Customer Reviews

What If? Classic Vol. 1 (Marvel Heroes)

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What If? was one of Marvel's better ideas from the 70's. The best thing about this concept was that these were NOT "imaginary stories", instead, these stories REALLY occured, just in some alternative universe.

That being said, the early What If stories are somewhat problematic. Too much time is taken reviewing the events that occured in our reality, taking many valuable pages away from what we really want to know - what happens in the alternate universe.

Also, I agree with the reviewer below in that some of the initial entries of the What If? series were weak. The series does get better, and some of the later stories are fascinating, and it's almost a shame that you'll only get to visit these realities for one issue.

That being said, this book is a fun read, especially if you like alternate timeline stories and wonder "What If.....?"

This trade paperback includes the following stories:
What if Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four?

What if the Hulk Had Always Had Bruce Banner's Brain?

What if the Avengers Had Never Been?

What if the Invaders Had Stayed Together After World War Two?

What if Captain America and Bucky Had Both Survived World War II?

What if the Fantastic Four Had Different Super-Powers?

WHAT IF? is one of my favorite series from Marvel, the reason being that I loved the concept. It was a great idea from Roy Thomas in which Uatu, the Watcher, would present the events of the Marvel Universe in alternate realities. Even better, these events usually cast a harder or darker aspect on the characters, which, while pretty far-out, always made me happy that we ended up with the Marvel Universe that we did.

While I consider many WHAT IF? stories to be classics, the early issues weren't all that well-written, and the artwork was sub-standard, for the most part. Aside from an Avengers issue illustrated by Gil Kane, and a story of Captain America never being frozen in the Arctic, there's not much interesting material here. Many of the ideas Thomas had for these early issues were so whacked-out and pointless, they didn't make for very interesting reading. As such, I feel that the best way for Marvel to reprint this series is the Essentials format: 500 pages in black and white. That way, you'd get quite a few stories that show the evolution of the series, and for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, Marvel instead chose to release a color reprint of only the first 6 issues (~ 215 pages) for the wallet-busting price of $24.95! I also must warn that the recoloring of these issues is absolutely horrible, with characters' costumes changing color schemes from panel to panel, and no attention to detail. So, with a bad reprint of poor-to-average quality stories, newcomers will likely have a hard time understanding why WHAT IF? was so much fun... assuming that the ridiculous price didn't already turn them away.

My advice is to skip this book. If you must have it, then order it only from Amazon at a discount, as full-price is waaaay too much to pay.

Marvels "Classics" series continues to offer more Bronze Age fun and nostalgia as they give us What If Volume One, reprinting the original series from Issues 1 thru 6. This was an entertaining series when it first came out and reading it again almost 3 decades later; I can honestly say that most of the stories have aged well.

What If was narrated by The Watcher who posed questions regarding what might have been regarding the fate of our favorite Marvel heroes. Issue one asked "What if Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four?" This is a fun story with a surprisingly melancholy ending as we discover that the fates have apparently decided that the famous heroes are destined to be a quartet.

Issue 2 asked "What if the Hulk had always had Bruce Banners brain?" Well, for one thing it clears up a whole lot of misunderstandings. Banner finally earns the respect of Thunderbolt Ross for one thing. But it also has ripple effects that lead to the Avengers never being formed and the disbanding of the Fantastic Four!

Issue 3 asked "What if the Avengers had never been?" This isn't just one of the best "What If" stories ever written, it's also one of the best stories to come out of the Bronze Age. It also boasts some of the most beautiful Gil Kane art ever.

Issue 4 asks "What if the Invaders had stayed together after WW2?" This was the Roy Thomas story that launched the Invaders series from the 70s. In this story we see a new Cap and Bucky replacing the apparently dead originals, teaming up with Namor, Torch, Toro, Spitfire, Union Jack, Whizzer and Miss America. The story takes us from Hitlers death at the hands of the Human Torch at the end of WW2 up to the Kennedy era.

Issue 5 asks "What if Captain America and Bucky had both survived WW2?" Well, it would be a lot like what we've been reading in the current Marvel universe. Steve Rogers would be director of Shield and Bucky would take over as Captain America. Sound familiar?

Issue 6 asks "What if the Fantastic Four had different superpowers?" This is probably the least entertaining entry out of the 6. In this story, its Sue Storm who gets the power to stretch, Johnny Storm gets powers similar to that of the X-Mens "Colossus", Reed Richards becomes a disembodied brain and Ben Grimm gets...dragon wings? Oh well, they can't all be winners.

Over all, the stories are entertaining, light hearted fare, well written and adequately drawn and reprinted in a colorful, glossy package. Vol 1 includes several of the original Editorial pages from the series and a check list of all What If issues. I had a lot of fun revisiting these stories.

Just recently I started to read comics again and this series was on my to buy/read list. I ordered this book shortly after and it really was a good book. It consists of 6 what if stories that ask what if something different happened in the marvel Universe. This book has:

What if Spiderman joined the Fantastic 4?: This based off an old issue of Spiderman where he almost joined the first family of Marvel but in the end he didnt. But what if he did. How much would be different? This story explains that the Fantastic 5 can be more affective the a Fantatic 4. This story has a great ending which I didnt see coming. In fact there is a sequel to this story out there,

What if The Hulk had Bruce Banner's Brain?: As you know whenever Dr. Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk he becomes a different man with no control. But what if he did? This take follows what would have happened if The Hulk was smart and tried to be cured. With guest appearances by the Fantastic 4 and Galactus. Good story. Not as good as I thought but still enjoyable.

What if The Avengers had never been?: In the early days of the Avengers there was a moment when the Hulk and Namor the Sub Mariner team up and the Avengers almost break up. But what if they did. Sadly this was a good story but in the end it almost had the same result if they stayed together with a couple of exceptions. The Avengers didnt really split up they just did something different as a team.

What if Captain America and Bucky Survived World War II?: Ok you know the backstory. During WWII Capt. America and Bucky fell into freezing water. Capt. was frozen while Bucky died. The Avengers stumble apon Capt. and he awakes 20 of so years later. But if Capt. and Bucky didnt fall into the water. What would be differnet. So far this was one of my favorite stories so far because it didnt show a small time period, it went from WWII to the present (well when the comic was released) with what would have happened. Great story

What if the Invaders stayed together after WWII?: Ok the Invaders were a Avenger like group during WWII that consisted of Captain America, Bucky, Human Torch (not the Fantastic 4 torch but the first one), Namor and I forgot who else. The group disband after Capts. and Bucky disaperred but what if the group went on without (and in a with) them. The story was confusing since I never heard of the group before and it was hard to tell if the story was at the point of the real moment or in the alternate time line plus it had too many stories in it.

What if the Fantastic 4 had different Powers?: Ok as you know Reed Richards had the ability to stretch, Susan Storm could become invisible, Johnny Storm became the new Human Torch and Ben Grim became a rock like monster. But what if they got different powers (I wont say what). The story is very good. It didnt go on with a long plot but just one simple one like an origin story. Very good.

This book had mostly good stories in it with a couple of exceptions. If you love marvel comics and/or alternate universes, get this but as cheap as possible.

I agree this should have been an Essentials offering. But it's a fun read never the less and it paved the way for stronger stories in later issues. As far as expectations maybe we are too jaded in this new century to appreciate what Roy Thomas and other's were doing. These stories shake the foundations of Marvel legend and take them to another place. I agree that they don't all work but the ones that do are great to visit again.