What If...? #31 [Vol 1]

"What if Wolverine had Killed the Hulk?"

Although Hulk's temper stayed largely in check around the Defenders, his rampages continued when left on his own. It was only a matter of time before new heroes popped up to drive off the Hulk. Enter: Wolverine.

Their historic first encounter established that the Canadian hero was tough enough to keep fighting after Hulk tossed him around, and that Wolverine's claws were sharp enough to penetrate Hulk's gamma-tough skin (Incredible Hulk #180-181). There was a chance Wolverine might win.

Further, the battle was interrupted by the cannibalistic man-monster called Wendigo, then cut short when a villain's magic spell put Hulk and Wolverine to sleep. The set up was ripe to consider what might have happened if the heroes hadn't been forced into a mystical draw. More specifically, "What if Wolverine Had Killed the Hulk?"

Faced with murder charges after fatally wounding the green goliath in self-defense, the clawed Canadian in this storyline fled from authorities. Recruited by Magneto into the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Wolverine's first assignment was to infiltrate the X-Men.

Wolverine trained in the Danger Room with most of the original team, and proved himself against the Sentinels. So when time came to double-cross the mutant heroes, he instead turned on the master of magnetism. The story ended in a tragic draw, with Wolverine and Magneto killing each other.

"What if There was No Fantastic Four?"

In a world where a bitter Ben Grimm skulked off on his own after his transformation, the remaining members of the rocket crew later assemble to a "3" shaped flare fired by Reed Richards to figure out how to deal with their erstwhile friend who has been tearing a path of destruction towards New York. In his clearer moments, the Thing knows he needs help and is trying to get back to Richards, but whenever people see him and react to him like he's a monster, he inevitably loses his temper and begins acting like one.

When the Thing arrives in New York, his rampage disrupts the routines of Peter Parker, Donald Blake, Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner at critical times that happen to prevent the origins of their own super-heroic personas. Stark and Banner have been tasked to build an anti-Thing weapon that is almost ready to fire when the Fantastic Three make their debut in an attempt to talk Ben down first. However by then, the Thing is too angry to listen to reason and fights the trio off until Stark and Banner's gun is ready and fires. The cosmic radiation of the weapon is meant to cure the Thing, but it fails and mutates him further while generating feedback that robs the other three of their powers instead. The resultant explosion knocks everybody present unconscious except Ben, who lumbers off morosely intending to stay hidden from then on. When everybody else comes to, they assume the weapon atomized the Thing. With him presumed dead, a world deprived of many of its major heroes continues on an uncertain path.