The far reaches of the Marvel Universe are filled with the kind of threats that far outclass anything that can be found on Marvel’s main Earth. In 2010’s The Thanos Imperative, by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Miguel Angel Sepulveda, Brad Walker and Andrew Hennesy, nightmarish, undying creatures from the Cancerverse dimension gave the Guardians of the Galaxy their most dire struggle yet. Amidst all of the interdimensional fighting, one unlikely four-legged hero, Cosmo the Space Dog, killed a Hulk, one of the most powerful beings in any universe.
Following the events of Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest, The Thanos Imperative is the reality-shattering culmination of all of those stories. A rift known as the Fault has opened in deep space, releasing countless horrific beings and Lovecraftian monsters into the Marvel Universe. Every major cosmic player was involved in fighting against the nightmare incursion: Quasar, Nova, Silver Surfer, Gladiator, Galactus, the Celestials themselves and the Guardians of the Galaxy, among many more. As the battles in the Marvel Universe rage on, the Guardians of the Galaxy venture into the Cancerverse itself in an effort to stop the invasion at its source, where they encounter the Cancerverse’s warped versions of Marvel heroes.
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The Cancerverse is an entire universe where Death no longer exists. Life, left unchecked and free to run rampant, has grown twisted in its endless growth, spreading and distorting like cancer. The Guardians of the Galaxy are confronted by the Cancerverse equivalents of the Earth’s classic Defenders: The Hulk, Dr. Strange, Hellcat, Namor and Valkyrie, who are all perverted and evil to their core. The Cancerverse champions fight as well as their 616 counterparts, but Cosmo, the Russian Space Dog, achieves a very surprising victory. As the Cancerverse Hulk roars before him, he drops dead to the ground without warning. Cosmo states simply, “I reach in his head, make him stroke out. It painless way to go.”
Regardless of his incarnation or home universe, the Hulk has always stood as one of the most incredibly powerful beings of all time. Virtually invulnerable to all forms of damage, a strength that literally knows no bounds, able to survive the vacuum of space and occasionally possessing Bruce Banner’s unparalleled mind, the Hulk is someone no one would ever want as a foe. However, Cosmo was able to reach into the Hulk’s brain and kill him instantly with somewhat standard telepathic powers.
Like the Cancerverse’s other residents, the Cancerverse Hulk seemed to die for only a second before rising again, shedding its Hulk form for something that looked as if it crawled directly out of Hell. It is possible that the Cancerverse Hulk was more vulnerable to telepathic attacks than the 616 Hulk is, hence why Cosmo was able to put him down so easily.
Even before his mythology got tied up with the One-Below-All in Immortal Hulk, the Hulk was hard to kill. But if Cosmo does in fact possess that kind of power, then that makes the little pooch one of the most potent psionics in the entire Marvel Universe.
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