Omitted material: Marvel Team-Up 112

It’s time for yet another side step to take an issue featuring guest stars whom Marvel no longer holds the rights for. Today it's the turn of Marvel Team-Up #112 which follows directly on from issue #111, which has been reprinted in Essential Defenders volume 5. It features a team-up between Spider-Man and King Kull, another character from the works of Robert E. Howard. The issue is by the-then regular team of writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Herb Trimpe.

The previous issue saw Spider-Man learn that one of the many races who once inhabited Earth were the Spider-People, whom Spidey's physiognomy resembles, enemies of the Serpent Race. Spider-Man was bitten by one of the Serpent Race and is facing dire consequences...

Spider-Man is facing death from the Serpent Race's venom, which is fatal to the Spider-People and those who resemble them. Unfortunately there is no knowledge of a cure in the present day, but in the distant past the Serpent Race was vanquished by King Kull, ruler of Valusia, whose scholars studied their enemy's tricks, so Dr. Strange sends Spider-Man's astral form backwards in time to Kull's age. Spidey can only interact with others by possessing their bodies, a bit like DC's Deadman except that Spider-Man brings his wall crawling powers with him. He saves Kull's life from an assassination and in return a grateful Kull sets out to obtain the cure from an evil shaman called Ju-Lak. This set-up takes up the first half of the issue and the remainder sees Kull lead his forces to battle with Ju-Lak's tribe, with Spider-Man fighting as well. Eventually they are all captured and Ju-Lak challenges Kull to a duel - but as Kull has the aid of a tiger spirit, Ju-Lak forces Spidey's spirit to aid him. But at the crucial moment Spidey restrains Ju-Lak, allowing Kull to triumph. The cure is obtained and Spidey drinks it via Kull's body. Then Spidey's spirit returns to the present day where he wakes up cured but has no memory of his journey to the past, as Dr. Strange wants to protect his sanity.

This is an issue where a lot happens, primarily because of the extended journey needed to bring the two heroes together. I'm not quite sure how an astral spirit is able to carry the physical cure back through time and surely the formula for the cure would be more useful in case it's needed again? Kull is not a character I'm familiar with but he seems a very straightforward character to write, the epitome of a noble leader who leads from the front and will take any risk to reward those who aid him - a characterisation that can be found in many an era but not one to get especially excited about. This is very much a small-scale encounter between the two heroes rather than any wider exploration of the ancient history of the Marvel Universe, in particular a further look at any connections between Spider-Man and the Spider-People. Perhaps that's for the best as it avoids exploring the possibility that there's rather more to Spider-Man's origin than the seemingly accidental encounter with a radioactive spider, and that's something that would need more space for exploration than an issue of Mavel Team-Up. Instead the focus is on action and rewards. And once again the story ends with Spider-Man having lost his memory of the events, thus bringing the tale close to a reset switch. All that said the dialogue and art are both good for their era and overall the issue manages to pack in a lot. It may have its holes and feel more like a Defenders style story than a Spider-Man one, but that's the beauty of Team-Up and it's an above average effort.

Sampling Two-Gun Kid 60

It's time for another look at some of a long running series that is are unrepresented in the Essentials.

As with many of Marvel's non-superhero titles, Two-Gun Kid hasn't had many reprints in the modern age. Things were different in the 1960s and 1970s when Marvel's Western titles carried many reprints and some stories were printed more than twice. But in more recent years the issue that's had the best reprint is issue #60, with all three stories reprinted in issue #15 of the Marvel Milestones series in 2006. Individual stories from the issue have popped up in Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby volume 2, which does as it says on the tin, and Gunslingers #1, a reprint one-shot from 2000 that contained several Marvel Western stories.

Two-Gun Kid #60 contains three stories, all scripted by Stan Lee. The two featuring the Kid are drawn by Jack Kirby and the non-Kid tale is drawn by Don Heck. Issue #60 was in fact the launch of the third incarnation of the title and the second character to hold the name. The original Two-Gun Kid was the first big name Marvel Western hero, though at a glance the outlaw Clay Harder in a dark suit is more the forerunner of the second Rawhide Kid than of the second Two-Gun Kid. The title was launched in 1948 and lasted ten issues with the character carrying on elsewhere and then regaining his own title in 1953, resuming the numbering from issue #11. The series lasted until early 1961. Then in late 1962 it was revived but with a completely new character in the title role.

The original character is briefly acknowledged here when Matt Hawk adopts the name, stating "Back east I remember reading about a fictitious gun-fighter named the Two Gun-Kid! I don't know what ever happened to him, but I think I'll borrow the name!" It's a rare case of Marvel explicitly retconning away a character in order to introduce a successor, and doing so in much the same way that DC retconned away the original Flash. The original Two-Gun Kid would later suffer the further indignity of having some of his adventures modified and reprinted as tales of his successor. Of course it should be fairly easy to reinstate him in continuity by simply establishing the stories Matt Hawk as having actually been accounts of a true character. But for all the claims that Marvel has traditionally not gone in for the kind of reboots associated with DC, this stands as evidence that they too have explicitly swept away continuity and characters when needs be.

As for the issue itself, the two stories quickly establish the set-up with some concepts that pop up again in other Silver Age titles. The main character is a young lawyer called Matt, who gets picked on by bullies from the very start of the story, whose main guiding force is a father figure called Ben. The hero is attracted to a young professional woman but she dislikes his costumed identity because of the circumstances of her brother's death. You can see elements that would be reused for both Spider-Man and Daredevil, but also the Rawhide Kid learnt his skills from a father figure called Ben (and that very issue is included in the Marvel Milestones reprint). Matt Hawk is truly an outsider, a lawyer from the eastern United States who has arrived in the small town of Tombstone in Texas and finds a lawless environment where few need his legal skills. He also quickly learns he needs to handle a gun and is trained in all the skills by Ben Dancer in just eight panels. Captions tells us this took months but Matt's relations with the Carter family have barely changed in the interim. As protection Matt adopts a costumed identity and accepts a horse called Thunder. He soon takes down a gang of robbers and demonstrates his incredible shooting skills. However he lets one robber go as Clem Carter is the stepbrother of Nancy, the local school teacher whom Matt is fond of and doesn't want to give any heartbreak.

This initial thirteen page story seems to have set up all the basics of the hero, his skills, his horse, his romantic interest and a potentially recurring foe that he can't bring himself to dispose of. However in the second story Clem and another gang steal some money, only for Clem to die in an argument about how to share it out. But when Matt returns to town he finds the townsfolk believe the Two-Gun Kid was the killer and Nancy hates him for it. Matt is scared to break her heart again with the truth about either his identity or her brother. It provides a point for ongoing tension that merely fighting her brother wouldn't, but it feels a rather sudden development when there was potential to expand the enmity first.

The middle story is a non-Kid tale of the West, telling of a tribe of Native Americans being driven to a war they can't win by an ambitious medicine man whilst the chief's son counsels peace and is exiled for it. It's a nice little piece focusing on the futility of conflict, the ambitions of the hawk and the true bravery of the dove in resisting calls for war. It may contain some of the old stereotypes but in the space available it manages to present the Navajo tribe as sophisticated and complex rather than a bunch of unthinking savages.

Overall the Two-Gun Kid represents an interesting of the Western and costumed hero genres. It is no coincidence that this approach was launched in the same period as the ongoing Thor, Ant-Man and solo Human Torch strips and the first attempt at Spider-Man. This issue isn't the most sophisticated of stories but then quite a few heroes' first issues aren't that spectacular. It would certainly be interesting to see more of the series to show how it developed.

Sampling Millie the Model 100

Some long running series are unrepresented in the Essentials. From time to time I'll take a look at another modern reprint of some of the series.

In recent decades Millie the Model has largely languished in obscurity. There's been the odd appearance in various other titles and a couple of short series that have updated her in one way or another, but nothing's really lasted. At the same time her original stories have been almost completely untouched by reprints.

Despite the Millie the Model series lasting 207 issues plus a dozen annuals over twenty-eight years and spawning multiple spin-offs, I was only able to find one issue that's had any modern reprints. And it's appeared no less than four times in the last decade. Issue #100 was reprinted in issue #16 of the Marvel Milestones series back in 2006. That in turn was then reprinted in the Models, Inc. collected edition in 2010. Meanwhile the original issue was also reprinted in the Women of Marvel Omnibus edition in 2011 and it also seems to be the only issue available digitally. It's a pity that the same issue has been used so often but that may indicate the rest of Millie's tales need remastering before they can be reprinted.

