Broken Frontier

Marvel’s most recent 5th week event  -- six brand new WHAT IF…one-shots by top Marvel talent -- have been completely eaten up by fans of the theoretical.

Said Sales and Marketing Manager David Gabriel, “WHAT IF…was a favorite of mine growing up, as it was to legions of Marvel fans. Our recent WHAT IF? CLASSIC trade sold more copies in initial orders than any other classic trade last year. Producing new installments of the title with this level of creative talent was a dream come true. We’re getting tremendous praise for these new WHAT IF… books, and each issue has had thousands of backorders. No doubt about it, this project was a huge success…thanks so much to the creators and editor C.B. Cebulski for such great work!”

“I’ve been a WHAT IF fan for as long as I can remember. When I first proposed bringing the title back, I was worried people would think I was crazy, but much to my surprise, everyone here at Marvel enthusiastically embraced the idea.,” said Cebulski. “I never thought we would be able to secure the level of talent we did on the books either. I found out WHAT IF was a concept that was near and dear to so many of our writers and artists. I think their love of  WHAT IF clearly shines through in all the stories and the fan response has been nothing short of amazing! Hopefully we’ll be able to come back and do this again real soon!”

WHA...HUH? (in the tradition of the classic NOT BRAND ECHH) hits direct store shelves on 1/26/2005…

…and will also be collected in the WHAT IF...?: WHY NOT? TPB along with the six sold-out WHAT IF…one-shots. The trade goes on sale direct on 2/23/2005, with a complete listing of content below:

WHAT IF JESSICA JONES HAD JOINED THE AVENGERS?
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Art by MICHAEL GAYDOS
Ripped from the pages of the Avengers and fan-favorite Alias - Jessica Jones, ex-superhero private eye was once tapped to join the Avengers, but chose not to and gave up being a super-hero altogether. But what if she had taken the job? The events that followed shake up both the Avengers and Jessica's life in ways no one could have guessed. Could Jessica have saved the Avengers from the disasters of Disassembled?

WHAT IF KAREN PAGE HAD LIVED?
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
& KEVIN SMITH
Art by ALEX MALEEV
The worst thing that ever happened to Daredevil was watching his one true love Karen Page die in his arms after a brutal attack by his archenemy Bullseye. The events that followed spiraled Matt Murdock's life out of control and he has never recovered.

WHAT IF AUNT MAY HAD DIED INSTEAD OF UNCLE BEN?
Written by ED BRUBAKER
Art by ANDREA DIVITO
We all know that Spider-Man's heroic career was inspired by Uncle Ben's death after his speech about great power and great responsibility... But what if Uncle Ben WASN’T the one who died? What if Peter's mother figure, Aunt May had been the one in the path of that bullet? How different would Peter's life have been?

WHAT IF DR. DOOM HAD BECOME THE THING?
Written by KARL KESEL
Pencils PAUL SMITH
How could the Fantastic Four's strongest member also be their deadliest enemy? A seemingly minor decision made long before the FF even existed could have changed everything for the World's Greatest Super-Team, Victor Von Doom... and even the Incredible Hulk! And that's just for starters...

WHAT IF MAGNETO HAD FORMED THE X-MEN
WITH PROFESSOR X?
Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT
Art by CULLY HAMNER
X-Men legend Chris Claremont joins with the hotshot artistic team of Cully Hamner (inside) and Jim Cheung (outside) to ask a question that MUST be answered only with speculation.  Imagine a world where the Master of Magnetism had chosen a different path.  Or perhaps he could have swayed Xavier from his own beliefs?  These two legends stalk the halls of X-Men Canon, and at last the question is asked, "What if things had been different?"

WHAT IF GENERAL ROSS HAD BECOME THE HULK?
Written by PETER DAVID
Art by BART SEARS
Meet again, for the first time, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross... a veteran army officer who believes that the time for talk is long past, and all that matters is his country's ability to develop weapons that will annihilate its enemies.  Experience with him what happens when he himself becomes the mightiest weapon on two legs...but is trapped within that weapon, unable to communicate with former allies who only want to destroy him.

WHA... HUH?
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, STAN LEE, MARK MILLAR,
J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI,
GARTH ENNIS, BRIAN K. VAUGHAN, PETER DAVID and everyone else we could get our hands on!
Because clearly Bendis doesn't have enough books to write this month, the big baby bullied Marvel's upper management into green-lighting this ridiculous pile of silly nonsense! In the great tradition of NOT BRAND ECHH and the old humor issues of WHAT IF?, WHA...HUH? asks the questions that no one really cares about...

What if the Identity Crisis happened in the Marvel Universe?
What if Modok has an itch?
What if Kevin Smith finished his books?
Bendis reteams with hilarious Clerks artist Jim Mahfood and all the best Marvel scribes-Mark Millar, JMS, Garth Ennis and a ton of others-to make the dumbest comic published this year. No one is safe!