I loved the Marvel ‘What If’ series. Some of the stories sucked and alot of the art was subpar, IMHO, but anything could happen.
What would you like to see in a ‘What If’ book?
Here’s one of mine…When they had the Silver Surfer series going again years ago, one of the first story lines involved the Elders of the Universe (not the Princes of the Universe, that’s a Queen song) trying to kill Galactus. The modivation of the Elders was pride. They felt that since they told everybody that they were the oldest beings in the universe, having Galactus around (who was a humaniod of some sort that was around before the Big Bang) was more than they could bare. Ofcourse they didn’t succeed, Surfer came to realize that G-money was a essintial force of the universe and needed to exist. Well, What IF Galactus did die? The void he would leave would possibly spell the end for the Marvel-verse. My thought was that the silver Surfer would have to fill his shoes to save everyone and everything. Just imagine the drama of S.S. having to become the thing he rebeled against! I also thought it would have been cool to merge some of Galactus’ look with Surfer’s.
What if Spider-Man was accepted into the Fantastic Four making it the Fantastic Five when he first came to them (and not being a jerk when he won’t get paid)? Not only does Reed Richards make a load of money from his technology patents, Peter Parker is able to help out in the chemical department with his superstrong, dissolvable wire. J. Jonah Jameson doesn’t hate him. Peter his still hooked up with Mary Jane through his Aunt May.
While the FF has an easier time detecting traps (ala Doctor Doom) and defeating cosmic enemies, petty crime is much higher in New York. DareDevil dies halfway through his career due to so high a superhuman criminal element. The police in New York adopt a superhuman taskforce that is proactive. New York becomes a more militiristic city because of this. Why every criminal wants to go to New York instead say Boston or Detroit, I’ll never know.
Kal-el, the last surviving member of the dying world Krypton, was sent in a rocketship to the Marvel Comics universe instead of the DC continuity?
Or alternately, What If Jerome Siegel and Joel Schuster worked for Marvel Comics and not National Comics (the name of the comic book company that was renamed “DC Comics” in the 1960s)
Any way, Kal-el lands on Earth sometime in the 1920s, is adopted by the Kents, and grows up in Kansas. He becomes old enough to serve in the military and is drafted in the advent of WWII. An astute physician at the draft inductee center realizes that milksop Clark Kent is merely pretending to be a milksop and is in fact superhumanly powerful. He informs his superiors about his discovery. His superiors decide there is no need for the Super-Soldier Serum experiment they’ve been attempting and tell genuine milksop Steve Rogers to go home – he’s too much of a loser to be of any help to the armed forces. Kent is given a red, white & blue costume with a shield emblem (he doesn’t need an actual shield) and is sent out to combat the nazis as “the Super-American.” He inexplicably allows an annoying brat named Bucky Olson to accompany him on his Super-American missions as the Super-American’s ambiguously pedophiliac love object/sidekick.
Meanwhile, an American nazi sympathizer who also happens to be a bald criminal mastermind has been spying on the U.S. Super-soldier program and is aware of the Super American’s one weakness - - to a rare shiny green metal. Armed with this knowledge, the evil genius whose initials are LL defects to Germany and becomes “the Kryptonite Skull” scourge of the Super-American.
Towards the end of the war, Bucky Olson gets killed and the Super-American is frozen in a block of ice. He’ll get chipped out of the block of ice by the rogue hero Aqua-Mariner just in time to join the fledgling Justice League of Avengers.
Ironically, wimpy loser Steve Rogers gets rich by writing a string of conspiracy theory novels centered around secret government programs to transform He buys the Daily Planet and falls in love with, and marries Lois Lane.
Actually, the first follow-up to that story was in What If…? vol. 1, # 21.
I’d go with…what if Paul Levitz never wrote the “Durlan impersonator of Shrinking Violet marries Colossal Boy” story in Legion of Super-Heroes? Would we ever have had the “Skrull impersonator of Alicia Masters marries the Human Torch” story?
