EARTH-776
(EARTH-ARMORED AVENGERS)

Type: Alternate (Divergent) Earth
Core Continuum Designation: Earth-776

Environment: Earth-like

Usual means of access: Vibrational attunement

Dominant life form: Humanity

Significant Inhabitants: Armored Avengers, Avengers (defunct), Giant-Man (Hank Pym), Hulk (Bruce Banner), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Rick Jones, Space Phantom, Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie), Thor Odinson, Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), unidentified giant Asgardian creature

First Appearance: What If? I#3 (June, 1977)

History:
(What If? I#3) - At the conclusion of their struggle with the Space Phantom, the Hulk left the Avengers due to the others' distrust of him. Giant-Man argued that they should let him go, and Thor decided to leave the group as well. Following the abrupt departure of the Hulk and Thor, Giant-Man and the Wasp figured that without those two heavy-weights, they weren't much of a team, so they left as well. Iron Man subsequently went after the Hulk by himself, and got his butt whupped.

   When the Hulk formed an alliance with the Sub-Mariner (paralleling the events of Avengers I#3), Iron Man realized that even if he convinced Giant-Man and the Wasp to join him, they had no hope against their challengers. To even the odds, Stark constructed three additional suits of armor and recruited Giant-Man, the Wasp, and Rick Jones to wear the suits. After a brief, frustrating training session, the trio became angry with Iron Man and left him.

   Desperate, Iron Man overrode the safety limiters in his armor and charged it to maximum capacity to face the Hulk and Namor at Gibraltar alone. Though holding his own and nearly overcoming the two, Iron Man was eventually beaten into submission by Namor.

   However, Rick, Giant-Man, and the Wasp, all wearing their new armors, then arrived and attacked the Hulk and Namor. The "Iron Avengers" gained a brief advantage over their foes, but Namor refreshed himself in the water and the Hulk's rage increased his strength until they turned the tide. Iron Man revived and sacrificed all of his own energy to restore Giant-Man's armor to full power. Giant-Man then stood up to the Hulk, battering him back into a cliff, but Namor managed to snag Rick and hurled/punched him towards the cliff as well. The Hulk saved Rick and then became furious at Namor for trying to kill the boy. The Hulk and Namor fought underwater, but Namor soon realized the pointlessness of the struggle, and the Hulk was running out of air, so they both went their separate ways.

   Rick, Hank, and Jan all bowed their heads in respect for Iron Man, who had sacrificed his life to save them. From that day on, they dedicated themselves as the Armored Avengers.

(Avengers Forever I#11-12) - The armored Giant-Man was among the multi-dimensional Avengers summoned by the Earth-616 Rick Jones when he used the Destiny Force to oppose a plot of Immortus and the Time-Keepers.

Comments: Created by Jim Shooter, Gil Kane, and Klaus Janson.

There's no reason that Namor would not have headed north and thrown the frozen Captain America (Steve Rogers) into the water after the conclusion of this story (as he did in Avengers I#4), though it is certainly not definite. What would have happened after that is pure speculation.

The title of this story--What If the Avengers Had Never Been?--is a bit of a misnomer. The Avengers were founded, but broke up very early on after their first battle with the Space Phantom (diverging from Avengers I#2); in addition, three of the founding members did end up getting back together. However, the titles "What If the Avengers Had Barely Been?" or "What If Only 60% of the Avengers Stayed Together?" are a little lackluster; "What If the Early Avengers Had to Fight the Hulk and Sub-Mariner Without Thor?" is probably most accurate.

While I always liked this story, Iron Man's sacrifice was really a waste. Clearly an alliance between the Hulk and Namor could never last too long due their inflammatory natures.

New and additional images by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Earth-776 has no known connections to:

The Armored Avengers of Earth-776 should be distinguished from:

Giant-Man / "Iron Giant"

Henry Pym of Earth-776, he wore a suit of armor customized to his twelve (or fifteen?) foot height, which allegedly enhanced his strength a hundred fold while at full power (This would grant him Class 100 strength, somewhere between 100 to 500 tons!).

His armor included additional booster-jet units near his ankles (presumably to accommodate his greater weight at giant-size) which allowed him to fly, and it was durable enough to take punches from the Hulk; however, he could not change size while in the armor, nor did he appear to have repulsor rays.

--What If I#3 (Avengers Forever I#11

Iron Man

Tony Stark of Earth-776, he designed and built the three armor suits to enable the relatively weak heroes to combat the Hulk and Namor.

However, the stress of working day and night on the armors, combined with the steep learning curve of the Armored Avengers, pushed him over the edge of frustration and he yelled at them, driving them off.

He then assaulted the Hulk and Namor himself and was beaten nearly to death. He revived as the Armored Avengers were losing the struggle, and he sacrificed his remaining power to recharge Giant-Man, the only one with the strength to oppose the Hulk. Without his armor's pacemaker to keep his heart beating, he died.

--What If I#3

Rick Jones / "Iron Rick"

Rick Jones of Earth-776 was initially frustrated with his difficulties in using his armor, and decided that it wasn't his "gig"--he asked Iron Man if he could just give him actual super-powers.

His armor enabled him to fly and fire repulsor rays (though they looked more like multiple, tiny darts), and it enhanced his strength and durability to an unspecified degree.

It also contained a "molecular oscillator," which enabled him to become immaterial so solid objects would pass through him.

--What If I#3

Wasp / "Iron Wasp"

Janet Van Dyne of Earth-776 was very upset that Stark had picked a color of her armor that clashed with her eye shadow.

Her miniature armor fit her at her shrunken Wasp-size; since her own wings didn't protrude through it, the armor had a pair of metallic jet-propelled "wings" on the back that allowed her to fly. It also enhanced her strength and durability to an unspecified degree. Additionally, she could shoot drugged stinger darts from the gauntlets--although the darts worked on the Sub-Mariner, they were unable to penetrate the Hulk's skin.

--What If I#3

images: (without ads)
What If? I#3, p12, pan1 (Iron Avengers in training session with new armors; Iron Man [foreground])
What If? I#3, p10, pan5 (Iron Man presents newly built armors to Rick Jones, Janet Van Dyne, and Hank Pym)
What If? I#3, p10, pan4 (Henry Pym)
What If? I#3, p30, pan2 (armored Giant-Man restored to full power)
What If? I#3, p14, pan4 (Iron Man charging armor to full capacity)
What If? I#3, p34, pan5 (deceased Iron Man revealed as Tony Stark; armored Wasp, Rick Jones, and Giant-Man [background])
What If? I#3, p12, pan5 (Rick Jones in armor)
What If? I#3, p31, pan2 (armored Rick Jones grabbed by Sub-Mariner)
What If? I#3, p11, pan2 (Janet Van Dyne holding Wasp armor)
What If? I#3, p12, pan4 (armored Wasp in armored Giant-Man's hand)

Appearances:
What If? I#3 (June, 1977) - Jim Shooter (plot/script), Gil Kane (plot/pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), George Roussos (colors), Denise Wohl (letters), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Avengers Forever I#11-12 (November-December, 1999) - Kurt Busiek & Roger Stern (writers), Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Jesus Merino (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor) [armored Giant-Man only]

First posted: 06/07/2004
Last updated: 08/10/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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