One especially wouldn’t like this Hulk when he’s angry, as What If…? Season 3 has shown.
Dr. Bruce Banner is a tragic figure. Cursed with a destructive monster within him, many incarnations of Bruce see him go to nearly any length to rid himself of the Hulk. But the first episode of What If…?’s third season explored an alternate world where Dr. Banner went much too far.
What If…? Reveals a Bigger, Meaner Hulk
The final season debut of What If…? dropped on Disney+ on Sunday, December 22. The episode, titled "What If... the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?" showed a reality within the MCU Multiverse in which Bruce Banner (voiced by Mark Ruffalo) was especially desperate to get rid of the Hulk.
This resulted in what could be considered a pure, unadulterated manifestation of the Incredible Hulk.
In the safety of his Gamma Lab, Bruce blasted himself with extreme amounts of gamma radiation, theorizing that gamma put the Hulk in him, so perhaps it could remove the beast as well.
Instead, the energy effectively splits a more monstrous creature from Hulk’s body. This grotesque brute, dubbed the Apex, quickly expands to Godzilla-level proportions.
The towering, rageful kaiju-like behemoth quickly spawns smaller versions of itself and starts terrorizing the globe. This prompts the Avengers to don giant, robotic mechs to give themselves a fighting chance.
But Earth’s Mightiest Heroes all perish in the battle against the Apex and its forces. Ten years later, a new group of Avengers have taken up the cause of protecting the planet, all piloting similar mechs. But they face some difficulty on that front.
Bruce’s close friend Sam Wilson implores him to unleash the Hulk to help turn the tide against the Apex. He refuses for a time but then comes to the Avengers’ rescue in the nick of time.
Seated inside a gamma nuke, Banner detonates the warhead and transforms into a kaiju similar to the Apex.
This Hulk unleashes a supercharged energy beam from his mouth and burns the Apex to a crisp, vaporizing it. In an emotional moment, Sam appeals to the gamma-fueled colossus, telling him that he’s his friend and that Bruce is still in there. Luckily, the Hulk calms down and retreats into the ocean, leaving humanity alone.
Although none of the events depicted in this episode of What If…? are canon to the main Marvel Cinematic Universe, it does present a scenario that could have had cataclysmic implications if the Bruce Banner that audiences are familiar with, never came to his new status quo as the merged Smart Hulk.
