WARNING: This article contains spoilers for What If? The Punisher #1 and What If? Spider-Man #1, which are both on sale now


While Marvel Comics' pre-established Spider-Men, Spider-Women and various other Spider-People are busy getting caught up in Spider-Geddon, the publisher just introduced two new versions of Spider-Man in a pair of What If specials. They might have Spider-Man's powers, but neither one uses them responsibly, and while these alternate reality Spider-Men don't have too much in common with each other, both of them are ready to use their Spider-abilities with lethal force.

What If? The Punisher #1 asks "What If Peter Parker Became the Punisher?" in a story by Carl Potts, Juanan Ramirez, Rachelle Rosenberg and Travis Lanham. In this alternate reality, Peter Parker's origin mixes familiar moments with a few twists. After getting bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter designs a dark suit that features a Punisher logo that's inspired by the convenient black-and-white skull design on the spider's abdomen. Once his Uncle Ben is killed by a burglar he ignored, Peter chases the criminal down... and shoots him with his own gun at point blank range.

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Spider-Man Punisher Gun (2)

While Spider-Man is usually against killing, this incident sends Spidey down a dark path with a high body count. After pictures of "the Punishing Spider" are published in The Daily Bugle, Peter starts his war on crime and Peter modifies his web-shooters to shoot small caliber ammunition. During his first battle with the Sinister Six, this Spidey executes Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Sandman, Vulture and Doctor Octopus with specialized bullets that cut through their powers, abilities and bodies.

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Despite his lethal methods, this Peter Parker finds a happy ending that always eluded our Peter Parker. When the Green Goblin kidnapped Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man uses his wrist-shooters to shoot through the Goblin's armor and finish him off for good. This lets Spider-Man save Gwen Stacy on the night she died in the main Marvel Universe. After helping her recover, Peter throws away his costume to give all of his attention to the woman he loves.

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Although Parker walked off into the sunset in that world, another Peter's life was cut tragically short in What If? Spider-Man #1, which wonders "What If Flash Thompson Became Spider-Man?" Even though a few older issues of What If? deal with that exact same premise, Gerry Duggan, Diego Olortegui, Walden Wong, Chris O'Halloran and Travis Lanham offer a modern update on the idea.

After Flash gets bitten by the radioactive spider, the former high school bully becomes Spider-Man, eager to prove how much of a hero he is to the general public. Although he drops out of school to be Spider-Man full-time, Flash can't quite get away from his old classmate Peter Parker, who's taking pictures of Spidey's violent escapades for The Daily Bugle.

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Spider-Man Flash Thompson

Even though Flash stopped the burglar before he could harm Uncle Ben, tragedy still struck the Parker household when Aunt May contracted a rare blood disease. After Doctor Octopus stole May's medicine, Peter found Spider-Man's hideout and discovered that he was Flash. While Peter was begging for his help, Flash inadvertently killed Parker with a single super-strong punch.

After tracking down Doc Ock, Flash gets trapped under some impossibly heavy machinery. In Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's Amazing Spider-Man #33, Peter Parker was in the same spot and found new strength by focusing on his love for Aunt May. More than any other scene, that moment defined Spider-Man, and it was even adapted in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

For Flash, it's also a defining moment -- it's when he realizes that he's not a hero. Even before he killed Parker, Flash beat up villains with a gleeful savagery that frightened the people he was trying to protect. After getting the medicine to May, Spider-Man turns himself into the police to answer for his actions.

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Spider-Man Flash Lifting

While their main characters end up in two very different places, both of these stories end with the respective Spider-Men hanging up their tights. And while these aren't usually the kinds of characters who show up more than once, Marvel is in the midst of throwing almost every Spider-Man in the multiverse together for the Spider-Geddon crossover. That crossover's writer, Christos Gage, has already teased "some new parallel-world Spideys" and these two unusually brutal wall-crawlers would certainly fit the bill. Even if these two don't show up in Spider-Geddon, the Spider-People of the multiverse get together on a fairly regular basis these days, so it might not be long before these one of both of them swing back into action.