So it's to issue #100 we turn, which is cover-dated January 1961. Nearly all the stories are signed by Stan Lee but artist Stan Goldberg is uncredited. There are six stories, a reminder of an earlier era of comics when there were many more stories in an issue. Also there was less concern about continuity. This is seen with the first tale "How Millie And Chili Met..." which also retells how Millie came to work for the Hanover modelling agency. Over the years this story would be told several times - and the details could vary. So here Millie was a typist until she was sent to the agency and Howard Hanover talked her into modelling. In contrast there's another version where she was a country girl who dreamed of being a model and came to the city to pursue that goal. Just as DC readers didn't stop to ask about the different versions of Superman's childhood or how Aquaman got his powers, I doubt Marvel readers were yet taking note and comparing.

"You, Too, Can Be a Model!" sees Millie visit a modelling school to give a talk and get caught in a comedy of mistaken identity. "Movie Madness!" is a two-page gag about none of the agency's models being suitable to appear in a movie - of the life of Millie the Model! "Girl Talk!" is another quickie as Millie and Toni discuss Chili. "A Kiss for a Miss!" sees Millie and boyfriend Clicker on a park bench and kissing. "Who'll Go On the Show??" is a tale with a moral as the girls await a  producer coming to pick a model to go on TV, with the discovery the young man also visiting is the producer's son.

With no story lasting more than five pages this is really just a collection of extended gags and the characters are frequently caricatures - Chili is especially bitchy whilst Millie is written as rather a ditz wandering through success by accident instead of the confident young career woman she has been on other occasions. In general the comedy is just too telegraphed and lightweight. The cartoony style does not help either.

This issue includes a text story entitled "Summer Vacation". This features completely one-off characters and here tells of a schoolgirl working a summer job and finding a new boyfriend. As also seen with Rawhide Kid, these text stories seem to have been included purely to qualify a comic as a particular status of periodical for one reason or another, and although usually fitting the series's genre they don't seem to have gone further. Maybe they were reprints or written for a general pile to be shoved in wherever.

One of the notable features of the Millie titles was the way readers could send in designs for fashions and/or hairdos and these would either be redrawn for standalone features or even used in the stories in a sign of reader interaction beyond just sending in letters. (This practice would also be used on the Patsy Walker titles.) The stories in this issues include contributions from readers as follows:

• "How Millie And Chili Met..." by Anita Marie Carter, Catherine Studer, Karen Stevenson, Shirley McClain and Linda Zacharias.
• "You, Too, Can Be a Model!" by Molly Slocum, Susan Harrison, Donna Elam, Marlene Baron and Glenda Butcher.
• "Movie Madness!" by Jean Montgomery, Pedi Duggan and Piper Ann Pickrell.
• "Girl Talk!" by Shelley Simpson, Pat Gibbs, Oliva Maniguez, Linda Silver, Marcia Allen and Judy Sorter.
• "A Kiss for a Miss!" by Melvin Stewart.
• "Who'll Go On the Show??" by Rita Rys, Ellen Gutknecht, Willma Slone, Jenny Currie, Pat Henderson, Linda Franklin and Pia Westerberg.

The feature pages include:

• "When Millie gets Married" featuring a wedding dress designed by readers Cynthia & Mary Davis.
• "Millie's Fun Page" featuring designs by readers Lucille Caso and Barbara Trock.
• "Millie's Fashion Pin-Up" featuring designs by readers Sue Paulk, Diane Spyinkowski, Bonnie Gail Seymour, Nancy Balerud and Gay Goodenough.
• "Millie's Cartoon Cut-Out" featuring designs by reader Kathy Foreman.

It's a sign of how even before the Fantastic Four Marvel was going out of its way to make readers feel more involved than even just the letters page would allow. The prospect of seeing one's own designs in print must have spurred some creativity and I wonder if there are any fashion designers or hair stylists who started out in the pages of Millie the Model?

In general this issue is a real disappointment. It's just a collection of jokes, some of them distinctly unfunny, with the lead characters poorly portrayed. Unfortunately if cover galleries are anything to go by it's probably representative of the majority of Millie's history but I strongly wish one of the "soap opera" issues from the mid 1960s was also available that could show the characters in a much better light.

Missing Essentials

At the moment the future of the Essential series seems uncertain after no new volume has so far been announced for next year. We've had lengthy gaps before so let's wait and see what the situation is. However there are still plenty I haven't reviewed yet so this blog will just keep going.

But what other series could and should be given at least a first volume? There are a good number of series not yet touched. Some are limited by various rights issues, others by problems of reproduction. But many series should be able to avoid those problems. Here's are seven series that could do with at least a first volume:


By far the most obvious omission is Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Originally launched in Strange Tales #135, the strip ran for the last thirty-four issues of that series and then in the great 1968 Marvel expansion it was given its own title which lasted for another fifteen issues. The whole run has been collected in three Masterworks editions and there are a few individual trade paperbacks. But it's amazing that it's never been touched by the Essentials, especially given Fury's current high profile in the various Marvel movies and the ongoing TV series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.



Then there's the Two-Gun Kid. The original Kid was the first of Marvel's western heroes with his own ongoing title in the 1940s & 1950s; however when the title was revived and revamped in 1962 the lead character was replaced, with the original being retconned away as being merely the star of a series of dime novels that the new Kid had read and been inspired by. (To add to the ignominy some of the original Kid's adventures were later modified and reprinted as though they starred the new Kid.) The main Marvel rival to the Rawhide Kid for popularity in this genre, it would be a pity to leave his adventures languishing.



Millie the Model. Since Marvel have delved into their Western and war comics, both genres that have heaily declined in relative popularity since their heyday, why not shine a bit of light on their soap and comedy offerings? Millie has unfortunately been the butt of many a joke over the last few decades but in her day she had an incredibly long lasting title that ran from the 1940s until the 1970s, surviving even when the Timely/Atlas/Marvel superheroes didn't. A collected edition would allow modern audiences a chance to see what her series was really like. After all, it worked for Dazzler.



Patsy Walker. Before she was Hellcat (hey that might work as a title), Patsy starred in her own teen soap titles that were Marvel's answer to the various Archie series, including both her original one and Patsy and Heddy. The exact relationship of these series with her later appearances varies a bit depending upon the writer (some treat them as her early years; others as another case of fiction-within-fiction, here written by her mother and actually a source of embarrassment to Patsy), but whatever the position in continuity a reprint of Patsy's stories would show one of the major Defenders in a very different environment.



The Champions. This is one of a number of series that have instead been collected in the colour Classic line though the volumes are now out of print, with some now commanding very high prices on the second seller market, and a Essential volume would help to bring the various series back to accessibility (and actually provide an answer to the question "Do you know how hard it is to find supervillains in Los Angeles?"). This odd team was reportedly largely constructed by ticking boxes and was contemporary to the All-New All Different X-Men revival. Based in Los Angeles, it consisted of the Black Widow, the Angel, Hercules, Iceman, Ghost Rider and, later on, Darkstar. They made their way through seventeen issues and spilled over into a few other series. It should be possible to assemble a slightly slender Essential volume.



The Invaders. This 1970s series took Marvel's biggest Golden Age heroes and teamed them together in a series set during the Second World War (their only contemporary teamings as the All-Winners Squad hadn't appeared until 1946). Consisting of Captain America, Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Original Human Torch, plus a number of other heroes both from the time and latter-day creations, the team's creation reflected Roy Thomas's great fondness for the Golden Age and his work to add as much as possible to continuity as possible. The series has previously been collected in Classic volumes, but again many of those volumes are out of print and some are going for extreme prices.



Alpha Flight. Moving into the early 1980s, this series featured a team of Canadian heroes initially created as a one-off group for X-Men where they came to retrieve Wolverine for their government, but they proved successful enough to return multiple times and were eventually spun out into the first of a succession of titles in 1983, initially written and drawn by John Byrne. Coming from Canada, like their creator, they show a very different approach from the more traditional Marvel teams. Some of the earliest issues have been collected in the Classic line and once more suffer the same fate.


Let's hope the next new Essential volume comes soon and at least some of these series get some Essential attention.

Omitted material: What If? Classic volume 7

And now for the final look at the relevant issues from the original What If? series.

#44: "What If Captain America Were Revived Today?", written by Peter Gillis and drawn by Sal Buscema, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 7

Before reading this, I'd heard multiple thing about it. To some it's the greatest Captain America story of all time. To others "this reads more like an anti-Ronald Reagan diatribe than a story". Spider-Man has a partial role in this story as part of a resistance movement and it's a reminder of his basic values of decency and also how compatible he is for team-ups with Captain America.

