For the first couple of years of its existence, WHAT IF was a really good comic book. Creators seemed to come up with premises that allowed them to tell stories that took familiar characters in wild new directions, and the outcomes of those stories were all over the map. So it was a fascinating series to me and my small circle of comic book reading friends. That plus the fact that it was so new meant that it was possible to complete the entire run, which some people attempted to do. But by issue #38, the bloom was off the rose a little bit, and so it was no great hardship to put the book aside during my buy-list culling of early 1983.
The first issue of WHAT IF that I’d ever read was this one, #15. But I didn’t buy it. Rather, I borrowed it from my good friend David Steckel. David was a big follower of WHAT IF and had amassed a decent though still incomplete run of the series. As we would routinely loan one another books to read, this meant that I got to experience such wonders as What If the Avengers Never Were, What If Sgt. Fury Fought WWII In Outer Space and What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four. This issue featured four separate stories by four different artists that postulated what might have happened if the ray from space that empowered Richard Rider had struck somebody else instead. Not every story was a classic, but the variety alone was enough to make this issue memorable, that and the assortment of artists.
The first issue that I managed to find for myself–my 7-11 still wasn’t carrying oversized comics for some reason, so I wound up finding this book elsewhere–was this one, #17. It too featured multiple stories, n this case starring Spider-Woman, Ghost Rider and Captain Mar-Vell and asking the question What If They Remained Villains. Unfortunately, I was unfamiliar with the backstories of these three characters for the most part, so these three stories all left me a bit cold. But that didn’t stop me from coming back for #18 and beyond. WHAT IF was a title that I followed regularly, and more often than not, it gave me a satisfying and interesting story between its covers.
Issue #38 featured multiple stories as well, each one concerned with some aspect of the passage of time in the Marvel Universe. The first one, written by David Michelinie and illustrated by Paty Cockrum, concerned the Vision potentially outliving his wife, the Scarlet Witch. By the end of the story, Jocasta has sacrificed herself so that Wanda’s engrams can be placed into her robotic shell and she can live on alongside the Vision. It’s a nice story, but nothing incredibly special.
The second story, written by Rick Margopoulos and illustrated by Dan Reed, postulated what would have happened if Sharon Carter had lived. Of course, in time, it would be revealed that Sharon hasn’t ben killed when everybody thought she had, and she’s still an important supporting player in CAPTAIN AMERICA to this day. But you need to give these creators license as they were working with no knowledge of forthcoming events. This was a pitfall that WHAT IF stories sometimes fell into.
This story is especially underwhelming, as it doesn’t really take good advantage of its premise. It’s years in the future, and Cap has two kids with Sharon. His wife wants him to give up his role as Captain America, but Steve simply won’t do it, not while he’s still able to fight. There’s a final showdown with the Red Skull, who takes Steve’s family hostage. But Cap wins the day, and in the end, Sharon tells him that she wants him to continue on as Captain America. So the whole thing winds up feeling like a bit of a shaggy dog story with no real state-change by the end. It isn’t as clever as the best WHAT IF stories often were.
The final story in this issue was both written and drawn by Alan Kupperberg, an artist whose work I never really warmed to. It’s set in the far-off future year of 2013 (which feels strange, reading it today) and it concerns Matt Murdock and the Black Widow, who is now the President of the New Russian Republic, joining forces to defeat the Kingpin one final time. At the end, Matt realizes how lonely his life has become and opts to put the past behind him and strive to find some joy in his life as Matt Murdock. But really, this feels like a mix of then-fresh Frank Miller tropes, for all that the two principle characters are now old.
This issue also includes the year’s Statement of Ownership, which lets us see that the title was selling 140,427 copies on a print run of 269,602, giving it an efficiency rating of 52%. This is a very nice margin among the books of this era, and the fact that the title was oversized and carried a larger cover price must have made it more profitable there as well.
I came back for only the occasional issue of WHAT IF from that point on–I bought #44 with teh 1950s Cap because I liked that storyline, and also the late 1980s Special with Steve Ditko artwork that burned off an inventory tale left over from the run. But I didn’t come back regularly until the book was relaunched in the very early 1990s under the auspices of editor Craig Anderson, with whom I interned at around this time. I was getting the issues for free, but I found most of them unsatisfying. Very quickly, it seemed that the stories disintegrated into formula, where one of two outcomes was the inevitable result: 1) Whatever had changed was restored to the way it had played out in the Marvel Universe, proving that it was fated to be, or 2) Everything goes completely to hell, aren’t you glad this didn’t happen in the real Marvel Universe? I was looking for more of the cleverness that the title had exhibited in its early days, and so I was left routinely unsatisfied by each issue.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Tom,
what did you think of the humor issue as a kid? And would you do it now as an editor?
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I liked it a lot, and I’d certainly do it today.
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“Whatever had changed was restored to the way it had played out in the Marvel Universe, proving that it was fated to be” I hate that. Not as bad as in alternate history (some alt.history novels handwave that somehow massive changes in history will eventually lead to the “real” history) but bad enough.
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Speaking as a writer of a few of the latter-day WHAT IF issues — one thing that made them hard to do was that they were shorter than the first run. If I remember correctly, they were 27 pages, only 5 pages longer than a regular issue, and you have to explain the story you were riffing on, then introduce and develop the change and lead to a conclusion. Things get very tight fast.
