Marvel Comics recently announced it will bring back its popular What If? comic book series in the form of six one-shots slated for release later this year. Today, the publisher revealed new cover art and additional story details for the six announced titles.
The six titles are What If? Magik, What If? X-Men, What If? Thor, What If? Ghost Rider, What If? Spider-Man and What If? The Punisher. The new story details reveal a little more about the previously announced one-shots, while the art provides a better look at these strange, off-shoot characters and their origins.
RELATED: Marvel Revives What If? With a Series of One-Shots
Marvel’s What If? series began in 1977 with What If Spider-Man Had Joined the Fantastic Four?, a story that reimagined Peter Parker’s debut as a superhero. Originally, the series was narrated by the alien Watcher Uatu. This narrative conceit was abandoned when a story twist in Fantastic Four cast Uatu as a traitor to his own kind.
The What If? series has had its fair share of influential titles, including a comic that imagined the consequences of Gwen Stacy surviving her fatal encounter with the Green Goblin and another Spider-Man story that introduced Spider-Girl.
The upcoming What If? stories will go on sale in the fall.
WHAT IF? MAGIK #1
- LEAH WILLIAMS (W)
- FILIPE ANDRADE (A)
- COVER BY JEFF DEKAL
- ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER
- BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
- Before she was Magik, Illyana Rasputin was just a kid whom Limbo chewed up and spit out seven years older. So it’s no surprise that, at 15, she wants nothing to do with the X-Men…nothing to do with the New Mutants…and nothing to do with her own powers. It’s not even surprising that she runs away… but where — and who — she ends up? Well, that’s something you’ve never seen before.
- 32 PGS./ONE SHOT/Rated T+ …$3.99
WHAT IF? X-MEN #1
- BRYAN EDWARD HILL (W)
- NEIL EDWARDS &
- GIANNIS MILONOGIANNIS (A)
- Cover by RAHZZAH
- Action Figure Variant by
- JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
- From the publisher that gave you OLD MAN LOGAN and HOUSE OF M… The X-Men as you never imagined! Welcome to the EXE/scape, a digital wonderland of business and pleasure accessible to anyone with the social (or monetary) capital for the bio-mods needed to log in… Or you can bypass all of that by being born carrying an .EXE/gene! But circumventing the login regulations is exactly what got the likes of Charles Xavier and his .EXE/men banned and driven underground in the first place… Free-roamers u/Domino and u/Cable have taken every dirty job there is on the ‘scape, but when a simple data scrubbing job turns bad, the life of bio-mod magnate Erik Lehnsherr hangs in the balance, and with it, their very society… It’s a whole new world of X-Men by Bryan Edward Hill (Detective Comics), Neil Edwards (Justice League) and Giannis Milonogiannis (Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network)!
- 32 PGS./ONE SHOT/Rated T+ …$3.99
WHAT IF? THOR #1
- Ethan Sacks (W)
- Michele Bandini (A)
- Cover by MARCO CHECCHETTO
- ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
- When young THOR’S father falls to the King of Giants, his life is forever changed. He’s ripped from Asgard to be raised in a world of persistent winter, learning the brutal way of life in Jotenheim. But what happens when the runt of the giants, LOKI, is under the shadow of his new step-brother?
- 32 PGS./ONE SHOT/Rated T+ …$3.99
WHAT IF: GHOST RIDER #1
- SEBASTIAN GIRNER (W)
- CASPAR WIJNGAARD (A)
- Cover by ALEKSI BRICLOT
- ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER BY JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
- You’ve only heard whispers of this real-world/Marvel Universe crossover until now, when moral decline and budgetary shortfalls have combined to lower our lawyers’ resistance! Sebastian Girner (Shirtless Bear-Fighter, Scales & Scoundrels) and Caspar Wijngaard (Angelic, Limbo, DOCTOR APHRA ANNUAL #2) recklessly bring you the tale of the first and only true Nordic black metal band to visit the Marvel Universe through the INSANITY of likeness release waivers! What role does GHOST RIDER Robbie Reyes play, and will YOUR MIND survive the BRUTALITY?!
- 32 PGS./ONE SHOT/Rated T+ …$3.99
WHAT IF? SPIDER-MAN #1
- GERRY CONWAY (W)
- Diego Olortegui (A)
- Cover by PATCH ZIRCHER
- Action Figure Variant Cover by John Tyler Christopher
- What if Peter Parker wasn’t the one bitten by the radioactive spider?
- What if the person who got bit was someone who didn’t live by the mantra of “with great power comes great responsibility”?
- What if that person was an egotistical bully who was only interested in taking care of himself?
- What if…FLASH THOMPSON became Spider-Man?
- 32 PGS./ONE SHOT/Rated T+ …$3.99
WHAT IF? THE PUNISHER #1
- CARL POTTS (W)
- JUANAN RAMIREZ (A)
- Cover by CHRISTOPHER STEVENS
- Action Figure Variant Cover by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
- WITH GREAT POWER…
- When Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben is ruthlessly killed by a burglar Peter let escape, he vows to never let the same fate befall another innocent bystander. From then on, he stands as a figure of cold retribution. Criminals beware – the guilty caught in this spider’s web will be PUNISHED.
- But will Parker stand triumphant…or shattered by this twist of fate?
- The friendly neighborhood takes a different turn in this WHAT IF? adventure, positing a very different sense of responsibility for the man who will be known as THE PUNISHER, as his battles against villains like the GREEN GOBLIN take a new path!
- 32 PGS./ONE SHOT/Rated T+ …$3.99