How would a "realistic" superhero setting look like? I don't think they would wear funny costumes like spiderman

How would a "realistic" superhero setting look like? I don't think they would wear funny costumes like spiderman.

>Superheroes
>Realistic
Get the fuck out of here, people like you ruined the comics.

>Realistic
>Superheroes
It wouldn't look like anything because it doesn't exist.

If you mean edgy 90s tacticool shit, or stuff like The Boys, then you have examples of that already.

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OP, they're mocking you because you need to be more specific, we're all autists here.

Do you want a setting with superpowers, but otherwise realistic? Do you want a setting with super heroes (not necessarily super powers) but otherwise realistic?

Is this for a M&M game, or should you be asking /co/?

>HOI GUISE WOT IF SUPER HEWOS WERE LIKE WEELISTICK

tumblr is that way.

Pic related is what you are looking for.

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There are superpowers, but otherwise realistic. And yes it is for M&M.

This is a real life vigilante. No spandex involved.

Would it really be automatically dark?

Unironically lowered the quality of DC after it was released. Every comic afterward had to be grim and dark and not hopeful or optimistic at all. it's only with Rebirth that things have gotten a bit more positive.

Season 1 of Heroes is a good example of a low-camp, down to earth style supers plot.

The rest of the series is garbage though.

well you know what, I WOULD wear a funny costume just to spite fags like you who think every superhero should go around in jeans and an ironic t-shirt while throwing cars at their nemeses and jumping over the local post office to get to work every day

So, is vigilantism allowed? Do you want to run a slice of life game where Greg can peer into the gap between dimensions to sort mail for the office, and Lena really doesn't have a good use for super strength as a barber?

Are your players normal people, super powered people, vigilantes, super heroes, police, soldiers, contractors, or some combination there of? There's about a million pieces of fiction on the internet covering most combinations you could name.

To answer these questions, you need to look at the type of game you want to run, and build a setting which suits it. Once you're working on the setting to match your game, you need to determine how and why some people shoot lasers out their asses.

>I don't think they would wear funny costumes like spiderman.

Season 1 is pretty bad too, at least if you take it as a whole. The earlier episodes were awkward and poorly paced.

Alphas was an okay stab at realistic Xmen. None of the powers were at insane levels and no one wore costumes.

Not great, but worth a watch if that's a thing you're interested in.

>"imagine.."
>"NO"

Some would, some wouldn't. Spiderman's reasons for wearing his costume are rather sensible.

I would say you could make most superhero settings more realistic by simply having the government give anyone with superpowers a monthly stripend in exchange for not doing crime, with penalties for collateral damage done while crimefighting, and bonuses for doing more direct jobs for them.

>I don't think they would wear funny costumes like spiderman.
I think they might.

Making yourself unrecognizeable makes sense, so you can lead a double life where one is almost normal, and so you can protect your loved ones.

The costume doesn't have to be funny for that though, just a mask.

But image is important and people are swayed by superficial looks, so if the superhero is brightly colored it probably helps to get people on his side.

I guess you can either go for fear or love there with the design.

Tiger and Bunny, essentially.

Take the premise of Xmen, but people see the whole 'they will be fucking terrified of mutants' thing coming a mile away and launch a massive cultural campaign to change the public perspective of powered people towards being Heroes.

Professional Heroes present a good public face for powered people via reality television crimefighting shows, where every 'season' the heroes earn points by apprehending criminals and rescuing people.

Having powers doesn't always lend you to crime fighting, because most people don't get "immune to bullets" for free just because they can control win or whatever. So everyone wears gadget-laden armor on top of their powers that synergizes with their abilities. For example, one guy can produce fire on command. You know what power he didn't get? Immunity to fire. So his suit protects him from that, and other stuff.

Only the strong and flashy powers make it on TV, but strong and flash often means collateral damage. Which someone has to pay for, and the hero is technically liable for all of that. So ever hero has multiple corporate sponsors that cover their damages and pay for their gear, in return for free advertising plastered all over their super-suit.

That's right, every hero is Captain Amazing from Mystery Men.

Wildcards sorta does it. Mostly focused in the psychological consequences, supers getting caught up in geopolitics, and weird fucking sex scenes because this shit is edited by GRRM.

