With the promise of the multiverse on the horizon in the MCU, Marvel fans are excited
about what other versions of their favourite super heroes and villains could be lurking
in the fictional universe.
The multiverse is a concept that has long been explored in Marvel’s comics, and while
most alternates are entertaining, compelling and often an intriguing critique on their
616 counterparts, some are just flat out terrifying.
So today, we’re taking a look at some of those unsettling dopplegangers with our list
of the top 10 scary Avengers alternate versions.
Let’s jump in.
10 Ultimates Hank Pym Hank Pym of Earth 616 has had his fair share
of scary moments.
But nothing compares to his Earth 1610 Ultimates counterpart who’s straight up villainous.
While Pym’s history of bad mental health related experiences are arguably no faults
of his own in the main Marvel continuity, the actions of Ultimate Pym are rooted in
jealously and some serious anger issues.
Pym was a mentally fragile scientist who was utterly brilliant, and gained his abilities
after he experimented on the blood of his wife Janet, who was a mutant.
The couple, already struggling in their marriage, join the Ultimates, and Janet befriends Captain
America, who Hank gets irrationally jealous of.
The two have a major physical fight, with Hank pushing
Janet around, and then she shrinks down to her wasp size.
Hank then gets bug spray and uses it on her, leading to Janet being hospitalized.
Cap would beat the crap out of Hank, kicking him off the team.
Later, during the Ultimatium story, Hank teams up with Hawkeye to find his estranged wife
after Magneto flooded the eastern seaboard and Janet went missing.
When they do find her, Blob is eating her corpse.
Hank loses it, grows in size, and rips the Blob’s head off with his teeth.
9 What if: World War Hulk The Hulk, thanks to his gamma radiation and
his ability to grow in power the angrier he gets, is an Avengers member who often finds
himself in darker alternate stories than his teammates.
‘What If World War Hulk’ is the first of a handful of these on our list.
Back in 2010, a What If story took the World War Hulk storyline from 2007 and adapted it
into a hypothetical scenario.
For context, World War Hulk was the story event that followed Planet Hulk, which followed
the Hulk’s narrative after he was banished from Earth by the Illuminati, spending time
on Sakaar.
World War Hulk follows him returning to Earth with the intent of getting revenge.
This What If comic leads to a much darker ending than its namesake event, with Iron
Man attempting to take Hulk out with a satellite weapon, except this time it ends up killing
Sentry, Mr Fantastic and Iron Man himself.
When Secret Invasion rolls around, without those three heroes still alive, Earth ends
up pretty screwed, with 80% of the population getting killed off.
Hulk attempts to lead the Avengers, but a Skrull pretending to be the Wasp sets off
a genetic time bomb during an Avengers meeting.
It kills them all, except the Hulk.
Hulk goes to extreme measures, asking Galactus to put a stop to the madness altogether by
consuming the Earth and all the Skrulls within it.
Hulk ends up becoming his new herald, known as the World Breaker.
8 Hulk: The End Speaking of the Hulk, let’s take a look
at another alternate version of the big green monster – one that’s just as depressing.
The End was a series of comics from Marvel that explored a possible future timeline for
several of their characters, including the Hulk.
Not all of them are depressing as this one, to give them credit.
Anywho, this one shot comic features Bruce Banner and the Hulk as the only survivors
of a nuclear holocaust.
Banner, unable to die, walks the Earth alone in sorrow, whereas the Hulk is angry that
he’s forced to be alive with only Banner left on the planet with him.
Banner’s psyche slowly fades away as the Hulk wanders around, gets attacked by mutant
cockroaches, slowly regenerates, and so on and so forth.
A camera from an alien species, known only as Recorder in the comic, watches him from
afar, confirming that human kind has been eliminated.
Banner watches some of the horrific things that the camera has caught the Hulk enduring
and regenerating from.
Banner eventually dies, and the Hulk finally gets to be alone at last, only to realize
that he is in fact alone forever.
7 Marvel Zombies We’re talking about ALL of the Avengers
in at this number.
Marvel Zombies came out in 2005, and depicted pretty much the entirety of the Marvel universe
on Earth being either brutally murdered, consumed or transforming into a zombie.
It was intense, and of course, one half of the creative team behind it was Robert Kirkman.
Anywho, after the zombified heroes (and villains) managed to eat their way through the rest
of the living on Earth, some of them manage to gain cosmic powers thanks to the individuals
they’ve consumed, and begin looking for more meals off planet.
6 Iron Maniac Iron Maniac is an evil version of Iron Man
who hails from Earth 5012, first appearing in issue 2 vol 3 of Marvel Team-Up.
What’s his deal?
On his Earth, the Avengers were mostly wiped out by an alien the name of Titannus.
Reed Richards loses his crap, and thanks to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man is
majorly scarred, causing him to adopt a suit of armour similar to Doctor Doom’s.
