When Marvel released their MCU Phase 4 movies lineup, they also announced a special tv series that will be running on Disney Plus called the Marvel What If Series. For those that are unfamiliar, it is a series based on the comics where Marvel changes the reality of a specific event in time for a character and tells you how the characters involved would change. These are by far the most experimental ideas that Marvel has put out and are much better than the boring cartoon Marvel series that they’ll release on children’s tv networks such as Cartoon Network. What we love about these What If stories is that they pique our curiosity and they also don’t end on a happy note. Most superhero movies follow a very predictable timeline where a character lives a normal life. Due to some kind of circumstantial accident they receive the gift of superpowers and then must use those powers to save the world. Insert almost any super hero such as Captain America and Spiderman. Just to warn you, some of these stories can get quite dark and tragic. Here are our top 10 Marvel What If’s that we need to see animated right away.
#10. What If Thano’s Join the Avengers?
Yes you read that correctly, what if this mad titan had joined the Avengers instead of fighting them. In Volume 1 Issue 1, Marvel goes over this crazy scenario. In this reality, the Avengers are about to lose the meta wars with the Builders. Right before their surrender, Thanos comes in and offers to help the Avengers to fight the Builders. Thanos explains how he also hates the Builders as well. The Avengers reluctantly accept his offer because that is the only chance they have of not losing the war. With Thano’s help, they begin to turn the tides and start winning. However, Captain America is still very reluctant to trust Thanos.
Eventually during the final battle, it’s revealed that Thanos is actually joining the Avengers to kill his son. Captain America figures this out and tries to stop Thanos. Thanos and Captain begin fighting each other to the death. The scene cuts off and Thanos swoops into the battlefield with Captain America’s shield. He saves the day and wins the war. Thanos tells the Avengers that Captain America died in the battlefield and he was there to avenge his death. And then the series ends with a dark sequence where Thanos takes Captain America’s seat as the leader and begins commanding the Avengers as his troops. I’d love to see this in the theaters or films one day. And then Marvel can create a part two sequence where Captain America comes back after missing to save the day versus Thanos.
#9. What If Professor X of X-Men Had Became The Juggernaut?
In volume 2 issue 13, we get to see the scenario where Professor X actually becomes the Juggernaut. Since Professor X wouldn’t have started the X-men, there are no X-men to stop Magneto. In this world, the Fantastic Four end up defeating Magneto. Professor X as the Juggernaut ends up digging his way out of his trap and takes over the entire country. His interference in power causes World War III which results in nuclear battle. As nuclear missions are launched and more nuclear waste being caused, more mutants are being created. Xavier forms a group of mutants as his evil form of the X-men.
Cain Marko is found by Magneto and plots a plan to take down Professor X. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Colossus, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were under Xavier’s rule, but decided to turn on him. As Xavier tries to retaliate on this plan, Quicksilver ends up using explosives to lauch Xavier into space, defeating him for now. As X-men fans we’d love to see the possibility of Xavier being a bad guy.
#8. What If Venom Symbiote Possessed Deadpool?
In this What If scenario we get to find out what would happen if Venom got to combine with Deadpool. This chapter starts off with Galactus calling Deadpool in as a mercenary to kill the Beyonder. Galactus gives him a secret weapon to erase the Beyonder from existence. When Deadpool arrives at Beyonder’s secret location, he changes his mind to not kill him instead. Deadpool loves all of Beyonder’s women and decided to befriend the Beyonder instead. Deadpool instead parties with the Beyonder and one day Spider-man crashes their party.
When Spider-man crashes in to complain about the Venom suit that the Beyonder gave him. The venom symbiote then attaches to deadpool creating a scary combination of both venom and deadpool. This version of Deadpool wants to become a hero but is turned down by every superhero organization out there. Deadpool then ends up killing both the Beyonder and Galactus in the end. He uses this story to create a hit movie to become a movie star instead. Deadpool is still jealous of the praise and fame that all the other heroes are receiving and decides to kill all of the superheroes. He is still unsatisfied, so Deadpool ends up killing all superheroes, the villains and eventually the entire universe. What a crazy story right? The combination of both Deadpool and Venom would make a very lethal combination for sure.
#7. What If Spider-Man Never Became a Hero?
In Volume 1 Issue 19, we see the crazy possibility of the version of Spider-man that didn’t become a hero but a movie star instead. In this universe, Uncle Ben doesn’t die because Spider-man stops the robber, but because of this he never learns his most important lesson. Spider-man then continues on the path of greed. From the incident, Spider-man receives fame and notoriety from stopping the burglar. He then begins receiving brand deals, acting opportunities and even at one point is the host of the Tonight Show. Peter Parker actually becomes more of a celebrity than a hero. Spider-man even ruins Jameson’s career as a news writer. Jameson looks to retaliate and get his revenge by tricking him to have a meeting with movie writers. These movie writers turn out to be supervillains looking to destroy Spider-man. Spider-man later finds out the entire thing had been orchestrated by Jameson and he then realizes what a horrible person he had become. Peter Parker comes to the conclusion that he used his spider powers irresponsibly. Usually in films you always see heroes take the responsible path but I love how we see the exact opposite in this story.
#6. What If the Avengers Defeated Everybody?
In Marvel What If Volume 1 Issue 29, we have a crazy scenario that showed how the Avengers actually defeated everyone. The scene starts with the Avengers recently forming and the Hulk wants to already quit the group. As they are having their petty arguments, a time traveler appears to warn them that they should stop all of the potential villains now before it’s too late. This time traveler convinces the Avengers to attack everyone with superhuman powers, good or bad, because everybody has the potential to be bad. Later, it turns out that the time traveler is actually a B-class villain himself called Rama-tut. From there, the Avengers actually end up living very angry and disappointed lives. The Avengers end up killing the Hulk, since he was the most bratty of them all. From there, they retire. But not before long, Rama-tut announces to the world, he is the only one left and everyone must surrender to him. However, the Avengers reappear and defeat him. At the end, they all talk about how they regret the potential battles they would’ve had if they didn’t listen to the time traveler in the first place. This is a crazy story that allows us to see the early part of the Avengers team and how things could’ve turned really bad.
