- Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross is the Red Hulk in the comics and in Captain America Brave New World.
- His powers are rooted in Gamma Rays mixed with Cosmic Rays.
- However, Red Hulk's weakness is him literally overheating because of his anger.
With 2025, there are multiple insanely good releases lined up for release and one of them is Captain America: Brave New World. This movie has a lot of debuts but the most anticipated one is the appearance of Red Hulk. However, since this is the first cinematic debut of the character, a lot of people might not be aware of the origin, powers, and weaknesses of Red Hulk in Marvel comics. So, if you are one of these people, let me provide you with a one-stop answer to all your questions!
What Is the Origin of the Red Hulk in Marvel?
The origin of the Red Hulk, who made his first appearance in Hulk #1 (2008), is rooted in angst and enmity Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross had against the Hulk. In the Marvel universe, Ross was looking over the creation of a Gamma Bomb and resented Bruce Banner because Bruce was given authority over Ross for the project. However, there was an accident that turned Banner into The Hulk. Since that mishap, Ross has been obsessed with capturing the Hulk and he also resented the romance between Bruce and his daughter Betty.
In The Incredible Hulk (2008) and its sequel, we saw how deeply Ross hated The Hulk and Bruce Banner but everything that turned him into the Red Hulk happens after the events portrayed in the movie. So, we will have to dive deeper into the comic book world to get the complete story of how Ross turned into the Red Hulk.
To take down the Hulk, Ross formed alliances with known enemies of the state like The Leader and Abomination. Eventually, one of his alliances backfires and he ends up killing an innocent man who was probably Bruce’s only friend. However, Bruce forgives Ross eventually and the latter gives his blessings to Bruce and Betty before dying.
However, Ross was brought back to life by The Leader in hopes of using him as his puppet but that did not work out. Even though Ross and Bruce become friends, Betty’s death due to Gamma poisoning brings Ross back to his old way of being hell-bent on the destruction of The Hulk. To take down Hulk, Ross took M.O.D.O.K’s help and used the organization Intelligentsia’s equipment to replicate Bruce’s accident and also used cosmic rays to give Ross the powers of the Red Hulk.
In the case of Captain America: Brave New World, this story will most probably be changed since this is a lot to bring forth in one single flick. However, since Liv Tyler is returning as Betty in the cast of Captain America Brave New World, the possibility is that she will appear in flashbacks giving us the story of why Ross turned himself into the crimson brute.
What Powers Does Red Hulk Have?
The Red Hulk has almost every power the Hulk has and some more. He possesses superhuman strength exceeding that of Hulk, he also possesses extremely enhanced healing and on top of that when Red Hulk gets angry his skin gives out intense heat which he can also fire as heat rays from his eyes, often accounted as Red Hulk’s greatest power. His heat projection is strong enough to turn sand into glass.
What Are the Weaknesses of Red Hulk?
Red Hulk does not have a lot of weaknesses but the one he has is rooted in his powers itself. When he gets angry, his skin generates intense heat but when he gets too angry, the heat becomes too much even for him and starts to weaken him. Other than that, he is also weak to the Negative Zone Energy which drains him of his powers.
Talking about Captain America: Brave New World, it’s highly unlikely that we are going to be introduced to the negative zone so we could see his literal overheating as his only weakness. Marvel has a habit of changing origin stories so let’s wait and see what happens in the movie and stay tuned with us for any updates regarding this upcoming MCU flick!