I got away from Marvel just in time, in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
On a more serious note to answer the OP…What if Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch had never left Magneto?
Oooh! Ooooh! But the most RECENT follow-up was in Heralds #1-2 (a Paradise X prelude). In it, Spider-Girl and Wolverine from “Days of Futures Past” travel to that Earth and learn 1) the FF was killed by Reed’s evil double, Brute; 2) Brute took over Reed’s life and became the U.S. President; and 3) Namor and Sue were still married.
What if the original Avengers hadn’t disbanded (in Avengers #16)? (Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Black Widow would still be villians)
What if Doom and Reed had been friends in college? (No explosion to ravage Doom’s face, Doom joins the FF (“C’mon Vic. You wanna run a 2-bit country or explore the cosmic unknown?”), etc)
What if Daredevil had killed off his Matt Murdock ID instead of his Swingin’ Mike Murdock ID? (For one, Miller would have been hard pressed to make things as grim as they got)
What if Ultron um…13? (The sane one who’d grown out of the whole Oedipal thing) had lived?
What if Norman Osborn hadn’t been so prone to amnesia? (Think about it: After the big battle where Norman finds out in Amazing 40, Norman goes to the press and blabs. Then what?)
What if Captain America was never frozen? (so he’s too old for the Avengers: what happens to the Avengers without Cap? Nothing good…)
What if Professor X and Magneto had stayed partners (no Brotherhood of Evil Mutants means no anti-mutant hysteria/prejudice. Remember, in the very, VERY early issues of X-Men, the X-Men were so popular that a crowd of admiring teenyboppers once tried to mob Angel! Circa Uncanny X-Men #7)
Ooooooooh, I like this one! And forget Namor vs. Reed for Sue’s heart, try Victor vs. Reed…
He could still be a mentor-type leader figure. Not sure if he’d be physically fit to go into the field, though you could probably use the Super-Soldier serum to give you an excuse to do so.
My only problem with Marvel’s What If? comic series is that too many stories ended up maintaining the “mainstream” status quo, or destroying the world/galaxy/universe as a result. There are lots of other possibilities, guys.
And the FF would’ve had a harder edge: no letting the Mole-Man go 'cause you feel sorry for him, for one thing.
Another point, back around FF #116, Sue comments that Vic is more charismatic and more a natural leader than Reed is.
So lessee: Vic is as smart as Reed, has mystic powers to (which are better than Reed’s stretching powers, IMHO), is kind of a hunk, is a natural leader…how soon before Reed starts feeling left out and third-wheel-ish?
What if was my favorite comic behind Amazing Spider-man. I enjoyed that anything went in that book, no guarentees that the good guy would win, or that anyone would live through the book. Personal favorite issues include Punisher getting Venom’s costume, Operation Galactic Storm: Earth loses, Army of supersoldiers in WW2, and Captain America Revived today with America conquored by Nazis.
Ah, dark futures and hero deaths, that’s what good comics are all about!
My main problem with the “What If” series is that EVERY single time they do anything with Captain America, the final panel shows the Red Skull yanking off a Captain America mask and cackling evilly, having impersonated his enemy for years and years.
So I guess my suggestion would be, “What If They Did A ‘What If’ With Captain America That Didn’t End With The Red Skull Cackling Evilly?”
Actually, I had one of those. It was “What if Captain America had formed the Avengers?” or something like that. I can’t recall the specifics at the moment, but CA was picked up from the ice much much later than he had been. He discovers some evil, and gathers up some characters that ended up being a facsimilie of the Avengers (Iron Man, for instance, was replaced by Frank Castle wearing a War Machine suit with the skull on the front). They met Thor in the villain’s lair, then all charged off to, I assume, a glorious death.
I gave my comics away to various neighborhood kids years back, so I can’t dig it up and find more. Anyone who knows more about it can feel free to correct me.
You are correct. That was the second part of “Army of supersoldiers in WW2” that i mentioned above. The guy who was the Falcon became Giant Man, Logan was Wendigo, and Namor kept his long hair.