#5. What If Iron Man Had Died at Fallen Son?
From the 2008 Marvel What If, we find out the storyline plot that would’ve gone down if Iron Man had died at the Fallen Son on the courthouse steps instead of Captain America. In this story, Captain America never died on the steps and was tried as normal. After the press conference detailing Steve Rogers sentence, Tom Foster attacked and killed Tony Starks. Tom Foster did so in revenge and blamed Starks for his uncle’s death. This action led to the support for the Superhuman Registration Act which enforces the mandatory registration of super-powered individuals. Since the superhero community and the world mourning the death of Tony Stark, the Skrulls, a vast intergallastic empire came to Earth to launch their attack and invasion. As Uatu watched the ships descend on Earth he said, “it wasn’t supposed to be this way.” We’d love to see an epic showdown between the heroes fighting against the Skrulls just following the death of Tony Starks. If this had played out, this would’ve affected the results of Thanos. Would anybody have stopped Thanos with the infinity gauntlet? We’d love to see how this story could play out in the films.
#4. What If Namor Had Joined the Fantastic Four?
In Marvel What If Volume 2 issue 27, we get to see a glimpse of the possibility where Namor joins the Fantastic Four instead. For those who are unfamiliar, Namor is the mutant son of a human sea captain. He possesses the super-strength and aquatic abilities of the Home mermanus race and the mutant ability of flight. Namor is usually portrayed as an anti-hero with a good heart, but a short fuse superhero. In this story, Sue convinces Namor to join the Fantastic Four instead of continuing his war against humanity. With his abilities, Namor is instrumental in their fight to defeat Doctor Doom. Since Namor pays attention to Sue, she actually begins falling for Namor and leaves Reed. Reed is jealous and decides to leave the Fantastic Four. Who knew, even Superheroes have relationship issues.
Reed then hires an assistant, who he falls in love with. But in a plot twist, the assistant is brainwashed by Doctor Doom and uses her to send Reed to kill the Fantastic Four. Eventually Reed breaks free of Doctor Doom’s control because of his lingering feelings for Sue. In the end, Reed marries his assistant and Sue marries Namor. What a drastically different scenario and we’d love to see how this in live film.
#3. What If Iron Man was Doctor Doom?
In this crazy story, Tony Stark shared a room with Victor Von Doom in university instead of Reed. This only led to disaster because they would be a terrible pairing. Tony suggests a change to Victor’s formula. Victor then wants to become partners with Tony in order to swap bodies with him. Tony doesn’t know about this and Victor wants all the perks of being a famous celebrity such as Tony. They end up switching bodies and Tony Doom (Tony in Victor’s body) falls into deep depression. Funny enough, Tony Doom then picks up his life together and ends up building technology that is even better than Victor Starks (Victor in Tony’s body). In this chapter, you see that Tony has a green armour similar to Iron Man except green like the color of Doctor Doom. Tony Doom beats Victor Starks in a fight. And afterwards Victor proposals to trade bodies again. Tony’s Doom body doesn’t want Victor Starks body because the starks body has been tarnished too much. Both of them remain in the same body. We’d love to see this crazy story animated because it’s like seeing the superhero version of Freaky Friday!
#2. What If Spider-Man Had Kept His Cosmic Powers?
In Marvel What If Volume 2 Issue 31, Spider-Man never loses his cosmic powers and actually retires from being a superhero because with cosmic powers comes with no responsibility. Venom tries to attack Spider-man but is no match for the cosmic powered version of Spider-man. Spider-man then offers Venom to take his place as Spider-man the superhero. Venom accepts to be a superhero. Spider-man can’t help himself to help out going from disaster to disaster to try to save people. Doctor Doom then approaches cosmic spider-man to tell him that he can remove the cosmic powers out of Spider-man. In reality, it’s really a Doom bot looking to steal the cosmic powers for himself. But Spider-man is able to use his cosmic powers to get rid of all of his powers including the spider-man powers, so that he can finally live a normal life. Sadly, in a twist of event, Spider-man got Jane pregnant while being in his cosmic form. Now Peter has a baby that has cosmic powers. We love how this story chronics how Spider-man actually doesn’t want to be a super-hero and instead wants to live a normal life. And as fans we love to see how superheroes struggle with the burden of having to save lifes.
#1. What If Doctor Doom Became a Hero?
Marvel What If Volume 1 Issue 22 goes over the wild scenario of how Doctor Doom could’ve become a hero instead of a psycho villain. This story comes from the year 1980, where Victor actually listens to Reed’s advice. Therefore, he never has the accident that sends him on this villainous spiral. However, Dr. Doom still seeks out the Mephisto to save his mother’s souls. Sadly, Dr. Doom is still very arrogant, preventing him from making a key heroic decision that causes him to lose his loved ones in the process. Though Doctor Doom wouldn’t be the perfect hero, we can’t imagine a hero with the name “Doom” in it. We love how bizarre this would be and maybe we can even see him join the Fantastic Four too.
Conclusion:
It’s crazy to see how Marvel superheroes could’ve been villains and villains could’ve been heroes. As Marvel fans we also love seeing crossovers where one hero joins another through a crazy sequence of events. If these Marvel What If’s make the cut to be on film, we’d would be lining up in anticipation to watch it!