If this story had been published just one month later it could have had an even more spectacular title - "What If Captain America Were Revived In 1984?" The premise is straight forward - with the original Captain America never having come out of the iceberg, when his replacement from the 1950s was revived in the 1970s there was nothing to challenge him as he emerged as an influential political figure pushing a hard right message that labelled protesters and minority groups as helpers of communism. With the support of shadowy figures in the Committee to Regain America's Principles ("CRAP" - how on earth did that get past the editors?), the 1950s Cap is able to successfully push authoritarian candidates and legislation through, all in the name of putting America right again.

Then in the present day an iceberg containing a man is found floating by a submarine and the man is revived. The captain of the submarine is a veteran of the war who realises this is the true Captain America (many rumours circulate that the other one is an impostor). He is brought home to a New York very different from the one he remembers. The people have accepted "Fear of the unknown, some glib words -- and the American need to believe in a hero". Racist, anti-Semitic armed guides walk the streets of New York in helmets designed after Captain America's cowl. Walls have been built to divide communities, with black Harlem a land of poverty and despair. The press is censored into the token dissent thanks to lip service to free speech but J. Jonah Jameson is using the Daily Bugle crossword puzzles to inform a resistance movement. And that movement contains the likes of Nick Fury, Spider-Man (who wasn't duped thanks to Jonah!) and "Snap" Wilson (the counterpart to Sam Wilson aka the Falcon). Looming soon is the national convention of the "America First Party" and CRAP plans to use it to nominate candidates to completely take over America, and permanently install themselves, shredding the last constitutional rights.

At the convention the real Captain America leads the resistance movement against the fake, and the two images of very different visions of America square off. Inside the convention hall Spider-Man and other resisters take down Cap's allies (the Freedom Five - the other members are the 1950s Bucky, an actress playing the Golden Girl, Hawkeye and the Hangman!) and ensure the cameras keep showing the country what happens as a second revolution rises to tear down the walls. Meanwhile the two Caps trade their philosophies as one dismisses the other's outlook as "War is Peace! Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength!" After defeating the impostor the real Captain America addresses the convention and the country: "I say America is nothing! Without its ideals -- its commitment to the freedom of all men, America is a piece of TRASH! A nation is NOTHING! A flag is a piece of CLOTH!!" He goes on about the need to bring back freedom, to heal the divisions in society and find America once again, but also to not succumb to leader-following. The story ends with a singing of the patriotic song (and peaceful alternative to the US national anthem) "America the Beautiful".

To many outside the US it's often extremely hard to understand its brand of political patriotism and the way the constitution and flag are elevated to almost religious levels. It's very different from the way things are done here where rampant flag waving is normally detached from political affairs and where there isn't really an "idea" of the country and a "British way" to appeal to. Such an approach just isn't the erm British way. So it's harder to relate to some of the core philosophical battles that underpin many Captain America adventures, and this is the ultimate one, pitting the embodiment of one vision of America against another. Also at a distance of nearly thirty years it's harder to immediately recognise parallels with early 1980s American political debate, so it's difficult to tell if the subliminal message of the story is "Don't Re-Elect Ronald Reagan!" However there always seem to be some who absolutely despise the current American President and want him defeated or impeached, and some conspiracy theory or other. Reagan (like Thatcher) did in part come to power after some very turbulent years in which people questioned whether or not the country could still be governed and there were certainly accusations thrown across the political spectrum that well-meaning radicals playing into the hands of shadowy forces. There was certainly a backlash against the protests of the 1960s. So I can well believe those who read into this Orwellian vision a political parallel with where they thought the US was heading in the early 1980s, with the 1950s Cap in the role of Reagan. As a story in its own right it has a particular problem of spanning a rather lengthy timescale, with the result the real Captain America doesn't get revived until halfway through and has limited time to establish himself before the showdown. But it's certainly a compelling tale that is almost 1984 in more ways than one.

Although limited in their roles it's good to see both Spider-Man and Jonah playing key parts in the resistance movement. For all his faults, Jonah is persistently portrayed in the regular universe as both a strong supporter of civil rights and a strong defender of the freedom of the press and it's unsurprising that he would do what he could to help the resistance. And I can see Peter Parker following Jonah's lead in politics, for all the hatred of Spider-Man. We get glimpses of a harder-edged Spider-Man who wears a huge cartridge belt, carries a gun and is willing to gun down a man if Nick Fury orders it. (Remember this was some years before the explosion of hard-edged gun carrying heroes in comics that came in the 1990s.) If there's one hero who the authorities could never relocate or take down other than Cap, it would be Spider-Man. 

#46: "What If Spider-Man's Uncle Ben had Lived?", written by Peter Gillis and drawn by Ron Frenz, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 7

This is yet another alternate take on Spider-Man's origin, with the premise that instead of Uncle Ben it was Aunt May who was killed by the Burglar.

The story briefly retells the events of the fateful night in the regular universe, showing more of what happened inside the house than almost any other telling that I'm aware of. And unfortunately it clashes with at least two other versions of that night, although only one had been told when this story first saw print. Here May was asleep when Ben, awake due to a backache, heard a noise downstairs, went to investigate and was shot dead in the living room. There's no argument where he walked out and got shot in the street (as happened in the 2000s) and equally May doesn't experience the direct horror of seeing her husband shot before her eyes (as first told in Amazing Spider-Man #200). This is the problem when the original story omits what can seem like mere details and no other retelling becomes the complete canonical version.

In this alternate version, Ben lacks the backache and so is asleep when May is awoken by a noise and goes to investigate, getting shot in the process. The story then follows through parallel to the first few years of Amazing but with the twist that with Ben alive the Parkers don't face financial problems, though Peter still takes photographs for the Bugle to supplement his income. Ben soon discovers that Peter is Spider-Man and we get to see the first take on Peter admitting his guilt to his surviving family - and Ben's response is that he feels even more guilty for being asleep when it happened. Ben rapidly becomes actively supportive of both Peter & Spider-Man, standing up to Flash and then Jonah and pulls off a trick that gives the Bugle greater circulation, Spider-Man more publicity and Peter a greater salary. He gets Spider-Man to unmask in front of Jonah.

Again this had never been done before and Jonah's reaction is shock but he soon realises how difficult it is for him to go public. So instead he makes use of Spider-Man to get extra tips on crime and boost circulation. At first this goes well but then Ben suggests to Jonah that Spider-Man should shadow Betty Brant to investigate her brother and this infuriates Peter who had angry confrontations with both men and storms off. Determined to prove them wrong he shadows Betty and saves both her and her brother Bennett in this version, but then angrily tuns on Bennett for his associations with gangsters. Spider-Man briefly withdraws from his life as Peter, staying behind the costume as Spider-Man (again before this was tried in the regular continuity) until he's lured back by Jonah threatening to out his identity. Meanwhile the Green Goblin deduces that Jonah has a hold on Spider-Man, whilst John Jameson returns from space having been infected by spores. When Jonah visits his son in hospital, with a photo team in escort for publicity, the Goblin attacks and kidnaps the publisher. Then John's body grows due to the spores and he storms off to rescue his father. Peter is at first willing to let both Jamesons potentially die, and also almost wishes Ben had died instead of May, but then suddenly snaps to his senses and realises he cannot let another person die because he stood by and did nothing. John defeats the Goblin but he is so enraged he doesn't recognise his father and is about to strike when Spider-Man arrives and confronts him. In the event John is subjected to an electric shock which cures him. Jonah is stunned at the way his son didn't seem to know him, hated him and wanted to hurt him, and Spider-Man notes how these things happen between father and son. The next day the Bugle has written up John as a hero whilst Peter and Ben reconcile.

It's another story with an upbeat ending and it's possible to imagine this as the nucleus for an alternate series of Spider-Man stories in which the character has the burden of responsibility but also a supportive father figure. When first printed Uncle Ben hadn't really been explored much as a character in the regular comics but here we get a portrayal of a man who tries to understand and support his teenage "son" but both can make mistakes leading to anger without meaning to. There are elements of the relationship here that would be used in the 2002 Spider-Man movie. We also get to see how Spider-Man could have developed with a confidante and supportive figure from the outset who tells him to have more pride in himself, and then we get the cycle of Peter's angry break with Ben and reconciliation at the end. And there's the moment where Jonah finds out and his reaction, again done for the first time. Some of the best What If?s are those that really expand our understanding of key characters by showing them in particular circumstances and here Ben truly gets to shine.

