What If...?

[Rabulias]

And way back in the comics General Ross's task force for taking down the Hulk was called the "Hulkbusters," and the operation ran out of Hulkbuster Base. Now I just keep thinking they should have named it Hulkbursters...

 

[embee]

Though I don't understand his fascination with subjugating humans or why he'd think they're suited to it.

He's the heir to the throne of Jotunheim. Thor is dead, meaning he is ostensibly the heir to the throne of Asgard, so with Earth, he'll rule Midgard too.

That's three out of the Nine Realms.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I think you have rather more expectation of highly detailed consideration for the mechanics of gory, messy death than I do.

Plus this was made for family-friendly Disney+, not HBO Max. Some stuff was already told no because it pushed the limits of PG-13 too much, such as the rejected script where Parker transforms on-screen into a real spider:

'What If...?' Writer Reveals the Storyline That Was Too Dark for Marvel

It seems like body horror is where the MCU set its limits.

collider.com

I am surprised they even show the direct shot of the arrow killing Thor.

 

[Tonguez]

If it was just the heart growing, I don’t think he would have essentially disintegrated. He might still have burst, depending on the size of the heart, but there should have been pieces left. Including the heart.

Yeah I think that was disney code for blood splatter, of course the whole Hulk blowing up like a balloon thing was the stupidest part of the episode, but I’ll accept that in that particular branch of the Multiverse their version of the Hulk is rather weak and didnt have the regenerative powers that other versions do…

 

[Rune]

Yeah I think that was disney code for blood splatter, of course the whole Hulk blowing up like a balloon thing was the stupidest part of the episode, but I’ll accept that in that particular branch of the Multiverse their version of the Hulk is rather weak and didnt have the regenerative powers that other versions do…

What’s regeneration going to do when every single capillary gets pumped full of blood cells that are orders of magnitude too large? In a heartbeat.

 

[Tonguez]

What’s regeneration going to do when every single capillary gets pumped full of blood cells that are orders of magnitude too large? In a heartbeat.

The Hulk in comics has perhaps the best regeneration ability, he’s managed to regenerate from having himself incinerated (he did that in less than 20 minutes), he’s regenerated his entire heart after it was ripped out and he has been shown regrowing a body from bits of his corpse. One fringe theory is that the Hulk is in fact a gamma irradiated colony of cancel cells that constantly replicate once he gets angry and have no known limit.

 

[Rune]

The Hulk in comics has perhaps the best regeneration ability, he’s managed to regenerate from having himself incinerated (he did that in less than 20 minutes), he’s regenerated his entire heart after it was ripped out and he has been shown regrowing a body from bits of his corpse. One fringe theory is that the Hulk is in fact a gamma irradiated colony of cancel cells that constantly replicate once he gets angry and have no known limit.

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Which may be true with MCU Hulk anyway. None of that would prevent what we saw happen to him in the episode and, if he could fully regenerate from a single cell or collection thereof (his enlarged blood and heart cells should still be around, after all), surely that would “take a while to recover.”

 

[Stalker0]

Which may be true with MCU Hulk anyway. None of that would prevent what we saw happen to him in the episode and, if he could fully regenerate from a single cell or collection thereof (his enlarged blood and heart cells should still be around, after all), surely that would “take a while to recover.”

Its pretty much implied in the show that he's dead.

Again, its my personal head cannon, it helps me reconcile the super regeneration from the comics with the attack in the cartoon.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Yeah, it's a bit strange that he could survive wielding the infinity gauntlet to bring back half the life in the universe, but a fancy grenade does the trick.

Seems like the kind of thing someone who's spent their career and millions/billions of US tax dollars on bringing down a monster would have thought of already.

The others all more or less made sense. That one I just had to go "sure..why not.."

 

[Umbran]

The Hulk in comics has perhaps the best regeneration ability...

So, when we talk about comics characters, we have to remember that they have existed a long time - Hulk has been around since 1962. Powers tend to change and inflate over time, as authors find new ways to one-up themselves and each other. But any take on the character from those past 60 years is valid. And he hasn't always been that great at regeneration. He's had the crap beaten out of him before, and taken a long time to heal up, and there have been times when simple human disease would have killed him if not for outside intervention.

So, maybe the MCU version (or the What If...? version) isn't infinitely regenerating cancer-Hulk.