Wolverine and the Hulk are long-standing rivals in the Marvel Universe, even if they have had moments of levity and empathy. Wolverine’s debut came about because of a battle with the Hulk, the Jade Giant has returned the favor — with one of the explosive ways to empower the Hulk’s rage in the current “Starship Hulk” storyline proving to be a giant Wolverine attacking him.
But each character has shown some element of restraint in their duels, and in the process inadvertently saved their world plenty of heartache and death. Two classic issues of What If…? revealed just how gruesome things could have become if they hadn’t been holding back, and their early battles had taken more grisly directions.
In What If…? #31 by Rich Margopoulos and Bob Budiansky, the circumstances of Logan’s initial encounter with the Hulk took a far darker turn. On Earth-820231, Logan ignored his orders and went for the kill — eventually slashing his throat enough to leave the Jade Giant to bleed out before his healing factor could save him. While the world mourned the troubled hero, Logan lost control of himself and increasingly embraced his murderous side. While the other heroes mourned Hulk’s demise, Wolverine increasingly embraced his old murderous ways — even killing a civilian at a bar, forcing him to go on the run.
This left him vulnerable to the manipulations of Magneto, who recruited him as a spy to infiltrate the X-Men. Although this allowed for a brutal attack to play out against the X-Men, Wolverine eventually betrayed the Brotherhood to rescue his newfound allies. Magneto was fatally wounded in the ensuing duel, but used the last of his powers to force Wolverine to turn his claws against himself, killing this version of Logan and depriving this world of multiple heroes.
What If… #50 by John Arcudi and Armando Gil took things even further, instead diverging from the Hulk and Wolverine’s encounter during the “Fall of the Mutants” crossover. On Earth-93600, the battle took a vicious turn when an enraged Hulk’s blows were able to dislodge one of the adamantium vertebrae in Wolverine’s spine. Shaken by the loss of Logan, the X-Men are left vulnerable when the Adversary attacked. Dazzler, Madelyne Pryor, and Longshot were killed in the chaos, forcing the remaining X-Men to work more with Freedom Force to confront the magical villain.
Meanwhile, the Hulk became an increasingly unstable tool for the Adversary, eventually being reverted into a rage-filled uncontrollable state. The ensuing battle left almost all the combatants killed by either the rampaging Hulk or the Adversary until Forge could sacrifice his own life to contain the mystical threat. In the aftermath of the battle, a finally reverted Banner is arrested for the Hulk’s crimes while Storm, Rogue, and Colossus are left to pick up the pieces of their friend’s deaths.
In both realities, it was the uncontrollable rage of the Hulk and Wolverine that resulted in such tragic consequences. In the core-Marvel Universe, both figures were able to show some amount of restraint even in the most heated battles. Although they are both infamously driven by anger, their fights didn’t see them go embrace such murderous intent. Without the heroes around, their respective worlds will likely face far more dangerous elements and threats — and any amount of good they might have done for the world is more or less rendered moot by their inglorious fates. Although Wolverine and the Hulk have largely settled into a tense respect for one another, these two grim worlds are a reminder of how bad things could have gotten between them if they hadn’t been able to find some common respect for one another.
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