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

What If...? Vol. 1 #2 (1977)

The Incredible Hulk has gone through a number of changes over the years, but for the most part, he has been a mindless rage monster often referred to as "savage." In the early days of the character, there was no concept of merging the psyches of the Hulk and Bruce Banner... until, of course, What If...? came along.

In this story, the question of what would happen if the Hulk's mind had merged with that of Bruce Banner was answered. This occurred long before it actually happened in the comics, so forget what you know about Professor Hulk for the moment.

Instead of being transformed into a mindless monster, Banner's intellect was completely intact when he transformed into the Hulk. He never became an enemy of General Ross, but it wasn't until Galactus came to Earth that the real need for an intelligent Hulk came into play.

Instead of going for the Ultimate Nullifier as they did in the Fantastic Four books, Reed Richards, Professor X, and Banner-Hulk combined themselves via an upgraded Cerebro they called the Psychotron. The three merged into a new being called "X-Man" whose combined might succeeded in deterring the World Devourer from destroying the Earth. When the job was done, the men returned to normal, but without their superpowers while the Thing transformed into a more monstrous version of himself more akin to the original Hulk.