Appearing in "What If? The Gamma Bomb Spawned A Thousand Hulks?"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie)
- X-Men
- Fantastic Four
- Captain America (Steve Rogers)
- Thor
- Iron Man (Tony Stark)
- Human Torch (Jim Hammond) (First appearance; dies) (Only in flashback)
- Whizzer (Robert Frank) (First appearance; dies) (Only in flashback)
- Union Jack (Brian Falsworth) (First appearance; dies) (Only in flashback)
- Maj. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Only in flashback)
- Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan (Only in flashback)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-95371 (Reality)
Items:
Synopsis for "What If? The Gamma Bomb Spawned A Thousand Hulks?"
It starts in 1944 when American scientists created a Gamma bomb instead of an Atomic bomb and bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then, it flashed forward to the present where Ben Urich, a correspondent of the Canadian Free Press, is interviewing Bruce Banner, the Hulk, and driving force of SHIELD, the American Revolutionary Army.
Bruce talked about how that when the Americans bombed the two Japanese cities, the survivors were mutated into super powerful, bestial, green creatures. Among them were those who retained their intellect but gained super strength. This group of super beings are called 'The Emperor's Oni' or 'The Emperor's Demons'.
This force started to take the era's superheroes down to the Sub Mariner who had to run away. America was taken over in a month and all its citizens became subjugated for forty years.
Then, it was revealed that the Oni are slowly dying from the radiation that spawned them. The Leader became paranoid and a rift was born between those loyal to the Emperor and those loyal to the Leader.
Seeing this, Nick Fury came out of the shadows with his revolutionary army called, SHIELD. The Leader became more desperate to save his Oni Army and looked to Bruce Banner. Bruce theorized that a strong dose of Gamma radiation could help the mutates. Then, he revealed what happened to previous attempts to find the cure. Professor Xavier discovered a group of mutants who can kill an Oni. He and the mutants disappeared. Reed Richards experimented with cosmic radiation and gained super powers but he and his team got captured and held as lab rats.
Nick Fury went to Bruce and asked that Bruce sabotage the prototype to destroy the Leader and help the Revolution. Bruce refused to protect his wife. Unfortunately, his wife, Betty Banner, was checked for ID and revealed to be the daughter of General Ross and was killed for that.
Bruce sabotaged the prototype and then had to save Nick Fury because he was trying to sabotage the prototype himself. Bruce saved Nick but ended up dosed with massive amounts of gamma radiation causing him to transform into the Hulk.
After Bruce joined SHIELD to fight the Oni, various superheroes came out; the X-Men came out of hiding, the Fantastic Four were rescued and Sub Mariner came back. The last few pages show the heroes fighting against the Oni.
Notes
- Inks: pages 15 and 16 by Snider.[1]
Trivia
- Banner mentions that the Emperor's Oni were created "over forty years ago". Since the Gamma Bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, the present day of the story could be anywhere between 1985 and 1994.
- Curiously, Banner mentioned that the Third Reich control Europe and England in the present day. In real-life, Nazi Germany surrendered in April 1945.[2] Whether this means the Nazis never surrendered on Earth-95371 or remnants of the Third Reich took over Europe again while the US was distracted by Japan and the Emperor's Oni, is unknown.