Best Alternate Ending for a Comic Book Hero

[MikeGainer]

Co-writer Bob Layton is writing a "possible future" comic book for an aging Tony Stark. A brief storyline was posted on his website;

Decades in the future, a 70+ Tony Stark is overseeing his ultimate project of his lauded career—the completion of Earth’s first commercial space elevator, whose inauguration will change the world’s economy and the future of space exploration forever. However, not everyone is looking forward to this project’s launch with the same enthusiasm as the head of Stark Universal. Sinister forces are at work, behind-the-scenes, to insure that Stark’s pinnacle scientific achievement ends in disaster.

Sounds awfully like Arthur C. Clarke's "Fountain of Paradise" (one my favorites) but I like where they're going with this. I haven't been reading much of Iron Man since the Civil War but I'll probably pick this one up.

Iron Man: The End Preview.

I'm not into the Elseworlds of DC comics or What if's of Marvel but I would like to see some kind of conclusion of my favorite comic book heroes (particularly Batman), even though it's not canon.

Can anybody think of their favorite "what if's" endings to their favorite superheros?

 

[JoeZhang]

within comics sounds more like a ripoff of Hammerlocke.

 

[Hermiod]

The Incredible Hulk: The End sounds right.

In it the Hulk is the last survivor of a nuclear war. He alternates between Banner and the Hulk. The Hulk simply wants to be alone but Banner keeps trying to kill himself, failing each time as he turns in to the Hulk.

Banner eventually suffers a heart attack. Inside his mind he begs the Hulk side of his personality to just let go and let them both die, but Hulk still wants to be alone. Later, the Hulk says that Banner is gone and realises that he can't turn back in to Banner because he will die too.

It ends with the Hulk saying "Hulk strongest one there is... Hulk only one there is... Hulk feels cold..."

A tragic end for a tragic character.

 

[Andrew Harris]

Well, there's always Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Probably the best What If story, and best What If ending, ever published in comics.

I won't go into it if you haven't read it--but if you haven't, you need to...!

 

[CommanderJMic]

I've always been a fan of the the old What If? comic What If the X-Men Had Lost Inferno?

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/earthxmenlostinferno.htm

Whatever happened to the What If? series anyway? I thought they were (mostly) fun reads.

 

[Mistral]

I loved the What If? series-bought every one of the original run. I have a Kammandi issue (#29?) called The Legend that tells of Superman at the time of the Great Disaster. I thought it was a cool little possibility on how he could finish his existence.

I'd love to see the Clairemont Xmen Days of Future Past story carried through beyond #141-142 to see how the changes end up. I've read a ton of those related stories but no one had the guts(that I know of) to finish it.

I always wondered how Spiderman would end-the guy gets hurt a lot and takes insane risks-I could see him going down trying to save New York(or an individual) before he ever reaches a ripe old age.

 

[The Mule]

"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"

 

[Ben Sisko3]

"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"

Seconded. Absolutely brilliant -- of course, it IS Alan Moore. I also greatly enjoyed the aforementioned Hulk: The End.

I always wondered how Spiderman would end-the guy gets hurt a lot and takes insane risks-I could see him going down trying to save New York(or an individual) before he ever reaches a ripe old age.

Then check out Spider-Man: Reign, but be warned - it's pretty effin' stupid.

 

[Gojirob]

The War Of The Worlds as depicted in Killraven and Guardians Of The Galaxy had Spider-Man hold out as the last hero to survive the Martian invasion, attaining an almost mystic status among the Martians.

'Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow' ranks as my personal fave as well.

I somehow see this as the coda line to a true Spidey-End story :

'Taking back the abilities of Captain Universe, Spider-Man began to rebuild the shattered world around him, learning that, with ultimate power, comes the ultimate respsonsibility.'

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Sounds awfully like Arthur C. Clarke's "Fountain of Paradise" (one my favorites) but I like where they're going with this.

It sounds like a series DC did about fifteen years ago, Hammerlocke, written by Tom Joyner, with art by Chris Sprouse. One of the great industrialists builds a space elevator about fifty years in the future, and on its inauguration a terrorist attack nearly brings it down. One of the main characters, the middle-aged industrialist, wears a suit of armor not unlike the Iron Man armor.

