Marvel’s What If series provides readers answers for some of the biggest hypothetical
questions surrounding their story arcs and characters.
While some are incredibly imaginative, others are humorous, and some are even borderline
scary, diving into scenarios that would result in catastrophe in the regular 616 universe.
So today, we’re taking a look at some of these more unsettling What If stories with
our list of the top 10 Scariest Marvel What Ifs.
But before we begin our list, just wanna give a shout out to a brand new channel of ours
that you should all check out – Tier List!
It’s all of your favourite hosts from our various sister channels hanging out and ranking
different topics into tier.
Like hottest foods.
Which we actually ate.
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Anywho, check it out!
Now onto our list!
10 What if Wolverine was the Lord of the Vampires?
Vol 2 Issue 24 This issue of What If saw Wolverine get bitten
by Dracula, along with several of his fellow X-Men.
Because of his will power, and utter remorselessness, Wolverine didn’t fall victim to Dracula’s
mind games, allowing him to challenge the iconic vampire to a fight for leadership.
He defeats Dracula, and then goes around the rest of the Marvel universe with his miniature
vampire army, sucking various X-Men characters dry, until the Punisher shows up.
And this is no regular Punisher - he’s the Punisher possessed by Doctor Strange’s spirit.
The two have a gruesome battle, and eventually, Strange is able to tap into whatever remains
of Logan’s humanity, setting him free of his blood lust.
9 What if Dr Strange Had Been a Disciple of Dormammu?
- What If Vol 1 #18 This title sees mystical hero Doctor Strange
having a similar origin story as to the one he has in the comics - he’s an arrogant
surgeon, whose hands are injured in a car accident, and he seeks out the Ancient One
to help.
But upon arriving, the Ancient One sends him away, and Baron Mordo, instructed by Dormammu,
heals Strange’s hands by using dark magic.
Because of this, Strange never learns to push away his selfish tendencies and become a hero,
and instead, hes convicted of malpractice and stripped of his license.
Mordo then introduces him to Dormammu, who promises to give Strange the power he really
craves.
The Ancient One, along with other mystic forces, try to fight Dormammu, Strange and Mordo,
but are forced to surrender.
Dormammu tells Strange he can only have one disciple, so Strange kills Mordo.
Luckily, by the end of the story, Strange changes his ways, and turns on Dormammu.
8 What if Venom had possessed the Punisher?
Any time the Venom symbiote gets involved, you know you potentially have a deadly situation
on your hands.
Enter What if Vol 2 issue 44, What if Venom had possessed the Punisher?
Talk about a lethal combination.
In this story, Frank Castle finds the Venom symbiote after Peter Parker disposes of it,
and ends up bonding with it, becoming a more murderous version of it.
He kills Tombstone and Kingpin, and eventually discovers that the symbiote has been trying
to take over him by controlling him when he’s asleep at night.
Eventually, the two have an internal struggle, and Frank gets control over the symbiote,
with all of the superheroes being like yeah, that’s cool, you’ll probably come in handy
some day.
7 What if Captain America led all of the heroes against Registration?
This comes from What If Civil War - from a period of time in which What If titles wouldn’t
have a single title on their cover.
In this story, Tony Stark is already dead because of the Extremis virus.
Captain America is then left unopposed when speaking out against Registration, and the
government takes more extreme measures - they use human piloted Sentinels to assassinate
several different superheroes, and Cap leads the rebellion, up until a strike coordinated
by Maria Hill and Henry Peter Gyrich kills Captain America.
Gyrich becomes President of the Us afterwards, running on a metahuman control platform.
6 What if Vision of the Avengers conquered the world?
Fascist Vision, anyone?
From What if volume 2 issue 19, this story explores an alternate reality in which Vision
decides he can make the world a better place by tapping into every single computer on the
globe - this issue came out in 1990, so the greater implications of the internet and digital
sabotage were yet to be realized.
But regardless, Vision ends up taking over the world, calling himself Ultra Vision, and
for a while, his re-imagined and fixed world kind of works out, until Genosha nukes his
mainframe.
