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What If (comics)

What If, sometimes stylized as What If…?, is a comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics whose stories explore how the Marvel Universe might have unfolded if key moments in its history had not occurred as they did in mainstream continuity. Since What If debuted in 1977, the comics have been published in 14 series as well as occasional stand-alone issues. In 2024, Marvel announced that What If…? would expand to include alternate explorations of continuity within other non-Marvel Universe properties owned by their parent company The Walt Disney Company from its fifteenth volume onwards, beginning with Aliens: What If…?, based on the Alien franchise.

What If

Monthly

(vol. 1–2)
Ongoing series
(vol. 3–9)
One-shots

(vol. 1)
February 1977 – October 1984
(vol. 2)
July 1989 – November 1998

(vol. 1)
47 (plus #0)
(vol. 2)
114 (plus #−1)
(vol. 3–4)
6
(vol. 5–9)
5

In 2021, an animated series based on the What If comics premiered on Disney+, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's multiverse.

Format[edit]

The stories of the inaugural series (1977–1984) feature the alien Uatu, the Watcher as a narrator. From his base on the Moon, Uatu observes both Earth and alternate realities.


Most What If stories begin with Uatu describing an event in the mainstream Marvel Universe, then introducing a point of divergence in that event and then describing the consequences of the divergence. Some stories diverge from another divergence, such as What If Vol 1 #43 (Conan the Barbarian remains in the modern era), which diverges from #13 (Conan travels to then returns from the modern era).


Uatu was used similarly in the second series (1989–1998) until a point where, in the Fantastic Four comic book, Uatu was punished for destroying another Watcher. This made the use of Uatu improbable, so the character was phased out to its last appearance in issue #76. Without a framing device, the stories themselves became the focus.


In later series, some writers chose to introduce alternative narrators. For example, in volume 3, in What If Karen Page Had Lived?, What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers? and in Daredevil (2005), Brian Michael Bendis, the writer himself, makes a cameo as narrator. In the early 2006 series, a hacker, whose online alias is "the Watcher", opens each of the six issues.


Marvel has given several What If stories official numerical designations to make them contiguous with the Marvel Multiverse and differentiate them from the main Marvel Universe of Earth-616.


Marvel Comics occasionally issued backup features, Untold Tales from the Marvel Universe. These stories explained the origins of some of Marvel's superhuman species.

Publication history[edit]

Volume 1[edit]

The initial 47-issue series ran from February 1977 to October 1984. The first What If story was "What If Spider-Man had Joined the "Fantastic Four?". It presented an alternate version of events seen in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963). What If #24, which is titled "What If Gwen Stacy had lived?" and focuses on the consequences of Spider-Man's secret identity being publicly exposed, is one of the most highly regarded What If stories.[1]

The of the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. features a story arc loosely inspired by the What If series, with the first episode of it being named after the comic book series. Throughout the arc, Holden Radcliffe and his A.I. assistant AIDA develop a virtual world called the Framework, which depicts the lives of several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents under drastically different circumstances.[14]

fourth season

A animated series based on What If depicts the Watcher (voiced by Jeffrey Wright) observing events in the MCU multiverse occurring differently.[15][16]

self-titled

What If serves as inspiration for media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU):

Canon (fiction)

Elseworlds

Multiverse (Marvel Comics)

Intercompany crossover

What The--?!

Not Brand Echh

at the Grand Comics Database

What If (vol. 1)

at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)

What If (vol. 1)

at the Grand Comics Database

What If (vol. 2)

at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)

What If (vol. 2)