I found them both to be really good.
It is interesting to note that these two titles had the same penciler but the looks were totally different.
Kath
I found them both to be really good.
It is interesting to note that these two titles had the same penciler but the looks were totally different.
Kath
• 
Said it in last thread, but as this is the official one – loved’em both. And I’d love to see a sequel to the Other “What If?”
Poison was a very cool character and I’d love to see what he and his…companion do out in the world.
If these new “What If?”s suffered from anything it’d be too much story in too little space. I haven’t picked up many besides Peter’s but they’ve all suffered from going through story at break-neck speeds, especially “The Other”. I would have liked to have seen them make a miniseries out of it. Would have given a lot more space to the mental battle between peter and the symbiote which I really wanted to see.
1602 is starting to shape up to be pretty compelling. The last couple issues I’ve been less enthusiastic about but i can’t wait to see what happens next issue now.
I didn’t mind skipping over the metaphysical battle between Peter and the symbiote – as I figure a What If is supposed to have a set up that is more ‘tell’ than show. The meat is what happens next. I was a little impatient at the beginning, but I realized the first few pages were necessary for the few readers who didn’t read The Other. My biggest complaint is with the ending. I want an issue #2.
I enjoyed both, and, the 11-year-old inside of me was happy to see the apparent use of the Sargasso Sea in “1602” — Even if it was apparently moved a little in terms of its location.
Would I be right in guessing, Peter, that you, like myself, watched the premiere of “Jonny Quest” in 1964 and were introduced to and intrigued by the concept of the Sargasso Sea?
Well, I honestly didn’t realize Peter had written a “What If” story for this year’s batch, but none of this year’s tales piqued my interest. With the current “event” status that “What If?” has, I have more reason to pick-and-choose which issues I buy, and this year’s batch of stories were largely based off tales which I either hadn’t enjoyed reading or hadn’t read at all from lack of interest. In this specific case, I didn’t have any interest in the original “The Other” storyline (I *did* have interest in picking up “Friendly Neighborhood” until the decision to make it part of a crossover stunt; that’s now water under the bridge, but it still affected my decision regarding this particular “What If?”).
Now, as for the tale of the Fantastick Four, while I enjoyed the whole issue, my favorite point came at the end. Talk about cliffhangers. It’s very rare that we actually have a story which takes the word that literally.
I like the alternative idea Reed Richards and Doctor Doom as the most brilliant minds of an era in which the sciences were comparatively crude…a time when the idea of the Earth as the center of the universe wasn’t religious superstition, but a solid theory that was supported by observation using the very latest technology.
It’s also interesting to wonder how Richards would use his new abilities. In 1602, there are only 180 pounds of this miraculous substance called “plastic” on the entire planet…and it’s him! I think his fascination and his imagination with what one could do with such a material would soon outstrip his dignity…
I agree– Poison was cool. Certainly with all this alternate world stuff that seems to be cropping up with the upcoming Uncle Ben Returns stuff you could find some way to bring back Poison in a mini. Or maybe in the pages of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. It wouldn’t be the first time a character from What If? later appearred elsewhere.
Fantastick Four just keeps getting better and better. Peter, as I said with #2, was mildly disappointed with #1 stuck around for #2 because you rarely fail to deliver if I stick with it for more than an issue. Now I’m upset that this series has to end. At least Wonder Man is coming.
A character I’ve liked under the right writer and found another at others. Will this be Simon more like the ‘movie star’ days from his own book or the grimmer story like Avengers arcs.
Also, if X-23 is a defective clone of Wolverine– what’s her familial relathionship to Wolverina? Would they technically be mother and daughter even though Wolverina was born years before X-23 was even created?
I have to echo others in saying that the What If issue was just too short. I wanted more of the story. This should have been a miniseries.
Haven’t had a chance to pick up 1602 just yet, but I will.
As someone who can’t get to the comic shop for a few weeks, any chance someone could summarize the What If? issue?
The Other what if was terrible. More like “What if the writers refused to make any sense of what The Other was actually about and just threw Venom in there because, hey, he’s in the upcoming movie.”
I never read the Other, but I thought the What If was too dark and depressing. It was more like “What If Spider-Man Gives Up and Loses”?
