Warning: contains spoilers for Avengers: Twilight #6!For all of Avengers history, fans have debated who is the team’s strongest hero: the Asgardian God of Thunder Thor or the gamma-irradiated rage monster known as the Hulk. Now, Thor proves they’ve been focused on the wrong thing, revealing exactly how he’d kill the Hulk, without needing superior strength to do it. Thor’s method is incredibly dark, but it is fair, drawing on the character’s oldest lore to execute his friend-turned-enemy.

In Avengers: Twilight #6, Hulk is unleashed like never before. Brainwashed by the Red Skull and Ultron, Hulk has been turned into a weapon of mass destruction – a secret weapon that has toppled nations and claimed countless lives. While Thor tries to keep Hulk from causing further damage, the Green Goliath keeps escaping his grasp, injuring more and more innocents. Hurt, exhausted and seeing no other way, Thor tackles the Hulk into the ocean, placing Mjolnir on his chest to drown his former teammate.

Mjolnir was famously enchanted by All-Father Odin, making it so that only those who are worthy of Thor’s power can lift it. One of the most powerful spells in Marvel history, cast by a creator god and strengthened by Thor’s mythic status among humankind, Mjolnir’s enchantment makes it impossible to lift, even by superstrong beings like the Hulk.

Thor Can Drown the Hulk Using Mjolnir’s Enchantment

Hulk May Be Strong, But Even He Can’t Lift Mjolnir

Avengers: Twilight takes place in a possible future where America has turned against its heroes. A disastrous event known as ‘H-Day’ saw the Avengers battling an army of villains, ending with a rampage by the Hulk, who had been brainwashed by Ultron. Utter destruction followed, and the surviving Avengers were reviled by the public, who supported SHIELD in banning super-powered vigilantes in every form. In the decades since, SHIELD has become a fascistic organization, while Red Skull has worked behind the scenes, imprisoning Ultron, raising Tony Stark’s son, and worming his way into the upper echelons of power.

One way that Red Skull cemented his place in this new world was by selling the Hulk’s services to the American government. Still afflicted by Ultron’s programming, Hulk could be dropped into rival nations to cause utter devastation, while Red Skull’s propaganda ensured that normal Americans didn’t know what was being done in their name. In Avengers: Twilight #1, an aging Steve Rogers caught wind of the lies and chaos behind the scenes, assembling a new Avengers roster to fight back.

Now, in their final battle, the team go up against Red Skull – now sporting his own Iron Man suit – as well as Tony’s embittered son James Stark and the Hulk. While the main team battle Skull, Thor takes on Hulk by himself, attempting to carry the Green Goliath somewhere he can’t hurt civilians. In the midst of their fight, Bruce Banner regains enough control to beg Thor to kill him, unable to live with the destruction he’s caused since the two last met. Thor doesn’t agree easily, but as his injuries from the fight begin to catch up with him, he chooses to fall back on his last advantage, placing Mjolnir on Hulk’s chest and following him down into the depths.

It’s clear that while Thor tried to spare the Hulk first, he’s known for a while exactly how he’d dispatch the Green Goliath if he needed to, suggesting this method is already in the back of Thor’s mind in Marvel’s main continuity. It’s a truly tragic ending for the Hulk, who has been forced to live out his worst nightmare for decades. Bruce Banner has long seen himself as a monster because of the destruction caused by the Hulk – being weaponized to kill his friends, cause the dissolution of the Avengers, and terrorize the entire world for years on end is everything he ever feared.

Thor & Hulk’s Rivalry Is One of Marvel’s Oldest

The Strongest Avengers Have Clashed Since the Team Began

Hulk and Thor have had a rocky relationship over their Marvel history, first meeting when they each joined the Avengers in Avengers #1 from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Hulk quit the team almost immediately after realizing they’d never trust him, and Avengers #3 saw his first true battle with Thor – the first of many. From the Avengers/Defenders War to the recent ‘Banner of War’ crossover, the Hulk and Thor have clashed again and again. While the two were originally introduced as near-equals, Hulk has outstripped Thor in terms of pure strength over the years, leaving the God of Thunder not as his physical equal, but simply the one Avenger who can take more than a few of his blows and survive. Of course, Thor has other ways of evening the odds, thanks to his control over the elements and enchanted weaponry.

No hero vs hero fight is ever truly definitive, and there are nitpicks fans could raise with how this battle ends. Past stories have shown Hulk being able to hold his breath for an incredibly long time, allowing him to travel underwater or even in space without incident. Similarly, Donny Cates and Martin Coccolo’s recent Hulk vs. Thor: Banner of War Alpha #1 saw Thor use this same trick to pin Hulk to the ground with Mjolnir, only for the Jade Giant to push himself up so hard that the hammer tore a hole through his body, allowing him to escape without technically moving it (though at the time, Bruce Banner was in control of Hulk’s body, allowing for more creative uses of his powers.)

In those examples, Hulk had enough time and advantage to prepare his response, and it’s believable that in taking a raging, out-of-control Hulk by surprise, Thor would be successful. Making their struggle even darker, it’s worth noting that all of Hulk’s tactics for escaping his Avengers: Twilight fate would require him to want to survive.

Thor Is the Avengers’ Lethal Enforcer

The God of Thunder Is Willing to Kill Major Threats… Including His Fellow Heroes

Thor killing the Hulk may be a tragic moment in their history, but it’s not out of character for the God of Thunder. An ancient warrior who has spent far more time on battlefields than as a superhero, Thor is willing to kill for the greater good, even though he tries to show mercy where possible. Thor has taken the lead in killing villains like the Builders and the Serpent, while also recently executing Galactus and slaughtering an army of Frost Giants while in a berserker rage – he even got to strike the killing blow against Thanos in the MCU. However, Thor isn’t just the Avengers’ lethal enforcer when it comes to villains – he also has a history of killing his fellow heroes.

Given his power, it often falls to Thor to fight back against his fellow heroes when they step out of line, and when an Avenger needs to die, they often meet their end via Mjolnir. Thor famously killed Sentry in Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel’s Siege, and seemingly killed the Wasp in Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu’s Secret Invasion (though it was later discovered she’d survived his deadly cyclone by shrinking beyond the subatomic level.) A clone of Thor lacking his experiences as a human killed Goliath in Civil War, while Thor was lucky to avoid killing Captain America in Geoff Johns and Alan Davis’ ‘Standoff’ crossover, thankfully only denting Steve Rogers’ shield with his rage-filled swing.

As a god, immortal and ruler, Thor is used to making terrible decisions with the fates of millions on the line, and that’s what he does once again in Avengers: Twilight, ending his rivalry with Hulk and Bruce Banner’s suffering with a darkly creative use of Mjolnir.

Avengers: Twilight #6 is available now from Marvel Comics.