What If (comics)
What If is a comic book series first published intermittently (originally bimonthly) in the late 1970s by Marvel Comics that explores "the road not traveled" by its own various characters.
All of the stories are set with the alien Uatu the Watcher as narrator. As the observer of events transpiring on Earth from his base on the moon, Uatu is also able to observe what transpires in "alternate realities" — that is, on worlds where the history depicted in the comic books took a different turn. The first What If issue, for instance, answered the question "What If Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four?" This event arguably only had a small possibility of happening, but it was plausible within the framework Marvel Comics had set up.
The "What If" stories proceeded from a particular point (a "point of divergence") depicted in Marvel's comic line and extrapolated what would happen as a result of that changed event. Frequently this would be along the lines of "What If (some villain) defeated (some hero or group of heroes)?" Perhaps the most poignant issue of What If along these lines was issue #32, "What if the Avengers had not defeated Korvac?" Korvac, a time-traveling conqueror from the 30th century, sought to create a universe of absolute order and ultimately destroyed everything. Often the storylines involved individual characters choosing (or not) to take a particular action. Issue #26 featured "What if Captain America became President?", with the star-spangled hero running as a third-party candidate and overwhelmingly winning the 1980 Presidential election, where in the mainstream Marvel Universe, he did not run when offered the opportunity.
The events that happened in the series were generally considered totally separate from the normal Marvel universe, but there were some rare exceptions. The character Quasar traveled through the device used to observe these other realities at Uatu's request, and the story meant to explore what would happen if Spider-Man's clone had lived eventually took over the comic (though diverging at the same point and with the same premise, they ended dramatically different).
Besides one or two "What If" stories, the comic book would sometimes contain a selection of "Untold Tales From the Marvel Universe," depicting the development of some of Marvel-Earth's superhuman races (i.e. the Eternals and the Inhumans) and their early contact with alien civilizations.
What If was revived in 1989, and ran for a further 114 monthly issues. Notable issues from the second run - during which the trend of actually posing the "What if" question on the cover of the magazine was dropped in favour of simply using the hero's name - include What If vol.2 #25, "What If the Marvel Super Heroes had lost Atlantis Attacks? and #105, "What if Peter and Mary Jane had raised their baby?", which was spun-off into the ongoing Spider-Girl series.
"What If" was revived again in 2004 for a series of special one-shots which restored the use of the actual questions on the cover. Although several followed the traditional style of narration by the Watcher, the two titles penned by Brian Michael Bendis - What if Karen Page Had Not Died? and What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers? - replaced the figure of the Watcher as host of the stories with a representation of himself. The humour issue, Wha...Huh?! was delayed until August 2005.
Another series of special one-shots was released in December 2005, but these more closely resembled their DC Comics equivalent, Elseworlds. While traditionally, What If...? posed a specific question and told a story based on a divergence from regular continuity via a different outcome of a specific event, Elseworlds are usually simply new continuities that tell stories are alternate versions of estalished characters based around the different time period or location the story is set in (for example, Superman: Red Son). All but one of these new What If...? one-shots followed this approach, focusing on different time periods within the shared universe of Earth-717 which first diverged during the feudal Japan era with the emergence of a Daredevil hero known as The Devil Who Dares. The stories go through other historical eras and heroes, including Captain America battling The White Skull during the Civil War, Wolverine fighting mobsters in 1920s Chicago, Sub-Mariner being raised by his father on the surface, Thor becoming a herald of Galactus and a Russian version of Fantastic Four known as The United Federalist Freedom Fighters. All of these stories are portrayed as historical documents from an alternate dimension discovered by a talented young hacker calling himself The Watcher.
Marvel Comics' What If stories can also be considered alternate histories.