What If? Civil War

What If? (Publication Order) #181-185

by Ed Brubaker, Jeff Parker, Paul Tobin

Marvel once again poses the question, "What If...?" What if Annihilus had not been defeated in the outskirts of our galaxy, and instead had brought his devastating alien armada to Earth? What if Iron Man had lost the Civil War? What if the Hulk had landed on a peaceful planet, as the Marvel heroes had intended when they exiled him into space? Or Banner had landed on Sakaar instead of the Hulk? Or the Hulk's warrior bride, Caiera the Oldstrong, had come to Earth seeking vengeance instead of her husband? What if Vulcan had become Phoenix? And finally, what if Peter Parker had never come home years ago after following Wolverine to Russia and accidentally killing a friend? Collects What If? Annihilation, Civil War, Planet Hulk, X-Men, and Spider-Man vs. Wolverine

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 2008

About the author

Ed Brubaker (born November 17, 1966) is an Eisner Award-winning American cartoonist and writer. He was born at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.

Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.

In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ran across this on Marvel Unlimited, so I've no idea if these are collected somewhere in an edition or not. And I know these sort of stories aren't for everyone, but I get giddy when I see a new one has been added to the online library.
Seriously...giddy!



This one explores (duh) several outcomes to the Civil War/Superhuman Registration Act besides the one that happened in our 616 universe.
It takes place after Steve's funeral, with a shadowy figure approaching Tony at the memorial and giving him a glimpse of the alternate ways the whole thing could have gone down.



In the Civil War storyline, it seemed like Stark was the bad guy(ish) but what if things had actually been worse for everyone without him there? Or what if there was a (fairly simple) way for the conflict to have ended well for both sides?
Oooooooh! <--says the audience in my head



Alright. This isn't going to be a winner for everyone, but I thought it was cool. If you're a fan of these sort of tales, grab it. Otherwise, don't bother because it doesn't have any sort of ramifications in the real Marvel universe.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another collection of What If? stories based on (mostly) then-recent comic storylines:
- Civil War: Two possibilities were provided: "What if Captain America led all the heroes against registration?" and "What if Iron Man lost the Civil War?" The former is more fully developed, but the latter has the more interesting outcome - if a misleading title.
- Planet Hulk: Three possibilities were provided: "What if the Hulk died and Caiera lived?", "Peaceful Planet", and "What if Bruce Banner had landed on Sakaar instead of the Hulk?" The first makes World War Hulk look peaceful. The second is unusual and the most memorable. The third is a comedic one-pager.
- Annihilation: "What if Annihilation reached Earth?" Basically, Civil War gets interrupted by the Annihilation storyline. Largely just adequate, though Nova calling out the pettiness of Civil War is a nice moment.
- Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire: "What if Vulcan gained the power of the Phoenix?" The least interesting story of the set, especially compared to the Vulcan-centric What If? in the previous volume.
- Spider-Man versus Wolverine: The odd one out, since it was based on a one-shot comic from 20 years prior. An interesting alternate path for Spider-Man, though it does require him to be a bit out of character.

Overall, an interesting collection of alternatives. (B+)

[Anya · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first story about Tony Stark looking in on alternate realities, such as where he died instead of Captain America, was good. The rest of this is garbage and mostly not related to the Marvel Civil War storyline at all.

[Scarlet Cameo · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Siempre lo encuentro terrible y hermoso...como una decisión...una pequeña diferencia puede cambiar tanto"


Parte del dibujo me gusto, otra parte no. Las historias, algunas mejores que otras

[mxd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmmm. It was all riiiiiiight, I guess. It's a slim volume, so there's not much in it, and of what there is, only half of it is really good. I really loved the Iron Man and Captain America's alternate realities and enjoyed the Hulk ones (there's a rather cheeky one I found really funny), but the rest were rather boring and forgettable. I do love Stark and Cap's friendship, it's one of the most compelling, fun and interesting aspect of the Avengers, so it was great seeing how their feud plays out in other realities and I could have just kept reading reality upon reality of that. I think there was a Spiderman one in there somehow too, no memory of what happened there.

A bit disappointing overall.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beauty of a What If? story is about seeing what could have been. This collection of stories didn't seem to want to push the envelope at all and most of the basic premises were a bust from the jump. Annihilation brought nothing of interest to the table. Civil War was nearly identical. Planet Hulk was good. Spider-Man/Wolverine was nonsense. Shi'ar was bland with terrible art. Overall, this collection is not worth the time. Seek out the Planet Hulk issue on its own.

[Roland Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d been reading this a while but never finished it up. I’m not 100% on the original stories but I did enjoy these for being their own thing. The artwork throughout is like a summer blockbuster and it’s well written. I’m not the biggest Marvel guy but this was great

[Orange · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, the Steve/Tony stuff (volunteering for a suicide mission together, Tony self-flagellating at Steve’s gravesite, etc.) got to me.

[Luci · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little complicated convoluted but still fun.

[Nick Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally like these What If... tales and while this one is enjoyable it doesn’t really add to our understanding of the original, rather it goes some way to lessening it’s impact.

[The_J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Annihilus, Planet Hulk, so man pieces bundled together, but built on shaky premises from some wild ending - Black Bolt stripping the skin pretty graphic.

[Eugenio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to see 2 different what ifs in 1 book. That was the books saving grace, cause the art really irked me.

