While Marvel history did not necessarily repeat itself in the Ultimate Marvel universe, there were always similarities. In both worlds, Tony Stark created specialized armors meant to take on out-of-control teammates as the situation demanded. In the mainstream universe, Iron Man had access to a Hulkbuster armor meant to withstand the might of his green-skinned teammate, the Hulk In the Ultimate Universe, Stark instead employed a Thorbuster armor that was meant to take on his world’s version of the God of Thunder, Thor.
The Hulkbuster rarely proves able of containing the rage of the Hulk, and the Thorbuster did not fare much better as it proved to be a simple matter for an angry God of Thunder to make quick work of the armor.
The showdown occurred in Jeph Loeb and Frank Cho’s Ultimate Comics New Ultimates #5 in 2011. The story comes on the heels of Thor’s return from death battling endless hordes in the afterlife. Following the death of his mortal love Valkyrie and the machinations by his trickster brother Loki, the God of Thunder goes into such an uncontrollable bloodlust that his own teammates rush to stop him. The problem is they just don’t have the power to do so.
Thor conjured a storm that ripped apart the city streets before slapping Captain America away and disabling Iron Man’s usual armor with a lightning bolt. Thor proved further invulnerable to harm as Hawkeye failed to land a hit on the God of Thunder and even the Power Princess Zarda failed to meaningfully damage him. His former armor reduced to uselessness, Tony Stark revealed a secret weapon: the Thorbuster armor.
Tony Stark explains that he came up with the idea in looking for a means to stop the Hulk. Because the Hulk gets stronger the angrier he gets Stark needed a way for his own armor to become stronger throughout combat, giving him the idea to design an armor that could absorb the energy Thor created with his lightning. The armor proves effective at absorbing Thor’s energy attacks, but the solution to beating it proves obvious to the enraged God of Thunder.
Furious at Stark’s attack, Thor simply grabbed the Thorbuster armor in his bare hands, ripping it apart to reveal the vulnerable inventor within. Stark’s only recourse at that point was to beg for mercy, trying to break Thor out of his berserker rage by reminding him that he was supposed to be the conscience of the team. The tactic proves effective at delaying Thor just long enough for Valkyrie to make her return from death, executing Loki as an agent of Hela while simultaneously freeing Thor from his enraged mindset. In the end, the crisis subsides, and the one-of-a-kind Iron Man armor is never seen again.
Perhaps most curious is that although Stark refers to the possibility of building armor to take down the Hulk the Ultimate iteration never showcased the armor. While Hulkbuster armor may be a classic Marvel concept it was never seen in the 1610 universe, and despite the Ultimate Hulk later becoming an outright villain later in the continuity the idea for Thor and Tony to cooperate on empowering such an armor never came up again.
It’s not hard to see why, given how ineffective the armor proved to be against Thor. Hulk proved his physical superiority to Thor on more than one occasion, so the armor may have been discarded as a failed experiment in the wake of Thor ripping it apart. And while it may stand as a lackluster showing on the part of the 1610’s most charismatic inventor, its scraps remain a testament to the godly power of the Norse legend.
About The Author