Tripwire Reviews Marvel’s What If? With Great Power

Alternate Tales Of The Marvel Universe

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows takes a look at Marvel’s What If? With Great Power out now in trade paperback…

What If? With Great Power
Writers: Gerry Conway, Bryan Edward Hill, Carl Potts, Sebastian Girner, Ethan Sacks, Leah Williams
Artists: Diego Olortegui & Walden Wong, Neil Edwards, Giannis Milonogiannis, Juanan Ramirez, Caspar Wijngaard, Michele Bandini and Filipe Andrade
Marvel

Marvel’s What If? has always been an intriguing concept and this trade paperback, published to coincide with the start of Disney Plus’ What If? animated TV show, reprints stories from the 2018 iteration of the comic series.

What If? has always been a fun left of centre version of well-loved Marvel characters and ideas.

The first story here asks what if Flash Thompson rather than Peter Parker became Spider-man and classic Spidey writer Gerry Conway with British comic artist Neil Edwards, channeling Todd McFarlane at times, offer a diverting tale. Thompson is a far more petty and venal character than Parker and he is a hero albeit one motivated by less honourable motives than the real Spider-man.

What If The X-Men written by Bryan Edward Hill and drawn by Neil Edwards and Giannis Milonogiannis is a futuristic what if tale of Marvel’s favourite mutants living in a purely cyberspace world. Hill is a solid modern comic writer and the style shift between a more traditional American approach and the Otomoesque Japanese linework later on actually works quite well. We get to see Professor X and the X-Men in a slightly different light which is quite refreshing.

The next tale, What if Peter Parker Became The Punisher acts as a decent counterpoint to the first story here. Veteran Marvel writer Carl Potts collaborating with artist Juanan Ramirez gives the reader a fast and breezy comic story that offers a classic four-color tale with that inventive What If twist.

What If Marvel Comics Went Metal With Ghost Rider by writer Sebastian Girner and art by Caspar Wijngaard is probably the weakest What If here. Fictitious Nordic metal band Hassenwald take a tour of the Marvel comics offices and the world finds itself turned into a living hell. It doesn’t subvert existing Marvel stories like the others and so it does feel like it doesn’t really fit in here. On the plus side, Wijngaard is a very decent artist so he keeps the action moving along well.

The fourth tale, What If Thor Was Raised By The Frost Giants, written by Ethan Sacks and drawn by Michele Bandini, takes Marvel’s Thunder God and swaps him with his half brother Loki. Bandini, who has drawn Amazing Spider-man before, is the perfect foil for Sacks’ script and the action moves along at a decent clip.

The final story is What If Majik Became The Sorceror Supreme? written by Leah Williams and drawn by Filipe Andrade. Williams weaves an entertaining magical story and Andrade has a very likeable line to his work. It also manages to tread the right line between light and dark in the story.

So there you have it. What If? With Great Power is a trade paperback which offers a range of mostly entertaining stories which turns a few well-known Marvel characters and scenarios on their head.