Somebody’s First Comic Book: What If? (1989 Series) #108

Wondering what Somebody’s First Comic Book is all about? The explanation is on this page!

TITLE: The Greatest Sacrifice

CREDITS:

Writer: Tom DeFalco
Pencils: Sergio Cariello
Inks: Keith Champagne
Colors: Kevin Tinsley
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Frank Pittarese
Cover Art: Sergio Cariello
Publisher: Marvel Comics

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: The Avengers… they’ve got that movie coming out, right? And… I guess Spider-Man is one of them, too?

IMPRESSIONS: Maybe not… the story kind of starts in the middle, with the Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and three people I don’t know) throwing down against Spider-Man’s enemy Carnage, who somehow has taken possession of the Silver Surfer. (Wait – Silver Surfer… wasn’t he in the Fantastic Four movie?) Evidently, we learn later, Carnage is some sort of alien slime that has been bonded to a serial killer, but left the killer and possessed the Silver Surfer.

We also find out, somehow, that these guys aren’t technically Avengers, but that they’re about to pick a new team. I’m not sure exactly how this works, but I like to imagine it’s like gym class, with Captain America and Iron Man taking turns picking from a line and the last one (I’m guessing the dude called “Justice”) being stuck with whoever picked second. Anyway, “Cosmic Carnage” nearly destroys the Avenger called the Vision and whips up on the rest of them until Spider-Man decides to clue them in that the monster is usually vulnerable to loud noises and fire, and maybe this girl called Firestar could do something? In the end, though, all she does is weaken the alien enough for the Surfer to exert control, fly into space, and kill himself and, presumably, the alien too.

I’m… lost here. The story itself is kind of straightforward, but what on Earth are they talking about – they’re not “really” the Avengers, they went and killed the surfer, and… and the title of this book. “What If?” Is that supposed to tell us that this is a “fake” story? It didn’t really happen? And if that’s the case, why the hell am I reading it?

GRADE: C-

[Meta-Note: I’m going to drop the usual pretense of this feature for a moment here to explain my commentary. The old Marvel What If? series, for a long time, was hosted by the Watcher, who explained that what we were seeing was a story set in a world very similar to the “real” Marvel Universe, but where something happened differently and the whole world changed as a result. Kind of a superhero version of Ray Bradbury’s Butterfly Effect theory. At some point, they dropped the Watcher as the narrator and, not being a regular reader of that book at that time, I didn’t really think much of it. Looking back for the sake of “Somebody’s First Comic Book,” I realize the lack of explanation makes this confusing as hell.

On a more amusing note, the letters page for this issue features letters for issue #105, the first appearance of Spider-Girl. The letters absolutely gushed over the comic, although the editor answering the letters initially says “Every story is only meant to be a glimpse into that particular reality. So don’t count on any more trips to see Spider-Girl!” Ah, hindsight.]

Spider-Man Family (2007 Series) #3

June 8, 2007

Spider-Man Family #3 (Marvel Comics)
By Paul Tobin, Pierre Alary, Fred VanLente, Leonard Kirk, Roy Thomas, Jim Craig & Yamanaka Akira

This issue of Spider-Man Family is something of a mixed bag. The focus is on Spidey and the Fantastic Four, which is always an entertaining pairing, but the lead story is kind of weak. Spidey and the FF team up to fight a giant mummy (which is definitely fun), and then again against Electro. There’s a lot of the standard misunderstanding-then-team-up stuff, which is really somewhat out of place considering the relationship between these characters even relatively early in their careers. The personalities are off as well. While it’s true that many of the earliest FF stories made Sue subservient, this issue goes too far in the opposite direction, making her more aggressive than she’s ever been painted. We also see the Scorpion drawn into battle with her former namesake, Mag Gargan, the current Venom — a pretty good story, and certainly a logical one. Next is a reprint of What If? Vol. 1 #1, “What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four?” This is one of my all-time favorite What If? stories, and it’s a welcome addition to this book. The story ends with a new “Spider-Man J” tale (does the “J” stand for “Japanese?”), a reprint of the Japanese Spidey title. This is the first of those titles I’ve read and, honestly, I wasn’t impressed with either the story or the artwork. This isn’t a bad issue, but except for the classic reprint, there’s really nothing to get excited about.

Rating: 6/10

What If? — X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1

December 26, 2006

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: What if Xavier’s Second Team Had Survived?
Rating: T+

Meet Vulcan – the world’s greatest superhero!

Writer: David Hine
Pencils: David Yardin
Inks: Kris Justice
Colors: Guru EFX
Letters: Dave Lanphear
Editor: Marc Paniccia
Cover Art: David Yardin
Publisher: Marvel Comics

In the “Real” Marvel Universe, we learned this year that the “New” X-Men who saved the originals from the living island of Krakoa was actually a third team. A second, led by Gabriel Summers (a.k.a. Vulcan) failed to save the originals, and so Professor Xavier wiped memory of their existence from the memories of the others, then got on with the business of summoning up the likes of Nightcrawler, Wolverine and higher sales.

In this “What If?” though, that second team survived, but at a price. The original team, save Cyclops, perished in battle. Vulcan, however, went on to become the greatest hero in the world, changing the scope of mutant/human relations forever. But Vulcan has a secret.

This issue is surprisingly good. David Hine has crafted a very intriguing done-in-one tale of deceit and punishment, but at the same time, has taken the very unusual tack of not having a “What If?” universe turn into a dysopian wasteland. Instead, this world seems to be a pretty good one, where things are a lot more stable and mutually beneficial for humans and mutants than in any other iteration of the Marvel Universe. The price it took to get there is the question – was it too high? The conclusion of this issue is a little drawn out, with a bit too much pontificating about irony, but for the most part, the final reveals work pretty well.

Joining David Hine with a good story is David Yardin with some pretty good art. He’s got a good style that feels very contemporary and meshes quite well with the Deadly Genesis miniseries. Overall, I’d say this issue is the cream of the crop for this year’s “What If?” specials… although I don’t know that it’s good enough to justify an extra dollar price tag for a book with the same production values and page count as the others in this line. What’s up with that?

Rating: 8/10