While the Hulk is known for his incredible strength, that's not the only superpower that the gamma bomb bestowed on mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner. The Green Goliath has a variety of powers, from the ones everyone knows to incredibly obscure abilities, including the power to see ghosts and grow unique organs on demand.

Here, then, are the Hulk's ten best powers in Marvel lore. Each of these abilities are possessed by Bruce Banner's Hulk (as opposed to Marvel's many other gamma mutates, who sometimes also call themselves Hulks) and stem from his gamma powers. to vote at the end of the article for what you consider Hulk's best power.

10 Astral Sight

Hulk Can See Dead People

One of Hulk's rarest abilities, the Jade Giant is able to see Marvel's Astral Plane. This allows Hulk to see ghosts, as well as individuals like Doctor Strange and X-Men's Charles Xavier, whose abilities empower them to travel without their physical bodies. The Astral Plane is a quasi-magical realm, though individuals with sufficient telepathic power also have access to it.

While Hulk doesn't use this power particularly often, it does have a dark purpose. In Immortal Hulk #0's 'Grave Matters' by Peter David and Adam Kubert, Hulk realized that he had developed the ability to see ghosts following Bruce Banner's accidental murder of his father. Bruce remains so scared of his abusive father, Hulk mutated the ability to see ghosts purely thanks to the paranoia of Brian Banner's potential return from the grave. (Although to be fair to Hulk, Brian did eventually return.)

9 Shapeshifting

Bruce Banner Has More Than One 'Hulk'

Hulk's shapeshifting is rarely acknowledged as a power, but a scrawny scientist turning into a gigantic green monster is definitely an unusual ability! This power is also incredibly versatile. Bruce Banner doesn't just become 'the Hulk' - there are actually several different gamma forms Bruce can adopt depending on the situation. With his regular powers, Bruce can become the iconic Savage Hulk, gray-skinned Joe Fixit, super-intelligent Doc Green/Professor Hulk and cunning, nocturnal Devil Hulk.

However, under the influence of outside forces, Hulk has undergone even more drastic transformations into the Guilt Hulk, Kluh and Titan, showing that there are no real limits on what Bruce Banner's body can become. The Hulk increases his mass by drawing energy from the 'Below Place,' the supernatural source of gamma energy.

Hulk's instinctive trajectory calculation explains why he's never killed anyone during his rage-fueled rampages.

8 Telepathic Immunity and Memory Retention

Even Doctor Strange Couldn't Erase Hulk's Memories

Hulk isn't exactly famous for his mind, but he actually has some mental abilities that the genius Bruce Banner doesn't. Hulk has some major protection against telepathic attack, and even has a literal internal world where he can battle intruders on his own . While Hulk can be mentally controlled by others, he quickly breaks out of this kind of possession and is incredibly difficult to 'hold.' However, Hulk's weirdest mental power is his memory, which is seemingly immune to even the most powerful forces in the Marvel Universe.

Hulk was the one person who was immune to Doctor Strange's spell which erased the knowledge of Spider-Man's true identity from everyone on Earth. In Tom Taylor and Jorge Molina's Immortal Hulk: Great Power #1, Hulk explicitly states, "Banner forgot. But I don't forget." This wasn't a one-time occurrence either - Hulk remained aware of the existence of the Sentry, even when the all-powerful hero had removed his existence from the minds of everyone who ever knew him.

Hulk's ability to retain information even when it's magically erased could be because he doesn't exist at all times (being buried within Banner's mind), allowing him to escape the moment of deletion, or it could be related to the semi-mystical powers of the Below Place.

Hulk's strength is legendary, with a classic feat seeing him lift one hundred and fifty billion tons.

7 Energy Blasts

Hulk Finally Gets a Ranged Attack

An incredibly recent power introduced in 2022's Hulk #5, from Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley, Hulk is able to focus his gamma energy into destructive beams of energy which emerge from his eyes. This is an extension of Hulk's wider ability to manipulate energy - something he rarely does, mostly restricting this power to draining the gamma energy from others. Hulk's optic blasts emerged after Bruce Banner transformed his body using dark magic, leaving it an open question whether Hulk still has access to this power.

6 Instinctive Trajectory Calculation

There's a Reason Hulk's Rampages Don't Kill Anyone

This superpower is theoretical, but that theory came from marvel's seventh-smartest person on Earth and closes a major plot hole. In Greg Pak and Carlo Pagulayan's Incredible Hulk #110, Amadeus Cho introduces his theory of why Hulk has never killed someone during one of his rampages. Cho theorizes that while Bruce Banner is suppressed when the Hulk emerges, his genius intellect is still a subconscious influence, calculating trajectories to ensure that Hulk never kills anyone, even by accident. This is something that Amadeus can also do - albeit in closer quarters - making him the ideal judge for how this power would work.

