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Did Marvel ever collect issues of What If in TPB. Just wondering as I love the concept and series and would like to get more of them?

In the early 90s, Marvel put out a "Best of What If" trade paperback. The bad news though is that it only collected issues from the original 1970s What If series and not the 1989 series that most people remember.

 

The TPB is OOP (Out of Print) and pretty rare do to the fact that Marvel gave the trade a pretty low print run.

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Guest SpiderFan

I've heard rumor's for awhile now that Marvel would put out an Essential What If? but it's yet to be confirmed. I'd love if they did though, especially of the 70's series. That one was much better then the '89 one IMO.

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At Wizard World East, they said that they've been making plans for a new What-If series.

 

Check out Spider-Man's Tangled Web if you like the What If ish style stories.

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If you're looking for What If's, then comicons and quarter bins are probably your best friend.

 

Exiles is basically What If? combined with Sliders, so I'd recommend giving that a try as well.

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I'd love if they did though, especially of the 70's series. That one was much better then the '89 one IMO.

The 1970s What If series was utter and complete unreadable shit. The 1989 series (or at least the first fifty issues of the 1989 series) was much much much better and much much more readable.....

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I'd love if they did though, especially of the 70's series.  That one was much better then the '89 one IMO.

The 1970s What If series was utter and complete unreadable shit. The 1989 series (or at least the first fifty issues of the 1989 series) was much much much better and much much more readable.....

I think the cutoff for readable issues of the 1989 series was the end of the five-part TimeQuest storyline in issue 39, "What If The Watcher Saved The Universe?"

 

That particular set of stories are the last ones I remember being really good, as the series went downhill VERY soon afterwards. The only decent one I remember after that was the "What If War Machine Had Not Destroyed Living Laser?" issue.

 

 

 

Of the 89 series, I'd say some of the best issues are "What If the Alien Costume Posessed Spider-Man?", "What If the X-Men Had Stayed in Asgard?", and "What If Wolverine Was Lord of the Vampires?". Some of the two-parters, such as Spider-Man choosing Black Cat instead of Mary Jane, were good as well.

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I've nearly cleared my local store out of the back issues, which is why is why i'm looking for collected issues. Some I ggot were pretty good (WI the Avengers lost Operation Galactic Storm) to utter shit (What if The Richards second child had lived). I'm also quite partial to WI the Marvel superheros lost Atalantis Attacks, since it ended on quite a downer, as they usually pull away from having things end in complete defeats

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A personal favorite of mine is "What if Peter and Mary Jane had raised their baby?” which lead into the surprisingly good spin off series "spider-girl".

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I'd love if they did though, especially of the 70's series.  That one was much better then the '89 one IMO.

The 1970s What If series was utter and complete unreadable shit. The 1989 series (or at least the first fifty issues of the 1989 series) was much much much better and much much more readable.....

I think the cutoff for readable issues of the 1989 series was the end of the five-part TimeQuest storyline in issue 39, "What If The Watcher Saved The Universe?"

I think the story was actually called "TimeQuake", and to me was most memorable for the Time Authority (or whatever they were called), all of whom looked like Mark Gruenwald...

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At Wizard World East, they said that they've been making plans for a new What-If series.

Indeed.

 

I've heard that it may debut in December.

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Guest SpiderFan
I'd love if they did though, especially of the 70's series.  That one was much better then the '89 one IMO.

The 1970s What If series was utter and complete unreadable shit. The 1989 series (or at least the first fifty issues of the 1989 series) was much much much better and much much more readable.....

Eh, some of the old issues are decent. I've only read a handful of them, with all of them being based on Spider-man. What If? Volume 1 #7 (What if someone else got bit by the spider?), What If Volume 1, #19 (What if Spider-Man Stopped the Burglar?), and What If? Volume 1, #46 (What if Uncle Ben had Lived - and Aunt May had died?) are all fun reads. I'm a huge Spider-man mark though, so that may have something to do with my enjoyment of these issues.

 

Admittinly, I've only read the later issues of Volume 2, though, and those sucked. I'll try to track down some of the earlier issues, since you guys say they're good.

 

Speaking of Altenate Universe's, how are Earth X, Paradise X and Universe X? My comic shop has them on sale and I'm thinking of picking them up, but I've heard mixed reviews.

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Speaking of Altenate Universe's, how are Earth X, Paradise X and Universe X? My comic shop has them on sale and I'm thinking of picking them up, but I've heard mixed reviews.

Earth X is readable but the rest of the trilogy sucks donkey balls.

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I'd love if they did though, especially of the 70's series.  That one was much better then the '89 one IMO.

The 1970s What If series was utter and complete unreadable shit. The 1989 series (or at least the first fifty issues of the 1989 series) was much much much better and much much more readable.....

Eh, some of the old issues are decent. I've only read a handful of them, with all of them being based on Spider-man. What If? Volume 1 #7 (What if someone else got bit by the spider?), What If Volume 1, #19 (What if Spider-Man Stopped the Burglar?), and What If? Volume 1, #46 (What if Uncle Ben had Lived - and Aunt May had died?) are all fun reads. I'm a huge Spider-man mark though, so that may have something to do with my enjoyment of these issues.

 

Admittinly, I've only read the later issues of Volume 2, though, and those sucked. I'll try to track down some of the earlier issues, since you guys say they're good.

 

Speaking of Altenate Universe's, how are Earth X, Paradise X and Universe X? My comic shop has them on sale and I'm thinking of picking them up, but I've heard mixed reviews.

Try using Bit Torrent. There's an archive of What If issues on one of the sites that has the entire run of the 1989 series.

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