15 Most Powerful She-Hulk Villains [Ranked]
After Moon Knight, She-Hulk is the next Marvel superhero getting introduced into the MCU with a stand-alone TV show on Disney+. Over the years, Jennifer Walters faced some awesome villains. We know that Titania and Abomination will appear in the series, but fans already speculate about other characters She-Hulk faced in the comics might come into play.
While She-Hulk’s rogue gallery isn’t as big or diverse as, for instance, Spider-Man’s, there are many cool and powerful enemies Jen faced over the years. Without further ado, here’s the ultimate, ranked list of the 15 most powerful She-Hulk villains in history.
15. Nicholas Trask
First appearance: Savage She-Hulk #2 (March 1980)
Superpowers & abilities: No superpowers (ordinary human), highly skilled gunman, criminal lord, influence, wealth, snake-handler (produces and uses their venom).
Connection to She-Hulk: Nicholas Trask is an evil crime lord and a gangster with tons of influence. He was, in fact, responsible for Jennifer Walters turning into She-Hulk after exposing the lawyer to similar gamma-radiation as her cousin, Bruce Banner, was exposed to before turning into the Hulk.
Later, Trask also created a She-Hulk robot to try and frame Jen Walters for murder but failed to do so. He’s one of her earliest enemies, and although he doesn’t really have superpowers, Trask had to be on the list because he’s responsible that She-Hulk even exists.
14. Man-Killer
First appearance: Marvel Team-Up #8 (April 1973)
Superpowers & abilities: Superhuman strength (up to 75 tons, more when she increases her size), stamina, durability, using Pym Particles, expert hand-to-hand combatant, razor discs, hovercraft, gauntlets.
Connection to She-Hulk: Man-Killer, or Katrina Luisa Van Horn, was a former Olympic skier that got severely injured during a race. She was a militant feminist and grew to hate all men incredibly after her accident. Using cybernetic, robotic implants and having access to Pym Particles, she gained her superpowers and became a supervillain.
Man-Killer isn’t originally a She-Hulk villain but had several run-ins against Jennifer. She eventually joined the Thunderbolts, which is kind of like Marvel’s version of the Suicide Squad, but got killed by Kobig during the Secret Empire storyline.
13. Clockwise
First appearance: She-Hulk Vol. 2 #3 (December 2005)
Superpowers & abilities: Ordinary human, having the limited ability to travel back and forth in time, using the Retroactive Cannon to erase heroes from existence.
Connection to She-Hulk: Clockwise was a time-traveling supervillain from the Earth-6023 universe who wore a specialized suit. He infiltrated the Time Variance Authority while She-Hulk was there on trial and tried to erase numerous heroes from existence while he was there using the Retroactive Cannon.
She-Hulk managed to stop him, and apart from that particular encounter, not much is known about Clockwise, his past, etc. However, the ability to travel through time gives one incredible power, so Clockwise definitely deserved a spot on this list.
12. Ultima
First appearance: Savage She-Hulk #9 (July 1980)
Superpowers & abilities: Superhuman strength, speed, durability, daughter of a cult leader, prolific hand-to-hand combatant.
Connection to She-Hulk: Ultima Wordman was the daughter of The Word, a cult leader that could use words and get his followers to do whatever he wanted from them. Ultima fell in love with one of the cult members, Randolph Harrington, who subsequently wanted to escape the cult. His parents hired Jen Walters to be his attorney through the process.
Obviously, that put Ultima and She-Hulk at odds, and the two fought several times, even matching she-Hulk in many ways. However, one of the fights ended with Ultima getting paralyzed, so she and her father fled to Asia, where she recovered.
Ultima eventually returned without her cult but formed a new one, catching She-Hulk’s attention again. Her slight superpowers and the undyingly loyal cult followers make Ultima quite a dangerous enemy and one of the most powerful She-Hulk villains.
11. Ruby Thursday
First appearance: Defenders #32 (November 1975)
Superpowers & abilities: Normal human strength &physiology, apart from a head made of organic circuitry, capable of shapeshifting, regeneration, firing projectiles, and forming any shape imaginable, including the head of a beautiful red-haired woman. Super-genius intelligence, proficiency in science, physics, computers, and engineering.
Connection to She-Hulk: Her real name is Thursday Rubenstein, and her head was somehow replaced with organic circuitry. As a member of the villainous organization called the Headmen, Ruby tried to steal She-Hulk’s body to create a clone body for Chondu, one of the Headmen members. Spider-Man helped She-Hulk fight off the Headmen.