While Hulk denies that he puts any effort into sparing "puny humans," Amadeus points out that this secret power explains why Hulk's destructive rampages have never directly claimed a life.

5 Enhanced Strength

The Angrier Hulk Gets, the Stronger Hulk Gets

Hulk's strength may not be his only power, but it's the one he does better than anyone else alive. Hulk's connection to the eldritch Below Place allows him to access theoretically infinite muscle mass, with his power growing exponentially the angrier he becomes. One of Hulk's most impressive feats was holding up a mountain range weighing a quoted "one hundred and fifty billion tons" during the Secret Wars event.

4 Durability, Healing Factor & Resurrection

Nothing Can Stop the Immortal Hulk

In his 'Savage Hulk' form, the Hulk's skin is almost unbreakable, becoming one of the hardest substances on Earth. That alone would seem like enough protection, but Hulk's powers are actually most impressive when he is injured.

On those occasions, Hulk has demonstrated an incredible healing factor that can regrow the majority of his skin and musculature in seconds. However, even on those occasions where healing isn't enough, Hulk can still come back. In Al Ewing and Joe Bennett's Immortal Hulk series, Hulk learned that he literally can't die. No matter what happens to his body, his consciousness will return to the Below Place, where he spends an indeterminate amount of time before rising again.

Despite being burned down to a skeleton by the U-Foes' cosmic radiation (his biggest weakness) and shot in the brain by Hawkeye's adamantium arrow, Hulk has returned to life again and again. And if the experiences of other gamma mutates like his father Brian Banner and ally Doc Samson are anything to go by, even if Hulk's body is completely destroyed, he can use the Below Place to steal that of anyone else connected to the eldritch realm.

Hulk's adaptive mutation allows his body to grow unique new organs when it's a matter of survival.

3 Immortality

Hulk Will Live Forever (Whether He Wants to or Not)

While Hulk can heal and resurrect, these powers become something of a curse when combined with his immortality. While Bruce Banner can age in human form, Hulk's healing factor and inhuman metabolism mean that he doesn't age in his gamma form. This has been seen in Hulk's future self the Maestro (introduced in Peter David and George Pérez's The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1) and David and Dale Keown's Incredible Hulk: The End. Hulk's life will never naturally end, and there doesn't seem to be any way to kill him either - at least not in a way that sticks.

Whatever happens to Hulk, he's along for the ride until the end of the universe - a power which could allow Hulk to finally find lasting happiness or trap him in post-apocalyptic squalor, depending on how the human race treats the planet.

2 Infinite Stamina

Hulk's Stamina Is More Essential Than His Strength

Due to his healing, Hulk's body is essentially immune to the various natural chemicals that cause fatigue. Hulk has run and fought for days and weeks without any sign of tiring, and this ability (like his strength) appears to scale exponentially with his rage. Hulk also seems to have no real need for sleep or sustenance, again likely because he's drawing on the infinite energy of the Below Place.

While many beings in Marvel lore are incredibly strong, they all tire over enough time, however Hulk can continue to operate at his absolute peak indefinitely. As strong as Thor is, Hulk has beaten him before simply by outlasting the god and watching him collapse from exhaustion.

1 Adaptive Mutation

Hulk's Body Doesn't Follow Biological Rules

Easily Hulk's most versatile power is his adaptive mutation. In Marvel lore, Hulk's body is capable of making major adaptive changes to allow him to survive otherwise fatal experiences. These are few and far between given Hulk's durability and healing factor, however when the occasion calls for it, Hulk can rewrite all the rules of his biology.

The most famous example is Hulk's ability to breathe underwater. When he begins to drown, Hulk instead grows a new gland which feeds his lungs an "oxygenated perfluorocarbon emulsion," allowing him to survive indefinitely. However, Hulk has done even more extreme things - when the Hulk was beheaded in Al Ewing and Alan Davis' Ultron Forever event, he grew back Bruce Banner's head to keep his body functioning. Most dramatically, when vivisected in Immortal Hulk, Hulk was able to control his dismembered bodyparts despite them no longer being connected.

Hulk has explained in the past that he isn't governed by the laws of science like Bruce Banner, with the semi-mystical nature of gamma energy allowing him to push the boundaries of what's biologically possible. Hulk's separated body parts allowed him to not just break free from the speciment jars he'd been placed in, but to re-form around the scientist experimenting on him, essentially eating him alive.

As strong and powerful Hulk is, and as extreme as his immortality powers have become, the power to change his biology in essentially unlimited ways has to be counted as his best superpower. Surprisingly, it's also one of his least explored, and there's plenty of potential for future Hulk stories to dig into the triggers and limits of this sometimes terrifying but always fascinating ability - to vote below for what you consider Hulk's best power.