And the artwork is incredible. A number of the What If?s appear to have been prepared some time in advance and used on an inventory basis so I don't know where this story slots in order of Ron Frenz's work on Spider-Man, but it came out the same month he began a regular run on Amazing Spider-Man (which we'll come to when Essential Spider-Man volume 12 is released). Even more than his work on Amazing and Marvel Team-Up this work is a strong homage to Ditko's artwork, and makes for a refreshing variation after many years of following John Romita's take on the character. Short of achieving the impossible and getting Ditko to draw the character again, Frenz was the best choice imaginable for such a retelling of those early days.

The other stories in the volume are:

• #40: "What If Dr. Strange had not become Master of the Mystic Arts?"
• #41: "What If Sub-Mariner Had Saved Atlantis from Its... Destiny?"
• #42: "What If the Invisible Girl Had died?"
• #43: "Behold..." (This is just the back-up story)
• #45: "What If the Hulk Went -- Berserk?"
• #47: "What If Loki had found the hammer of Thor?"

Once again excluded due to rights issues are:

• #39: "What If the Mighty Thor Battled Conan the Barbarian?"
• #43: "What If Conan the Barbarian... Were Stranded in the 20th Century?" (Just the lead story)

And after issue #47 that was it for several years. The last letters page promised some future specials in place of regular publication but it was four years before even one of these materialised. Then in 1989 a second series began. Maybe one day we'll see that on the bookshelves.

Omitted material: What If? Classic volume 6

Time for another look at relevant issues from the original What If? series.

#34: "What If?", reprinted in What If? Classic volume 6

This was a special issue made up of many single page stories, or even less, of a humorous bent. Amongst them were the following featuring some aspects relating to Spider-Man:

• "The Difference!!", written and drawn by Fred Hembeck
• "What If Everyone Who'd Ever Been an Avenger Remained an Avenger?", written by Jim Shooter and drawn by Bob Hall
• "What If Marvel Comics and the National Endowment for the Arts Presented Spidey Intellectual Stories", written by Roger Stern and drawn by Al Milgrom
• "What If All the Super Heroes Who Now Live in New York City Moved to Toledo, Ohio?", written and drawn by Bob Budiansky
• "What If Aunt May Became a Super Hero?", written and drawn by Mark Gruenwald
• "What If Obnoxio the Clown Fought Crime?", written and drawn by Alan Kupperberg
• "What If Spider-Man Had Married the Black Widow?", written by Mike Carlin and drawn by Ron Zalme

Some of these were tiny cameos - for instance Spider-Man shows up as part of the hordes of Avengers responding to a summons and crushing Ant-Man in a stampede, and no, I can't remember when Spider-Man had become an Avenger by this point. Everyone in Toledo is a one-panel joke about there being nothing for super-heroes to do there while super-villains destroy Manhattan, and marriage to the Black Widow is another single panel in which she lives up to her name. The Aunt May strip presents single images of three possible identities - Golden Oldie (a name used before her Marvel Team-Up appearance; this one is based on Iron Man), Ant-Aunt (based on Ant-Man) and Auntie Freeze (based on Ice-Man). The Obnoxio strip shows him trying multiple familiar costumes - his Spider-Man attempt fails because he has vertigo.

Fred Hembeck's "The Difference!" explores the distinction between imaginary stories and alternate reality stories - basically the latter take an established event, vary one factor and show the consequences whilst imaginary stories can present a totally absurd scenario with no thought for how it came about. Amongst the examples of imaginary stories are "What If Odin were Peter Parker's Uncle?", "What If Aunt May were Ant-Man?" and "What If Spider-Man married Spider-Woman?" (It's interesting how some concepts keep popping up.) "Spidey Intellectual Stories" is the most substantial story and sees Spidey take out the Mad Thinker who predicted 99.9999999% success but overlooked something. Spider-Man shows up and converse with the Thinker who eventually gets defeated by the logic of love over fear... and the story ends with the Watcher getting bored.

Some of the other stories present glimpses of scenarios that were later either used in the regular comics or in other What If?s including "What If Captain Marvel hadn't died?", "What If Phoenix still lived?" or "What If Elektra had survived?". Readers of the later Alpha Flight Assistant Editors' Month issue may recognise the concept behind "What If the Silver Surfer, White Tiger, Night Rider, Iceman and Moon Knight fought Wendigo in a snowstorm?" and "What If the Black Panther fought the Shroud Master of Darkness in a Coalmine?". The art is a very rare piece by Tom DeFalco. "What If Howard the Duck formed his own super-team?" with other members including Devil Dinosaur, Redwing, Zabu, Emma (a flying ant), Lockjaw, Aragorn and Dragon Man - it's a forerunner of the Pet Avengers. And there's plenty of fun. "What If Alpha Flight talked like T.V. Canadians?" is a reminder that it's not just the British who get hideously misrepresented by US television. And the very last story is "What If will happen when Stan Lee reads this issue?" "'Nuff said!"

This was very much a forerunner to Assistant Editors' Month and a reminder that Marvel can do good comedy. At the time the book was on a bimonthly schedule so it may have annoyed some readers at the time who had to wait another two months for a serious tale. But as one issue in a volume of six it's a fun distraction. The other stories in the volume are:

• #33: "What If Dazzler Had Become the Herald of Galactus?" & "What If Iron Man Was Trapped in the Time of King Arthur?"
• #35: "What If Elektra Had Lived?", ""Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: And Thus Are Born The Cat People!" & "What If Yellowjacket Had Died?"
• #36: "What If the Fantastic Four Had Not Gained Their Super-Powers?" & "What If Nova Had Not Given Up His Powers?"
• #37: "What If the Beast And The Thing Continued To Mutate?" (separate stories) & "What If The Silver Surfer Lost The Power Cosmic?"
• #38: "What If Featuring Daredevil And Captain America Plus The Vision And The Scarlet Witch"

The cover to #38 doesn't actually pose any questions this time. The common theme of the issue is alternate futures in which ageing heroes carry on. The Daredevil story is set in 2013 but there aren't grand predictions of the world of the future beyond the Soviet Union being replaced by a Russian democracy. Concorde may still be flying and now able to fly over the continental US, and the UN may have relocated to Atlanta but otherwise the world hasn't changed much.

Omitted material: What If? Classic volume 5

Another look at issues from the original What If? series.

#30: "What If Spider-Man's Clone Had Survived?", written by Bill Flanagan and drawn by Rich Buckler, & "Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: Moving Day!", written by Peter Gllis and drawn by Ron Wilson, both reprinted in What If? Classic volume 5

Once again we have a non-alternate reality back-up story, telling more of the history of the Marvel Universe and presumably filling in continuity gaps, but frankly it takes up pages needlessly. But as for the main feature...

It's impossible to approach this story without remembering the second Clone Saga from the 1990s. The scenario is thus familiar - Spider-Man fights his clone in battle when an explosion detonates. Afterwards one Spider-Man awakes and assumes he's the real thing. He disposes of the other and heads off to resume his life. But in fact this is the clone.

But there's one major starting difference from the way the story was told in the 1990s. The clone's memories stop short, only lasting until a genetic sample was taken from Peter. Consequently he can only remember as far as the start of his college days and finds much has changed in his life and the world around him. Visually the clone is drawn to resemble the late Ditko era Peter, with Betty Leeds even commenting on his haircut. He tries to make his way through life but soon realises the three year gap in his knowledge will prove fatal, especially after an encounter with the Kingpin. Finally he releases the original from suspended animation and they take down the Kingpin and his thugs. Then back in Peter's apartment the clone considers leaving and taking on a new identity, but the original suggests they instead work together and take advantage of the double situation, agreeing to alternate in both roles to avoid missed classes and dates. "I get the bed -- you get the couch. I get Mary Jane you get Doc Ock!"

I forget how the later Clone Saga precisely covered the point about the clone's memories not going all the way up to the original's, but this take on events is more in line with the original storyline where Gwen Stacey's clone had a shortfall in her memories, shown most vividly by her ignorance of the unexpected change of President in the meantime. It's interesting to see contrast as a Peter Parker from circa Amazing Spider-Man #35 explores the world after issue #149 and discovers how much his relationships with those around him have changed. It's also clear just how difficult it is for him to fit into this newer world because of all the experiences he's missed. At best the clone can be a help to Peter and an alternate hero. This story pretty much showed why the second Clone Saga couldn't work, a decade and a half before it happened.