Vision teams up with super villains, and goes downhill from there, going around, conquering
different parts of the universe, with Vision ruling this
fascist empire.
5 What if Legion had killed Xavier and Magneto?
This story comes from What If X-Men Age of Apocalypse, and features a tale that makes
the original Age of Apocalypse seem much less tragic in comparison - what if Legion had
killed Xavier and Magneto.
This leaves no one to lead the X-Men and put together the resistance, and Apocalypse’s
dream is realized for the world.
Pretty much everyone dies, except Captain america and Wolverine, with the former using
Mjolnir, but accidentally summons too powerful a bolt of lightning, splitting open the universe
and ultimately making everything significantly worse than the way the original Age of Apocalypse
had ended, at least on the scale of those affected.
4 What if the Thing and Beast continued to mutate?
Nothing like some good body horror to add some scare to this list!
This story, from What If vol 1 issue 37, riffs off of another Marvel story - Marvel Two in
One issue 82.
The Thing has Virus X, and is continuously mutating into a radioactive monster.
Despite Cap and Giant Man finding a cure, the Thing’s situation becomes a bit of a
lost cause, with him mutating to the point where the cosmic energy that caused his transformation
and super powers is released from his body.
Eventually, that turns out for the better, with him being cured of his ailment as the
Thing, returning to regular old Ben Grimm, but the process of his mutation ain’t pretty,
and makes for a frightful tale.
3 What if the Gamma Bomb spawned a thousand Hulks?
A thousand Hulks?
Yeah, sounds like utter mayhem.
So this earth has a different history than the 616 Earth - back in 1944 during the end
of World War 2, the US, instead of dropping atomic bombs on Japan, dropped gamma bombs,
which caused the people of Japan to transform into Hulk creatures.
Among these Hulks are an intellectual group who form The Emperor’s Oni, and they hunt
down the superheroes of Earth from the Golden Age Era.
They took over the US, and 40 years of oppressing the human race, it’s revealed that the Gamma
Radiation may be slowly killing them off.
Nick Fury comes out of the shadows with SHIELD, leading a resistance.
The story ends with the resistance fighting against the Oni.
2 What if Carnage had permanently bonded with Silver Surfer?
From Issue 108 of volume 2 of the What if series, we have What if Carnage had permanently
bonded with Silver Surfer!
Why is this scary?
Well, imagine what Carnage would do if it had the power cosmic at its disposal.
Yeah.
After bonding, they take on the name Carnage cosmic, defeat a bunch of superheroes, change
the molecular structure of the Statue of Liberty, all before the heroes of earth manage to fight
them enough for the Silver Surfer to briefly take control.
And what does Norrin Radd do?
He flies up into the sun, with the intention of killing both himself and Carnage so that
Carnage will never be able to cause this kind of mayhem again.
The issue ends with the reveal that neither of them died from the impact.
Yikes.
1 What if the Phoenix had not died?
From What if Volume 1 issue 27, Uatu the Watcher sees an alternate reality in which Jean Grey
as the Phoenix did not die during the incursion with the Shi’ar.
Instead, she’s reborn again, and later, when the X-Men are in the Shi’ar Galaxy
fighting Galactus and Terrax, Phoenix shows up, unleashing her power and ending Galactus.
But despite this, Jean is overwhelmed by the Phoenix Force, and starts destroying parts
of the galaxy around her, including a small star.
After she calms down, and has returned to the X-Mansion, Kitty Pryde chastises her for
destroying that star, and Jean becomes Dark Phoenix, going on a murderous rampage, killing
Shadowcat, Polaris, and even Cyclops when he tries to stop her.
She then becomes fully engulfed by the Phoenix force, destroying the earth, and ever expanding
to consume the rest of the universe.
There we have it friends!
What other Marvel What Ifs have freaked you out in the past?
Or do you think calling them scary is a long shot?
Share your opinion with us in those comments below.
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