I wrote at least one that didn’t end with “It all works out the same” or “Everything is wrecked,” and those were hard, too, because both of the cliche endings felt like endings, but a story that led you somewhere new felt like Chapter One of something readers were unlikely ever to see a Chapter Two for. I still want to see more of the Armored Avengers from vol. 1 issue 3…
But for all that they tended to be very cramped and have formula endings, they were often fun to write.
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Not a fan of characters I like getting killed even in What If? universes. For me it would be What If?#36 ( December 1982 ) “What If the Fantastic Four Had Not Gained Super-Powers? by John Byrne. Plus unless I missed it, there is nothing in What If? 22 ( August 1980 ) “What If Doctor Doom Had Become A Hero?, that says he couldn’t be in the same universe as What If?#36.
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Kurt,
I’m glad you included the Armored Avengers in the Avengers Forever Maxi-series
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Had to!
I would have gladly written an Armored Avengers ongoing series, for that matter.
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I would buy that even now.
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I was never a regular reader of WHAT IF…I would occasionally pick it up if the concept seemed especially intriguing, or if an artist I really liked was involved. Mostly, though, it seemed like “B-List” creators doing very formulaic work. I remember really liking #4 with the Invaders (technically not a “What If” story at all, since it fit into regular continuity), #13 (Conan in the modern world), and #34 (the humor issue).
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The Captain America story in this issue is peak-80s Punk-panic, where Cap just can’t retire yet, because he’s GOTTA CLEAN UP “PUNK ROW”! The punk with a mohawk is actually named “Mohawk”!
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Most comics pros in their 30’s & older would be on the peripheral of punk rock. On the outside looking in. They were already immersed in their own culture(s) & experiences they grew up with.
I rolled my eyes at some of comics’ misinterpretations of social changes or trends. Some younger artists in the 80’s were more aware. Not just punk, but eventually hip-hop.
Also, London & other UK punk was different than NYC punk. Different than interpretations were shaped by regional differences.
Monetization vs. pure rebellion was a factor. Malcolm McCluren (no time to spell check but the guy who sponsored /initially funded the Sex Pistols) was interested in making money off punk. Once you commercialize something, it gets homogenized.
You didnt need a mohawk to be punk. But it became iconic & a quick, lazy visual cheat. Apologies to the Native Americans it was co-opted from. Yet another theft they didn’t get paid fore.
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I was a big fan of What If for a good while, but the book peaked for me with the korvac issue where the consequences were taken to such an extreme that it seemed like no subsequent story could top it.
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The incredible Cap’s resemblance to an aged Robert Redford (by 1983, at least). What if Alexander Pierce was an alternate universe’s Cap?
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I didn’t follow What If? regularly, as it was another title hard to find at our local market. I do remember the “What if the Avengers had defeated everyone?” and “What if the Avengers had become pawns of Korvac?”. The Korvac one was my first introduction to the Elders of the Universe. I had seen some of them before, but never together in one book and seemingly interconnected. I found that pretty amazing. We would see more of this later on with Thanos and the Infinity Stones. The other What Ifs I picked up, were mostly back issues written/drawn by my favorite creators or a title that sounded interesting. Though I quickly got burned out on those, as they turned out to not be that interesting. After the grand cosmic scale of the Korvac What If?, it was kind of hard to top that.
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I vaguely remember reading the very first issue of What If? by Roy Thomas. It was based on some early Fantastic Four story and Roy Thomas spent half the issue (giant size at that) retelling the original story before going off on the What If? tangent. I bought every issue back then just because I was a completist but I didn’t like many of them.
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I liked early What If a lot but over time it just seemed to be about only the worst alternatives. I haven’t touched an issue in years.
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What If?#15: My comments to The Man Called Nova#24 ( March 1979 ) about Nova not being the first Marvel hero to borrow the Silver Age Green Lantern’s origin, well I should have said Nova, Torpedo( Brock Jones — dying human in case asking him to take over his mission ) & the Power Pack kids borrow Quality’s golden age hero the Ace of Space ( Ace Egan )’s [ Feature Comics#38 ( November 1940 ) “Young millionaire sportsman” Ace Egan discovers a crashed alien spaceship. The dying alien inside gives Ace a Power Belt and warns him of the imminent invasion of the Slogons; Ace uses his new powers ( grow to 9 feet tall & a button on his belt makes the ship invisible ) and his space ship to defeat the Slogons. Created by H. Weston Taylor & Harry Campbell ( Jess Nevins’ Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes & Internationalhero.co.uk ( for powers ) ] origin.
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for pure cheese, it’s hard to beat the Marvel Bullpen becomes the FF issue.
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Say what you will, the last Kirby FF story. Glad it saw print.
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WHAT IF?#17: SPIDER-WOMAN as evolved spider [ Googled and got — HOW MUCH DNA DO WE SHARE WITH A SPIDER? Spiders and humans cannot hybridize because of the vast DNA differences. I did a quick analysis on the brown recluse spider and found their DNA to be approximately 63 PERCENT the same as ours. This is not enough to hybridize but would probably be a candidate for genetic engineering. Nov. 8, 2023 ]. If humans share an ancestor with spiders, we branched off from them a very long time ago and I doubt very much that the High Evolutionary’s machine would cause a spider to double back and go up the same evolutionary branch that humans did to evolve a spider into Spider-Woman ( Her original series answered her creation — father’s serum to deal with her radiation poisoning and the future High Evolutionary’s machine to speed up the serum’s effects ). Plus those intelligent alien insects give a hint of what would happen if the High Evolutionary were to evolve a spider.
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