The Marvel multiverse is filled with intriguing and varying different alternate realities.
While there’s a whole lot of gossip on the interwebs concerning how far into this multiverse
we might get to see in the MCU, from the standpoint of the comics, there’s a whole lot of surreal,
absurd and fascinating events that have gone down, involving some of our favourite characters
as alternate versions of themselves.
And sometimes, those alternates are downright terrifying, as are their alternate worlds.
So today, we’re returning to our list of the top 10 scariest alternate versions of
Avengers with a part 2.
This time around, we’re going to avoid including any versions of Hulk on this list since our
part 1 was pretty heavy with the big green fella.
Some of these versions are objectively scary, while other alternates are considerably more
tragic.
So with that in mind, let’s get to it!
10 Marvel 1602 Black Widow Out of all our scary alternates on this list,
this version of Black Widow is perhaps the most tame.
Why is she terrifying?
It’s because she uses her skills and abilities for some straight up evil business.
This Natasha is from Earth 311, from Marvel 1602, a world in which she’s a freelance
spy and is considered the most dangerous woman in all of Europe.
From Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert, the Marvel 1602 series is an alternate reality in which
we see our favourite Marvel characters operating during the year 1602 in Europe.
The world is very much like it is on Earth 616 in that time period as well.
Natasha had previously worked alongside Matthew Murdoch, but then betrayed him for Count Otto
von Doom, becoming the villain’s lover.
She worked with him during the kidnapping of William Shakespeare, serving as the captain
of his flying ship, up until she questioning his authority and plans, resulting in him
pushing her over the side of the ship to her death.
What a way to go.
9 Age of X Steve Rogers (Earth 11326) Here we have a version of Steve Rogers whose
all for the killing and hunting of mutants.
As the leader of the Avengers, it was his job to hunt mutants down.
During one mission in particular, he ends up giving into his blood lust, and kills Mystique,
justifying her death as the right thing to do, and because she was ‘dangerous’.
Then he discovers that she was actually protecting a group of mutant children.
Steel Corpse, the alternate of Tony Stark on that Earth, suffers from an emergency override
with his armour and attempts to kill the children, triggering the man inside the suit to inform
Rogers to not save him but to save the kids instead.
Steve ends up shooting him in the back of the head.
This Steve is then killed while battling the Hulk, and Legacy then absorbs his memories
as a way of saying thank you for changing his ways and attempting to help the mutants
in the end.
He turns out for the better in the end, but hey, blood lust is scary, right?
8 Hawkeye of Earth 11223 This version of Hawkeye is a product of the
What If Dark Reign title, from issue 1 volume 1.
In this story, set on Earth 11223, Clint is a member of the Avengers, as per usual.
The team goes after the X-Men, believing they are involved in the deaths of Tony Stark and
Beast, where he pretty much gets his butt handed to him by Sabretooth.
Ultimately, his life is spared by the mutants, but it only gets more tragic for the sharp
shooter from there on out.
He heads back to the Avengers Mansion, only to witness it getting completely destroyed,
with all of the remaining Avengers being killed in the process.
So Hawkeye takes matters into his own hands, and seeks out the culprit, Norman Osborn,
believing that he doesn’t deserve to live, and that killing him is the only way to end
his reign of terror.
7 Venom Thor (Earth 1089) This alternate of Thor comes from What If
Vol 2 issue 4, in a story called What if the Alien Costume had possessed Spider-Man?
The alien costume it’s referring to is Venom prior to the character coming into his full-fledged
Eddie Brock hosted glory.
In this hypothetical tale, Peter Parker doesn’t seek out the help of Reed Richards like he
does in the 616 Earth – instead, the Venom symbiote stays bonded to him, until he begins
to sniff out some stronger potential hosts, having used up all of Parker’s adrenaline
in the process.
Initially he jumps to the Hulk, but when he sets eyes on Thor, he ditches Hulk and heads
over to the Asgardian god.
Thor’s tenure as Venom is brief, with Reed Richards employing the help of Black Bolt
to use his sonic scream to separate Thor from Venom before the two are permanently bonded.
In the process, Black Bolt destroys Mount Rushmore.
But hey, at least Thor ends up getting free of the symbiote!
That’s at least…good…right?
6 Ultimates Black Widow This version of Black Widow is notably worse
than the one we mentioned previous.
The Ultimates 1610 universe in general gives us a grim take on beloved Marvel characters,
exploring different aspects of their characters that were never ventured into in the 616 universe.
This Black Widow is a prime example of that – her origin story is similar to her 616
beginnings.
The reason she’s called Black Widow is thanks to a reputation she cultivated by killing
her husbands, marrying frequently and then assassinating them – or rather, they would
end up suffering from unfortunate accidents.
She eventually defected to the US and joined SHEILD.
She would later marry Tony Stark, who gave her an all-black suit of Iron Man armour and
a set of nanites that bonded to her skin to control it, all as an engagement present.
Here’s where it gets awkward for Tony.
Turns out Natasha is a traitor, and reveals the identity of the Hulk, frames Captain America
and Thor, and then aids the Liberators with their invasion of the US, all as a way to
seek revenge for Russia, believing that the US made her country into a “bankrupt nation
of hookers and gangsters.”
She kills Jarvis, holds tony hostage in an attempt to extort him of his fortune.