>a monthly stripend in exchange for not doing crime
>Lots of people try to claim to have super powers to try to scam the system
>Government agency is set up to determine what is and is not a real superpower
>Some folks with actual super powers get rejected on technicalities, because they were not able to perform for the agency, or not meeting some supposed minimum threat threshold
>Some of these rejects DO turn out to be a credible threat, but their powers are all stupid and wonky (like, making people allergic to longhaired cats, really good luck that only kicks in right before they would suffer serious bodily harm, and being able to throw articles of clothing with pinpoint precision)
>PCs are normie special forces tasked with subduing the rejects when they start to cause a problem

Go to bed John Lennon, you're dead.

Worm is not realistic in the slightest.

OP said realistic.

I think the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the nearest we've gotten. I'm talking about the Disney produced one, fuck the Fox one except for LOGAN and LEGION and DEADPOOL.
my mutant friend


I think the Rules for the Marvel Cinematic Universe are:
>Everyone Ages, even superheroes retire but there is always someone ready to step in
>The Past is the Same as the real world but with extra participants
>Private Funding and Government Approval doesn't last forever
>Alien Invasions led by a Norse God of Trickery can drive property values down

Except all it takes for that to fall through is a few actual psychics or people with the ability to detect when people are lying.

Even if you're just relying on basic beuracrats who only work ofd of the obvious, it's still going to fulfill the goal of getting Mr. Explosive punches to not rob banks and just sit around in a nice townhouse instead. The person with powers subtle enough that they can't be demonstrated is either going to be a non-threat crime-wise, or is going to use their powers to rob something, which proves they work, which means now they qualify.

Well, was a bad example. Wanted to write "I don't think they would wear capes" but changed it because of the picture.

That is one Based idea right there.
I will remember this one

Those are fair points, but you are assuming a competent government agency and not one that is in a comedy game, when it pretty clearly was by the time I got to "Make people allergic to cats" as a power.

If you really need a good excuse for why the bureaucracy doesn't work just assume the bill got poison pilled in congress by people who were against the concept of "paying people to not break the law".

Worm's a reconstruction, basically going, "The world needs to have"

>Costumes
>Teams
>Reed Richards is Useless
>Giant Monster Attacks
>Everyone has a goddamn tragic Backstory
>Bad Guys outnumber Good Guys 5:1 or so
>Revolving Door Jails
>Bad guys aren't killed
>Supers aren't unmasked and pursued in civilian mode
>Joker Expy

And then building that, trying to make sense of it backwards.

A realistic superhero setting goes if A then B.

Worm states what B is and shows values for A in which B is true

Maybe cults? Church of Superman and the like.

It doesn't even compare to S2+ though.

Fair enough. The main goal of the striped thing is to allow for a realistic game that doesn't go into weird grimdark territory where you'd get x-men style us vs. them mentality, which doesn't lend itself as well to costumed vigilantes.

State-funded superheroes is the easiest way to justify relative stability.

I think they would wear uniforms so that law enforcement and civilians could tell they were heroes.

>need to be paid a stipend to not commit crimes
I'd find that incredibly patronizing and would reject the offer.

Any kind of world is realistic when Everything has already been meticulously planned out by space whales that are throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and later psudo-enforced by the interdimensional illuminati's 'i win' girl.

If you mean a world full of superhumanly powerful people, then they'd just take over. Not all at once, but eventually we'd end up with basically a new feudal system with meta-humans filling the role of the aristocracy and normies as the surfs and peasants.

Are you familiar with the gist of 'Injustice gods among us'? If not; Superman decides that with great power comes great responsibility, and since he has all the powers he should also have all the responsibility, and promptly takes over the world to put a permanent end to wars, tyranny, and such.

In the story-line this is triggered by a traumatic event (The Joker kills Lois Lane, her unborn baby, and nuke Metropolis), and Superman's plan is resisted by some other capes, but it could just as easily happened by Supes just realising that, by inaction, he's responsible for all the wars, oppressive governments, acts of genocide, and all the other stuff that only exists in the real world because there's no big, blue, man in tiny, red, underpants who can swoop in and stop them by pulling limitless super-powers out of his Kryptonian bunghole.

Also, rather than just Batman and chums opposing him for philosophical reasons, there would more likely have been other groups of capes trying to take over the world 'for its own good' and run it in the way *they* think it should be run. This would inevitably escalate into a super-powered world war, with different groups of supers carving up the globe into their own territories.

