Warning: contains spoilers for Iron Man #14
The plethora of suits built by Iron Man have been incredibly useful in incapacitating any number of threats that face the Earth, but even Tony Stark admits that his Hulkbuster armor is absolute trash. The Hulk is one of the strongest characters in the Marvel Universe, sometimes using that strength for good while fighting alongside the Avengers, but oftentimes his rage goes out of control sparking retaliation from the rest of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. To help mitigate the damage caused by the Hulk in any given situation, Iron Man built Hulkbuster armor, but as both the Hulk and Iron Man just pointed out in both of their latest comics, that suit is basically worthless when it comes to achieving its objective.
In Iron Man #14 written by Christopher Cantwell with art by Cafu and Angel Unzueta, Iron Man is taken on a high-concept Sci-Fi ride through the subconscious history of his own life, flying through different events and time periods. At one point, Stark crashes into a pile of his older suits, with the Hulkbuster front and center on the panel. After he crashes, Iron Man looks at the suits and calls them all piles of junk, which is a sentiment with which the Hulk vehemently agrees.
In Hulk #1 by Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley, Bruce Banner has found a way to pilot the Hulk while also enhancing the monster’s strength through high-tech implants. The Avengers quickly act in response to the Hulk’s increase in strength, sending Iron Man in his Hulkbuster armor to take the Hulk down. While fighting, the Hulk tells Iron Man that the Hulkbuster armor has never worked, saying what Iron Man himself said in his own comic, that the suit is garbage. The Hulkbuster even proves its worthlessness even more as the fight progresses, proving Hulk and Iron Man’s view of the armor as correct.
While fighting the Hulk in his all-new series, Iron Man doesn’t just use one Hulkbuster, but four altogether. While they packed a bit more of a punch than one suit alone, the Hulk still chopped through them without much effort. Even multiplying the suits couldn’t take down the Hulk, and perhaps Tony needs to consider a name change to the bulky suit of useless armor.
From Iron Man saying it in his comic to the Hulk driving the point home by proving it in his latest issue, the Hulkbuster armor does not do what it was designed for to the point where calling it by its name is something of a misnomer. While the armor matches the size of the Hulk, it has never managed to match the Strongest Avenger’s power even with added firearm upgrades and duplicates. Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor is trash, and even Iron Man admitted it.