Comics Explained: What If?

The first issue

Marvel recently revealed its new line-up for Phase Four, and one of the newly announced titles is the TV series What If?. This will be based off of the comic series which has been intermittently published since 1977, with a short thirteenth volume being released in 2018! These one-off stories allowed writers to dabble in new stories normally unavailable to them in mainstream comics. You can imagine it as an officially licensed fanfiction from Marvel itself. Today we'll look a bit at the alternate universe writings of What If?.

Origins and Style

Alternate realities have always been a major part of comic book history - DC's Silver Age continuity was explained by alternate realities. Naturally, Marvel thought it could entertain readers by investigating unique scenarios caused by one, or more, divergences in the timeline. Compared to other alternate reality stories, such as Marvel 1604, What If? looked at one specific event, and how a change would lead to a new reality. Until late on in Volume 2 in the 1990s What If? stories were introduced and partially narrated by Uatu the Watcher - imagine a non-horror, comic book version of The Twilight Zone. If you don't know, Uatu the Watcher is a member of an omnipotent, celestial beings who are tasked with watching planets with life to see how life evolves and develops. Unlike most Watchers, Uatu has a habit of interacting with inhabitants of the planet he watches, Earth, and even beings from another universe who believe that the Marvel Universe is a series of comic books... Especially by the end of the 1980s and 1990s, Marvel had been publishing stories for decades, so Uatu would set the scene of how an event originally went allowing readers to understand what was happening. Uatu would introduce the stories until 1995 with What If? Vol. 2 #76 due to him being stripped of his position for killing another Watcher in Fantastic Four #400. Following this the stories would start with no introduction, but occasionally a guest narrator came in - one Daredevil What If? was introduced by Daredevil and Spider-Man writer Brian Michael Bendis! Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe parodied the What If? style by having Uatu explain why Deadpool has become evil and has decided to kill the Marvel Universe, until he himself is killed at the end of the first issue by Deadpool.

For most of its history What If? would change one or two points during a signature issue, and Marvel would give the story which ensued its own reality number - the mainstream reality is Earth-616. Volume 4 was an exception. Uatu returned explaining that he found records from alternate universes where everything was different, the entire world was different instead of one event. Among them included Thor becoming a herald of Galactus, Wolverine becoming the Punisher in 1920s Chicago, and the Fantastic Four emerging in Soviet Russia instead of the US. From Volume 6 What If? focused a lot on major events - Volume 6 saw several specials about the Civil War event. Volume 11's series is actually tied to canon Marvel; the Age of Ultron event created and shattered several realities which What If? explores. A key plot line is that the Invisible Woman and Wolverine travel back in time to kill Hank Pym before he can create Ultron, but removing a key Avenger caused unforseen ripple effects. Volume 11 explored what would happen if other major Avengers were taken from time, including Iron Man and Thor, and one looked at if Ultron never existed, with the accompanying side-effect of Vision never existing. Also, several What If? stories eventually became reality in comics. The second issue, 'What if the Hulk had the brain of Bruce Banner?', somewhat came true when Bruce Banner briefely managed to keep control of his brain when he turned into Hulk. Most importantly, issue 10, 'What if Jane Foster had found the hammer of Thor?', became an official story in Thor Vol. 4 #1 in 2014 when Jane became the Goddess of Thunder when Thor became unworthy. This is important for MCU fans, as the next MCU Thor film has been confirmed to feature Jane Foster becoming a wielder of Mjolnir.

What is Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four?

This was the first What If? story and set the stage for the rest of the comic line. It saw at point in divergence in one of Marvel's most signature stories - The Amazing Spider-Man #1. In the original story, a moneyless Spider-Man hopes to join the Fantastic Four in order to get money so gets into their base, the Baxter Building, and proves himself capable of joining. However, he is rejected as the Fantastic Four doesn't pay to be a member. In What If? #1 Spider-Man is accepted turning the team into the Fantastic Five. Instead of regularly being criticised by the Daily Bugle Spider-Man is constantly being called a hero by everyone in the general public. However, his presence causes the Invisible Woman to be pushed out of the group - while Spider-Man, the Human Torch, Thing, and Mr Fantastic go on adventures she is relegated to support. Being neglected the Invisible Woman helps break the King of Atlantis, Namor the Sub-Mariner, from being controlled by the Puppet Master, and she leaves the group to live with him. This story would later get sequels exploring what happens after Spider-Man replaced the Invisible Woman.

Spider-Girl

What If? Vol. 2 #105 in 1998 introduced one of the most famous creations of the What If? series: Spider-Girl. She was created by writer Tom DeFalco and artist Ron Frenz who started an alternate reality story stemming from the very confusing Clone Saga, I would recommend this video here to understand what happened. The story sees Mary Jane and Peter Parker having a daughter, and Spider-Man retiring after losing his leg in a battle with Green Goblin. Naming their daughter May, after Aunt May, they hoped to keep her father's past a secret, but she developed spider-powers regardless. Finding the costume formerly worn by her father's clone she donned it to become the Spider-Girl. Her popularity exploded and May Parker got her own comic line lasting for a hundred issues. An entirely new comics imprint began thanks to Spider-Girl called MC2. MC2 served as a 'sequel' to the mainstream comics featuring stories revolving around the children of classic heroes, or the elderly heroes. Although Spider-Girl's original run was cancelled after the first volume in 2006 her title would be occasionally resurrected, and would later appear in multiverse stories.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.