If super-humans have always existed in this 'realistic' world of yours, then they'd simply have always been the god-king rulers of humans: If they're supposed to have been a recent occurrence (some comics depict them has having emerged just around/slightly before WWII, contemporaneously with super-hero comics in the real world), then it probably wouldn't take too long before some of them (especially the more powerful ones) followed the same logic as Injustice-Superman, and took over the shop.

Cond.

Either way; if you have a significant minority of the population who are so physically powerful that even a large, organised, group of well-armed humans can't bring one of them to heel, then they will inevitably take over sooner or later.

On the other hand; if they're not so very powerful, then they'd probably just end up being folded into special units in the military / police. Those who just want to live a normal life would likely be heavily monitored by the government.

Whatever the case, the comic book world of masked vigilanties punching men in tights to solve all of society's problems is simply pure fantasy.

The answer is Grrl Power.

It's spelled "serfs".

Well, good for you, but some people might be more tempted to use their abilities to make a quick buck. Plus that's why the other incentives are there.

But, say you suddenly find yourself with the powers of the Human Torch. Whqt do you do after slamming the door in the government representitive's face upon their offer of money?

Whoops.

Well, now I just feel silly.
At least I know for another time.

man FUCK worm.

I mean I love it, but like it has some really trash parts to it

I'm legit so happy it didn't get a third season. I can't honestly see the S2 ending turning into anything good, it just opens the door for more bullshit. 2 seasons and it's gone fulfills me in ways I can't put into words.

If it was "realistic", then they'd look worse.

I imagine that if people with powers began emerging, the world governments would all take different action.

I think the US, China, N. Korea and Russia would militarize it however they can. Less war inclined countries may have less regulation, and more collateral damage. Middle Eastern countries may execute them.

A realistic take on powers should involve political and social intrigue, and more of a human vs metahuman feel, than meta/meta. Try to imagine how the would would react if this happened today.

Watch the movie Unbreakable. It's fantastic and I think it's what you're looking for.

The TV show Heroes might also fit the bill, if you look only at the setting. Just disregard the shit writing and all that stuff about fate

/thread

If people with powers emerged it would be as influential as the invention firearms.
Governments would scramble to weaponize them but revolutions would pop up even more than usual.

>Kills drug addics or even just suspects without due process, but not big time drug lords.
>Kowtows to the Communist Chinese and the New People's Army.
>Has an army of paid trolls and propagandists to smear anyone who cirticizes him.
>Is a paid puppet of the pkundering Marcos family.
>Pardons corrpt government officials.

I'll never undertand why you Westerners idolize this garbage human so much.

You can sort of see it in real life too. Billionaires and multi-millionaires are essentially super-humans, they have abilities to affect society to much greater degree than regular folks. They can generally escape any kind of societal repercussions like the legal system, covertly in the 1st world countries and overtly elsewhere. Adding super strength or invisibility would only make it worse.

OP asked what realistic capeshit would be like. Vigilantes in real life are mostly death squads and KKK types.

Only the State can dole out justice. Any supers with powers beyond mundane things like "keeping breath under water for 12 minutes" or "having 15" cock" should be isolated or removed else society will inevitably collapse.

I really liked that Superman because he lost most of his powers but still kept trying to be Superman. It made him a little more down to earth.

I lost track of it after the wrestling with deities though.

Worm hardly has any thought put into it. It's a particularly poor example of world construction, and you are basically just trying to retroactively decide what it tried to include when it simply is a mess of ideas haphazardly slapped together by an amateur author.

>simply having the government give anyone with superpowers a monthly stripend in exchange for not doing crime

That's the stupidest sentence I have read on Veeky Forums those past three months. Congratulation. It is so incredibly stupid, so mind-boggling retarded, I can't even think about where to start. It's that moronic. Congratulation. I mean it. Something that low is almost a piece of art.

So, where to start.

In a realistic setting, either the government can enforce social order against superhuman (possible by using other superhumans), or it can't.

In the first case, if a superhuman commits a crime, he goes to jail. It works like real life. In the second case, if a superhuman commits a crime, too bad, there's literally nothing the government can do. And certainly not remove its monthly allowance.

