WHAT IF? 693
keep up with continuity of the main characters)... just as Conan , Th e Invaders ,
et al., were doing. Still, I liked the idea of writing an occasional story about the
Fantastic Four , Hulk , Spidey, or whoever. And Stan was in the habit of saying
that the way he thought up some of the story directions was to ask himself, “What
if ” this happened or that happened... how would it aff ect a hero’s life going for-
ward? So I proposed a comic called What If which would feature a diff erent hero
every month, starting with one of the strongest possibilities—what if Spider-Man
had actually joined the F. F. as he had tried to do in Amazing Spider-Man #1?
A one-time What If? special appeared in 1988, and the following year a new monthly
series began that lasted for 114 issues (plus an issue numbered -1) until 1998. Th e “host”
of these stories is Uatu, Th e Watcher, an immortal alien who lives on the moon and
whose race watches but does not interfere. He was able to look into alternative universes
and tell of what happened in those worlds. Due to events in other comics the Watcher
stopped appearing after issue #76 of the second series and with issue #87 the book’s
format changed, with the major diff erence not being spelled out on the cover (it simply
became “ What If? Starring... ” Th e most notable of these was issue #105, which was set
in the near future and introduced Spider-Girl, the daughter of Spider-Man. Th is charac-
ter soon got her own book and this led to a number of titles (known as MC2) that were
set in that time period. While none of the others lasted for more than a year, Spider-Girl
lasted for 100 issues in one title, and 30 issues in another. Some stories from this era
were also listed as part of the Marvel “Alterniverse,” which includes a few other “alternate
world” tales.
For the next seven years, Marvel’s only visits to various alternative worlds was through
the X-Men spin-off Exiles , but beginning in 2005, Marvel began to publish a series of
“one-shot” What If? stories. Usually with fi ve to six issues (all numbered #1) the comics
that were published around the same period often had a common thread or theme. Th e
fi rst of these had various “hosts,” including Brian Michael Bendis acting as the narrator
in his own stories. Th e next batch of stories all took place on the same alternative world,
with the “host” being a man from the Marvel world who was able to read about these
historical fi gures (such as a Civil War-era Captain America or a feudal Japan version
of Daredevil ) on his computer. Th is group also had an additional comic, a humor title
called Wha... Huh?! Th e next three groups of one-shots had no host, and often dealt
with divergences on major storylines from recent years such as Civil War and Wo r l d
War Hulk. Th e fourth group is notable for a Fantastic Four -themed story that was to
be drawn by Mike Wieringo, but was unfi nished at the time of his death. Other artists
helped to complete it, and the volume was sold as a special with proceeds going to the
charity, Th e Hero Initiative. In addition, the fi fth collection had a back-up story that ran
throughout all fi ve issues.
Many issues of the original series have been collected in a series of books called What
If? Classic and random issues from the fi rst two series have been collected in various
books. Th e one-shots have been collected as What If: Why Not? , What If: Mirror Mirror ,
