Customer Reviews

What If? - Event Horizon (Spider-Man, X-Men)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Five stories. Some are very good (What if Wolverine Had Never been Deprogrammed), some are good (What if Xavier's Secret Second Team Had Survived), and some are poor (What if Spider-man Had Rejected the Spider). I had not actually read the "real" versions of any of these stories but most were still enjoyable. I got a used book that was in excellent condition. If you can do this, the price is worth it. But I would not pay much more than $6 or $7 dollars for it. But for the price that I paid, it was a very good read.

Like most "What If..." stories (at least the good ones) many of your favorite heroes die. But major changes from the "reality" we know is the whole point of this series. And there is no more major change then death (even in the Marvel Universe). I would recommend this with 3 caveats. One, you must be able to enjoy Major Change (as defined above). Two, if you haven't read all of the "real" versions of these 5 stories, you must be willing to extrapolate from what you are given. This is doable with most of these stories altho' What if Legion Had Killed Xavier & Magneto was difficult to follow. Three, don't pay too much.

This vol. in the what if series compiled the issues that were released in late 2006. Unlike the other vollums this only has 5 issues instead of the usual 6. The Watcher who appears in most of series only appears in 3 of the stories.

What If: X-Men: Deadly Genesis (What If Vulcan became the leader of the X-Men?): In X-Men Deadly Genisis the X-Men are stranded on the living planet known as Krakoa as they engage battle with it. Professor X then sends a 2nd group of 4 (Vulcan (Cyclops' unknown brother, Sway, Darwin and Petra). The second team suceeds but get stranded on the island as it goes into space. But this story asks what if they didnt get stranded. Cyclops is taken to safety while Jean, Iceman, Angel and Polaris (Cyclops' other brother) are found dead. The 2nd team escape the island before it goes into space and they become the new X-Men with Vulcan as the leader while Cyclops is depresed. Mutants are now considered good as the new X-Men defeated Magneto for good. But this is only the surfaced of what is yet to come. This story has many twist and turns but mostly through thought, flashbacks or holograms.

What If: Avengers Disassembled - (What If the Scarlet Witch hadn't acted alone?): In the Avengers Dissassembled storyline Scarlet Witch goes beserk destorying the Avenger Mansion and causes a battle which would lead to the events of House of M. But what if she didnt act alone. I wont say who joined her because we find out in the end, the events of this what if cancal out House of M because of the ending but the normal reality is mentioned at the end by the Watcher. This was a pretty good story. A lot of twist and turns and the good thing about alternate unviverse stories is the ending prevents any future moments from happening in this world which it did. Some would say this ended both happy and sad which is true.

What If: Wolverine: Enemy of the State (What If Wolverine was never deprogrammed?): Ok this what happened in Enemy of the State. Hydra kidnaps Wolverine and programs him into a killing machine. In the end he gets reprogrammed back to normal....but what if he didnt? Wolverine goes on to kill almost every hero there is except for a some. A group(Invisible Girl, Kitty Pryde, Captain America, and Magneto) are hired by shield to stop him. Does it go as plan..I wont say. This story was pretty good with another good ending. I almost forgot how dangerious Wolverine can really be until this. This did kind of get a little shocking with some gore but it gave the comic a good feel.

What If: Spider-Man: The Other (What If Peter Parker rejected his inner spider?): Ok in the Other storyline from what I can put together (never read the comic) , Peter dies and is face to face with a Giant spider and offers to bring him back to life. Peter accepts (something happens which I dont know what). Now what if he refused and stayed dead? Well Venom (the costume not the man) escapes from jail and wants to go back to its first true love...Peter. Peter's dead body is hanging in a cocoon under a bridge (dont know why) and reattaches itself to him and creates a new entity...Poison and he wants a mate. So Poison goes to MJ to make her just like him but what if succeed. Again Im not really sure what happened before hand, unlike past issues, they made it clear. This was my least favorite in the volume because nothing really exciting happened. But the ending was great.

What If: Age of Apocalypse (What If both Xavier and Magneto were killed by Legion?): Ok Legion is the son of Professor X and I guess so Mutants would have a better life, he goes back in time to kill Magneto but accidently kills Professor X, causing the X-men to never exist causing the rise of Apocalypse. Now there was a what if where what if he did kill Magneto instead but this issue asks what if, he killed both of them? Without both of them, people become more aware of Mutants sooner and they are sent to camps, while some hide in Savage Land, some live out. Apocalypse comes and takes over the world killing almost everyone. His 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse are now Hulk (only non mutant), Namor the Sub Mariner, The Juggernut and I think Storm. There is a resistance in a group called the Defenders (Capts. actually says Defenders assemble) consisting of Captain America (weilds Thor's hammer), Brother Voodoo (who is now Sorcerer Supreme after Dr. Strange's apparent death), Thing (now has a prostetic arm), Captain Britain (who now uses an Iron Man like armor bearing the british flag), Wolverine (who in this world never got adamantium), and the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey. They learn that a man named Legion went back in time and killed 2 men (Prof. X and Magneto) and they would have stopped this. Now they need to decide, go back and fix this or fellow Dr. Strange's dying wishes of not and just fight it out. This was a great what if. This ranks in the top 5 that I read so far.

Good vollume, with the exception of Spiderman the other, every story was great

The art is mostly good. but the stories they fail to amuse. the most notble stories are Enemy of the state and The Other.

The Other well its not bad specially the last panal of it the whole Peter turning bad isnt half bad either.

Enemey of the state I dont care if Hydra gave Logan a brainwash, and a little teleporting help no way he could kill all those characters. However the ending for this story is quite good.


All in all this the best thing about this book is the art on the back of it that alone earned it the second star.