As a story in its own right, this one is somewhat tame and limited, showing just the first few days after the clone takes over, rather than the approach of several other stories that rush through a more lengthy series of events. The idea of the original and clone Peters timesharing sounds good but could easily lead to tensions, plus as the clone is explicitly established as being about three years younger they may not always be able to convince. The scenario would probably have ended in spinning the clone off to another pair of identities. It also takes the clone rather a long time to realise that he is the clone, especially when confronted with so much change and he keeps assuming he just has partial amnesia. (One minor continuity error is that Betty Brant and Ned Leeds's wedding has already taken place in this reality when in the regular continuity it was still a few issues away.) But on the plus side it shows Spider-Man's investigative skills as he works out ways to discover just where he lives without giving the game away. This isn't the strongest of What If?s but by keeping the scope modest it succeeds in presenting the stating point of a realistic scenario.

Other stories in the volume include:

• #27: "The X-Men Ask: What If Phoenix Had Not Died?" & "Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: Kree Encounter"
• #28: "What If Daredevil Became an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.?", "What If Ghost Rider Were Separated from Johnny Blaze?" & "Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: New Life"
• #29: "What If the Avengers Defeated Everybody?", ""Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: ...The Search for the Great Refuge!" & "What If Sub-Mariner Never Regained His Memory?"
• #31: "What If Wolverine Had Killed the Hulk?" & "What If the Fantastic Four Had Never Been?"
• #32: "What If the Avengers Had Become Pawns Of Korvac?"

Issue #29 is a curiosity as it's an alternate take on an already distorted reality - the world where the Scarlet Centurion persuaded the original Avengers to neutralise all other super-powered beings in the world as seen in Avengers Annual #2. Spider-Man has a tiny cameo as one of the many defeated in the process. Issue #31's Fantastic Four story is based on the Thing angrily rejecting the others and rampaging through New York; the disruption caused results in Peter Parker never attending the famous demonstration and Donald Blake missing his flight to Norway; whilst Bruce Banner and Tony Stark are reassigned from bomb tests in the west and weapons work in the Far East respectively. The result is a world with far fewer heroes.

Omitted material: What If? Classic volume 4

It's time for another look at some of the Spider-Man related issues of What If?

#21: "What If the Invisible Girl had Married the Sub Mariner?", written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Gene Colan, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 4

This was a sequel to issue #1's "What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four?". Following the departure of the Invisible Girl in that issue, the team has reverted to the name "Fantastic Four". However Spider-Man's approach is still very independent and early on in the story matters come to a head after the team defeats the Super Skrull. Following an argument Spider-Man resigns and swings off, leaving the story completely. Perhaps it's a sign that Spider-Man just can't be a team player, no matter how favourable the circumstances, or that the Fantastic Four just aren't good at accepting newcomers (though both these points would be challenged in later years).

The rest of the story is an alternate Fantastic Four tale as the remains of the team come to terms with the Invisible Girl's departure. It's a tale of anger and revenge that sees Mr Fantastic nearly wipe out the entire population of Atlantis in his attempt to reclaim her. It's quite a downbeat story that suggests Mr Fantastic has serious issues but it's not a Spider-Man tale in any way. On its own this can be ignored.

#23: "What If the Hulk Had Become a Barbarian?", written by Peter Gillis and drawn by Herb Trimpe,
"Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: The First Celestial Host!" written by Mark Gruenwald and drawn by Ron Wilson
&
"What if Aunt May Instead of Her Nephew Peter Had Been Bitten By That Radioactive Spider?" written by Steve Skeates and drawn by Alan Kupperberg, all reprinted in What If? Classic volume 4

The lead story is another non-Spider-Man one so I won't cover it here. The second tale isn't even an alternate reality but rather the first part of a multi-part origin of the races the Deviants and the Eternals. But it's the third tale of interest to this post. We get another take on the radioactive spider biting someone else, though this time it's played for laughs and Peter never retrieves the dead spider or (as far as we know) eventually become Spider-Man. Aunt May adopts a costume which looks surprisingly like a version of Super-Gran's costume years before the latter hit the TV screens, albeit with the familiar red & blue design and a mask. As a weapon she uses her pastry decorator loaded with special dough and gets into a fight with Leap-Frog. She finally defeats him in her own backyard but not before Peter sees them and faints. As he recovers a now uncostumed Aunt May wonders if she can fairly divide her time between her responsibilities to her nephew and fighting crime.

This is another tale played primarily for laughs and doesn't offer a great deal beyond showing that Aunt May is tougher than we've often assumed (when this was first printed, it wasn't long since her last major round of heart attacks in the regular Amazing Spider-Man). It's either fun or irritating, I like it for its wackiness.


#24: "What if Spider-Man had Rescued Gwen Stacy?", written by Tony Isabella and drawn by Gil Kane
&
"Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: The First Eternals!" written by Ralph Macchio and drawn by Rich Buckler, both reprinted in What If? Classic volume 5

The (Spidey-less) back-up story is more of the history of a then-new Marvel race, and frankly seems to have been run in What If? purely because it was the only available outlet to tackle some obscure continuity. However it's only five pages and this issue saw the page count for the series increased so it doesn't detract from the main feature.

Outside of anything to do with the origin, Gwen Stacy living is by far the most obvious and demanded of all the potential Spider-What If?s. As an added bonus it's drawn by the original artist so has the exact visual feel of Amazing Spider-Man c1973. However the writer is someone different and I'm unconvinced that this is how the series would have proceeded had it been decided that Gwen was to live.

This story sees Peter save Gwen from the Green Goblin, and on the age-old "What killed Gwen?" question, this story takes both sides. The opening few pages are set in the regular timeline and feature Peter remembering Gwen at the site of the bridge and commenting "I hadn't considered what the shock of that sudden fall could do to someone without my own spider-strength" (and there are no sound effects). However the alternate tale is based around her surviving that very fall when Spider-Man jumps after her and uses his own body to cushion the impact against the water. My best guess is that in 1980 Marvel truly didn't want to explicitly say it was the whiplash from being snatched by the webbing but was aware of their past statements on the matter.

Spidey has saved Gwen but in the process she discovers his identity. And rather than running screaming at her boyfriend being her father's murderer, she instead lets him speak then believes & forgives him. Even in 1980 the regular continuity was still reluctant to have any of Peter's girlfriends actually learn his secret, but this is a realistic take on how such a scenario could have played out. The two get engaged but first Spidey has to wrap up the Goblin. This is the less realistic part as first the Goblin reverts to his "I wanna be a crimelord and I'll do it by defeating Spider-Man" approach which hadn't been seen since Amazing #27 (although the Bart Hamilton Goblin did do a bit of this) and then we get yet another almost magic cure for his insanity when the sight of Harry standing up to Spider-Man to defend his father causes the old man to instantly be cured. Well okay this spins off an era when the Goblin persona had regularly been suppressed with equally silly methods, but it just doesn't ring true. The rest of the story sees Peter and Gwen's wedding day (organised amazingly quickly when you consider that Ned Leeds and Betty Brant took over a hundred issues to get from proposal to the big day) but suddenly Jonah bursts in, having been mailed proof that Peter is Spider-Man by the Goblin before he was cured. Once again Aunt May falls victim to stereotype "My Peter? That awful Spider-Man? It can't be! It just can't b... Uunnhh..." and collapses with a heart attack. Okay Peter spent years worrying that this would happen, but in reality two separate writers would go on to show Aunt May knowing the secret without an immediate collapse. To save her Peter bursts out a window as Jonah proudly produces the frontpage of the Daily Bugle with the revelation. Robbie resigns in disgust and leads Gwen away to first get help for May and then get the truth about Peter out there. The story ends with Peter stuck on a rooftop with neither costume nor webshooters, wondering if he's going to be hunted down or become the menace Jonah always claimed he was...

This whole ending brings a mixed reaction from me. It is true that Gerry Conway has stated several times that he felt if Gwen lived it was inevitable she and Peter would marry, but I don't think the series would have gone down that route quite so quickly. It's never made clear just what the actual proof Jonah receives is, nor why he doesn't subject it to any kind of test before rushing a potentially libellous headline into print. However Peter's reaction is more believable, hot-headedly showing off his strength rather than denouncing the accusation as lies and talking his way out. What If?s often end on a downbeat moment rather than show a scenario that the regular comic could have come to, but I think this one could have been made an exception to give Peter and Gwen the alternate happy ending they deserved.