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book's title is deceptive. The first third of the book covers two What If? Civil War stories, with the second being a much more reasonable, less dramatic end to the conflict. The rest of the book covers other good-but-long Marvel epics from the past couple years (World War Hulk, Annihilation, Rise & Fall Of The Shi'ar Empire, and a random Wolverine/Spider-Man story). So anyone fooled by the Civil War-style cover and doesn't read the back cover will be really diappointed.
What's worse is that the Civil War stories are probably the worst of the bunch. The Hulk stories, which also touch on bits of Planet Hulk, are the least serious and best What Ifs. There's a one-off joke story as well as a good Banner/Hulk contrast on an alternate Planet Hulk.
I ignored the Annihilation book (haven't read that story, so the what ifs wouldn't make much sense), and the X-Men story had lots of explosions and weirdness related to the Phoenix Force. And Larry Stroman has a hard time drawing necks that don't bend too much. I'm not sure what book the final Spidey/Wolvy story refers to (it may just be a movie tie-in), but it's a nice What If? in which Peter Parker abandons his real life to become a spy.

[Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only a third of this actually had to do with "Civil War". The rest were just "What If?" stories that they decided to throw in so they could actually make a trade paperback.

I barely got through even the parts related to "Civil War". It was basically just Marvel writing fanfiction, and not nearly as well as most fanfiction writers can do. We could have imagined these "what if" scenarios just as easily, and probably better.

The first "What if" story for "Civil War" had something to do with Captain America being on the opposite side, I think? I couldn't concentrate on it because I intensely hated the art-work. It was like caricatures, rather than comic art. It was grotesque and horrible. The artwork physically pained me. Especially compared to the beautiful pages with Tony and the Stranger.

The rest, I don't even remember. And I barely bothered past the Civil War stuff.

There was one where Spiderman and Wolverine became a killing team. Weird.

There was also a Planet Hulk section. I never read Planet Hulk. So it was pointless for me.

Ditto the Annihilation part. I'd never even heard of that arc.

I think the entire Civil War arc was just for Marvel to make as much money as they possibly could, by releasing far too many paperbacks, which weren't even really necessary.

[Lissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like many of the non-classic What If? collections, the title of this trade is rather misleading. Only one of the issues collected here has to do with the Marvel Civil War; the rest deal with such events as Annihilation, Planet Hulk, and the Shi'ar Empire. A couple of these events are several years old, so if you're new to comics, you might not have heard of them.

The Civil War one shot is pretty good, and it shows what could have happened if Tony had actually talked to Steve about what his plans were and they had come to an agreement. I kind of like how it zings Tony, who is standing over Cap's grave at that point, but then again, I'm a Cap fangirl. ;)

The Planet Hulk issues were also really good. One is bittersweet, one is rather cute, and there's a one-page strip that's funny.

The latter half of the book I didn't care a thing about, so I just flipped through those issues.

The art is hit or miss, since so many worked on these issues. There's one issue illustrated by Larry Stroman, who is quite possibly the worst artist in Marvel's employ. But there's also some good art to be found in the trade, as well.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. This was merely okay. Basically, there are only two stories with any meaningful Civil War connection, and the rest were more or less thrown in to pad out the book. With so many contributing writers and artists, this one is all over the map. I did enjoy the Civil War stories, particularly the second one. The X-Men story I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of. It's insular to the point of being inscrutable to anyone without a master's degree in X-Men continuity. I used to read X-Men a long time ago, back when they were Uncanny and Chris Claremont was writing them. I gave up comics in general for financial reasons 'round about issue 236 or so. Anyway, couldn't get into the story, and my unfamiliarity with current stories shouldn't have been THAT much of a barrier. I enjoyed the Planet Hulk stuff in this book just fine, and that's a comic I've not read just as long as the X-Men. Anyway, as I said: Hit or miss, sadly tending toward the latter. And as a longtime Hembeck fan, I did love his one page gag strip.

[Jazzypom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars, because too many stories were fillers. The best ones were: what if Ironman and Captain America averted the civil war or what if Tony Stark had died and project 'wide awake' was implemented. Those two stories stand out, because they are just stark contrasts. One is happy and disaster averted, the other one is dark, dystopian and depressing. The Spiderman story was okay, but the other two/three stories were middling to terrible and the art was shoddy. Buy second hand or swap for it, if you must.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

What If stories arent read because they are well written or sensical. They are read just beacuse im interested in alternate routes of what has already happened. With that excuse with the exception of the Final Wolverine/Spider-Man What If I could have been ok skipping this. Lack luster artwork and ok various pathes were just pretty boring. The What if Planet Hulk with him landing on his designated planet was a funny great read though.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 2 out of 5]

What If comics will always be a mixed bag of alternate stories for the Marvel universe but this particular compilation was really all over the place. The only book that really stood out was notable and most worthy of the What If brand was Planet Hulk while the others including the titular one for Civil War were really hard to get through in terms of both narrative flow and art style. Not a great set at all.

[Jordan Bernas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun filler read, the only ones that I would really recommend are the first, centering around Tony Stark and Cap, as well as the Annihilus section. The art for Annihilus is pretty muddled, but I liked way the ending was written.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked seeing more of the X-Men in this volume, and the "What if?" with Nova. This had a number of shorter issues in it instead of one volume centered on the same series.