694 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW?
What If: Event Horizon , What If: Civil War , and What If: Secret Wars. While most of the
stories in the two ongoing titles were done-in-one types, there was the occasional multi-
part story or sequel and some stories have been re-imagined in later volumes. Some
issues contained more than one story and the fi rst series also contained a few back-up
stories that were in continuity, such as the history of Th e Eternals or a story set in the
1940s that adjusted the history of Captain America. As expected the more popular
characters appeared in the most issues including Spider-Man (28), Th e Fantastic Four
(26), and Th e X-Men (50—both as a team and solo members such as Wolverine).
Some points of divergence were revisited multiple times (sometimes even in the same
issue). For example, in the regular continuity a burglar whom the newly created Spider-
Man failed to stop ended up killing Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, leading Spider-Man to
become a crimefi ghter. What If? explored such possibilities as what if he had stopped
the burglar or what if his aunt had been killed instead. Alternatives to the Fantastic
Four gaining powers by going into space ranged from them having diff erent powers, to
all of them having exactly the same power, to their not going at all. Th ere was even a
story (Vol. 1 #11) in which Stan Lee , Jack Kirby , and two others at Marvel became the
Fantastic Four.
Some What If? stories involve a large number of characters while some only a handful
or less. Yet even the latter could have an eff ect of the greater Marvel universe. For ex-
ample, a Fantastic Four story in Vol. 1 #31, in which the Th ing goes on a rampage, shows
how his actions prevented the origins of Spider-Man, Th or , and Th e Hulk. Some issues
have happy endings while others end in tragedy, sometimes with the death of the hero,
sometimes with the entire world being destroyed. While there may not be another ongo-
ing series in the near future, one way or the other, Marvel will continue to ask “What If?”
David S. Serchay
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW? First published in two
parts in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583 (both September 1986) “What-
ever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” was, conceptually if not literally, the last
Superman story. Written by Alan Moore (who, by legend, threatened DC editor
Julius Schwartz to get the assignment), a “fi nal” Superman story was made possible
because of the planned re-launch of Superman by artist and writer John Byrne in the
1986 miniseries Th e Man of Steel , following the extensive streamlining of the entire
DC “universe” in Crisis on Infi nite Earths in 1985. Th e “new” Superman, along with
most DC titles, would proceed as if many of the details of the character’s past had
never happened, so Moore’s story would be the last to draw freely upon story elements
about to be offi cially erased from DC continuity. However, the popularity and success
of Moore’s story in wrapping up 50 years of previous Superman stories had the curi-
ous eff ect of quietly undermining much of what came later, even suggesting that the
legendary character might have been best left alone after this elegant conclusion.
Moore’s story followed “For the Man Who Has Everything,” his notable contribution
(drawn by Dave Gibbons ) to Superman Annual 11 (1985), which revealed Superman’s
