What If (comics)
What If is a comic book first published intermittently (originally bimonthly) in the late 1970s by Marvel Comics that expands on "the road not traveled" in its own copyrighted publications by their own various characters.
All of the stories are set with the alien Uatu the Watcher as narrator. As the observer of events transpiring on Earth from his base on the moon, Uatu is also able to observe what transpires in "alternate realities" -- that is, on worlds where the history depicted in the comic books took a different turn. The first What If issue, for instance, dealt with, "What If Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four?" an event with a small possibility of happening, but plausible within the framework Marvel Comics had set up.
The "What If" stories proceeded from a particular point (a "point of divergence") depicted in Marvel's comic line and extrapolated what would happen as a result of that changed event. Most often this would be along the lines of "What If (some villain) defeated (some hero or group of heroes)?" Perhaps the most poignant issue of What If along these lines was issue #32, "What if the Avengers had not defeated Korvac?" Korvac, a time-traveling conqueror from the 30th century, sought to create a universe of absolute order, and ultimately destroyed everything.
More often, however, the storylines involved individual characters choosing (or not) to take a particular action. Issue #26 sported, "What if Captain America became President?" with the star-spangled hero running as a third-party candidate and overwhelmingly winning the 1980 Presidential election, where in the mainstream Marvel Universe, he did not run when offered the opportunity.
Besides one or two "What If" stories, the comic book would sometimes contain a selection of "Untold Tales From the Marvel Universe", depicting the development of some of Marvel-Earth's superhuman races (i.e. the Eternals and the Inhumans) and their early contact with alien civilizations.
Marvel Comics' What If stories can also be considered alternate histories.
What If was revived in 1989, and ran for a further 114 monthly issues. Notable issues from the second run include What If vol.2 #105, "What if Peter and Mary Jane had raised their baby?", which was spun-off into the ongoing Spider-Girl series.
This is not to be confused with What If?, three collections of essays edited by Robert Cowley that deal with counterfactual history.