Ed said:
I never read the Other, but I thought the What If was too dark and depressing. It was more like “What If Spider-Man Gives Up and Loses”?
The Other was a story in which Peter Parker goes from one of the highest points in his life (being and Avenger, his Aunt and his wife living in the luxury of Stark Towers and having a school teaching job) to one of his lowest points being practically dead by most definitions and then grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat. The only real way to do a ‘What if’ on the that is to further the fall into darkness.
I don’t think it is ‘What if Peter Parker gave up’ as much as it is ‘What if Peter Parker fought the wrong fight?’. In timeline 616 he eventually saw the Spider for what it was… a guiding point back to humanity. It is easy to see how someone like Peter could see it to be a threat. The thing he (and we readers) treasure the most is that he is human(ish). Peter has a bad reputation for mistaking friends for foes. Probably the worst in the Marvel universe. (I blame 1970s Marvel Team-Ups.) In this case, his attack is justified because the Spider wanted it to be more spider like. He assumed the bargain would make him less human in the process and fought back– thus loosing his real grasp on humanity.
Again, thematically tossing in Venom makes perfect sense. Venom has always had that connection to Parker. In many ways a Peter Parker without his humanity is Venom. The symbiote mutated as a result of Parker. In some way that Venom became since seperation from Peter is Parker’s son. It is a much more literal interpretation of the father and son coming together thread common to most world mythologies.
I should stop keeping ‘Hero of a Thousand Faces’ on the nightstand. I really should.
Ed said:
I never read the Other, but I thought the What If was too dark and depressing. It was more like “What If Spider-Man Gives Up and Loses”?
The Other was a story in which Peter Parker goes from one of the highest points in his life (being and Avenger, his Aunt and his wife living in the luxury of Stark Towers and having a school teaching job) to one of his lowest points being practically dead by most definitions and then grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat. The only real way to do a ‘What if’ on the that is to further the fall into darkness.
I don’t think it is ‘What if Peter Parker gave up’ as much as it is ‘What if Peter Parker fought the wrong fight?’. In timeline 616 he eventually saw the Spider for what it was… a guiding point back to humanity. It is easy to see how someone like Peter could see it to be a threat. The thing he (and we readers) treasure the most is that he is human(ish). Peter has a bad reputation for mistaking friends for foes. Probably the worst in the Marvel universe. (I blame 1970s Marvel Team-Ups.) In this case, his attack is justified because the Spider wanted it to be more spider like. He assumed the bargain would make him less human in the process and fought back– thus loosing his real grasp on humanity.
Again, thematically tossing in Venom makes perfect sense. Venom has always had that connection to Parker. In many ways a Peter Parker without his humanity is Venom. The symbiote mutated as a result of Parker. In some way that Venom became since seperation from Peter is Parker’s son. It is a much more literal interpretation of the father and son coming together thread common to most world mythologies.
I should stop keeping ‘Hero of a Thousand Faces’ on the nightstand. I really should.
I didn’t like the ending. I did like the way Mary Jane stood up to the Vemon/Parker entity. I think there was another what if story where vemon took over Parker and the Black Cat killed him at the end of that story. I just wanted closure, I think another story to see how the Carnage/Stacey creature evolves is in order.
Regards:
Warren S. Jones III
Just saw that “What if: The Other” was sold out at diamond. Congrats Peter.
Although, that may just mean they had a low production run and it’s just stores speculating that they’ll all sell, but it’s still a good note.
I agree, the symbiote has often been portrayed just the way PAD portrayed it–as a jilted lover. If Peter was really on the ropes like that, would the symbiote seek to reclaim its former host? Absolutely. It all flowed logically in my view.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen PAD write a straightforward horror story before. It worked beautifully on that level, particularly the little twist at the end.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen PAD write a straightforward horror story before. It worked beautifully on that level, particularly the little twist at the end.
You must not read Fallen Angel much, do you? Or ‘What The–?’ To this day that tie from ‘When Titans Clash’ still gives me nightmares.
I read FA, and I don’t consider it a horror story; it’s a supernatural noir. A very different style and tone than the story we’re discussing.