Giving money in exchange for not doing crime is unworkable, unsustainable, and useless. How does the government decide you are not doing crime? And if you are, why aren't you behind bars right now? If it can't enforce laws, why should you care about stipends? You are making money selling drugs and whatever. If it can enforce laws, why should it care about making you stipends for being a citizen?

Let's say that you did commit a crime, the government decide to stop giving you money (and not jailing you, because...?), and then... well, you steal that money, of course. Because, you know, you're a criminal, you steal.

What a well thought incentive for being cooperative.

Exactly; this is why I've always had so much difficult getting into X-men comics: I've never for an instant bought into the 'mutants/racism' analogy; minorities are picked on because they're *powerless* not *powerful*:

A powerful minority is called an aristocracy.

This.

As I said in and If the supers in question are powerful enough that they're above the law, then sooner or later they take over.

If they're not that powerful, then we just end up with everything much the same as it is now, except with super SWAT teams and Navy Seals / S.A.S. / Spetsnaz teams with laser-vision & super-strength.

The writing isn't the best but I think Uber shows how brutal war with super-soldiers would actually be.

haven't red that but there's a scene in Justice League Gods and Monsters where Batman is helplessly trying to prevent a bunch of people from being torn apart by super robots that reminds me of that picture. People being burned to death by heat rays, having hands thrust through their chests, torn in half, etc.

Depends on the level of power
If low then the government steps in and does all the shady shit it wants to try and control supers
If high then the supers can do whatever they want and no one but other supers can stop them

If I woke up tomorrow with X-ray Vision and nothing else I would never let anyone know about it. EVER because i would fear for my life if the government caught wind
If I woke up tomorrow with all the powers of Superman the first thing I would do is go rip the roof off the U.N. General Assembly and declare myself a Sovereign Nation and if anyone fucks with me it's war and they'd have to take it because nothing they could do would stop me

They would probably operate somewhat like Lobster Johnson. Instead of working completely alone, he has a whole team of people helping him out, gathering information helping him prepare for actions etc, running smaller errands while he is busy with something bigger etc. He's the only one actually putting on the suit and risking his skin, but he couldn't possibly take care of everything by himself.

>It made him a little more down to earth.
Superman is already pretty damn down to earth even when he's fully powered. His problems are the same as those every person faces, just on a much greater scale; Superman still has to walk his dog, except his dog can fly through space and the walk is a trip around the solar system; Superman's family comes to visit, only they come from the 61st millenium and happen to drag an interdimensional time demon with them; and of course, no matter how powerful he is as Superman, he's still just a dork who doesn't have the guts to ask the woman of his dreams out on a date as Clark Kent.

Compare that to Batman who as a superhero gets to meet fetishy supervillain women dressed in latex suits and drive around in cars cooler than the ones reserved for James Bond, and who as Bruce Wayne is a multi billionaire who gets to date supermodels and drive around in cars cooler than those reserved for James Bond.

A costume has many purposes,to identify yourself as a hero while concealing your true identity so people don't bother you on the streets, sure. But if vigilantism is illegal, wouldn't you wear a mask so you don't go down for doing what you feel is the right thing?

Maybe the biggest reason to wear a costume as a superhero is money. If I'm out there fighting a super villain, and my power is super strength and I'm hucking fucking cars and shit around in the battle, you better believe I'm wearing a mask, because I don't want to be held responsible for property damage.

Yes, yes user HOWEVER.

It's funny how it ended up shitting on the DC versions of the Charlton characters it copied.

Agree with you on that one.

What Worm does correctly is providing an explanation for powers that, although pure fantasy, is actually coherent. Making them sentient and with enough processing power to simulate universes explains where supers get their power, why they are limited in such bizarre ways, why they have secondary powers that allows them to, say, being a speedster without dying from the air friction.

Not that it's a novel idea. Trace already did it, and is in fact a huge inspiration for several Worm characters.

Come on, imagine shit happening in metahumen getto where most of the population live on foodstamps, and what kind of cops patrol that area.

>If super-humans have always existed in this 'realistic' world of yours, then they'd simply have always been the god-king rulers of humans:

this is pretty much the plot of the game Tyranny

Are they throwing the bullets at her or something?

Don't forget "Russia is still sitting on its ass".

