10 Best 'What If?' Marvel Stories You Must Read

10. What If... Venom Had Possessed The Punisher?

What If...? Vol. 2 #44, (1992)

Venom was a hugely popular character back in the early nineties, so Marvel played around with who/what he was early on with some What If...? storylines. In what many consider to be one of the best, Venom doesn't possess Eddie Brock, but rather finds Frank Castle instead.

It all went down when Castle ended up at the church where Peter Parker rid himself of the Venom Symbiote instead of Brock. It bonded with him, but he thought it was just some advanced SHIELD technology and not an alien symbiote intent on taking over his body and mind.

With the new "tech," Castle became an even deadlier Punisher. He killed the Kingpin and Tombstone but began a struggle with the symbiote for dominance of his body. It started controlling him at night while he slept, which brought him to the attention of Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Moon Knight who confronted him.

Castle's struggle with the symbiote ultimately ended in his favor when he threatened to kill himself if he didn't regain control. From that point, he was the master of the Venom symbiote (and a more powerful Punisher to boot). The heroes left him alone at the end of the story thinking he could be a powerful ally sometime in the future.