'What If' scenarios in Marvel films!

What if the radioactive spider bit someone other than Peter Parker

What if Iron Man had chosen to become a villain? What if Wolverine became a goth? These are the questions that everyone wants the answers to

and Marvel Comics decided to answer them by launching a whole book based on this idea

Today on Total Nerd Ranked, we're counting down the best what-if stories ever published

Number 10, what if Venom and the Punisher joined? The Punisher and Venom

two of the most 90s hardcore characters ever, but what if they became the same character

That would be pretty cool, right? Well, on what if number 44, that's exactly what happened

Frank Castle bonds with the Venom symbiote, instead of Eddie Brock. We all know Eddie Brock is a bit of a hard-nosed hothead

which makes for a lethal pairing with the symbiote. However, when Frank and the symbiote get together, it becomes very lethal

Frank Castle in the standard 616 is a vet with a dark past. He's someone who harbors a lingering pain

someone whose family was gunned down in a gangland execution gone wrong. In this what-if story, Castle is swayed to the dark side for a bit

thanks to the aggressive nature of the symbiotic alien costume. He ends up killing mob bosses, Tombstone, and Kingpin in a murderous rampage

It seems like New York might be in for a rocky path with a new overlord in town

However, in the end, everything comes out okay. Castle is able to regain his humanity

He's able to use the Venom symbiote for good, protecting people with his very specific brand of vigilantism

Number 9. Wolverine, Lord of the Vampires Did you know there's a whole X crossover where all the mutants become vampires

Yeah, that's a thing. Long story short, all the mutants got depowered and then realized that they could get their powers back if they could become vampires

But then, they all just went on to become mutants again. Except for Jubilee. She stayed a vampire for years. Like at the end of Curse of the Mutants

Jubilee didn't want to revert back to being an X-Man, and the Marvel editorial office just kept

her that way for like a decade. She didn't get her standard powers back until the Generation X

reboot from a few years ago. So that's the way things went in the real 616. However, in an issue

of What If, decades before the whole non-mutant thing, it's proposed what would happen if Wolverine

actually went on to become the king of the vampires by murdering Dracula Basically Dracula tries to turn a bunch of mutants and then tries to turn Wolverine but fails due to Wolverine healing factor which sets up Wolverine to be Lord of the Vampires

It's exactly as awesome as it sounds. Number 8. Thanos Joins the Avengers The Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Defenders of the Globe

the team of super people that took out Thanos. But, what if Thanos joined the Avengers

That's the plot of our next What If Special. Thanos joins the Avengers in order to fend off the Builders

an alien race determined to take over the universe and control the very essence of space-time

As you might imagine, Thanos and the heroes of Earth defeat the Builders, but then there's a surprise twist that no one could have seen coming

Thanos the Mad Titan, who's in love with the physical manifestation of death, betrayed the Avengers

From here, Thanos sets himself up as dictator of Earth, subjugates all the Avengers, and is just generally, you know, numero uno top dog

R.I.P. Freedom. Thanks a lot, Thanos. Number seven, Conan. In the 1970s, Marvel had the rights to produce Conan the Barbarian comics

These Roy Thomas and John Gushima-created books are arguably some of the best Conan stories ever told

However, this current topic is more on the list for its weirdness than its quality. In What If Volume 1, number 44, a.k.a. What If Conan Walked the Earth Today

and What If Volume 2, number 16, a.k.a. What If Wolverine and Conan Fought

are just two of the selections that Conan has appeared in. He was also in an issue where he fought Thor, but that's a story for another day

However, seeing Conan and Wolverine going head-to-head, or claws to... broadsword? It's pretty fun

The core concept of the book is that Wolverine was in Uatu, the Watcher's base, during the Dark Phoenix Saga

You know, the big cosmic epic adventure that everyone just keeps low-key redoing over and over and over again

There's like three movie adaptations of it already and countless TV show versions. Enough

So while Logan was poking around Uatu's base, he finds a portal to Conan's universe

He gets sucked in, runs across Red Sonja and Conan, does some fighting, and then eventually goes back home

All's well that ends well, except the whole subplot where everyone keeps mixing up Jean Grey and Red Sonja

