Thor had dissapeared for the past 3 years or so due to Asgard facing Ragnarok. Up until this point he was the superman of the avengers, gets beat up a lot, but still by far the strongest go to character for w/e. In the history of Thor however, the one thing that always made him uber is his hammer. His hammer controls lightning, and cannot be picked up by anyone not worthy (like Excalibur). Beta Ray Bill, Steve Rogers, and Donald Blake were worthy, for good reason.
Hulk had failed to pick up and use the hammer even when really mad, Hyperion (Marvel's eternal/superman aside from sentry) couldn't pick up thor and the hammer, because the hammer has God-King magic. God-king magic as has been explained in the Ares miniseries and in Thor is limited to.. Zeus and Odin I guess, plus the Japanese one as well I would imagine.
However, Thor returned mysteriously and became the new ruler of Asgard, Odin was left to fight a monster in hell for eternity, and Thor was given the Odinforce, thus the magic over his hammer.
Now this Rulk (crappy name) showed up and used a gun, was smart and cocky.. They found Doc Samsons clothes ripped off, and hinted he was Rulk. Doc Samson had a weird effect to the gamma radiation and had a permanent change into his "inner superhero," based on some things I read on Wiki, and the Marvel database when Hulk 2 came out, I found it pretty interesting for it to be Doc Samson, because it would give his character a greatly needed facelift, in essence turning him into an A class hero/villain like Namor.
The other option is General Thunderbolt Ross, because the general went to speak to Banner while he was imprisoned, and banner whispered something Ominous in his ear. Then shortly after when Rulk showed up fighting A-Bomb at a military base, the eye scan stated: Identity confirmed, welcome ... *bzzzt pshh boom* and the robot exploded before we learn his identity.
Either way.. Rulk has powers that are apparently above Earth, and in essence Cosmic as the only explanation, or Magic.. but he uses guns so.. =/ If he is Samson, I could buy that Rulk is that strong, because Samson is already so powerful in his normal state, but General Ross has no place knocking around Thor and punching a watcher.
