if given the job of EIC, what would YOU do?

[anarky]

They should totally do a What If...? that springs from something going ridiculously wrong in an insanely minor story.

What If The Mandarin Killed Wolverine? In the original, Jubilee discovering the full extent of her powers was the only thing that saved Wolverine and Psylocke. In this universe, she's not mature enough, and, instead of trashing the whole complex, causes some minor scorching. Mandarin kills Wolverine. Psylocke remains a pawn of Mandarin. Jubilee is eventually brainwashed into becoming Mandarin's pawn as well.

Aside from having two new villains working for Mandarin, think of the repercussions of Wolverine not being in every title for the next 20+ years.

There are literally trillions of possible What If...?'s. Instead of going the one-shot route, they should go back to a monthly. Make it like both the original series were at first, before they started doing multi-parters and crossovers and shit. One month, one story, rotating teams. Hell, make it double-sized and cost more; people either get the ones they want, or they're Marvel Zombies anyway. If any creative team has an idea, let them do it, then publish them in the order they got them done.

[vynsane]

How about "What it Uncle Ben had shot the burglar?"

Without the credo "With great power..." ingrained into him because of Ben's death, Peter continues on with his celebrity career and becomes the Marvel Universe version of Charlie Sheen. Captain Stacy lives. Gwen lives. Green Goblin and all of Spider-Man's rogues commit a few crimes, but since none of them develop that intense animosity that becomes a cycle of violence towards Spidey, eventually they all settle down and quit. Doc Ock develops a cure for cancer.

it would kind of be like this:



"What If Spider-Man had Stopped the Burglar Who Killed His Uncle?"

except with the darker and edgier idea of ben shooting the burglar.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Kinda. Except in that version, Pete stops the burglar back at the TV station. In my version Peter doesn't stop the burglar, nor does he ever make the connection that the guy his Uncle shot is the same guy. So his obliviousness leads to his douchebaggery.

Going in Chuxter's darker direction. How about
"What if Professor X gave into his pedo fantasies and tried something with his underage student Jean Grey?"

Charles goes to jail. The X-Men never form. Magneto runs rampant. Mutants are purged holocaust style all over the world. Wolverine isn't on every team in the Marvel Universe, which causes it to implode.

[Snigtad Flornbi]

WHAT IF WOLVARENE WAS NOTGAY + SPIDARMEN WALKED IN ON HIM DEWING STORM, HE WOOD TRIE 2 KIL HIMS ELF UNTEL HE SAW BATMAN + THEY FUKED.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Another "What If?" story percolating. You'd have to toss out the part of Thor's continuity where Don Blake WAS Thor in a mortal form and go back to the original idea that Blake stumbled on the walking stick/hammer. And you'd have to play fast and loose with what 'worthy' means in the inscription on the Hammer.
Anyway, somebody other than Blake finds the Hammer. A not nice somebody, like a criminal who's hiding out in Norway. And he takes the Hammer and becomes a super villain criminal. So then Loki, realizing his brother's power is being used for ill gain, forms the Avengers and takes Thor's place on the team to stop the evil Thor guy. (£ôkî isn't as altruistic as all that, he's just afraid this new Thor might be evil enough to make a power play in Asgard and upset the balance that Loki is happy with, and possibly fuck with whatever ongoing schemes Loki has running). But the short version is in this reality Loki is one of world's main heroes instead of Thor, who is a major villain. Don't have a twist/resolution yet.

[anarky]

I always wondered why DC never did a What If-style book. Sure, on the one hand, everyone would bitch that it was a knockoff. But on the other, holy shit, why would they care?

Off the top of my head, there could be:

What If...

...Jean-Paul Valley Remained Batman? [AzBats kills Bruce Wayne, and his reign of terror escalates. Even though the civilian populace don't realize what's happened at first (though they're cool with Batman finally killing Joker), the superheroes can't ignore it. But the beginning of KnightsEnd has convinced AzBats that other heroes don't really care for his methods and digs into Bruce's records. When he nearly kills Superman with a kryptonite-powered flaming sword, the heroes withdraw to regroup. During their absence, AzBats is finally brought down by an unlikely team of villains, led by Tim Drake.]
...Jason Todd Lived? ["A Death In The Family" continues with the alternate ending--Joker dying once and for all--and things snowball from there. Perhaps Batman is blamed for Joker's death; perhaps he is responsible.]
...Superman Was Never Resurrected? [The Eradicator becomes the replacement Superman. But his methods are way, way different. Not sure where this one would go long-term.]
...Guy Gardner Defeated Hal Jordan? [With Hal off the Corps and not being the sort of guy to think of tracking down Sinestro's ring, he still goes crazy when Coast City is destroyed. But he's not a GL, so he can't kill the others and become Parallax. Instead, he winds up becoming some sort of super-villain with totally different powers because he blames Guy for his being unable to save Carol... and he knows everything about the Corps.]

Seriously, I imagine most nerds would prefer those to completely random stuff like "What If Batman Was Born in Victorian England and Was Accused of Being Jack the Ripper?" [Apologies to Gotham by Gaslight, but it was a bizarre premise.]

[vynsane]

i thought 'elseworlds' was DC's equivalent to 'what if...?'

i know they usually take the concept of the character and transport it to another time/place/etc as opposed to taking a point in time and taking an alternate path, but i think they did that purposely to dispel any comparisons to 'what if...?' in the first place.

[Rollo Tomassi]

i thought 'elseworlds' was DC's equivalent to 'what if...?'

i know they usually take the concept of the character and transport it to another time/place/etc as opposed to taking a point in time and taking an alternate path, but i think they did that purposely to dispel any comparisons to 'what if...?' in the first place.