It would be like Unbreakable.

I'm playing in a campaign at the moment that toys with this idea a bit, but errs a bit closer to comics than reality. The essentials that we're working on are:

> Heroes exist, people know about them and react according to their own personal values on the matter
> The government essentially has 'vigiliante contractors', who are hired and paid to dispose of particularly troublesome villains
> Interpol has a full time team of the most powerful heroes a la Justice League or the like who are just as versed politically as they are in crime-fighting
> Ultimately the world exists as it does today, but it's not mindblowing to see a team of robots doing someone's housework
> Most villains are in organised crime and for the most part keep largely to themselves, lesser villains will pay the kingpins for the right and protection to operate in their 'turf'
> The Metahuman Response Force is a branch of the police that are equipped and trained to deal with supers, including temporarily disabling their powers and keeping them in holding cells designed to suppress their powers even further
> Superheroes or superhero teams can register with the government and are effectively treated as corporations, involving a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy. Registering protects the hero/team to a degree financially regarding things like damages caused, and opens the team up to being contracted by the local Metahuman Response Force, which pays fairly well
> Teams can operate as 'shadow teams' without registering with the government, but they'll be held wholly responsible for any damages they cause, and if they cause too much collateral will be marked as villains. Plus no sweet government contracts.
> Magic and occult shit also exists as a facet of superhumans. It's not uncommon for demons to broker large deals between individuals. My character for example currently works on the side making deliveries for a Tempter Demon

Keep the players and their villains low-powered and you'll do fine.

I admittedly don't know all the intricacies yet, but when the current GM finishes the campaign I'm going to pick up a similar one in the same setting, so he's been piecemeal feeding me background info so I can start prepping for my side-story.

The problem is; if super-Yahweh doles out powers we wouldn't get the ultra-benevolent, volunteer-police, incorruptible, vigilantism we see in comics, if anything we'd get a grab-bag of more of the same vigilantes we see currently (i.e. violent weirdos pushing a political agenda at best, K.K.K. enforcers or similar at worst) but with super-powers, and starry-eyed idiots & autists trying to live out their comic-book fantasies in the real world. Neither of the above would turn out very well for anyone concerned (except maybe the violent loonies looking for an excuse to beat up / murder thier hate-figure minority of choice).

Not to mention, everyone has a different interpretation of 'the right thing', that's why we have the rule of law; it's the compromise we as a society have reached regarding how to deal with those who trespass against societal taboos, and what taboos should receive special protection.

This is the underlying flaw in all super-hero fiction; vigilantism is anathema to the rule of law, which is itself one of the fundamental cornerstones of a free and fair society: No one individual is supposed to have the right to decide what is & isn't illegal, or who is & isn't guilty, or to assign punishment to the guilty; only the legal system has that power. Likewise, the police are (in theory, at least) answerable for their actions, and transparent in their operation. The police exist to protect the citizenry from the criminal classes, the law exist to protect the citizenry from the police.

The vigilante (and especially the super-hero) is answerable only to his conscience (or at best, other, more powerful, super-heros), and history has shown time & again how that is a very bad idea for people in positions of power.

Isn't that Wild Cards?

Welcome to Veeky Forums.
Don't forget to ignore mtg card rules and never play D&D.

>Superheroes or superhero teams can register with the government and are effectively treated as corporations, involving a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy. Registering protects the hero/team to a degree financially regarding things like damages caused, and opens the team up to being contracted by the local Metahuman Response Force, which pays fairly well

Why?

I don't mean a meta-narrative why. You want your teams of superheroes in spandex fighting crimes, that's perfectly fine.

Realistically, no government in the world would endorse vigilantes and reimburse property damage caused by said vigilantes. There is absolutely no way a government would do that, except maybe if the leaders were mind-controlled by a shadow conspiracy.

An official, sanctioned organization of metahumans is infinitely more realistic than your contractor thing.

Find the reason why all your countries are quite literally losing their mind and it's a decent setting.

You don't have to be a vigilante to be a superhero. You could be a firefighter who can fly, or a cop who can run at super speed, or a rescue worker who can phase through walls, etc.

To be a superhero you need to have superpowers and the will to help. That's it.

>You could be a firefighter.

