Yeah, I know I'm a little irregular with the updates. Bear with me.
I begin my review of "What If Vol. 2", mainly year by year (sometimes split up into
mini-series arcs as well). Reviews are briefer because I'm trying to cut
back on the spoilers.
#1 (July 1989) - "What If The Avengers Had Lost The Evolutionary War?"
Rather muddled entry about the effects of a "genetic bomb", the outcome of
which makes one wonder why it was a good thing the Avengers had won that
war in the first place. D
#2 (August 1989) - "What If Daredevil Killed The Kingpin?"
Daredevil kills Kingpin (by somehow sneaking a gun pass security with x-ray scanners),
then goes crazy. Eh. C
#3 (September 1989) - "What If Steve Rogers Had Refused To Give Up Being Captain America?"
Steve Rogers refuses to give up being Captain (in the regular Marvel universe he gave it up
for a while under government request, only to return when his replacement got out of control).
It's not a bad story even though it uses President Reagan in an odd sort of "deus ex machina" way. B
#4 (October 1989) - "What If The Alien Costume Had Possessed Spider-Man?""
Spider-Man gets "hooked" on the Venom symbiote and refuses to part with it. This issue is odd in
how it classifies Venom as a "parasite" instead of a "symbiote"; and the resultant story details
conflict with future revelations of the Venom-style symbiotes' natures. B-
#5 (November 1989) - "What If The Vision Had Destroyed The Avengers (and Wonder Man Hadn't Died)?"
Vision never becomes a good guy. Title is misleading because he doesn't really destroy the
Avengers, and with a few exceptions the timeline seems to not deviate too much from established history. C
#6 ([mid] November 1989) - "What If The X-Men Lost Inferno?"
Pretty good What-If for a change, with lots of good guys turned bad due to demonic posession. A
#7 (December 1989) - "What If Wolverine Was An Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Wolverine joins the US government agency SHIELD instead of the X-Men. Pretty average stuff. C
#8 ([mid] December 1989) - "What If Iron Man Lost The Armor Wars?"
Iron Man is unable to stop his recently stolen technology from wrecking havoc and is brought
under "control" himself by one of his foes. It's passable, I guess. C+
