Marvel sometimes runs a series called What If? that speculates on alternate plotlines that could have occured in the Marvel Universe. Technically, these alternative storylines actually do occur within the marvel multiverse, but in alternate dimensions, and sometimes these stories are visited by dimension hopping characters from the "real" marvel universe. For the purposes of my personal collection, i don't integrate What Ifs into my "in continuity" comics.
But anyway, i've been looking over the list of What Ifs, and i've realized that a lot of them aren't quite so "what if" anymore. To be fair - these stories usually take place at a specific point in time. So the question of "What if Phoenix had lived?" is really "What if Phoenix had lived at this particular point in time?", and it's not nice of me to mock them for bringing her back later. But i will anyway...
- What if the Hulk had the brain of Bruce Banner? It's happened many times, most notably in Bill Mantlo and Peter David's runs. Nowadays he's in a constant state of flux where sometimes he has it and sometimes he doesn't.
- What if the world knew Daredevil was blind? Sort of. His identity is public. But maybe they just don't believe Matt Murdock is blind.
- What if the Avengers fought evil in the 1950s? They're working on it.
- What if Rick Jones had become the Hulk? Well, he became a Hulk during the transitional period at the end of Al Milgrom's run and the beginning of Peter David's.
- What if the Hulk had become a barbarian? It's happened right now in Planet Hulk.
- What if Phoenix had not died? She didn't die, she was just preserved in a cocoon at the bottom of the ocean.
- What if Spider-Man's clone lived? Heh. It did live. For a while they tried to play it like Spider-Man was the clone, and then they brought back the "real" Spider-Man. That didn't go over well. Then they had the real Spider-Man retire, letting the clone take his place. That didn't go over well. This is generally considered the worst period of Spider-Man ever.
- What if Elektra had lived? The Hand... Daredevil's love... something.
- What if Richard Ryder had not lost the power of Nova? He never lost it, he just had self-confidence issues. Then Night Thrasher threw him off a building.
- What if the Beast and the Thing continued to mutate? The Beast turned into a lion and the Thing turned into Pineapple Man
- What if the Hulk went berserk? Ummmm....
- What if Loki had found the hammer of Thor? In Oeming's Thor, he found the forge that made Thor's hammer, and made a bunch more. Close enough?
- What if Iron Man had been a traitor? Well, he was retroactively revealed to have been a pawn of Kang for 3 decades. Does that count?
- What if the Fantastic Four's second child had lived? I read it, and i still don't know how she's back.
- What if Phoenix had not died? What if Phoenix rose again? They were totally chomping at the bit to bring her back.
Also, some of the crazier premises:
- What if Nova had been four other people?
- What if the Avengers defeated everybody?
- What if Thor battled Conan the Barbarian? I just wanted to say, Conan would totally get his ass kicked.
- What if Wolverine was lord of the vampires? What the--?
- What if War Machine had not destroyed the Living Laser? The Wikipedia description for this says "The issue allows the reader to choose from three different endings." You love a choose your own adventure.
- What if Wolverine became the Punisher in the 1920s? No really, what the--?
And some of the ones i may actually want to read:
- What if Dazzler had become the herald of Galactus? I know, but the story this was based on is one of my first Galactus appearances, so i guess it's a nostalgia thing.
- What if the Avengers fought the Kree-Skrull War without Rick Jones? I always thought the way this story ended, with Rick Jones shooting a bunch of WWII super-heroes out of his head, was really cheesey.
- What if the alien costume had possessed Spider-Man? When i was 10, Spider-Man's black symbiote costume was so cool, so Venom was always something of a let-down for me.
- What if the Avengers had fought Galactus? Where were they during that fight, anway?
- What if Rogue possessed the power of Thor? Based on when they fought in Avengers annual 10.
You're spelling is atrocious
Let me know what issues the ones you want to read are and I'll let you know if I have them
Sorry... the hazards of quickly writing stuff up in textpad when i'm supposed to be "working".
and the two odd wolverine ones... the dracula story links to the the two x-men issues in which they did indeed meet up with dracula (one was an annual I think, and storm was set to be his bride). and the other was a series of recent what if one shots in which all the stories were more of "what if in another time and place" rather than one specific event were different.
what if what was what if was?
kitty pryde saved them all with her star of david necklace!
i think it should be "what if what was what if actually was what if?"
what are we arguing about here?
Thank you Adam. That's closer to what the title of the post was originally, but she made me dumb it down.
hrm. so i was right. then why did she tell me i was wrong?