I had that in a Geist game once. A guy who burned to death in his childhood and was bound with a spirit of flame, water and...I can't recall the third one. They joined the firefighters to help keep other people from what they experianced.

The GM was kinda weirded out by the Geist being completely sane, well adjusted and with a day job.

There would definitely be costumes, especially if you go for realism, weaboos and yiffers exist remember? Now imagine them with capeshit powers. It would be the stuff of nightmares.

Again, not 100% on the intricacies, because I'm under the impression that the GM is still keeping details secret for the current campaign, but there are definitely still repercussions for teams that cause damage, be it a cooling off period wherein they're not offered contracts, or some other shit. There could very well be an official, sanctioned metahuman organization, but again, in-game we've always operated as a shadow team because paperwork is for nerds. Just stuff that hasn't come up.

> Find the reason why all your countries are quite literally losing their mind and it's a decent setting.
If our small fry team ever figures this one out I'll eat my hat and do a storytime.

The Amazing Speed Wolf slips on his 6 foot long cape, impales his disgusting sweaty fursuit onto a traffic sign pole, dies.

If some people suddenly got superpowers they likely wouldn't use them to commit or fight crime. Why would a guy that can bend steel in hands and run at supersonic speed use his powers to commit crimes when he could get rich by constructing buildings faster and cheaper than any regular human? And why would we want that guy to spend his time hunting criminal scum when that's such an inefficient use of his time.

like the all of it part. though like everyone i will admit that before he got into the details and self-admitted utter lack of plan, the hook portion of the story was aight.

Despite most people's addiction to social media shit, after some crime group whacks the first superheroes family, everyone will remember why masked super heroes are a thing in comic books.

Stealing from banks and the like is probably a lot more profitable, and can be done with all sorts of different superpowers, not all of which have a legal application.
For example, mind control would be super useful for illegal applications, but requires a lot of imagination to be able to apply to the private sector without breaking consent laws. Shooting energy out of your eyes is super useful for attacking people or breaking into places, but doesn't have a lot of openings on the private market. While a lot of powers do have marketable uses, many do not, or are simply easier to use illegally.

Okay.

>All metahumans need to be state registered, and their powers are carefully listed. Not doing it is literally a crime.
>Benign powers put you in the green list. Dangerous, pernicious, or otherwise violent powers put you in the red list. Potential economic destroying powers put you in the yellow list.
>Red listers are always accompanied by a 'power officer', who will periodically check on that person. Once every six months at the very least, sometimes every week if the person is himself dangerous/unstable.
>Technically, only government officials and the police should have access to the lists, but there's many scandals of company having access to them illegally.
>Many laws have been passed to define what constitutes an unlawful use of powers. Committing a crime with the help of metahuman powers is considered a very severe aggravating circumstance, often doubling or tripling the sentences.
>Many, many laws have been passed to frame the use of powers in companies. It's a hot topic, with companies lobbying to authorize or forbid the use of particular powers in finance, banking, construction, etc.

That's the absolute groundwork to have a semi-decent setting. Now you can start on what kind of organization you want to have, but as a rule: no vigilante, all crime fighting organization are either backed and controlled by the government or metahumans strong enough to basically say fuck it.

How would the government enforce such wide ranging control of people with powers?

Spiderman would have no chance against hulk, right?

By using the metahumans corps in police, force, and more force. How does a government prevent people with guns from enslaving people without guns and carving their own little nation?

Better question: if tomorrow people in the U.S suddenly started to develop powers, how would the gov react? You'd better believe that shit would need to be registered.

This is of course the 'nations still matter' route. The 'overlords win everywhere' has been discussed already. There's really only two realistic route this can go anyways.

Other people with powers?

I had a character for a mutants and masterminds game, he was an android (though I described him as a drone) created by the US government in an effort to gain a deterrent against foreign and domestic metas. His ability was just a power-muting field, and then he beats the shit out of them in hand to hand combat.

Spiderman could easily BTFO Hulk with his spidersense.

read worm

Not in a straight fight, but you could explain him out-smarting old Brucie once or twice.

Spiderman fights people stronger than himself all the time. Not as strong as the Hulk, but the same technique apply.

Given Spider-Man's tendency to troll the fuck out of his opponents, and the Hulk's tendency to gain strength from his anger, no. Hulk would fucking slaughter Spidey in pretty much every given situation.