Iron Man decides to make it his mission to stop Reed Richards, who then banishes him
to Earth 616.
While there, Iron Maniac takes on the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom, who all think he’s
a Doom imposter.
When the war against Titannus doesn’t break out and ruin 616 like it did his world, Iron
Maniac still goes after this Earth’s heroes, deeming himself still as the sole survivor
of a sane world living in a backwards insane world.
5 Ruins Hulk Ruins is by far one of the most depressing
and dark alternate reality stories in the Marvel multiverse.
Written in 1995 by Warren Ellis, it’s set in a dystopian version of the Marvel Universe,
and is a parody of the Marvels series except notably more twisted.
A reporter named Phil Sheldon explores the universe, and sees how all of these super
powered individuals now suffer from a myriad of deformities and painful deaths.
We learn that Captain America was into cannibalism, that the destruction of the last Avengers
Quinjet is what killed Cap, Iron Man, Giant Man and Wasp, and that the Hulk, thanks to
his exposure to gamma radiation, has turned into a giant monstrous green mass of pulsating
tumors.
It ain’t pretty.
This happened when Banner saved his pal Rick Jones from getting hit with the experimental
gamma bomb.
4 Fascist Vision In 1990’s What if the Vision of the Avengers
conquered the world, issue 19 of the What If series, we see what the android would become
if he were, well, a fascist.
The story begins with Vision deciding that in order to achieve global order and any semblance
of peace, he needs to implant himself within every single computer across the globe.
As you can imagine, this doesn’t go over to well with humans.
In the aftermath, New York City is nuked, and Vision ends up becoming a supreme ruler
of sorts over the planet, continuously being corrupted by all of this newfound power.
He ends up taking his ambitions off planet too, seeking to control the Kree Empire, the
Skrulls, and even the Badoon empire.
3 HYDRA Cap One of the more recent comic book controversies
was found in the pages of Marvel’s Captain America Steve Rogers comic, leading into the
Secret Empire storyline of 2017.
Long story short, it was revealed that Captain America had all along been a sleeper HYDRA
agent, helping lay the foundation for a global HYDRA take over.
Cap literally said the words Hail Hydra, and comic book fans everywhere, along with like,
a huge chunk of the internet, freaked out.
Cap being a secret nazi went against everything that he stood for, everything the character’s
historical context blossomed from.
That’s when Marvel pulled a death-of-superman-esque stunt and was like hey guys, guess what!
It isn’t really the real Cap who is a Nazi, it’s one from an alternate reality!
Here we have Steven Rogers of Earth 61311, the Captain America who was developed as a
child to be a supporter of HYDRA thanks to the living embodiment of the Cosmic Cube and
Red Skull’s influence.
2 Hulk: Future Imperfect This version of the Hulk, also known as Maestro,
comes from Earth 9200, and first appeated back in 1992.
This earth takes place around 100 years into the future where a nuclear war has taken out
most of the super powered individuals, and the human race faces extinction.
Maestro, affected by the radiation, mixed with holding a grudge against humanity for
how he has been treated, ends up taking over the planet as it’s ruler His strength has
multiplied thanks to the new radiation he’s absorbed, and he still maintains Banner’s
intelligence.
The present day Hulk from Earth 616 believes that Maestro’s insanity has also contributed
to his increase in power.
616 Hulk has fought against Maestro before, and has been privy to many ‘future’ visions
of himself, even realizing when aspects of the Maestro become apparent in his life, like
when he enjoyed taking out his rivals, and when he contemplated growing a beard (yes,
actually).
1 Old Man Logan – Hulk There are a lot of devastating interpretations
of characters on Old Man Logan’s earth, Earth 807128.
After the super villains took over, Hulk, whom some believed had slowly started to go
insane thanks to absorbing additional radiation from an atomic bomb that was dropped on California,
joined in on the evil shenanigans.
He took over California, renamed it Hulkland, and then shagged up with his first cousin
She-Hulk in order to create a whole inbred family of little hulks, which was then known
as the Hulk Gang.
Wolverine owed Hulk a debt and came up short in his rent, so Banner sent his children to
press Logan, who struck up a deal with them to be a body guard for Clint Barton.
While Logan was away, Banner ordered that his family be killed regardless.
Logan then sought out revenge, killing Banner’s family one by one, and eventually went after
Banner himself.
Banner tells Logan that he was hoping he’d go wild, wanting a good fight like the old
days, and wanted “his wolverine” back.
The two fight, with Bruce transforming into Hulk and eating Logan whole, who then claws
his way out of the Hulk’s stomach, killing him.
There we have it friends!
What other scary alternates of Avengers members can you think of?
Which ones should have made our list?
Give us a shout in those comments below and share your thoughts with us!
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