What If...? 36 - Timequake

What If the Cosmic Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy had been defeated by Korvac?

What If...? #36
Writers: Roy Thomas & R.J.M. Lofficer
Penciler: Dave Hoover
Inkers: Ian Akin & Michael Bair
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Renée Witterstaetter
Editor: Craig Anderson
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Time Keepers recap their plan to the Watcher who is secretly aware of the involvement of the being known as the Whisperer. The second nexus is found in a timeline where the Vision took over Earth's computers to become a benevolent dictator and by the 22nd century had led the Earth to galactic victory over the Kree and Skrulls. The Vision himself is the Nexus and the Time Keepers thus divert this reality's Korvac on his journey back in time from the 31st century to arrive in the 22nd. Korvac is intrigued by the Vision and pops back to his own time where he captures and mesmerises the Guardians of the Galaxy. Returning to the 22nd century they capture the Cosmic Avengers - consisting of Commander America, Jhen the Gammazon, Irondroid and Tachyon Torch, generally descendants or genetic constructs of the 20th century heroes - and use them to infiltrate the moon Deimos where Korvac interfaces to battle the Vision in Cyberspace whilst the two super teams secure the complex there. One of the Vision's sub-routines contacts Earth and a ship is dispatched containing Captain John Fury Jr and the Space Commandos. On Deimos they battle the heroes when Fury is briefly visited by the Whisperer who tells him that if Korvac wins the result will be intergalactic destruction. Fury uses an ultrasound setting on his gun to release first the Cosmic Avengers and then the Guardians from Korvac's control. They discover that Korvac has beaten and destroyed the Vision and now controls all the galaxy's computer systems. Whilst the others battle endless robots Yondu has an idea and takes Irondroid to Korvac's physical form where Irondroid duplicates and reverse Korvac's mental patterns to transmit a cancelling wave into the system destroying Korvac. However the Vision is dead. The Time Keepers tell the Watcher that now the Nexus is gone and the timeline is unlikely to sustain itself for long and turn their attention to the next timeline. Meanwhile the Whisperer takes away Irondroid.

This second chapter is a sequel to a less well-known What If...? story from issue #19 of the second series. Little of that story is recapped with the detail of the Vision having become a supercomputer dictator generally sufficient but one consequence is that the Cosmic Avengers are not introduced too well and it's only through dropped dialogue moments that it becomes clear what their various relationships to the present day heroes are. The Guardians of the Galaxy are also not detailed too well until their fight with the Avengers towards the end of the issue and when characters have been mesmerised from their first appearance it's hard to tell what they would normally be like.

This story is inadvertently extremely of its time with the battle between the Vision and Korvac taking place in "cyberspace" and reflects the absolute obsession with virtual reality in so much science fiction and fantasy in the early 1990s. At least here the Vision tells Korvac it is primarily a simulation in their minds' eyes but this bit really dates the story which is surprising for something already set in a different time. But it's also curious that for all the advanced technology Korvac still has to interface with the Vision through plugging into a physical socket.

Also awkward to understand is the precise relationship between this timeline and the future from which Korvac comes. A lot of time travel stories in Marvel have complicated things further by having the different time zones be alternate realities with no direct relationship to each other but this is rarely explained and so it's not clear how Korvac's time can be the future of both this timeline and the regular timeline or just what the impact of the Time Keepers' intervention in diverting him is. Nor is there any real exploration of the consequences of the Vision's death. Though John Fury Sr talks about the human race taking back control of things and the Watcher suggests the timeline will survive, nothing is shown of what happens when a super computer running everything is suddenly no longer there. That's a pretty big blow for such a society.

Instead this issue ultimately boils down to multiple fights that are all the consequence of the Time Keepers interfering to send Korvac into the era. There's no real exploration of the implications of the alternative timeline or to do much with the Cosmic Avengers. This issues feels rather decompressed to cover up a thin set of events and just an excuse to have an unusual combination of characters fighting. Timequake continues to disappoint.