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| New Header1_1 = What If? Vol 1; What If? Vol 1 1.jpg
| Gallery = ''What If?'' is an experiment: take a significant event in the Marvel Universe and speculate about what ''might have'' happened if it had had a different outcome. Each issue offers a look at characters we know in situations they might never really face. Each story takes place in a separate reality that doesn't affect the central continuity, so there are no rules and no limits. Characters can die--and often do.
 
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| New Header1_2 = What If? Special Vol 1; What If Special Vol 1 1.jpg
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File:What If 1.jpg|{{Cvd|What If? Vol 1}}
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| New Header1_3 = What If? Vol 2; What If? Vol 2 1.jpg
File:What If? Vol 2 1.jpg|{{Cvd|What If? Vol 2}}
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| New Header1_4 = What If? 2004; What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers? Vol 1 1.jpg
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| New Header1_5 = What If? 2005; What If Captain America Vol 1 1.jpg
File:Whatif jessicajonesavenger.JPG|{{Cvd|What If? Vol 3}}
 
File:What If Featuring Captain America.jpg|{{Cvd|What If? Vol 4}}
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| New Header1_6 = What If? 2006; What If? Avengers Disassembled Vol 1 1.jpg
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| New Header1_7 = What If? 2007; What If? Planet Hulk Vol 1 1.jpg
File:Scarletwitch039.jpg|{{Cvd|What If? Vol 5}}
 
File:What If Vol 6 Planet Hulk Vol 1 1 textless.jpg|{{Cvd|What If? Vol 6}}
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| New Header1_8 = What If? 2008; What If? House of M Vol 1 1.jpg
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| New Header1_9 = What If? 2009; What If? Secret Invasion Vol 1 1.jpg
File:What If Vol 6 Spider-Man Wolverine Vol 1 1 textless.jpg|{{Cvd|What If? Vol 7}}
 
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| New Header1_10 = What If? 2010; What If? Iron Man Demon in an Armor Vol 1 1.jpg
File:What If Vol 7 1 textless.jpg|{{Cvd|What If? Vol 8}}
 
File:What If Vol 9 1.jpg|{{Cvd|What If? Vol 9}}
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| New Header1_11 = What If? AvX Vol 1; What If AvX Vol 1 1.jpg
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| New Header1_12 = What If? Age of Ultron Vol 1; What If? Age of Ultron Vol 1 1.jpg
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| New Header1_13 = What If? Infinity; What If Infinity - Thanos Vol 1 1.jpg
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| New Header1_14 = What If? 2018; What If? Spider-Man Vol 2 1.jpg
   
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==Background==
 
In the early 1960s, [[Martin Goodman]] told [[Stan Lee]] to reinvigorate the Marvel Comics line. Among his other decisions, Lee set all the stories in a single shared reality. Events in one title could affect characters in another, and heroes (or villains) in one narrative could show up elsewhere. When Lee wrote nearly all the stories himself, keeping things straight was difficult but not impossible. With multiple writers, the problem got worse. After decades of varying success, the internal consistency became harder and harder to maintain. Too, the accumulated history made it increasingly difficult for writers and artists to do anything truly creative. ''What If?'' represented a first step away from this dilemma.
 
 
==[[Comics What If?|Volume 1]]==
 
The framing device for the first ''What If?'' series is its narrator, the nearly omniscient [[Watcher (Uatu)|Watcher]]. He presents each story as set in a parallel universe where the events actually happen. Up until the crucial moment, however, the previous history applies; in other words, the new story is based on all the old stories. Nine issues also included "Untold Tales from the Marvel Universe," mostly about the [[Eternals]]. Many issues included a second (often humorous) story, such as, "What If ... the Spider Had Been Bitten by a Radioactive Human?"
 
 
As an example, [[What If? 1|''What If?'' #1]] asks, "What If Spider-Man Had Joined the Fantastic Four?" In the early days, [[Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards)|Reed Richards]] and [[Invisible Woman (Susan Richards)|Susan Storm]] quarreled frequently. At one point Sue seriously considered an offer of marriage from [[Namor McKenzie (Earth-616)|Namor]]. In the original continuity she turned him down, but in this story she accepts. From that point on, the "mainstream" continuity ceases to apply. Because she leaves the [[Fantastic Four (Earth-616)|Fantastic Four]], Reed recruits [[Spider-Man (Peter Parker)|Spider-Man]] to take her place (hence the title).
 
 
The first series ran for 47 bimonthly, double-sized issues. Declining sales (as well as a scarcity of good plots) led to its cancellation after the October 1984 issue.
 
 
==[[Comics What If? Volume 2|Volume 2]]==
 
A single ''What If? Special'' appeared in June 1988. Sales must have been good, because a new series began in July 1989. At first it featured the Watcher and stories that split from the mainstream continuity with a single event, just as Volume 1 did. This time the writers and artists asserted their creativity and gradually disassociated the title from the mainstream continuity. The Watcher dropped out in issue #77. The cover itself changed in issue #88, announcing only that a particular character would appear. A story might split from an earlier ''What If?'' reality or take place in an alternate reality entirely, thus having no direct connection at all to the mainstream. In other words, the stories used unfamiliar settings for characters who might or might not be familiar. Anything was possible.
 
 
During this time Marvel resolved the continuity issue. Events that contradicted the mainstream reality, or didn't fit into it at all, were explained away because they happened in other realities (see [[Multiverse]]). The original, mainstream reality became [[Earth-616]], only one among many. Any sort of story could happen in any sort of reality.
 
 
The second series ran for 114 monthly issues. It was cancelled after the November 1998 issue.
 
 
 
==[[Comics What If? Volume 3|Volume 3]] and [[Comics What If? Volume 4|Volume 4]]==
 
In February 2005 and again in February 2006, Marvel published six ''What If?'' issues. Volume 3 looked more like Volume 1, with the plot summarized in the title, such as ''What If Doctor Doom Had Become the Thing?'' Volume 4 went in a new direction, putting popular characters in historical situations. The framing device in Volume 4 also changed: the stories are presented as multimedia documents found by a hacker (whose handle, fittingly enough, is Watcher). In both volumes, each title is #1, so there is no series per se.
 
 
In August 2005, Marvel published ''Wha...Huh?!'' a spoof of ''What If?''
 
 
 
==[[Comics What If? Volume 5|Volume 5]]==
 
After robust sales of Volume 4, Volume 5 got the green light and began appearing in November 2006. These issues were tied to important storylines: [[Age of Apocalypse]], [[Avengers Disassembled]], [[The Other (crossover story arc)|Spider-Man: The Other]], [[Comics X-Men Deadly Genesis|X-Men: Deadly Genesis]], and ''Wolverine: Enemy of the State.'' This series also sold well.
 
 
 
==External Links==
 
* [http://jakanapes.com/Alternity/category.php?catId=28 Alternity]
 
 
 
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Revision as of 23:27, 29 May 2020