The other tales in the fourth volume are:

• #22: "What If Dr. Doom Had Become a Hero?"
• #25: "What If Thor and the Avengers Battled the Gods?" & "Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: The First Uni-Mind!"
• #26: "What If Captain America Had Been Elected President?", "What If The Man-Thing Had Regained Ted Sallis' Brain?" & "Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe: Outpost on Uranus"

Omitted material: Marvel Team-Up 79

Once more it's time for a diversion to look at an issue where Marvel no longer have the rights to publish the guest star. This time it's Marvel Team-Up #79, in which Spider-Man teams up with Red Sonja, who is now licensed to Dynamite Entertainment. The issue has had a few reprints over the years – whilst Marvel still held the rights they included it in Mighty Marvel Team-Up Thrillers, a 1983 trade paperback, then in Marvel Tales #208. More recently in 2007 Marvel teamed up with Dynamite to produce a special Spider-Man/Red Sonja limited series that serves as a sequel to this story and the trade paperback published the following year includes the Team-Up issue as well.

Red Sonja herself is a sword-wielding hero from the Hyborian Age, a fictional era thousands of years ago in which many sword and sorcery tales take place, best associated with Conan the Barbarian. This issue is by the-then regular Team-Up team of Chris Claremont and John Byrne, and is Byrne's last regular issue.

The story is relatively straightforward, focusing on a small cast. Kulan Gath's body was killed in his own time by Red Sonja, but he transferred his spirit to an amulet which has been found in the present day and is now part of a New York museum exhibit. There the amulet possesses a security guard, transforming him into Gath who sets about trying to reincarnate the gods he serves. Peter is dispatched from the Bugle's Christmas party (where one of the guests is Clark Kent!) to photograph the strange events, but Mary Jane opts to follow for the excitement and even pursues Peter into the museum. There Spider-Man fights monsters and Mary Jane finds herself drawn to a glowing sword that transforms her into Red Sonja. Neither hero can understand the other, but Gath's magic allows him to communicate with both as he captures them and prepares to sacrifice them. However they break free and Spidey knocks his foe outside where the confusion of modern New York overwhelms Gath, allow the amulet to be removed. Gath transforms back into the security guard and Red Sonja into Mary Jane as everything returns to normal. Later Peter finds the amulet tries to possess him so he flings it away in the ocean.

With only seventeen pages this is a very brief story that doesn't have much time to do more than throw the two heroes together to defeat the threat. Perhaps that’s why Spider-Man and Red Sonja are unable to understand each other's language when normally this is no barrier in fiction. There's also no exploration of how Mary Jane reacts to having been possessed, or how Peter feels about seeing one of his girlfriends (the opening page has the first ever mention of Cissy Ironwood beginning a brief era of multiple girlfriends) in a steel bikini – for many this would be beyond their wildest dreams. And I'm rather unfamiliar with Red Sonja's continuity and have no idea whether this is meant to be the original or the reincarnated version from her own series, nor for that matter at what point in her life she's come from. Perhaps it would have been best to make this story a two-parter to allow more room to breathe, but that could have brought additional problems with having to bring in another guest character. Instead the emphasis is very much on just having the two heroes in action together – and Byrne draws both of them well.

As is so often the case with omitted material it really isn't something to construct legends around. This is if anything a below average issue of the series, largely due to the different eras of the two heroes requiring more space than usual to bring them together, leaving very little space to tell the story in. It may have spawned multiple sequels (as well as the aforementioned limited series there was also a two-part story in Uncanny X-Men that saw Gath return and transform the whole of Manhattan) but the original is more idea than substance. This is not one to search high and low for.

Omitted material: What If? Classic volume 3

It's time for a further look at some of the Spider-Man related issues from the original What If? series.

#15: "What If Nova had been Four Other People?", written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by John Buscema, Walt Simonson, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru and George Pérez, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 3

This was the same basic idea as issue #7, only this time with Marvel's then-newest star rather than it's biggest and also using different artists for each segment. However Peter Parker was the only one of the four people who was familiar to readers.

The origin of Nova is relatively easy to adapt to the What If? set-up - a dying alien transmits his power and costume by energy beam and it accidentally hits a human, giving them the Nova powers. Each story sees it hit someone else. In the first it hits Helen Taylor, an angry widow who has vowed to find the mugger who killed her husband. She launches a violent war on crime to find the mugger, killing many criminals in the process including the Kingpin. Eventually the Fantastic Four intervene and capture her, then are forced to exile her to the Negative Zone. Meanwhile a car is pulled out of the river where it has been for months, and inside is the drowned mugger. The second story is set in a world that has hitherto lacked heroes and so when the beam hits a homeless black man he doesn't immediately realise to use them. One snowy night he is given shelter at an orphanage but then a Skrull invasion force arrives and detects his power. To save the children and Earth he becomes Nova and lets himself get captured so the children can be saved. On board the Skrull flagship he attacks and destroys the ship's equipment, causing it to go nova and saving the Earth. In the final story the beam has hit a criminal who uses the centurion's spaceship as a base from which he assembles Dr Doom, the Red Skull and the Sphinx and the four steadily eliminate all of Earth's humans. However rivalries amongst the villains result in them turning on each other until the Sphinx is the only one left standing. He desires death and sets out to search every human's mind to find one with the knowledge he needs, not realising that the criminal Nova he atomised was the one.

But it's the third story that generates the strongest interest. We get an altered version of the start of Spider-Man's origin as here the spider absorbed far more radiation and so instead of gaining powers Peter succumbs to radiation poisoning. He recovers, though not before Aunt May succumbs to stereotype and has a fatal heart attack at the first sign of bad news. Peter is now unable to walk and descends into bitterness, believing himself to be cursed. He sends Betty away (in this reality she seems to have already been his girlfriend) and throws himself into science, hoping to find a cure. One night he's alone in the school lab when the beam hits him. Discovering he can walk and more, he flies off to tell Uncle Ben, only to arrive as a burglar breaks into the house. In the living room Peter Nova flies in and a bullet bounces off his skin, killing the burglar. Despite both Uncle Ben and a police officer telling him it was accidental self-defence, Peter vows never to use his powers again and walks off embittered.

With most of the alternative Novas entirely new characters it's interesting to see different takes on some traditional comic moments and show how the power could bring out the best and worst in people. Peter Parker's story may have an all too cliched approach to Aunt May's heart but otherwise shows how a complete run of bad luck and no realisation of responsibility could have made him a very different person.

#17: "What If Ghost Rider, Spider-Woman, and Captain Marvel Had Remained Villains?", written by Steven Grant and drawn by Carmine Infantino, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 3

Once again we get multiple takes on a single idea, told in separate chapters. The first chapter sees an alternate take on Ghost Rider whereby his adoptive father Crash Simpson survives both cancer and a record breaking motorcycle stunt, resulting in the Devil taking Johnny Blaze's soul without interruption. He accidentally causes Crash's death and then later Roxanne Simpson tracks him down, only to die in the confrontation. Finally Daimon Hellstrom the Son of Satan confronts Ghost Rider and exorcises him. The Spider-Woman chapter is an alternate take on her debut in Marvel Spotlight #32 where on this occasion she doesn't discover Hydra's treachery and instead kills Nick Fury. The rest of the story which is largely the story of her fleeing to Hydra's base then getting captured in a S.H.I.E.L.D. raid then escaping at her trial. He primary motivation is to find out the truth of her past and the epilogue sees her as a wanderer, searching the world with S.H.I.E.L.D. in pursuit. Frankly there's not much meat to this and it doesn't give us much insight into Spider-Woman or any other characters. The Captain Marvel story is pretty much all set-up as it presents an alternate take on Marvel's earliest adventures with his rival Yon-Rogg exposed and eventually dying, with Captain Marvel remaining as a loyal Kree commander. This one doesn't show us very much at all. This is a general problem with telling multiple stories in a single issue, especially when the unifying concept is so abstract forcing each tale to spend more time telling the story (whereas the earlier ones with someone else getting Spider-Man or Nova's powers each share an introduction). The Ghost Rider chapter is the strongest by default with the other two tales not really offering that much of an alternate take on the characters. A pity that once again Spider-Woman is lumbered with such poor material.

