What If, sometimes stylized as What If...?, is a comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics whose stories explore how the Marvel Universe might have unfolded if key moments in its history had not occurred as they did in mainstream continuity. Since What If debuted in 1977, the comics have been published in 14 series as well as occasional stand-alone issues. In 2024, Marvel announced that What If...? would expand to include alternate explorations of continuity within other non-Marvel Universe properties owned by their parent company The Walt Disney Company from its fifteenth volume onwards, beginning with Aliens: What If...?, based on the Alien franchise, and followed by Marvel & Disney: What if...?, based on classic Disney characters.
In 2021, an animated series based on the What If comics premiered on Disney+, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's multiverse.
Format The stories of the inaugural series (1977–1984) feature the alien Uatu, the Watcher as a narrator. From his base on the Moon, Uatu observes both Earth and alternate realities.
Most What If stories begin with Uatu describing an event in the mainstream Marvel Universe, then introducing a point of divergence in that event and then describing the consequences of the divergence. Some stories diverge from another divergence, such as What If Vol 1 #43 (Conan the Barbarian remains in the modern era), which diverges from #13 (Conan travels to then returns from the modern era).
Uatu was used similarly in the second series (1989–1998) until a point where, in the Fantastic Four comic book, Uatu was punished for destroying another Watcher. This made the use of Uatu improbable, so the character was phased out to its last appearance in issue #76. Without a framing device, the stories themselves became the focus.
In later series, some writers chose to introduce alternative narrators. For example, in volume 3, in What If Karen Page Had Lived?, What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers? and in Daredevil (2005), Brian Michael Bendis, the writer himself, makes a cameo as narrator. In the early 2006 series, a hacker, whose online alias is "the Watcher", opens each of the six issues.
Marvel has given several What If stories official numerical designations to make them contiguous with the Marvel Multiverse and differentiate them from the main Marvel Universe of Earth-616.
Marvel Comics occasionally issued backup features, Untold Tales from the Marvel Universe. These stories explained the origins of some of Marvel's superhuman species.
Publication history Volume 1 The initial 47-issue series ran from February 1977 to October 1984. The first What If story was "What If Spider-Man had Joined the "Fantastic Four?". It presented an alternate version of events seen in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963). What If #24, which is titled "What If Gwen Stacy had lived?" and focuses on the consequences of Spider-Man's secret identity being publicly exposed, is one of the most highly regarded What If stories.
List of What If? stories Issue #A storyB storyC storyTPBOmnibus1What If Spider-Man Had Joined the Fantastic Four? Collected in Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol 6What If: The Complete Collection Vol. 1What If?: The Original Marvel Series Omnibus Vol. 12What If the Hulk Had The Brain of Bruce Banner?3What If The Avengers Had Never Been? Collected in Avengers Omnibus Vol 64What If the Invaders Had Stayed Together After World War Two?5What If Captain America Hadn't Vanished During World War Two? Collected in Invaders Omnibus, Captain America Omnibus Vol.56What If the Fantastic Four Had Different Super-Powers? Collected in Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol 67What If Someone Else Besides Spider-Man Had Been Bitten By The Radioactive Spider?8What If the World Knew Daredevil Was Blind?What If the Spider Had Been Bitten By a Radioactive Human?9What If... the Avengers Had Been Formed During the 1950s? Collected in Avengers Omnibus Vol 610What If Jane Foster Had Found—the Hammer of Thor?11What If the Fantastic Four Were the Original Marvel Bullpen? Collected in Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol 612What If Rick Jones Had Become the Hulk?13What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today? Collected in Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol 4What If: The Complete Collection Vol 214What If Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos Had Fought World War II in Outer Space?15What If... Nova Had Been Four Other People?16What If Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, Had Remained Loyal to Fu Manchu?Shang-Chi Master of Kung-Fu Omnibus #3Due to copyright issues, Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu became Zheng Zu, a character owned by Marvel. Marvel was able to reprint the story after a temporary license,SHANG-CHI MASTER OF KUNG FU OMNIBUS HC VOL 03 DM ZECK VAR ED in Marvel's Voices: Identity #1 (2021). Writer Gene Luen Yang revisited the story, changing names such as the aforementioned Zheng Zu, and the Si-Fan into the Five Weapons Society.17What If Ghost Rider Had Remained a Villain? Collected in Ghost Rider Epic Collection Vol 3: Death RaceWhat if Spider-Woman Had Remained a Villain? Collected in Spider-Woman OmnibusWhat If Captain Marvel Had Remained a Villain? Collected in The Death of Captain Marvel OmnibusWhat If: The Complete Collection Vol 2What If?: The Original Marvel Series Omnibus Vol. 118What If Dr. Strange Had Been a Disciple of Dormammu?19What If Spider-Man Had Stopped the Burglar Who Killed His Uncle?20What If the Avengers Had Fought the Kree-Skrull War Without Rick Jones?21What If Sub-Mariner Had Married the Invisible Girl?22What If Dr. Doom Had Become a Hero?23What If Hulk's Girlfriend Jarella Had Not Died?The First Eternals Collected in The Eternals: The Complete Saga OmnibusWhat If Aunt May Had Been Bitten By a Radioactive Spider? Collected in Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol 7What If?: The Original Marvel Series Omnibus Vol. 224What If Spider-Man Had Rescued Gwen Stacy? Collected in Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol 7What If: The Complete Collection Vol 325What If Thor Fought Odin Over Jane Foster?26What If Captain America Were Elected President? Collected in Captain America Omnibus Vol.5What If the Man-Thing Had Regained Ted Sallis' Brain?27What If Phoenix Had Not Died? Collected in Phoenix Omnibus and Dark Phoenix Saga Omnibus28What If Ghost Rider Were Separated from Johnny Blaze? Collected in Marvel Masterworks Ghost Rider Vol. 7 and Ghost Rider Epic Collection Vol 4: To Slay a DemonMatt Murdock, Agent of... S.H.I.E.L.D. Collected in Marvel Masterworks Daredevil Vol 16 and Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Omnibus29What If Avengers Were the Last Superheroes on Earth?Collected in The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus; Marvel Masterworks: The Inhumans Vol 2What If... Sub-Mariner Never Regained His Memory?30What If Spider-Man's Clone Lived? Collected in Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol 731What If Wolverine Had Killed the Hulk?What If There Was No Fantastic Four?32What If the Avengers Had Become the Pawns of Korvac?33What If the Dazzler Had Become the Herald of Galactus? Collected in Marvel Masterworks: Dazzler Vol. 2 and Dazzler OmnibusWhat If Iron Man Had Been Trapped in King Arthur's Time?34All-humor issue with 74 stories35What If Bullseye Had Not Killed Elektra? Collected in Marvel Masterworks Daredevil Vol. 16; Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson; Daredevil Epic Collection Vol 9: Resurrection; and What If: Dark AvengersAnd Thus Are Born the Cat People!What If Yellowjacket Had Died?36What If The Fantastic Four Had Not Gained Their Powers? Collected in Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus Vol 2 and Fantastic Four Epic Collection Vol 13: Back to BasicsWhat If Nova Had Not Given Up His Powers? Collected in Nova: Richard Rider OmnibusWhat If: The Complete Collection Vol 437What If The Thing Had Continued To Mutate?What If The Beast Had Truly Become A Beast?What If Galactus Had Turned The Silver Surfer Back Into Norrin Radd?38Vision & Scarlet Witch "The Leaving"What If Sharon Carter Had Not Died?Daredevil: 201339What If Thor of Asgard Had Met Conan the Barbarian? Collected in Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol 540What if Dr. Strange Had Never Become Master of the Mystic Arts?41What If Sub-Mariner Had Saved Atlantis from Its Destiny?42What If Susan Richards Had Died in Childbirth?43What If Conan the Barbarian Were Stranded in the 20th Century? Collected in Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol 6Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Phoenix in "Behold"44What If Captain America Were Not Revived Until Today?45What If the Hulk Went Berserk?46What If Spider-Man's Uncle Ben Had Lived?47What If Loki Found Thor's Hammer First?
Special Following the cancellation of the original series, Marvel published a one-shot What If? Special (June 1988) with the story "What If Iron Man Had Been a Traitor?". It is collected in What If? Into the Multiverse Omnibus Vol 1.
Volume 2 From July 1989 to November 1998, Marvel published 115 monthly What If issues (114 issues plus a #-1 issue) the second series revisited and revised ideas from volume 1. In volume 2, stories could span multiple issues (every issue of volume 1 contained a complete story). Also, sometimes, the volume 2 stories would offer multiple plots and endings and the reader could decide which one to adopt. For example, in What If the War Machine had not destroyed the Living Laser?, three endings were offered.
The humorous aspect of volume 1 was retained through volume 2, particularly in issue #34, an all-humor issue containing a number of single-page gags and two complete stories.
Starting with issue #87, the issue titles stopped being questions that were answered by the story, and instead the covers were presented as "What If? Starring..." whatever character was being highlighted in the given issue.
In issue #105, What If introduced Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker); the new character was popular enough for a spin-off series. From this, the MC2 line of publications was developed.
For a brief period between 1995 and 1996, all What If? stories were labeled as Marvel Alterniverse which included the likes of Ruins, The Last Avengers Story and Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe.
List of What If? (vol. 2) stories Issue #A storyB storiesReprints1What If... The Avengers Had Lost the Evolutionary War?Collected in What If? Into the Multiverse Omnibus Vol. 12What If... Daredevil Had Killed The Kingpin?3What If... Steve Rogers Had Refused to Give Up Being Captain America?What If... Ben Parker's Nephew Was Galactus? What If... Franklin Richards Had Found the Hammer of Thor? What If... Wolverine Got a Real Job?4What If... The Alien Costume Had Possessed Spider-Man? Collected in Secret Wars Omnibus5What If... The Vision Had Destroyed the Avengers?What If the Incredible Hulk—Instead of Becoming a Leg-breaker in Las Vegas—Had Become a High School Monitor?6What If... The X-Men Had Lost Inferno?7What If... Wolverine Was an Agent of SHIELD? Collected in Marvel Universe by Rob Liefeld OmnibusWhat If... Aunt May Was a Mutant with Claws! What If... Captain America Hadn't Been Thawed Out? What If... the Punisher Didn't Use Guns?8What If... Iron Man Lost the Armor Wars?9What If... The New X-Men Had Died On Their Very First Mission? Collected in Giant-Size X-Men 40th AnniversaryWhat If? Black Bolt talked in his sleep? What If? The Thing's body kept mutating?10What If... The Punisher's Family Had Not Been Killed?What If... The Living Recorder Had to Find Work on Earth? What If... The Thing Were an Elvis Presley Impersonator? What If... Hawkeye Used Golf Clubs Instead of a Bow and Arrows?11What If... The Fantastic Four All Had The Same Power?12What If... The X-Men Had Stayed In Asgard?13What If... Professor X Had Become the Juggernaut?14What If... Captain Marvel Had Not Died? Collected in The Death of Captain Marvel Omnibus15What If... The Trial of Galactus Had Ended in Reed Richards' Execution?16What If... Wolverine Battled Conan the Barbarian?