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The superheroes Iron Man and Hulk may have next to nothing in common in their superhero forms, as a brilliant armorer and a brutish brawler. But that didn’t stop Marvel Comics from wondering what kind of threat would be created, if rather than becoming an Avenger… Tony Stark became the Iron Hulk instead.
Thankfully even the most outlandish fan questions are able to become reality when dealing with the vast Marvel Multiverse, populated with universes where anything could happen. Whether it’s the version of Hulk who became Spider-Man in a parallel reality, or even the case of the Captain America who became Iron Man, instead, the Multiverse is ripe for hero-hybrids. So it was only a matter of time until Marvel’s Contest of Champions evolved from making heroes fight each other, to inviting heroes and villains from across the Multiverse. And it’s here that the Iron Hulk was introduced — and where he was murdered before his story could be told.
The Contest of Champions series remains one of the strangest in Marvel canon, beginning with an Olympics-related battle royale, then re-imagined as a free-to-play mobile game, which then inspired a new mini-series in 2015. It was the video game which re-introduced Maestro — a version of Hulk driven cruel and brutal in a future devoid of heroes and radiated with nuclear fallout — as a Summoner, and organizer of the tournament. Needless to say, it was Maestro’s Iron Man armor that grabbed players’ attention. And in Contest of Champions #6, Al Ewing and Paco Medina finally explain its gruesome origin.
Casual fans might assume that Maestro’s arsenal of Iron Man armor, Captain America’s shield, Ronan the Accuser’s hammer, etc., would have an incredible story behind it. But in reality only a handful of panels connect the dots, showing how quickly Maestro proved his brutal skills in a gladiatorial match with fighters from across Marvel’s Multiverse. Starting with the suit of armor, taken in combat by Maestro after removing the head of ‘Iron Hulk’ in one single swipe. Meaning the first appearance of the inherently intriguing hero (a Hulk-sized Iron Man??) came on the very same page as his death. Thankfully, this version of Iron Man/variation on Hulk is partially explained, meaning fans don’t have to use their imagination alone to craft the backstory.
The same series contains a single line of dialogue further teasing the tale of Iron Hulk, casually used as smack talk by Maestro while doing battle with Iron Man and Gamora (two of the fighters summoned by the supervillain). Readers didn’t know how much stock to put into Maestro’s words when he urged Gamora to “imagine a world where Tony there created the Gamma Bomb and became Iron Hulk. Now imagine a world where I killed him and stole his suit.” Paired with Maestro later addressing Iron Hulk as someone he is at least casually familiar with, the Multiversal variation can be understood. Still, readers not getting to see the synthesis of the two Avengers’ origins — Tony Stark creating a weapon blasting him with enough Gamma to transform his body, but somehow keeping his mind intact — remains a tantalizing tease.
Perhaps the future will give this hybrid Avenger another day in the sun. Especially since there may be no other adversary capable of taking on Marvel’s Wolverine-Hulk hybrid, Weapon H. But until the, readers can only dream of the brilliant, billionaire, playboy, monster… and hope.