10. Volcana
First appearance: Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars #3 (March 1984)
Superpowers & abilities: Transforming into volcanic plasma, stone, or ash, superhuman strength (in Stone form, up to 50 tons), heat outbursts, shape-shifting, superhuman durability.
Connection to She-Hulk: Marsha Rosenberg was an outcast, just like Mary MacPherran. The two friends were approached by Doctor Doom, who gave them superpowers if they agreed to fight for him. Marsha became Volcana, whereas Mary became Titania – She-Hulk’s arch-nemesis.
Volcana was Titania’s partner and fought Jennifer Walters numerous times before giving up on the life of crime and falling in love with Molecule Man, only to return as a supervillain-for-hire and fight She-Hulk once again at the behest of Nightwatch.
9. Behemoth
First appearance: Savage She-Hulk #17 (June 1981)
Superpowers & abilities: Superhuman strength & durability, near-genius intellect, elephant-suit exoskeleton, switching between human and “elephant” form at will.
Connection to She-Hulk: Manfred Haller, aka Behemoth, aka Man-Elephant, first appeared as a She-Hulk villain in the early 80s. He was a hydraulic engineer who developed an exoskeleton armor resembling an elephant, giving the user superhuman powers. To prove it works, he picked a fight with She-Hulk and nearly defeated her before stopping the fight himself.
However, Stark Industries ran him out of business after finding out Haller Hydraulics had done some black market work, so Haller escaped to Mali, where a shard of a Cyttorak Crystal changed the armor into Haller’s true exoskeleton. He then returned to the US as Behemoth, seeking to fight Jennifer Walters and her allies.
8. Thundra
First appearance: Fantastic Four #129 (September #129)
Superpowers & abilities: Genetically engineered with experiments to give her superhuman strength & durability, peak human speed & stamina. Expert combatant. Usually wields a chain.
Connection to She-Hulk: Thundra isn’t your classic supervillain, but she’s certainly one of the most powerful characters and most powerful villains she-Hulk ever faced. Although she’s perhaps not as strong, her combat skills are amazing, which she proved numerous times. She’s usually She-Hulk’s partner and ally, but they had their fair share of fights.
Especially if you consider the Lyra version of She-Hulk, who was actually Thundra’s estranged daughter she hadn’t seen in decades that had been trained by Jennifer Walters and later reunited with her mother.
7. The Leader
First appearance: Tales to Astonish #62 (September 1964)
Superpowers & abilities: Super-genius intellect after being exposed to gamma radiation, telepathy, telekinesis, eidetic memory, gamma radiation & manipulation.
Connection to She-Hulk: While Samuel Sterns isn’t really She-Hulk’s villain, they faced each other before, and their duels were epic. He’s suffered from a similar accident to Jennifer Walters or Bruce Banner. He turned green, his head grew to ginormous size, and he became a super-genius supervillain.
He had phenomenal abilities over the years, especially after being possessed by the One Below All, but it’s not his base power level, so I’m not getting into that. When he faced She-Hulk, the Leader presented his mind-controlling and memory-erasing abilities, creating an epic storyline I enjoyed reading despite hating seeing his oversized head that looked like it’ll explode.
6. Abomination
First appearance: Tales to Astonish #90 (January 1967)
Superpowers & abilities: Superhuman strength, durability, stamina, leaping ability, toxic gamma radiation, healing factor, breathing underwater, suspended animation, great combatant, skilled spy, can’t revert to his human form.
Connection to She-Hulk: Abomination is one of the supervillains from She-Hulk’s rogue gallery that has been confirmed to appear in the upcoming MCU She-Hulk series. Like Jen and Bruce, Emil Blonsky is also a Gamma Mutate, and his powers are up to par with both of them – sometimes exceeding them in some ways.
For instance, Abomination can generate toxic gamma radiation that’s not only dangerous – but lethal to anyone who comes close, besides other Gamma Mutates like She-Hulk. And, even if you hurt him, he has an incredibly powerful healing factor, making him highly durable. He is definitely one of the most powerful She-Hulk villains. I can’t wait to see what his role will be in the She-Hulk series.
5. Titania
First appearance: Secret Wars #3 (July 1984)
Superpowers & abilities: Incredible superhuman strength, durability, stamina. Became an expert combatant after years of training and deep resentment towards She-Hulk.
