Juggernaut’s brutal brawl with the most powerful version of the Hulk broke Cain Marko on a surprisingly deep and complex level.
For most of his time in the Marvel Universe, the Juggernaut has primarily been a villain. But for a short period, Cain Marko truly seemed to believe that he could become a more heroic figure until a brutal brawl with the Hulk broke him in the most tragic way possible.
World War Hulk: X-Men (by Christos Gage and Andrea Di Vito) pitted a briefly heroic Juggernaut against the vicious Worldbreaker Hulk — and ended up becoming the beginning of the end for the former villain’s brief stint as a hero.
During the same period where the Hulk was exiled off the Earth by the Illuminati, the Juggernaut was committed to trying to better himself. After serving as a member of the X-Men, Cain Marko ended up working alongside a new iteration of Excalibur. But when Hulk returned to Earth, he confronted the various members of the Illuminati — including Charles Xavier, who had been absent from the vote to exile the Hulk from Earth. The X-Men refused to back down and fought a losing battle against the Hulk, with the Cuckoos eventually calling for aid from other mutants across the world. When Excalibur was informed of the fight, Juggernaut called upon the power of Cyttorak. With the other-worldly being draining him of his powers because of his heroic turn, Juggernaut knew he had no chance of standing up against the Hulk.
In exchange for help reaching Westchester in time to defend Xavier, Marko promised to unleash hell against the Jade Giant. But the Crimson Gem wouldn’t fully empower the Juggernaut until he accepted the pure destructive reason he really wanted to fight the Hulk: to prove himself show his full power once more. This pleased the destructive deity, who fully restored the Juggernaut to his true strength and unleashed him against the Hulk. Even then, however, the Juggernaut still wasn’t able to defeat the Hulk although he impressively fought the enraged beast to a standstill. After the Hulk finally relented and left Xavier alongside the injured X-Men, Professor X tried to thank Juggernaut, only for Marko to forsake his place with the heroes and leave.
The Juggernaut has often been hinted to be more than the straightforward villain he sometimes appears to be. Especially during that period of the character’s history, there seemed to be a real path to redemption for Marko, with the longtime X-Men antagonist making peace with his former enemies. But everyone, from his former criminal allies to his newfound heroic partners, kept just waiting for him to turn back to villainy. Despite all the doubts and expectations about his character, Juggernaut genuinely seemed to want to become a hero. But his battle with the Worldbreaker Hulk finally revealed, once and for all, that being one of the mightiest forces in the world was more important to Marko than being a hero.
The Juggernaut nearly became a hero, but ultimately gave in to another choice. He sacrificed his chance to be loved in favor of being more powerful, giving up his chance to be a hero to defend one of his oldest enemies. In this way, Marko was broken more than any physical blow he could have ever received.
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