Top 10 Weirdest Variants of Marvel Characters

Seeing Professor Charles Xavier put his mental powers aside to become an absolutely jacked version of the Juggernaut was bizarre. But that odd mutant mashup looks normal when compared to Juggerduck. This character took the normally diminutive Howard the duck and gave him a growth spurt as well as mutant powers. As an added weird bonus, he works for an alternate version of The Guardians of the Galaxy led by Cable. Although we don’t see much of Juggerduck in action, we know Howard can be a dangerous duck at times in his normal form. The thought of him having mutant powers is just...fowl.

In most Spider-Man stories, J.J. Jameson tries to discredit Spider-Man while disrespecting Peter Parker. Their relationship gets an odd twist in one “What If?” story. At the start of the comic, a sabotaged rocket claims the lives of Peter’s Aunt May and Jameson’s son. Spider-Man is blamed for everything. In the wake of the tragedy, J.J. adopts Peter as his own boy. Spider-Man’s true identity remains secret until Peter takes off his mask before running into an intense battle. To save his new son, J.J. puts on a robotic Spider-Slayer suit and fights villains with the webhead. There's still something strange about seeing these old enemies combating crime together. Who would’ve thought the newspaper mogul would ever protect Spider-Man from villains?

This version of the Fantastic Four shattered the fourth wall by getting really meta with the lineup. Instead of stacking the team with fictional characters, this new ensemble consisted of four real Marvel employees. Editor Stan Lee was Mr. Fantastic, his Vice President Sol Brodsky was Human Torch, Artist Jack Kirby became the Thing and secretary Flo Steinberg is Invisible Girl. They bizarrely got powers after opening a box loaded with cosmic rays that was sent by a Skrull. Watching all these actual artists wielding superpowers in between making comics while in a comic is surreal. Now that the MCU is embracing a multiverse, maybe this weird team will follow in Stan Lee’s footsteps and make a live-action cameo.

Shortly after a vampire version of the Juggernaut fatally wounds Dr. Strange, the ghost of the Sorcerer Supreme seeks out someone who can carry on his magical work. The mystic man decides to settle on...the Punisher for some reason. Armed with the cloak of levitation and Dr. Strange’s advice, Frank Castle takes on all the heroes and villains who have been turned into vampires. The sight of the Punisher wearing the magical cloak of levitation while wielding a machine gun is just unnatural. And unfortunately for this abnormal version of Castle, his sorcerer stint came to a swift end after he tried to defeat a vampire wolverine. This out-of-place Punisher made it clear the character should stick to using guns.

Man-Thing was a normal doctor named Theodore Sallis who was turned into a swamp creature after an odd accident. Stephen Strange was a famed surgeon until he hurt his hands in a car accident and embraced mysticism. Their somewhat similar backstories may have been what inspired Marvel to combine the two characters into one ridiculous being in a “What If?” story. In this universe, Strange gained his swampy appearance while trying to turn Sallis back to normal. While the other characters in the narrative seem to be okay with his appearance, it’s hard for us to accept seeing a Sorcerer Supreme with vines growing out of his face. Is he sure there’s not a spell that can help himself look a little more human?

There’s an alternate universe where all the heroes are primates that can talk as well as any of the animals in “Planet of the Apes” franchise. But talking ape-vengers is the least weird thing about these variants. In this universe, the cosmic rays that created the Fantastic Four gave the primate version of Sue Storm a human form that she shamefully hides with her invisibility powers. While seeing her shunned is odd, that’s nothing compared to Captain Ape-merica. He brutally punishes criminals who don’t agree to change and has multiple secrets. This Cap is both an imposter and a vampire. Honestly, Cap and the legions of absurd characters in this universe make a planet of apes sound realistic.

If we mention there’s a silent variant of Deadpool, it sounds like we’re bringing up the horrible Wade Wilson from “X-Men Origins Wolverine”. But we’re actually talking about Mimepool. (*xref) While both quiet versions of the merc didn’t last long, the much stranger Dogpool endured. This canine character was forced to endure horrible testing for a substance called mascara X. After escaping from cruel captors, he realized he couldn't die and was hired for the circus. His talents eventually get the dog drafted to the Deadpool Corps. Despite sharing the name with a zany Merc, the canine bizarrely seems like a normal pup most of the time. We expected this odd variant to act less like the average pet and more like a wild mercenary dog.

Although we’ve seen Peter’s Aunt May stand up to supervillains before, we never thought we'd see her work for a gigantic antagonist. However, there’s a universe where she accidentally becomes the herald of Galactus. May dramatically calls herself the Golden Oldie. After getting Galactus hooked on Twinkies, she flies around Earth to grab enough desserts to feed her boss. While it sounds like the kind character would never get along with the sinister Galactus, she’s... weirdly good at her job. Golden Oldie even manages to find a permanent way to stop her boss from consuming any more planets. Maybe this Aunt May story will inspire Galactus to keep choosing more outside-the-box characters as his heralds.

After a group of elephants is hit by radiation, they give birth to four creatures who have human and elephant characteristics. Their existence only gets weirder when it’s revealed they all have superpowers. While one of the members takes after Elektra, the rest have the same powers as the mutant Cyclops, Wolverine and Colossus respectively. We were willing to get past their odd appearances and accept they were talking elephants. However, seeing the Elektra counterpart fall into radioactive makeup and get empowered by the strong Phoenix force was too ridiculous. At least this bizarre elephant team’s encounter with a phoenix force ended better than it usually does for the mostly humanoid X-men.

Before we reveal our bizarre top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Lobo the Duck
Marvel’s Howard Is Combined with DC’s Lobo to Form a Bounty Hunter That Knows Quak-Fu

Dark Beast
An Insanely Evil Version of a Popular X-Men Hero

Hulk the Menace
Try Not to Get This Kid Hulk Angry Before Recess

Marvel Mangaverse Punisher
Sosumi Brown’s Alternate Version of the Punisher Uses a Fan as One of Her Weapons

The idea of the brilliant inventor Tony Stark using Green Goblin Tech doesn't sound that crazy on paper. But wait until you hear his absurd backstory. After Tony Stark is captured by a spider queen, she transforms him into an anthropomorphic spider. His allies make him human again by spraying him with Osborne’s Green Goblin formula. Unfortunately, the formula warps his personality. Before Tony’s sanity drifts away, he combines his equipment with Norman's to fight against the humanoid spiders invading Manhattan. This absolutely bonkers backstory ends with Iron Goblin sacrificing himself to save his friends. We’re not going to make sense of how a humanoid spider became a nonsensical mashup of two characters. Instead, we’ll just appreciate Tony’s noble sacrifice and forget this ever happened.