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Houston Mitchell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 219
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| Posted: 09 August 2025 at 5:00am | IP Logged | 1
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Hi,
I've been rereading the original "What If?" series. Near the beginning of the series, it is mentioned that they will try to get original creators to do the offshoots in What If?, which happens occasionally. I am reading "What If Phoenix had not died?" and was wondering if it had been offered to you and Chris Claremont, and if there is any story to go along with that. Thank you!
Houston
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135051
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| Posted: 09 August 2025 at 11:26am | IP Logged | 2
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Simplest answer: no.
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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7031
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| Posted: 09 August 2025 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | 3
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I remember reading it with the innocent understanding that it was somehow
understood by all that the story was officially what would have happened
if…
In that light, the story was a chilling and formative part of how the death of
Phoenix became so important to me.
The writer/artists clearly looked to the unused pages of the original X-Men
137 which led to a confusing case of Deja vu when I finally got to see them
for myself. The image of Jean floating and being de-powered by Liliana was
swiped, but not exactly and without attribution. It took my little brain an
extra beat to figure out how the What if…? story could have come so close
to being “correct” about… well, “What if…?”
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Peter Hicks
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 2059
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| Posted: 09 August 2025 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | 4
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There was a short lived TV show on comics and sci Fi called Prisoners of Gravity where the host Rick Green described What If? As Marvel’s way of saying “Yes the writers thought this through when they wrote the book and here’s how bad it would have been if we did what fans think they wanted.”
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135051
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| Posted: 09 August 2025 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | 5
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How well I remember WHAT IF…? declaring “Don’t call them ‘imaginary stories’, they’re not imaginary!”To which Mark Gruenwald responded “Don’t call them ‘imaginary stories’, they’re not stories!”
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135051
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| Posted: 14 August 2025 at 12:56pm | IP Logged | 6
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WHAT IF…? also holds some kind of dubious achievement award for needing a fill-in on its third issue! (A fill-in that stands as probably the best issue of the whole series—and an example of what Jim Shooter could do when he wasn’t trying to rewrite the entire universe.)
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Vinny Valenti
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Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8329
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| Posted: 14 August 2025 at 1:07pm | IP Logged | 7
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WHAT IF...? was a fun concept, but it quickly devolved into stories where everyone dies or the world ends. I like the description that Peter Hicks provided above - that sounds just about right.
Happy endings were a rare beast on that series!
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13021
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| Posted: 14 August 2025 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | 8
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All would depend on execution of the artists-writers, of course, but just conceptually I do wonder how interesting any "what if" series could ultimately be if the majority of alternative storylines were happy endings -- which is not to say that the majority being predictably bad endings wasn't any less boring.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 14 August 2025 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | 9
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Ironically (?) Shooter declared WHAT IF…? “unnecessary” because “those stories had already been done right.”
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13021
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| Posted: 14 August 2025 at 2:29pm | IP Logged | 10
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I didn't care for the series at all. I'd pick up an issue here and there and my reaction would be: I don't read comics to get bummed out. Not because they were dark or sad, etc. But because they often felt so off-character to me that they weren't any fun.
An irony in re Mr. Shooter is that when he made Hank Pym flip out and beat Jan, that read to me just like a "What If" story -- and it was the last new AVENGERS comicbook I ever bought.
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Brian Miller
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Joined: 28 July 2004
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| Posted: 14 August 2025 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | 11
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But that’s not what he scripted! It was all Bob Hall’s fault!!
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Michael Penn
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Joined: 12 April 2006
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Posts: 13021
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| Posted: 14 August 2025 at 2:48pm | IP Logged | 12
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