Connection to She-Hulk: Every superhero has an arch-nemesis, and if Jennifer Walters has one, it would be Mary MacPherran, aka Titania. As I mentioned, Doctor Doom gave Mary and her friend Marsha (Volcana) their superpowers to fight for him. Titania believed she was the strongest woman on the planet until She-Hulk beat her silly in their first fight.
That hurt Titania’s ego so badly that she literally devoted her life to training, attacking She-Hulk, again and again, to prove she is the stronger woman. She came close to beating Jen numerous times but, in the end, failed again. At one point, she overpowered She-Hulk by gaining the Power Stone, one of the infamous Infinity Stones – but eventually lost.
She’ll appear in the new She-Hulk TV series, probably as the lead supervillain, and I just can’t wait for their rivalry to continue on-screen.
4. Absorbing Man
First appearance: Journey Into Mystery #114 (January 1965)
Superpowers & abilities: Absorbing the characteristics of any mater or material he touches, giving him its attributes.
Connection to She-Hulk: Carl Creel was a professional boxer who fought and lost to Daredevil’s father in a match. He drank a potion from Loki that made him absorb any substance he came into contact with, gaining its characteristics in the process.
Over time, he learned how to pick which substance to absorb and even absorb multiple materials at once to combine their properties. However, She-Hulk realized he could only choose to ignore absorbing a material if it was not abundant. He can’t ignore it if there’s too much material surrounding him, which proved to be a weakness.
He’s so high on this list because the potential behind such extraordinary power is unlimited. He could easily be the most powerful character in the entire Marvel Universe if he weren’t such a bonehead.
3. Unum
First appearance: She-Hulk: Cosmic Collision #1
Superpowers & abilities: Unfathomable superhuman strength, durability, speed, and stamina, gigantic body proportions, teleportation, energy absorption, and projection via powerful beams from a huge ax.
Connection to She-Hulk: Unum was a being created by the cosmic being Enmity out of the remains of numerous incredibly powerful deceased beings such as Dormammu. The gigantic being’s name comes from the Latin phrase “e Pluribus Unum” which means “out of many, one.”
Unum was created with a single purpose – to eliminate every hero in existence, starting with female heroes. Unum was basically indestructible, but She-Hulk found a way to beat the being. She informed Unum that Enmity was merely using her as a pawn to have fun, making the powerful Unum turn against Enmity, destroying her physical body and killing herself. She definitely ranks third on this list of most powerful She-Hulk villains.
2. Red Hulk
First appearance: Hulk Vol. 2 #1 (March 2008)
Superpowers & abilities: Almost unlimited superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability, all growing even further as Red Hulk grows angrier and heats up by absorbing radiation. At its peak, he can destroy anything but can overheat, causing temporary incapacitation. Strong healing factor, not aging, gamma radiation emission & energy absorption.
Expert military tactician, a good hand-to-hand combatant, transforms from human to Red Hulk form at will.
Connection to She-Hulk: General Ross appeared in Marvel Comics all the way back in Incredible Hulk #1 in 1962 but turned into Red Hulk for the first time in 2008. In some ways, he’s even more powerful than the Hulk, but his biggest strengths are also his biggest weaknesses.
He fought the Hulk and She-Hulk numerous times in the comics, and could very well be the main antagonist in the She-Hulk MCU series, forcing Bruce Banner’s Hulk, She-Hulk, Titania, and Abomination to actually work together to stop him. It’s still mere speculation, but an awesome possibility nonetheless.
1. Red She-Hulk
First appearance: Hulk Vol. 2 #15 (September 2009)
Superpowers & abilities: Superhuman strength, stamina, durability, speed, (formerly) flight, regenerative healing factor, acidic saliva, energy absorption & discharges, etc.
Connection to She-Hulk: Finally, the number one on my list of most powerful She-Hulk villains has to be the Red She-Hulk. Elizabeth Ross is more of a Bruce Banner’s villain than Jennifer Walters’, but the similarities between the two and several epic fights grant her the top spot on this list.
We saw her as Elizabeth Ross in Incredible Hulk #1 in 1962 and as the Harpy in Incredible Hulk #168, but the Red She-Hulk version came in 2009.
She can match Jen in almost every imaginable category, plus the additional powers, such as the incredibly strong healing factor, the energy discharges, the radiation, and the acidic saliva that not even the Red Hulk has. I’m not sure if the Harpy version or the Red She-Hulk version is more powerful, but Red She-Hulk is certainly the most powerful villain Jen ever faced.
And, yeah, Red Hulk is her father, and Elizabeth fought Hulk and She-Hulk together, and they still couldn’t take her down.