What If...? 6

What If the X-Men had Lost Inferno?

What If...? #6
Writer: Danny Fingeroth
Penciler: Ron Lim
Inker: Keith Williams
Colorist: Tom Vincent
Letterer: Gary Fields
Editor: Craig Anderson
Ed-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

In this alternate reality S'ym and the Soul Sword were returned to Limbo simultaneously and so he was able to grab the sword and return to Earth where he joined with Madelyne Pryor and slew all the X-Men and X-Factor, bar Wolverine whose demonic form was kept as a pet, then sacrificed Nathan Christopher to open the dimensional rift permanently with the whole of Earth invaded. Dr Strange organises a group of sorcerers including his arch enemy Baron Mordo supported by surviving heroes. Wolverine, the Hulk and S'ym lead an attack from which only Strange, Mordo, Shadowcat and the Human Torch escape. S'ym plans to expand Limbo across the Multiverse and then will be powerful enough to resist the Living Tribunal when it shows up to judge the Earth but time is not on his side. Dr Strange discovers the mannequin of Rachel Summers and frees her. Strange plans to use the Phoenix Force to purge the Earth of all demonic influence though it will kill many humans as well. S'ym, Madelyne and Wolverine attack with Mordo revealing he has betrayed the resistors. In a brutal fight all bar Strange and Rachel are killed with multiple betrayals. Rachel summons Phoenix who engulfs the planet just as the Living Tribunal arrives and allows Earth to live. The survivors of humanity are reduced to starting again in caves. Nine months later Alicia Storm gives birth and names her son after Johnny.

Just eight months after Inferno had ended came this alternative take (don't be fooled by the cover dates; this was slap bang in the middle of Marvel bringing them closer to publication). It's a good idea in principle but it falls into the traps of a lot of What If...? stories that feel the need to show a whole legion of characters from across the Marvel universe even if not strictly necessary - Reed Richards and Dr Doom working together for S'ym is the most obvious needless appearance - and taking a bit too long to explain both the events in the regular universe and the point of divergence in detail that limits the amount of space to tell the story in which is thus limited to Dr Strange rushing around trying to find the magic or power that will stop the demons. Also far too many What If...? stories go for gratuitous killing of popular characters in general fight scenes with many deaths failing to advance the plot. Here at least some of the deaths drive the plot such as Shadowcat's.

The general premise of What If...? is that one thing is changed though here there are actually two changes from regular continuity. The big one is S'ym getting the Soul Sword and returning to Earth in time but other details include Alicia Storm being pregnant when she was not in the regular reality (nor was she actually human but that is a later retcon). Also Dr Druid is shown amongst the group of sorcerers when at this point he was lost in the time vortex though it doesn't affect the flow of the story.

Overall this What If...? focused on characters but doesn't really tell us very much about them through placing them in alternative circumstances. Wolverine is shocked out of his demonic nature when he kills Kitty but his friendships with a succession of young girls have done much to provide the innocent contrast and this reveals little. Dr Strange is shown battling the Inferno demons when he was otherwise engaged during his own series (including being temporarily in the body of a female rat) but again we get little insight into him. Baron Mordo, S'ym and Madelyne Pryor all turn on their respective allies but none was exactly trustworthy. The Human Torch dies heroically but again that's not surprising for the Fantastic Four. When the biggest "revelation" in an issue is that a character then assumed to be human is human and giving birth to a human instead of being a Skrull in disguise who lays eggs and all that is only a revelation because of a retcon a few years later then the story has a problem. This was the very early days of the second series of What If...? and it still hadn't found a workable formula to explain the moment in history that is changed and how, build an altered world, and tell a strong story all in 28 pages. All this really offers is just the chance to see Dr Strange fighting demons and little more of interest.