That's really weird. Not a fan of that. Number six, Spider-Girl from What If 105

So remember the 90s? Remember how weird the comics were Remember the clone saga Well one strange bit of Marvel continuity that was supposed to stick and then immediately got shoved out the door was the fact that Spider and Mary Jane were gonna have a baby Editorial thought better of it after a few minutes

so they lost it in a miscarriage. Dark, right? Well, thanks to What If Number 105

writer Tom DeFalco and artist Ron Friends resurrected this would-be spider daughter

and projected what she might look like in the near future, meaning that she becomes Spider-Girl

Her appearance in this What If issue is just the beginning for Ms. Parker. She would go on to headline multiple ongoing series

and be the longest-running solo female character to star in her own book. And it all started here, What If number 105

Number 5. The Marvel Bullpen becomes the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four is Marvel's first big runaway success

They're the characters that launched the Marvel Universe. They're the comic that basically redefined what the medium could be in the 1960s

Well, in this What If story, the original Marvel Bullpen, aka the employees of Marvel

gets sucked into the comic book universe they created and end up becoming the Fantastic Four

Stan Lee becomes Reed Richards' Mr. Fantastic. Flo Steinberg becomes the Invisible Woman, Jack Kirby is the Thing, and Sol Brodsky is the Human Torch

The story features the Fantastic Four going up against Dr. Morrow and some Skrulls

Overall, the book isn't really that good, but it's such a novelty, you can't help but appreciate the utter insanity of publishing something like this

Only in comics can you get something truly this unusual, and also forgettable

Number 4. What if Nick Fury fought World War II in space? What if number 14 features a pretty trippy setup

What if Fury fought World War II in space? If you're wondering why something like this got produced, the answer is simple

Star Wars had come out just a few years prior, and so Marvel was trying to coast on the success

The narrative features Nick Fury, cigar chomping and all, with his howling commandos in space, fighting robots and aliens

It's a truly bizarre entry and a list filled with head-scratchingly awesome issues. Number three, what if Dazzler had become the Herald of Galactus

The one thing you can always count on with what if stories is that they're never going to bury the lead

They're always going to be straightforward in the titling and really just cut to the chase. What if Dazzler had become the Herald of Galactus is no different

This issue sees the Disco Queen of Mutantdom becoming the forebearer of the planetary holocaust as the Herald of Galactus the devourer of worlds The story ends with Dazzler working as the Herald for Galactus and then eventually developing feelings for the massive purple planet eater Yeah that literally how it ends

Number two, what if Uncle Ben had lived? Today we forget a simple fact. The story that is most

often referenced as the quintessential what if comic didn't get made until issue 46 of the book's

original run. That means there were 45 other what ifs before they figured out the direction and tone

of what they should be doing. The title of the book that solidified the What If brand? What if Uncle Ben had lived

In this alternate timeline exploration of what could have happened if Uncle Ben did not get shot by the burglar

but instead Aunt May. Because, you know, one of Peter Parker's family members

has to die in order to give him the motivation to become a hero. This sets Spider-Man's life

on a fundamentally different course. This is a rare What If story that doesn't end up being worse for the protagonist

than in the prime timeline. In fact, Norman Osborn is unmasked earlier

Betty Brand's brother does not die. And a whole host of other things come into being

that are much better than the trials and tribulations that Peter Parker undergoes in the Prime 616 universe

The main difference in Peter's life in this What If comic is that Uncle Ben figures out Peter is Spider-Man relatively quickly

He doesn't like that Peter blames himself to the death of May and tries to help Peter move through the guilt while still being Spider-Man

Yeah, Uncle Ben is actually supportive of Peter being the webbed wall crawler. That little tweak seems to move everything in a much more positive direction for Mr. Parker

Number 1. Punisher killed the Marvel Universe. So our top spot on this What If list isn't actually a What If comic, strictly speaking

In 1995, Garth Ennis and Doug Braithwaite created the oh-so-beautifully titled The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe One-Shot

Yes, in the hallowed tradition of these alternate universe stories, the title tells you exactly what it is

Punisher's straight up murking some dudes. And by dudes, it's the whole 616. The typical origin for The Punisher is that his family are caught in crossfire by a gangland shootout

However, in this story, his family is taken out by a battle between the Avengers, X-Men, and a contingent of the Brood

Want to guess what Frank Castle does from here? He goes on a one-man war in the Marvel Universe

Want to guess what happens in the end? Spoiler alert, the book is called Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe