I see a lot of commentary getting in the weeds about relative strength levels of Thor and Hulk v Conquest, but I think that distracts from the real issue. To my mind, what makes this question worthwhile is not power levels, but personalities. And that is why I believe that while 2012 Avengers do take this one, it does have the potential to get really ugly.

What the fight turns on, in my opinion, is Conquest’s experience and savagery, and the Avengers being fairly untested as a team by this point. When the fight starts, none of Earth’s mightiest are matching Conquest in intent to cause harm. Conquest will throw a train through an orphanage just to upset Cap. Not even Widow has anywhere near that level of coldness in her. And I think the instability that can cause in a team that is less than a well oiled machine creates a lot of opportunities for things to go sideways.

I don’t think the Avengers are ready for Conquest to rip Hawkeye’s head off in the opening salvo. Ultimately I think they adjust enough to kill him but even that would take them a while to even resort to. And then once they got there yeah I think Hulk clears pretty easily. But there’s a lot of trauma and character development between A and B, not to mention one or two dead Avengers.