While Skaar, the son Hulk fathered during his time on the planet Sakaar, is now a part of mainstream Marvel continuity, he was almost nothing more than a teaser for a story never to be told. Fans may find it hard to believe that Skaar - who traveled with the Hulk before a stint on the Dark Avengers - began as a hypothetical character, but not only was the Son of Hulk created in an alternate universe - he wasn't even the focus of the story.
Skaar first appeared as a teaser in a What If...? one-shot. These books take place outside normal Marvel continuity, twisting minor details in famous stories to produce surprising results. In this case, the story being explored was Planet Hulk. In the mainstream incarnation, Hulk is exiled to the planet Sakaar by the Illuminati, a group of Earth's most influential heroes. After freeing the planet, Hulk is named king, marrying a pregnant Caiera the Oldstrong shortly afterward. His newfound happiness is short-lived, as what seems like a malfunction in the shuttle that carried Hulk to Sakaar destabilizes the planet, killing Caiera in the process. An enraged Hulk and his surviving friends then take a ship to Earth for revenge, culminating in the World War Hulk storyline.
However, as Hulk would discover later, not all was lost in the explosion that killed Caiera. Their unborn sons were protected from the blast as Caiera used her special ability, the Old Power, to protect her womb. Born with his father's physiology, Skaar emerged from a lake of fire, the equivalent of a growing human child in maturity and look. From there, he began to rapidly age, quickly becoming an adult and gaining the strength of his father as well as the Old Power abilities of his mother. Skaar took up a sword and battled enemies across his home planet before eventually finding himself on Earth. Happily, with the help of his father's Doc Green persona, Skaar shed himself of his Gamma powers and took the name Santos, living as a hunter in the Pyrenees Mountains.
While Skaar's first canonical appearance was in World War Hulk #5, it wasn't his first appearance in a book. For that, readers should look to 2007's What If? Planet Hulk, written by Greg Pak and drawn by John Romita, Jr. This story takes a look at several other scenarios spinning off the original Planet Hulk storyline, but the idea in question being that Caiera survived rather than the Hulk. This time around, she is the one to return to earth, where she slaughters many of earth's heroes, even putting Iron Man's helmeted head on a stake. After a time-jump of 21 years, Skaar makes his true first appearance as a shadowy figure with his father's build. With a sinister grin on his face and a superhero sized cattle-prod in his hand, he leads his mother to a newly completed statue of his father.
What If? Planet Hulk presented a very different idea of the Hulk's son, but it planted a seed. While the execution of the two versions are completely different, with one being an evil prince and the other essentially being Space Conan, the story introduced the concept of Caiera's children surviving, and future writers just couldn't pass up the opportunity to confront the Hulk with Skaar. The story also offers an interesting look into what works for short-term versus long-term storytelling, with the What If...? Skaar being a simpler character than the complex oversized preteen who finally came to Earth to reckon with his absent father.
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