Nerds That Geek Comic Book Review: The Return of Marvel’s ‘What If?’

Written by Zeke Perez Jr.

Possibly fueled by my love for Back to the Future, I have always been fascinated by the idea of multiple universes and alternate realities. The idea that a single, simple decision could change everything about the world is captivating. Blossoming from its theoretical and philosophical roots, the mutliverse theory has become somewhat of a staple in popular culture. The ideas of butterfly effects, time travel, and parallel universes have long appeared in movies (the aforementioned BTTF, The Terminator, and It’s a Wonderful Life, to name a few), TV shows (various episodes of Rick & Morty, Futurama, and The Twilight Zone), and comics. Marvel has had quite a bit of fun with the concept over the years in their ‘What If’ series. ‘What Ifs’ are some of my favorite comics to collect, so I was thrilled when Marvel announced in July that they would be bringing them back for another run this fall.
 
The superheroes we know and love have powers, traits, morals, and qualities that stem from their origin stories and other defining moments. They interact with their environments and with other characters in ways that we’ve come to expect. We know that Batman’s drive emanates from the death of his parents, or that Uncle Ben’s lessons on responsibility guide Spider-Man. But what if the canon is changed? Marvel started playing with that idea with the first volume of ‘What If’ comics back in 1977, asking questions like ‘What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four?’, ‘What if The Hulk had Bruce Banner’s brain?’, or ‘What if Elektra had lived?’ (one of my favorite ‘What If’ comics that I own). These comics take us into other realities, either by changing the core of heroes or putting them into situations we may have never considered. This week, I picked up the two newest editions from Marvel’s 13th volume of ‘What If’ comics: ‘What If? Spider-Man #1’ and ‘What If? X-Men #1’.
 
“What If? Spider-Man #1”: What if Flash Thompson had become Spider-Man?
‘What If? Spider-Man #1’ is a well-crafted tale of duality that, with a simple but important character swap, sends shockwaves through the entire Spidey-verse. It is brains vs. brawn. Responsibility vs. recklessness. Morality vs. conceit. Flash Thompson vs. Peter Parker. The simple premise - Flash Thompson gets bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Parker - leads to a captivating story that amplifies the importance of each character’s personality.
 
With Flash taking the spider bite, Parker never becomes the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Though he’s still kind-hearted, he fails to gain the confidence, strength, and wittiness that Spider-Man has, instead remaining timid and unassuming. Flash, on the other hand, remains unchanged after the bite. He’s the stereotypical jock: cocky, powerful, and ego-driven. But his unchanged character means big changes for Spider-Man. Flash’s Spidey is a little more violent with criminals, a little less friendly to New Yorkers, and a lot less responsible. Without the Uncle Ben background that Parker’s Spidey has, Flash’s Spidey has little guiding him to do the right thing. Even J. Jonah Jameson is different in a Flash universe, idolizing Spider-Man as a figure he thinks could have saved his son John, rather than despising the Parker Spider-Man for (ironically) actually saving his son and feeding into his sensationalist views.

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The comic brings together excellent writing from the legendary Gerry Conway and solid art from Diego Olortegui. Conway contributed to some of the biggest storylines in Spider-Man history, something that really showed as he spun this new tale. The story makes great use of its narrator, told through the eyes of a Watcher-like character (with an interesting twist… spoiler reserved). This isn’t the first time Marvel has taken a crack at a ‘Flash as Spider-Man’ story. In fact, the very first run of ‘What If’ comics featured one in its seventh issue, looking at how Flash, Betty Brant, or John Jameson would have fared as Spidey. The second volume of ‘What If’ comics featured another Flash story too. So, while this take wasn’t the first, it potentially rises above the others and, at the very least, it got me excited for the rest of the new ‘What If’ run!
 
“What If? X-Men #1”: .exe-Men
‘What If? X-Men #1’ is a ‘What If’ tale for the modern age. With the feel of a Black Mirror episode, it focuses on a futuristic technology-driven society with a unique and interesting spin for the X-Men mutants. The story takes place in a 21st century society where bio-modified humans can interact in a virtual world dubbed ‘cyberspace’. The world is heavily secured and commodified, with crippling restrictions. However, a group of people find that they have the ‘.exe gene’, a mutation that allows them to manipulate this cyber world. Those with the mutation are, of course, this universe’s X-Men.
 
Just like the traditional X-Men, they are persecuted by the government and feared by society for their differences. They are forced to register and prevented from entering cyberspace for fear of the weapons they can create within the virtual world and the havoc they can cause as a result. The story focuses on Cable and Domino who, at the request of Professor Xavier, seek to fight a government-created virus that would exterminate .exe mutants. It truly is a take on the X-Men universe that could only have been written in the tech age.
 
The art, completed by the duo of Neil Edwards and Giannis Milonogiannis, does a lot for this comic. There are a few stunning splash pages, scattered in between beautiful pages that depict both the real world and the virtual world. The pages where Domino’s voyage into the virtual world were marked with Tron-like designs and calm pinks, greens, and blues were my favorites, visually. Bryan Edward Hill’s writing makes the conflict feel suspenseful and tense; you can tell the stakes are high. It was a complex story that left me with a few unanswered questions to make sense of, but it’s highly entertaining and fits nicely in the X-Men mythos.

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