As announced on the Marvel homepage, Marvel is bringing back the popular WHAT IF? brand for a series of alternate reality stories this fall. In total, there will be six one-shots involving Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Thor, and the Punisher, but you aren’t here to care about them. You care about the fact that we are getting WHAT IF? X-MEN & WHAT IF? MAGIK.
WHAT IF? X-MEN #1 will tell a cyberpunk story about Charles Xavier and his .EXE/men that imagines a “digital wonderland of business and pleasure accessible to anyone with the social (or monetary) capital for the bio-mods needed to log in”. A world where hackers like u/Domino and u/Cable can “bypass all of that by being born carrying an .EXE/gene”. Their entire society hangs in the balance in a story that editor Chris Robinson describes as “The most life-changing comic since VENOM #1. Speculators take note.” Writer Bryan Edward Hill (POSTAL, DETECTIVE COMICS) and artists Neil Edwards (X-FACTOR, DARK AVENGERS) and Giannis Milonogiannis (PROPHET, TMNT: BEBOP & ROCKSTEADY DESTROY EVERYTHING), with a gorgeous Rahzzah cover, will bring this off the wall story to life this October.
With a stunning Jeff Dekal cover, WHAT IF? MAGIK is sure to leave an impression on readers this fall. Writer Leah Williams (X-MEN GOLD ANNUAL, X-MEN AND THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA) told me that “fans can expect an exploration of the consequences that a teen witch would face after coming of age in hell.” Artist Filipe Andrade (OLD MAN LOGAN, ROCKET RACCOON) will draw the tale of an Illyana who wants nothing to do with the world of the X-Men or New Mutants. Editor Annalise Bissa proclaims “Illyana Rasputin deserves better […] any X-Fan might start to wonder who Magik would be in a world where her mutation isn’t ruled by these crazy ups and downs.” Fans will get just that when this fabulous creative team drops this one-shot in the fall.
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