Plus, after their Crises BS in the 80s, they insisted there was only ONE DC Universe. So they couldn't very well be telling stories on alternate worlds that "didn't exist"

Still, Chux's idea has merit. They'd just have to come up with a nifty name like 'Shatterpoint' or something. Honestly, I think readers would understand/forgive them riffing on 'What If?' to let DC writers stretch their imagination.

[anarky]

Here's another one. Maybe not exactly the job of EIC, but a good one.

Some sort of "Captain America is loathed by the people, who see him as a government tool, and is starting to question himself" story. I know they've been done. The difference, though, would be that the storyline would be called "Captain America's Been Torn Apart" and all the issue titles would be taken from Guns 'n' Roses songs or album titles. I can see Rocket Queen, Shotgun Blues, Lies, Dead Horse, and Appetite for Destruction being possibilities. Maybe he tries retirement in a chapter called Paradise City.

Just a weird though I had this morning.

[Diabolical]

I would say its time for Peter and MJ to finally get married.

Peter, feeling down on his luck and really regretting his decision to not marry MJ years ago, begins to pray. God shows up and offers him the chance to go back in time and get married, asking Peter to sacrifice nothing in return. Peter accepts and the last couple of years of stupidity never happened.

Fuck you Quesada.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I would say its time for Peter and MJ to finally get married.

Peter, feeling down on his luck and really regretting his decision to not marry MJ years ago, begins to pray. God shows up and offers him the chance to go back in time and get married, asking Peter to sacrifice nothing in return. Peter accepts and the last couple of years of stupidity never happened.

Fuck you Quesada.

Ha. That's awesome.
Here's how I wanted to un-retcon the retcon. Since part of the 'deal' with Mephisto was that he leave Pete and MJ alone FOREVER after the deal, I would have Mephisto attacking the Avengers at some point and he mojos them somehow, and at that moment, the 'deal' gets negated and POOF Pete and MJ remember everything. Then MJ starts freaking out because she thinks she negated her child out of existence. But then Dr. Strange explains that's not how it works and Mephisto doesn't have the power to 'unbirthday' people.
So then Pete and MJ start looking for their missing daughter. Who is like seven years old at this point. And in a heart wrenching conclusion they decide to leave her with the family she's been adopted by.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I was reading some old back issues of 'What If?' that I got this summer(yeah, my reading backlog is atrocious, like 13 longboxes) and in the back of issue 7 from 1977, they announce WI? Will be going Monthly and then literally give an entire letter column's worth of What If stories they plan on doing.

Now, some of them they got around to doing, but quite a few I don't think have been done yet! And quite a few more got done 'for real' down the road. It was quite interesting. Here they are. (assume What If... precedes all of the following)

Gwen Stacy hadn't died.
Rick Jones had become the Hulk instead of Banner.
Different heroes(Spidey, DD, Sub-Mariner) had formed the Avengers instead of Thor and Co.
Peter hadn't lost his extra arms.
Thing married Alicia and they had a child.
Aunt May Died.
All Marvel's villains teamed up and fought all it's Heroes.
Tony Stark was never hit by shrapnel.
The Burglar killed Aunt May instead.
Somebody besides Steve Rogers became Cap.
Jane Foster became immortal and married Thor.
the Inhumans were never discovered by the outside world.
Doc Ock married Aunt May.
General Ross was gamma rayed instead of Banner.
The Bullpen got powers instead of the FF.
Namor had conquered the surface.
1950s Heroes had formed a SuperTeam.
Silver Surfer had not lost his powers.
Nova was a girl.
Peter had been bitten by a radioactive Fly/Mosquito/ fillintheblank.
Magneto had gathered the X-Men together, not Prof X.
Someone besides Don Blake had found the Hammer. (hey! Great minds...!)
JJJameson became Spider-Man.
Howard the Duck was elected President in '76.
Dr. Strange was Dormammu's disciple, not Ancient One's.
Watcher never interfered.
Cap died in WWII, and Bucky was frozen.
DD had his sight all along, or recovered it for good.
Cap was created in World War ONE.
FF had gone their separate ways, instead of forming a team.
Human fell into Howard the Duck's world.
The world knew Peter was Spider-Man.
DD told the world he was blind.
Shang-Chi had followed in his father's footsteps.
Cap and Bucky BOTH survived WWII.
Spidey stopped the Burglar before he killed anyone.
Avengers and FF formed one big team.
Howard the Duck joined the Avengers. Joined the FF.
Aunt May discovered Peter's secret.
Original Human Torch never died.
Banner and Rick Jones BOTH became Hulks.
WonderMan hadn't died.
Iron Man had to wear armor all the time.
Peter's parents hadn't died and he was raised by them instead of Aunt May.
Ultron hadn't erased Torch's memory from Vision.
Johnny Storm married Crystal.
Spidey got married to Gwen in the past, or MJ in the present.
FF had become villains because of the cosmic rays.

Now, some of those have become irrelevant as ideas. And clearly 1977 was much more fascinated with Howard the Duck. I'd have to cross reference and edit the page to say which of those actually got turned into issues. I recognize a few. But still, quite a few of them are cool ideas still unwritten.

Discuss!

[anarky]

An interesting one, though one that would require some licensing, would be "What if Stephen Colbert had been elected president in 2008?"

[Diabolical]

Thing married Alicia and they had a child.

I'll bet when he cums its gravel.

[anarky]

Ewww.