Alternate realities and timelines have always been a great testing ground for comic book
creators to get creative with different iterations of our favourite characters, both good and
evil.
Because of this, we’ve often seen alternate iterations that would never see the light
of day in the main continuity of comics, either because of the sheer amount of power they’ve
been given, or because of how aesthetically absurd or atrocious these character concoctions
are.
So today, we’re taking a look at Marvel specifically and some of the more horrifying
creations the comics giant has produced in the various earths outside of the 616 continuity,
with our list of the top 10 scariest alternate versions of marvel villains.
10 Professor X of Earth 1298 This version of Charles Xavier was corrupted
by the Shadow King, abandoning the X-Men to learn more about the capabilities of his powers.
Upon returning, he accidentally killed Moira MacTaggert, causing him to leave the mutant
team for good.
Things only went downhill from there - he travelled the world, hunting down telepaths,
capturing and incarcerating them.
Charles would join forces with Sinister in an attempt to transfer all of the mental energy
from the world’s telepaths to him.
He would go on to take over SHIELD, attempt to get Nick Fury to kill the X-Men with a
nuclear strike, and then tried to ‘alter’ the truth to make people not see him as the
true villain.
Oh, how bad a power hungry Charles Xavier could be for the Marvel universe.
9 Atrocity (Earth TRN 199) Atrocity first appeared in Spider-Man Edge
of Time, a 2011 video game published by Activision, which followed a plot that featured both the
original Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O’Hara.
Parker is killed by Anti-Venom, who also is responsible for creating Atrocity - Atrocity
is the combination of Anti-Venom, Otto Octavius and Walker Sloan after Anti-Venom, in a blind
rage, forces the three of them into Sloan’s Gateway, fusing them in the time space continuum.
The villain would go after both Parker and O’Hara, using its ability to teleport throughout
time and space, using it’s tentacles to drain people of their powers to make them
vulnerable.
8 Juggerduck This one comes from the recent 2018 Cosmic
Ghost Rider limited series - it’s the Juggerduck!
A mash up of Juggernaut and Howard the Duck.
And it makes this list just for being horrifying to look at.
It’s a duck.
A muscular duck.
Inside of Juggernaut’s costume.
So much wrong.
7 Mac Gargan’s Venom Once upon a time, Mac Gargan, aka Scoprion,
bonded with the Venom Symbiote.
And oh boy, was he one hell of a terrifying venom.
Whereas some of Venom’s most famous hosts like Eddie Brock still managed to maintain
their humanity when bonded with the Klyntar, Gargan went full extremist - next to Carnage,
he’s arguably one of the most violent and cruel iterations of a symbiote bonded character
in the Marvel universe.
He became Venom after being recruited by Norman Osborn.
The symbiote recognized his hatred of Spider-Man, and turns out the two were a match made in
heaven.
6 Venomsaurus Rex A T-Rex combined with the Venom symbiote?
Yeah, that’s definitely not a creature I’d want to come face to face with.
The Venomsaurus Rex first appeared in Wolverine issue 69 in part 4 of the Old Man Logan story
arc, chasing down an aged Hawkeye and Wolverine.
Later, in Old Man Hawkeye, some light on the origin of the bast was shed - turns out the
dinosaur was actually after Clint Barton.
In the 6th issue of Old Man Hawkeye, we learn that the hero had killed a bunch of Multiple
Man clones, only for the last surviving clone to bond with the Venom symbiote, who then
created a symbiote army and chased Clint around the country.
Clint leads them into the desert where he knows that imports from Savage Land roam,
including T-Rexes, one of which mows down on the Venom symbiote.
The Venomsaurus Rex was actually Clint’s doing all along.
5 Poison Carnage The Poisons were the antagonists of the Venmoverse
story event, in which an alternate universe Venomized Doctor Strange summoned the Venoms
of the multiverse to take out a threat to the Klyntars - the Poisons, the symbiote’s
natural predator.
The Poisons were attempting to transform the Kylntars into Poisons and add them to their
mind hive, eventually to take over the universe.
While the Venomized heroes managed to save the day and put an end to their threat, many
characters were transformed into Poisons over the course of the story, including the likes
of Carnage.
Yeah, there’s a Poison Carnage, and it ain’t pretty.
Cletus Kassidy joined the Poisons in order to get control over the Carnage symbiote again.
But instead, he was tricked by them, experimented on, and altered so that he would not be able
to resist them.
He broke free, and went on a rampage.
By the end of the story, he was left stranded in orbit, with the symbiote crumbling away.
4 Omega of the Thanosi Unlike some of the other numbers on our list,
this one actually debuted on Earth 616.
Omega is a clone of Thanos’ who has the powers of both the Mad Titan (minus the gauntlet
and infinity gems) and those of Galactus, although he does seem to lack some of the
intelligence of his creator.
Thanos had created a slew of different clones of himself using different DNA; a project
he abandoned after seeing their nihilistic and destructive traits.
Created by Jim Starlin, he first appeared in Infinity Abyss issue 3 back in 2002, but
was later killed three issues later by Thanos himself with a fleet of remotely controlled
ships that blasted Omega into oblivion.
While he was a being of grand cosmic power, he did have a few weaknesses - he had slow
reflexes and was unable to speak.
And fun fact - Thanos claimed he had acquired Galactus’ DNA during the Infinity Gauntlet
story event.
Sneaky.
3 Carnage Cosmic Cosmic Carnage is Norrin Radd, aka the Silver
Surfer, from Earth 985.
Surfer had been bonded with the Carnage symbiote, combining both of their powers.
Meaning Carnage was weilding the power cosmic.
Yikes.
Luckily, this character appeared in a What If title, specifically issue 108 from volume
2 of the series in 1998.
He was capable of taking out the combined forces of the Avengers, Spider-Man, Justice
and Firestar, and flew around the universe causing mayhem and destruction.
Those heroes didn’t give up though, and took him on again, with Firestar managing
to harm the symbiote long enough for the Silver Surfer to fight for control over his body.
And what does the cosmic hero do?
He flies directly into the sun, ensuring that he and Carnage would be destroyed so that
the symbiote would never harm anyone again.
Unfortunately, his plan didn’t go accordingly - both he and Carnage survived.
2 Red Goblin Speaking of Carnage, here we have another
bond that the violent symbiote made on Earth 616 outside of Cletus Kassidy - the Red Goblin,
the combination of Carnage and Norman Osborn, mixed in with the Goblin Formula.
Their combined genetics made for a super symbiote, purging all of their weaknesses and increasing
their strength, giving Osborn the powers of Carnage and of the Green Goblin, with Carnage
agreeing to go along with Osborn’s desires as long as he was able to commit whatever
acts of violence he wanted.
Oh what a pair.
1 The Galactus Engine Hailing from Earth 10011, Cancerverse Galactus,
also known as the Galactus Engine, is seen as the ultimate weapon, dwarfing the Celestials
in it’s massive size.
First appearing in the Thanos Imperative issue 2 back in 2010, the Galactus Engine is really
just an object of immense power that harvests and harnesses Galactus’ power.
It came to be when Galactus was kidnapped by the Black Celestials after one of Doctor
Strange’s spells caused the devourer of worlds to have a stroke.
Galactus was fused with a black hole that increased his hunger and size, with Galactus
wanting to consume all matter in the universe.
It makes the regular 616 Galactus look tiny in comparison.