Top 10 Tuesdays - 10 Marvel What Ifs That Came True

For this edition of the Top 10 Tuesdays, I've decided to spotlight 10 Marvel What Ifs That Came True. For the purpose of this of this list, I'm going to focus more on the actual title of the What If? as opposed to the contents, which featured how they answered the What If? at the time. Instead, I'll be applying those 'what ifs' to current events and how Marvel has brought about the same effect in more modern times. You can view the entire list, comment on your favourite What Ifs that came true or let me know about any I missed, all after the jump.

TOP 10 TUESDAYS - 10 MARVEL WHAT IFS THAT CAME TRUE

#1. What If the Amazing Spider-Man had not married Mary Jane?
As seen in: What If? Vol 2 #20

While this What If? didn't feature Peter Parker making a deal with the devil to get out of his marriage, it is still rather funny that, after all these years, Marvel would actually deliver on the premise of this 'imaginary' What If tale.











#2. What if the Hulk had become a barbarian?
As seen in: What If? Vol 1 #23

No, Greg Pak did not write this issue and, no, this was not a part of the recent Planet Hulk storyline that was all the rage in the Hulk titles. All this proves it that anything as awesome as a barbarian Hulk would have to be followed up on in the main titles at some point. Shame on Marvel for taking so long.











#3. What If the world knew Daredevil was blind?
As seen in: What If? Vol 1 #8

This What If? story was taken one step further by former Daredevil writer, Brian Bendis, in his modern day classic, "Out", storyline where the feds literally out Matt Murdock as Daredevil to the world by leaking it to the press.

So, while this What If? only dealt with the world knowing he was a blind hero, Marvel went and let the whole world know he was blind and who he really was under the mask.








#4. What If Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four?
As seen in: What If? Vol 1 #1

I think it's fitting that the very first What If? story actually did come true many years later when Spider-Man ended up teaming up with Ghost Rider, Wolverine and Hulk to form the 'new' Fantastic Four in the now classic, Fantastic Four #347-349. This was later followed up in a What If? tribute book to the late Mike Wieringo, which came out late last year and to which the artwork accompanying this text comes from.







#5. What If the Beast and the Thing continued to mutate?
As seen in: What If? Vol 1 #37

Technically, this What If? is only half right - only Beast would go on to mutate further. We could argue that Thing has 'mutated' over time as artists brought their own flare and style to the Thing's rocky exterior, but, for the purpose of this post, we'll let it slide as the Beast, did in fact, mutate into the more 'beast-like' version to the left in Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men.







#6. What If the X-Men died on their first mission?
As seen in: What If? Vol 2 #9

Another iffy addition to this list, the X-Men to which this What If? refers were actually the X-Men from Giant-Sized X-Men #1 (ie. Colossus, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, etc).

Seeing as Marvel would later retcon the events of that issue, in X-Men: Deadly Genesis, in order to make room for the third Summer's brother, Vulcan, who led a new team of X-Men on an ill-fated first mission that say all but two of them survive, I think it's safe to count this one as having come true to some extent.





#7. What if Phoenix had not died?
As seen in: What If? Vol 1 #27

I actually feel kind of bad including the next two entries on my list as both characters die and return every second Tuesday. Even worse, Pheonix has had more than one What If? asking about whether she survived or not.










#8. What If Elektra had lived?
As seen in: What If? Vol 1 #35

Similar to Phoenix above, Elektra has died and come back from the dead so many times, I feel like I'm cheating you guys including this on the list. However, it's hard to deny the inclusion when I can name several different occasions in which she "had lived".











#9. What If the Age of Apocalypse had not ended?
As seen in: What If? Vol 2 #81

For the 10th anniversary of the Age of Apocalypse event, Marvel celebrated with a series of one-shots, all set prior to the actual events of the Age of Apocalypse, and a limited-series set after the events of X-Men: Omega titled, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse.

While it was probably 10 years too late coming out, the limited series did tell what happened if the Age of Apocalypse had not ended, thus proving this What If? true.






#10. What If the Punisher became Captain America?
As seen in: What If? Vol 2 #51

Another instance of 'maybe, sorta, kinda' came true, Punisher: War Journal #7 introduced Frank Castle's tribute to the fallen Captain America in the form of a Cap flavoured Punisher costume as Frank tried to uphold the beliefs and values of his fallen hero. If anything, this gave me an opportunity to post pictures of the Capunisher costume, which always makes me laugh.

Related Posts