#19: "What If Spider-Man had Never Become a Crime Fighter?", written by Peter Gillis and drawn by Pat Broderick, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 3

Or "What If Spider-Man has stopped the Burglar who killed his uncle?" This is probably the most obvious Spider-Man What If?, with its closest contender coming in issue #24 (reprinted in the next volume). Here Spider-Man heeds the call for help and catches the burglar - but not out of altruistic responsibility. No he's spotted the potential for some good publicity. As a result his public standing soars and Peter becomes ever more swollen headed. He reveals his identity to Aunt May and Uncle Ben, but this leads to an argument about his pursuit of entertainment over science and he deserts them. He guest hosts the Johnny Carson show (now what would be the equivalent of that role in the UK?), stars in a blockbuster movie and then becomes a film producer, signing up many other heroes with the offer of favourable publicity. Meanwhile J. Jonah Jameson's world starts crashing around him. His son dies when his space capsule crashes, and Jonah becomes ever more embittered about the attention celebrity "heroes" get compared to what he sees as "real heroes" - policemen, firemen, astronauts and the like. This leads to him taking on Spider-Man by getting Ned Leeds to work out his identity. In retaliation Spider-Man shows up in Jonah's office with several gun toting men, but turns the tables by pretending to be a stunt to give Jonah an award for journalism. When the Daily Bugle attacks Spider-Man for signing the vigilante Daredevil, Spidey retaliates by discovering and exposing the Bugle's crime reporter Frederic Foswell as the crimelord the Big Man. Here the resultant negative publicity results in Jonah being asked by his board to take a step back from running the paper and he instead resigns. Having lost everything he succumbs to temptation when the jailed Foswell asks him to be his outside man to run the mobs in exchange for using the organisation for revenge on Spider-Man. An initial attempt to have Kraven the Hunter scratch Peter with poison claws fails due to the intervention of Daredevil. Then Peter and Daredevil meet with their writers - only to discover it's a trap and the writers are really several super-villains in disguise. Daredevil dies in battle and Peter realises he must use his powers for real, overpowering the remain foes. He pulls off the ringleader's hood to discover an insane Jonah, ranting about how his life has been destroyed and how Spider-Man is a villain. A remorseful Peter realises how his failure to use his powers for good has caused all this.

Pretty much everyone is in character and this is a particularly good character study of Jonah that really digs into just why he harbours such hatred of Spider-Man and other superheroes. It's a far cry from the caricature he sometimes descends to. As for Spider-Man himself, we have a good continuation of the swell-headed teenager from Amazing Fantasy #15 but also an insight into his imagination. It's quite possible he may have performed some good, particularly by signing the X-Men to give mutants good publicity, just as many real world actors and producers have helped good causes. But his arrogance and selfishness brings destruction in its wake - and he's not always the worst to suffer for it.

The other tales in the third volume are:

• #14: "What If Sgt. Fury Had Fought World War Two In Outer Space?"
• #18: "What If Dr. Strange Were a Disciple of Dormammu?"
• #20: "What If the Avengers Fought the Kree-Skrull War Without Rick Jones?"

Issue #14 was one of the more outrageous concepts yet seen, but as the cover acknowledged it was riding a wave at the time launched by Star Wars.

You will have noticed that two issues are missing. These are:

• #13: "What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?"
• #16: "What If Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu Fought on the Side of Fu Manchu?"

Marvel no longer holds the rights to either Conan or Fu Manchu and so can't reprint their appearances. Shang-Chi is a Marvel originated character but with a setting a supporting cast drawn from the Fu Manchu stories it's only possible to reprint some of his appearances.

Omitted material: What If? Classic volume 2

Another look at some of the Spider-Man issues of the original What If? series.

#7: "What If Somebody else besides Spider-Man had been bitten by the radioactive spider?", written by Don Glut and drawn by Rick Hoberg, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 2

The title to this one is a little long winded but "What If someone else was Spider-Man?" wouldn't work as none of the three people actually uses the name "Spider-Man". Instead we get first "Captain Spider" aka Flash Thompson, "The Amazing Spider-Girl" aka Betty Brant and "Spider-Jameson" aka Colonel John Jameson (Jonah's son). Unfortunately with three separate stories to tell plus the basic set-up there isn't much time to develop any of them. Flash's story sees him at first try to use his powers at wrestling but he accidentally kills Crusher Hogan and is forced to flee. He adopts the identity of Captain Spider and has a brief superhero career, but his over-confidence and lack of webs are his undoing when he fights the Vulture and falls to his death. Betty Brant also develops a friendship with Peter Parker who becomes her confident and equipment designer. She enjoys a brief career in a very revealing costume, but Betty finds her powers overwhelm her. Consequently there comes a point where she's run out of web fluid and fails to stop a thief running past. The thief goes on to kill Peter's Uncle Ben and Betty tracks him down and captures him... but upon realising she could have stopped him she realises she cannot handle the responsibility and abandons her identity. Colonel Jameson becomes the first marketed hero with his father pushing him into the role, but comes to grief when he tries to save an out of control space capsule as his jetpack fails and the capsule crushes him to death. At the unveiling of a memorial Jonah opts to dedicate himself to supporting other heroes. The epilogue shows that in all three stories Peter Parker has retrieved the dead spider and extracts the venom to create a serum to become Spider-Man. This issue came out not long after Spidey's guest appearance in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2 and both issues float the idea that it is Peter's destiny to become Spider-Man. Whilst much of the point of the What If? issue is that it takes more to be Spider-Man than just being bitten by a radioactive spider and putting on a red & blue costume, and unlike the Two-In-One annual there's no reference to Lord Chaos and Master Order manipulating him, I just don't like the idea of the every-man hero being pushed into his role by destiny. Otherwise the issue as a whole has few points that stand out beyond Betty Brant's costume and the possibility that Jonah could have been a friend to superheroes under different circumstances.

#8: "What If the World Knew That Daredevil Is Blind?", written by Don Glut and drawn by Alan Kupperberg & "What If the spider had been bitten by a radioactive human?", written & drawn by Scott Shaw, both reprinted in What If? Classic volume 2

This issue contained one serious and one humorous story. In the former Spider-Man make a small guest appearance when he accidentally stumbles into Daredevil's first fight with Electro. Consequently the fight goes differently and Electro soon realises that Daredevil is blind, confirmed when Daredevil can't answer his question about the colour of his costume - and tells the world. Daredevil continues fighting crime even though his foes try everything to stop him but Karen Page soon deduces his identity and persuades Matt Murdock to undergo an eye operation. He agrees and it doesn't cost him his enhanced senses but soon afterwards he loses them anyway when shutting down an atomic pile. Matt retires his Daredevil identity but wears the costume one last time when he's kidnapped by the Owl. He defeats the Owl who perishes in an explosion and Daredevil decides that he could have saved his foe had he still had his senses. He calls a press conference where he reveals his identity (as so many were deducing it anyway), retires from superheroing altogether and runs for District Attorney. He is successfully elected and marries Karen. This is a rare What If? with a happy ending but it falls into the trap of telling too much of the story through accelerated narration and also keeping close to the events in the original series. But it's one of the truest to the idea that a simple change can have drastic repercussions.

(Oh and the continuity is potentially messed up as the issue claims Amazing Spider-Man #25 and Daredevil #2 took place simultaneously. But considering Spidey and Daredevil first met in Amazing #16 this is unlikely - but What The heck!)

The second story is a comedy piece, set in a world of anthropomorphic animals, years before the likes of Spider-Ham came on the scene, and is narrated not by the Watcher but by editor Roy Thomas standing in for him. We learn how "Webster Weaver", a nerdish teenage spider gets bitten by a human and developed enhanced powers and adopts the identity of "Man-Spider". The story follows the familiar course of his failure to stop a crook who kills his "Uncle Bug", only this time he doesn't initially track down said crook. Instead he fights crime generally until one day a mysterious foe blackmails the world with a threat to destroy the atmosphere - it's "Raze", a living can of fly-spray (and I don't know if the name is a pun on a brand that I've never encountered) and also the being who killed Uncle Bug. Man-Spider gets captured but Raze throws an explosive which accidentally blows up the spray can. Man-Spider feels better about Uncle Bug's death but now has to face Aunt Mayfly's chicken-pox soup. This is an intentionally silly piece, satirising funny animal comics, and frankly one will either adore or hate it. But it's only eight pages long. And I'm surprised to discover that people were concerned about CFCs and the Ozone Layer as early as 1977.

The other tales in the second volume are:

• #9: "What If the Avengers Had Fought Evil During the 1950's?"
• #10: "What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor?"
• #11: "What If the Original Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?"
• #12: "What If Rick Jones Had Become the Hulk?"

Issue #9 is another of those stories that might have actually been set in the regular Marvel universe rather than an alternate reality, and the Watcher is non-committal on this point but it would be a few decades before anyone addressed it again. But when they did, we got to see a team made up of some of the 1950 Atlas heroes who were first put together here. Issue #11 is, I think, the last time Jack Kirby drew a Fantastic Four comic though on this occasion the cast and premise are very different from the original.

Omitted material: What If? Classic volume 1

And so to begin my irregular look at the Spider-Man issues in the original What If? series.

