Jim Shooter

By the time What If? came along, I was well into my comic book collecting phase. I remember reading the first couple and, while I loved the concept, I found the stories didn't quite grab me like I'd hoped.

But, forty-seven years after I first paid my fifty cents to buy issue three off the local variety store's spinner rack, I can still remember taking this one home and being blown away by it. Shooter's story, and even more Gil Kane and Klaus Janson's artwork just transported me into the alternate history of the Avengers. And Iron Man's flawed plan hooked me.

Reading this again all these years later made me that fourteen-year-old kid again, at least for a little bit. The story, to be honest, didn't grab me quite as much this time around, maybe because I could see the set dressings, the scaffolding, and the lights behind the production more this time around. But Kane and Janson's art still held every little bit of magic that it had the first time.

All these years later, I still don't think I've read a better What If story.… (mer)