The only thing more exciting than a new superhero is a slightly different version of an old one. With the Multiverse Saga, and especially the animated series What If, we are seeing more and more of that: Different characters getting the super soldier serum, different characters getting exposed to gamma rays, and characters using their powers in new and surprising ways.
But in the first episode of What If’s final season, we got two different variants of existing heroes: a set of Avengers who use Gundam-style mech suits that can even form together, and a brand new form of the Hulk that may be not only the most powerful Hulk, but one of the most powerful variants of an Avenger ever.
Spoilers for What If Season 3’s “What If... Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers,” follow!
In What If Season 3 Episode 1, “What If... Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers,” Hulk isn’t the perfectly balanced “Smart Hulk” version we’ve become used to in recent years. In this universe, Bruce Banner tries to find peace and balance with the help of Sam Wilson, but he’s terrified of the monster he becomes. While trying to rid himself of the Hulk persona entirely using more gamma radiation, he accidentally creates a new monster: the Apex, an irradiated beast who raises an army and lies in wait.
Banner exiles himself, but when the Apex army rises up again, the stakes are much higher. The Avengers created “Hulk-buster” mech suits, but even those aren’t enough to stand up to this new threat. At the last second, Bruce appears with a gamma bomb and a harebrained scheme: he will absorb all of the bomb’s energy, going gamma critical and becoming the Apex Hulk: the final word in feral Hulk forms. He’s bigger, stronger, and far more powerful than the other gamma beasts. However, transforming into this form is a huge risk. While in our timeline, Banner is able to keep his sense of self even as the Hulk, the Apex Hulk overwhelms Bruce, and it takes coaxing from Sam to bring him back.
This form of the Hulk is probably the closest we’ll get to seeing Worldbreaker Hulk, the mega-powerful variant seen in the World War Hulk comics. That version absorbed radiation on a planetary scale, making him a threat on the same level as Galactus. Though Galactus will appear in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it’s unlikely we’ll see the Hulk be a major player against him until at least Avengers: Doomsday.
As this is the last season of What If, we may never see this version of the Hulk again, but this series allowed us to see both a vastly powerful Hulk and mech Avengers suitable for Saturday morning cartoons all in one episode. It may be the beginning of the end, but this beginning is as strong as the Hulk it depicts.