But then, Tony uses the nanites in her body to freeze her in place, knocks her unconscious
with a win bottle, giving her brain damage, and then, when she’s hospitalized, Hawkeye
comes after her, shooting her in the head with one of his arrows, all because she was
partially responsible for his family’s death.
Dark.
5 Herald of Galactus Thor (Earth 717) Here we have yet another What If story concerning
Thor – from volume 1 of What If Thor issue 1, this Thor appears in a story titles What
if Thor was the Herald of Galactus?
It’s a bleak tale in which Thor, upon Galactus’ arrival at Asgard, realizes that fighting
against the devourer of worlds is futile, and ends up striking a deal with the cosmic
entity – leave Asgard alone and he would become Galactus’ herald.
He goes around informing the inhabitants of various planets that Galactus has chosen their
worlds to satiate his appetite, and that their homes could not be sparred – destruction
was inevitable.
Eventually though, Thor ends up returning to his home on Asgard briefly, only to discover
that his father Odin has been killed by Loki, and the trickster god has imprisoned all of
his pals.
So Thor rescues those remaining alive, sends them to Earth, and then brings Galactus to
Asgard to consume it.
4 Vampire Captain America (Earth 3931) Cap has a history of transforming into super
natural beings – Cap Wolf anyone?
This time around though, this Steve rogers from Earth 3931 is a different horror movie
being – a vampire.
On this earth, Steve was infected with vampirism during WW2 by Baron Blood, who on this earth
is an actual vampire bat-esque humanoid creature.
After being bitten, Rogers develops new powers and ends up infecting the rest of the Avengers
team, making them his personal slaves.
The Exiles would encounter him when trying to fix his world, and eventually, Rogers was
decapitated.
But that wasn’t the end of him!
He ends up surviving and reattaches his head to his body.
From Vampires to Zombies, in at our next number, we have-
3 Marvel Zombies Hawkeye (Earth 2149) We featured the Zombie versions of the Avengers
on our last list, but this time, we’re gonna get a bit more specific, and look at one Avengers
member in particular who has quite the compelling and eerie arc – Clint Barton of Earth 2149.
Hawkeye’s past is presumably the same as the 616 Hawkeye up until the zombie plague.
When the Avengers attempt to stop the Sentry, whose been infected, he bites all of them,
overpowering them and infecting them as well.
During the siege on Castle Doomstadt in Latveria, zombie Hawkeye is decapitated by Magneto,
who uses Steve Rogers’ shield to do so.
Flash forward to 40 years – T’Challa’s grandson finds a very confused and incoherent
head in the rubble of New York.
Hawkeye is still alive, but has gone insane thanks to, well, being just a head.
He’s taken back to T’Challa, who realizes that Hawkeye’s hunger has dissipated, and
ends up giving him the Warp’s glass domed suit to use as a body.
He’s later killed by the Hulk, who smashes his head in, crushing it, and killing him
once and for all.
2 Skeletal Peter Park (Earth 9811) Shout out to Smashrrr for the suggestion for
this number!
So this version of spider-man comes from What If volume 2 issue 114 from 1998, in a story
called Brave New World.
It’s a different take on Secret Wars, with the participants of that story event being
trapped on Battleworld, never returning to Earth.
They’re forced to settle down, with many of the heroes and villains getting married
and having kids.
In the midst of all of this, we see Spider-Man still wearing the black symbiote costume (aka
Venom) – something that he had removed by Reed Richards after Secret Wars.
But here’s the kicker – because he never had the chance to get it removed, it permanently
bonded to him, with the symbiote eventually consuming Peter’s body entirely, leaving
only a skeleton.
At one point in the story, we see the symbiote jump off of Peter’s skeleton when affected
by a sonic attack, revealing that Parker has been dead for a very, very long time, and
Venom has been running the show.
Peter’s mind hasn’t totally been possessed by the symbiote though, which perhaps makes
this even creepier.
1 Dark Beast (Earth 295) While Beast is largely considered to be a
member of the X-Men, it’s not the only team in the comics that he was ever a part of.
Once upon a time, Beast was a member of the Avengers.
He’s even been a member of the Secret avengers, too, and the Defenders.
He gets around when it comes to superhero teams fighting for justice.
But you know who doesn’t?
His dark counterpart, who hails from Earth 295, the Age of Apocalypse timeline, in which
Charles Xavier was killed off, leading to Magneto leading the resistance, and Apocalypse
attacking sooner.
Apocalypse manages to conquer North America.
So how does Xavier’s absence turn Beast into a villain?
Without Charles around, Beast’s intelligence and desire for experimentation were unhindered
by morals and ethics.
He wasn’t compassionate like his 616 counterpart.
He ends up becoming one of Apocalypse’s chief scientists, who tortures and experiments
on both humans and mutants unethically, including Cyclops and Jean Grey, which is how he ends
up getting the nickname Beast since he’s so damn cruel and gruesome.
He ends up escaping from that reality before it’s blown to smithereens, coming to the
616 Earth.
He pretends to be the 616 Hank McCoy, killing off the childhood friends of the 616 Beast
in order to cover his tracks, and eventually joins Onslaught.
There we have it friends!
So, out of our part 1 and part 2 lists, which of these alternates would you rank to be the
scariest?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know!
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And hey, maybe we’ll do a part three!
In the meantime though, thanks for watching friends!
Catch you all in the next one.