New: Guide to Marvel's What If?

New Year, New Comic Guides! In 2023 I launched a massive 33 new comic collecting guides and reading orders exclusively to Patrons of Crushing Krisis, released 11 guides to the public, plus updated dozens of existing guides to Marvel, DC, & Indie Comics. What if I beat those numbers in 2024? That’s a reality I want to live in, and it’s also the titular question of today’s brand new guide for CK Patrons: Guide to What If?

Guide to What If?

Creating a What If? Guide is a different kind of project than my typical comic reading orders. That’s because What If? doesn’t have an order – and it hasn’t had a single ongoing series for over 25 years!

What If? was Marvel’s original way of exploring alternative realities, as narrated by The Watcher. It debuted in 1977, with each issue asking a “What If…” question that altered one essential building block of the Marvel Universe. What if Spider-Man Joined The Fantastic Four? What if Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor? What If Phoenix Had Not Died? What if Spider-Man’s Clone Lived? What if Conan the Barbarian Were Stranded in the 20th Century?

Of course, we’ve seen all five of those What Ifs come to pass in the decades since the original series launched, and many more of the questions posed by the original series. What were seen as immutable building blocks of the Marvel Universe in 1977 became fun and sometimes shocking story beats in the 90s and beyond.

The original What If? (1977) ran for 47 issues and then was dormant throughout the 80s until a one-shot special in 1988 acted as a pilot for a new What If? (1989) series that ran for nearly a decade. It had the same format as the original, with one titular question per issue – though it occasionally dabbled in two-part stories.

After that series ended in 1998, Marvel was out of the What If? business for a few years before bringing the series back in the form of one-shots at the end of 2004. That was a reflection of the evolving tastes of the comic industry at the time – single anthology series were out, and #1s that could be sold with a terrific cover image where more important than ever.

Releasing a string of single-issue What If? issues became an annual tradition for Marvel. For the 00s and 10s, What Ifs largely focused on reimagining major Marvel Events, as the company released a steady stream of linewide crossovers. Behind the scenes, Marvel counted each issue as if it was part of an invisible ongoing series – leading them to release the 200th issue of What If in 2010.

Since then, What If has dabbled in a few mini-series for specific events and characters, but Marvel has mostly kept its tradition of releasing an annual run of 4-6 one-shots exploring different events and characters – sometimes around a loose theme like “Great Power” or “Dark.”

Of course, these flights of alternate reality fancy served as the inspiration for the MCU’s first animated series, Marvel What If? The show has just wrapped its second season, with a third already in production. Since the “What Ifs” of the show are specific to the continuity of the MCU, they don’t tend to be inspired by specific issues of the comic series.

That also means if you dig the show, you can jump into the comic anywhere – nearly every one of What If’s 200+ issues are one-shot stories with their premise baked right into the right. This is the perfect example of a time you can choose any cover that intrigues you and dive right in… but, I still recommended some good starting points in the new guide.

Want instant access to this Guide to What If? Become a Patron of CK for as little as $1 a month or $10.20 a year to gain access to this exclusive guide and over 70 other guides months before the general public gains access. I have launched 34 Guides to Patrons in the past 365 days – 14 Marvel, 2 DC, & 18 Indie! Plus, I’ve also updated 106 of my 200+ guides for both patrons and the general public. And, there are many more guides and updates to come!

Exclusives for Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 48 Guides!

DC Guides (6): Batman – Index of Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Birds of Prey, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, Omega Men