It's coming out as a trade paperback in 2009. I enjoyed it at the time, and I'm curious how well it's held up. I'm not so sure about reformating it as a manga-sized book, but if that's what it takes to succeed in the marketplace today... *shrug*

ETA: I should have read further down, as I'd have noticed that the very first reply mentioned the similarity to Hammerlocke. *sigh*

Didn't mean to do a "me-too"-ism, or step on anyone's toes.

 

[FreezeC77]

Tony Stark looks pretty damn good for 70+

 

[TheBrew]

I've been enjoying "Old Man Logan" so far. Not sure if it is an "ending" for Wolverine, but it seems to be in the right area for it.

 

[JoeZhang]

Sounds awfully like Arthur C. Clarke's "Fountain of Paradise" (one my favorites) but I like where they're going with this.

It sounds like a series DC did about fifteen years ago, Hammerlocke, written by Tom Joyner, with art by Chris Sprouse. One of the great industrialists builds a space elevator about fifty years in the future, and on its inauguration a terrorist attack nearly brings it down. One of the main characters, the middle-aged industrialist, wears a suit of armor not unlike the Iron Man armor.

It's coming out as a trade paperback in 2009. I enjoyed it at the time, and I'm curious how well it's held up. I'm not so sure about reformating it as a manga-sized book, but if that's what it takes to succeed in the marketplace today... *shrug*

ETA: I should have read further down, as I'd have noticed that the very first reply mentioned the similarity to Hammerlocke. *sigh*

Didn't mean to do a "me-too"-ism, or step on anyone's toes.

I think it holds up fairly well - I certainly well a trade - but not manga sized...

 

[Ben Sisko3]

I've been enjoying "Old Man Logan" so far. Not sure if it is an "ending" for Wolverine, but it seems to be in the right area for it.

Yeah, Old Man Logan is pretty sweet, although the idea of Hawkeye having a kid with Spider-Man's daughter is sort of weird to me.

 

[Mistral]

Gojirob-I actually had that in the back of my mind as I posted. I own all of the Killravens and most of the Guardian issues-stupid as the original premise was, I loved the overall, post-apocalyptic setting. I have all of the Kammandi and Kirby-OMAC stories too.(Hence the reference). In the first run of What If? there was a tale about Nova-it was a Xmas story. It was also the end of "Nova"-to this day it was the "finale" story that all others have to compete with in my own mind.

 

[Brikar99]

"Silver Surfer: Requiem" was danged excellent.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I kind of enjoyed the Machine Man ltd series in which MM is rebuilt "in the future" (which is probably set about now) and finds Jocosta and generally wraps up his story. Not bad.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

I took a look at Hulk: The End and it did seem a top notch ending for a superhero.

Both DKR and Kingdom Come were fantastic future stories, until both endings were ripped to shreds by bad, bad, bad (did I mention they were bad?) sequels.

Batman Beyond did some nice things for exploring Gotham's future.

I know I'll get rapped for this, but ... I don't get the love for "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow". It seemed a somewhat clumsy story designed more to wrap up a zillion narrative threads than to tell a good tale. Maybe I can't appreciate it due to my lack of knowledge of Silver Age Superman, but I definitely didn't find it enthralling.

*hangs head in geek shame*

 

[grabmygoblin]

Whatever happened to the What If? series anyway? I thought they were (mostly) fun reads.

Marvel lately has been producing "What If" as a miniseries following the big crossovers in the main universe, like "What If?: Civil War" or "What If?: World War Hulk".

I also strongly recommend Exiles for your parallel marvel-verse cravings, it's about a team which has to travel to various realities to fix an event before the timeline unravels.

I'd love to see the Clairemont Xmen Days of Future Past story carried through beyond #141-142 to see how the changes end up. I've read a ton of those related stories but no one had the guts(that I know of) to finish it.

they've kind of dealt with that, but, as far as I know, the stories have only ever ended with the good guys winning.

 

[Gojirob]

Mistral - do you refer to the Nova four-story What If (V1#14, IIRC) in which a homeless man saves an orphanage from some Skrulls, in a hero-less MU?