomsday can fight on the level of cosmic beings like Darkseid and regularly faces faster-than-light beings such as Superman, while the Marvel Universe doesn't have as many like this. The Hulk's experience with a foe that can keep up was against Sentry, and that was after the former tapped into his Worldbreaker form. In the end, Hulk can only tap into his infinite potential for so long since his healing factor can be overwhelmed, albeit it takes cosmic beings to accomplish that, something Doomsday can compare. While Hulk seems like a monster, he also operates similarly to a human, right down to physiological attributes; emotions such as anger can go through neural lapses in the brain, so the Hulk's potential is only there because of the healing factor. Even Worldbreaker Hulk can experience a lapse in his potential when experiencing enough trauma, such as when he collided with Sentry and shortly reverted to Bruce Banner, being unable to stay angry enough to stay Hulk. Finally, Doomsday had fought Kryptonians such as Superman for so long that mere brute force cannot do him in, so the Hulk getting "angry enough" to kill him is doubtful, and his options are pretty limited; even when Superman had since gotten substantially better than the state he was in when he died (and also since discovered a similarly limitless potential through solar energy), an even bigger force of his cannot kill Doomsday in the rematch.
- Boomstick: On this day, Hulk met his doom... d-doomsday!
Wiz: The winner is Doomsday!
Hulk vs. Doomsday contains examples of:
- Advantage Ball: Doomsday held it for the majority of the battle especially at the beginning where he was outpacing The Hulk. The only time he loses it briefly is when Hulk activates his Worldbreaker Hulk form but quickly gains it back using his poisonous spikes.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Before this match, whenever a hero lost in episodes before this, it was by someone more anti-heroic. The heroic Hulk became the first in the show to lose to an outright villain.
- Healing Factor: Both possess an impressive healing factor capable of healing injuries in seconds. As Wiz pointed out, the healing factor is the key to The Hulk's strength as even though he is a superpowered monster with gamma radiation, Hulk is still human and therefore produces a normal amount of hormones for his anger. However, thanks to his healing factor, The Hulk is able to produce more hormones than a normal person should which is why his strength is potentially infinite. However, once Hulk's healing factor becomes overtaxed by being hit with an enormous amount of power, his strength also decreases (as proven at times when he couldn't get angry enough to stay in Hulk form and revert back to Bruce Banner). Since Doomsday was definitely as strong (or even stronger) as characters who can overtax Hulk's healing factor (such as Thor), it was only natural he could overtax Hulk's healing factor as well and eventually kill him.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: When you think about it, this Death Battle was ultimately this. Since The Hulk only really fights using brute force and Doomsday's adaptability makes him immune to being killed by brute force again, there was just no way for The Hulk to gain the win in this fight.
- It Only Works Once: Since Doomsday was already killed by brute force before, he couldn't be killed that way again. This was ultimately the main reason why Hulk couldn't put down Doomsday for good as Hulk only fights using brute force.
- Lightning Bruiser: Doomsday is this to The Hulk's Mighty Glacier status and one of the reasons why Doomsday wins (as Doomsday was able to fight against many high-speed heroes in the DC universe while The Hulk hasn't since it's pretty rare in the Marvel universe with the only one being Sentry). Hulk himself is also a Lightning Bruiser but couldn't keep up with Doomsday who was faster.
- Off with His Head!: After delivering a flurry of deadly punches to The Hulk, Doomsday finishes him off by ripping off his head.
- Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Wiz described this fight as such, with Hulk's potentially infinite power and Doomsday's potential immortality.
- Victory by Endurance: This was stated to be the main way Doomsday won. Since he and Hulk were almost equally tough and strong, Doomsday won by eventually wearing down Hulk's Healing Factor which, in turn, causes his strength to wear down and finish him off.
