Few beings on Earth are capable of surviving a fight with Hulk, but there is a power capable of ending the Emerald Goliath. Bad luck for Iron Man, who needs to face this energy, which is in the hands of his newest enemy — worse, Tony Stark has to do this with his armor very weak.
Beware of spoilers for Invincible Iron Man #5!
Recently, Tony Stark was attacked by the villainous Feilong, a billionaire who hates mutants and gained powers by experimenting on his own body. In The Invincible Iron Man # 5Iron Man discovers that, on a trip to Mars, Feilong channeled the cosmic rays that created the Fantastic Four through ruby-quartz lenses, giving him the ability to release devastating green stellar energy.
This energy has killed powerful superhumans, and is the Hulk’s only physical weakness. This is because the gamma radiation that created the Emerald Goliath is the opposite of cosmic radiation, which makes it the only type of energy capable of weakening or even killing Bruce Banner’s alter-ego.
This has already been proven in The Immortal Hulk #45, in the plot in which the Alien group (or U-Foes) managed to cross the body of the Emerald Goliath with those same cosmic rays. Thus, to defeat Feilong, Iron Man needs to use the opposite energy, gamma radiation – but in the correct dose, since an overload can create another Hulk.
This polarity between cosmic rays and gamma radiation is Marvel once again bringing science closer to something close to magic. And it’s an interesting weakness for the Hulk — in fact, if Stark manages to understand and control this strength, he may have in his arsenal a powerful weapon to neutralize the Emerald Goliath in the future.