#1: "What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four?", written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Jim Craig, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 1

At the time the idea of adding Spider-Man to the Fantastic Four - or indeed to any team - was seen as impossible. How times have changed. But in his very first issue Spider-Man had tried to join the Fantastic Four, only to back off when he discovered there was no salary. But what if instead they'd offered him one and he stayed?

The first What If? set out to answer that question. Spider-Man actually does quite well out of the arrangement, with Mr Fantastic getting all outstanding accusations and charges against him ditched, leading to Jonah publicly endorsing him. Now a fully fledged part of the renamed Fantastic Five, Spidey gets on quite well with his team-mates, but really the focus of this issue is on the Fantastic Four in different circumstances. The Invisible Girl was often treated as the weak link in the original stories anyway, but now she finds herself ever more marginalised. Events come to their resolution when the Sub-Mariner kidnaps her under the influence of the Puppet Master. The rest of the Fantastic Five follow and defeat the real foe, but when they confront Namor the Invisible Girl finally chooses him over Mr Fantastic and is subjected to a transformation that gives her the ability to breathe underwater. Her former team-mates leave, with Spidey wondering what might have been had he never joined the team.

As the very first What If?, some leeway can be given, but a sizeable chunk of the issue is taken up with introducing first the format and then the original saga. Then too much of the story is told as fast paced narration of successive events, leaving not very much time to actually show the Fantastic Five in action as a team. And with most of the emphasis on the Fantastic Four side of things, Spider-Man doesn't get a great deal to do or show us just what potential he could have as a team member. This is, however, a good alternate take on the Fantastic Four.

Spidey isn't in any of the other issues in the first volume. The other tales told are:

• #2: "What If the Hulk Had the Brain of Bruce Banner?"
• #3: "What If the Avengers Had Never Been?"
• #4: "What If the Invaders Had Stayed Together After World War Two?"
• #5: "What If Captain America Hadn't Vanished During World War Two?"
• #6: "What If the Fantastic Four Had Different Super-Powers?"

The letters page for issue #4 states that it could have taken place in the regular continuity (it successfully fuses the Invaders, a 1970s retroactive creation, with the All-Winners Squad, a team that briefly existed in the immediate post-war years) and according to Comic Book Resource: Comics Should Be Good: Comic Book Legends Revealed #341 & Comic Book Resource: Comics Should Be Good: Comic Book Legends Addendum - Roy Thomas on What If...? #4 this was in fact the case, all part of Roy Thomas's work at incorporating the Golden Age Timely characters fully into regular Marvel continuity. It did finally resolve the question of the Captain America stories published from 1945 until 1950. Issue #5 is also interesting because as far as readers at the time were concerned Captain America didn't vanish during World War II but instead continuing in action until 1950 - it was only in the 1960s that this continuity was changed. However this story focuses more on how an older Captain America and Bucky operate in the 1960s, having lived all the way up to them.

Omitted material: What If?

My first ever comic that headlined Spider-Man was none other than issue #31 of the second What If? series - "What If Spider-Man had not lost his cosmic powers?" Although I was unfamiliar with either the scenario or many of the villains (both the Hobgoblin and Venom were too new to have appeared in the Spider-Man cartoons up to then), it was nevertheless an enjoyable tale told in a single issue which managed to do something different with the character and also explained everything I needed to know about the basic situation.

Historians are traditionally wary of speculating in counterfactuals for a variety of reasons. But that doesn't mean the idea can't be fun. However with any ongoing fiction the most obvious "What If"s are also really the most boring - what if a different storyline was pursued, what if a particular writer or actor hadn't left, what if a series wasn't cancelled and so forth. Far more exciting are the stories that could (usually) never have been done at the time, such as discoveries, marriages, deaths and more that would have broken the rules of the regular continuity. DC pioneered this idea with their "Imaginary Stories" of the 1950s and 1960s. Marvel came later with What If? which was more rooted in specific continuity and (until the late 1990s at least) tended to take a specific point in history and go a different root. Most were narrated by the Watcher, the all powerful alien observer of our planet.

The first What If? series ran from 1976 until 1984 and each issue was longer than the standard Marvels of the day. At first the focus was primarily upon the early Silver Age but as time went on it broadened out. In recent years the run has been collected in a series of tradepaperbacks (although with some omissions, mainly due to rights issues) though noticeably not as Essentials but rather as more conventional colour volumes containing about six issues each. Still we can but hope that this means Marvel has the issues on file in a cleaned-up form ready for any future Essential release.

In the meantime, I'm going to take a look at some of the issues featuring Spider-Man. These posts will be irregular though.

Oh and I'm not the only one who's looked at early What If? issues. Every so often the blogger the Amazing Justin Palm! gets drunk and reviews on of these old issues. His thoughts can be found at El Fresco: What If Wednesdays.

Omitted material: Marvel Treasury Edition 28 – Superman and Spider-Man

Another issue which the Essentials do not reprint but I thought was worth a look at is Marvel Treasury Edition #28. This was generally a reprint anthology series in the huge Treasury Edition format, featuring many different Marvel characters, but occasionally it carried original material. This was true of the final issue, #28, which carried “Superman and Spider-Man”, the second team-up between the lead Marvel and DC characters. Once again this has had a few reprints since, usually to tie in with more recent Marvel/DC crossovers. It cost $2.50 in a year when the regular Marvel titles went for $0.50 and I believe DC’s regular books went for the same price.

The story is written by Jim Shooter, with some plot suggestions from Marv Wolfman, and drawn by John Buscema. Whilst Buscema had drawn a handful of Spider-Man issues over the years, Shooter had written very few but was the-then Marvel Editor-in-Chief. Did he take this one for himself to prevent creative squabbling (his stated reason for later writing Secret Wars)? Or was it for more mundane reasons? Their Superman credentials were more limited – it was nearly two decades before Buscema did his first work for DC. Jim Shooter had, however, written for Superman in the 1960s, whilst in 1981 Wolfman was the regular writer on Action Comics.

Before the main story we get a one page feature introducing both heroes’ origins, but amazingly the Spider-Man section completely omits any mention of Uncle Ben and responsibility. Equally there’s no reason given for why Superman uses his powers as he does (and my knowledge of Superman continuity is such that I don’t know the answer for this particular incarnation).

The main story is presented as a semi-sequel to the earlier Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man and the story in part seeks to compensate for the villain imbalance in the earlier team-up by this time making the primary villain Doctor Doom, with a secondary role played by the Parasite. Now Doctor Doom is not specifically a Spider-Man villain and the two had had relatively few encounters up to this point, but he is the premier Marvel villain and one of the few who can present a world threatening menace that’s a credible threat for Superman. However the Parasite is not of the best known Superman villains outside his own book, and doesn’t feel like he deserves to be in a particularly special adventure. But then this is not a particularly special adventure.

Sadly the story itself seems overcomplicated for the sake of it, with Doctor Doom spending endless billions on a project to wipe out the world’s fossil and nuclear fuels and then use his ownership of the surviving super reactor to take control of the planet. He’s brought the Parasite along as part of a convoluted scheme to turn the latter into a crystal for the reactor to prevent it otherwise destroying the world. Already you can see the complications in this tale, and it throws in guest appearances by the Hulk (well he did have a TV series at the time) and Wonder Woman (whose series had ended but were there endless reruns?) that don’t add a great deal. Superman and Spider-Man’s interaction is limited to a brief meeting in Metropolis when the Hulk is rampaging and the climax when both investigate Doom’s base but get captured, though they free each other and work to save the day. However we get some extended sequences as Clark Kent briefly relocates to New York and takes a post at the Daily Bugle, whilst Peter Parker is talked into staying in Metropolis for a while and working at the Daily Planet. Peter’s sudden uprooting of his life is hard to swallow but the arrangement allows us to see each hero’s alter ego interacting with some of the other’s supporting cast, and many comment on the similarities of the two.

Lacking the novelty of the first team-up, this story is left looking for something to make it special but doesn’t really find it. It may explore new angles and contrasts between the heroes, but the problem is their adventures and power levels are on such different scales that it’s hard to have them credibly interact for extended periods of time. Instead the title searches for original ideas, throws in extra heroes for the sake of it and presents situations that stain credulity. Doom’s scheme might have been inspired by real life contemporary fears about the energy supply at a time when the oil crisis was still fresh in people’s minds, but by the time the issue came out the tide was already turning.

Overall this story feels poor and uninspired, and probably produced for no other reason than to tie into the-then contemporary movie Superman II. If this is typical of the inter-company crossovers then I can’t say I’m waiting with baited breath for a possible Essential Showcase Presents collecting all the Marvel & DC team-ups.