Doug: If you are the first one to comment, then it is your responsibility, nay privilege, to set the fantasy topic (Marvel or DC) of the day. If you weren't around the first time we did this, you can see how it worked by clicking here. And by the way, being a hit-and-miss collector of the actual What If? book back in the day, I really offered the Cap/Bucky topic with no knowledge that it had already been done (sort of -- we were just a bit different here) in What If? #5! Have fun with this!
What if Crystal had jilted Quicksilver for Johhny Storm in FF 150?
ReplyDeleteThe silver-haired speedster, with the aid of Shi'ar spy Eric The Red or a Skrull ageing ray) restores the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to adulthood- that's Mastermind, Blob, Unus and Lorelei (not Magneto-too dangerous and unpredictable)
The Brotherhood then launch a revenge attack on the FF. Wanda saves her brother from himself with the assistance of her old admirer, the Toad and his Stranger-technology. The mutant siblings then retire to Transia. (Hmm. I may have just derailed a significant part of the Celestial Madonna storyline!)
Hey, good one Dougie!
ReplyDeleteCertainly some issues right off the top of my head: Johnny doesn't marry Skrull-Alicia, he doesn't meet Frankie Ray (thus potentially negating the Nova/Galactus storyline), maybe Sue retires to have more babies, etc.
Over on the Avengers side, you're right - maybe the Wanda/Vizh romance cools due to Wanda's preoccupation with Pietro -- hence Mantis getting her hooks into the Vision. Where does this leave the Swordsman? Does he become a guy they keep around for that love-triangle?
First thoughts, and good topic!
Doug
If it means Crystal would have then joined the FF, I'm thinking maybe the Thing, feeling like an extra wheel among a pair of married couples, would have left the team (at least for a while). So perhaps the earlier advent of a solo career for him (and a new series for him - either parallel to MTIO or in its stead). Or, better yet, he eventually starts his own team with a bunch of Marvel second stringers (some of those guys from the better MTIO team-ups like Quasar and Bill Foster Giant-man, maybe also Thundra and Tigra).
ReplyDeleteDoug's speculation about a different outcome for the Vision/Scarlet Witch romance is intriguing - I was never a fan of their marriage, it always seemed to make both characters less interesting. Mantis, on the other hand, would have made things much more interesting in my opinion. But maybe that's a subject for another What if? post...
Crystal would have joined the FF, which means Lockjaw would have joined with her.
ReplyDeleteWith Reed's help, his spacial/dimensional teleportation would gained perfect accuracy, and the team would become able to move instantly from New York to Asgard to the Negative Zone to wherever, making their adventures unlimited in cosmic scope. And if Lockjaw started talking he and Ben would become freaky outcast buddies.
Oh, and Quicksilver would have completely lost it and joined forces with his father, urging an expanded Brotherhood pf Evil Mutants into an allout war against the Hidden Refuge.
(With a nod to Edo's post)
ReplyDeleteThe marriage alters the Fanastic Four with Crystal becoming a full-time member. The Thing, not wanting to be the fifth wheel in a team of two couples, leaves the group.
Marvel then launches a new series: Ben Grimm, Agent of S.H.E.I.L.D. His relationship with Alicia is tested as he goes on a mission into Lavertia with the Black Widow. Nick Fury, meanwhile, wonders who stole his cigars ...
I love Edo's idea of Ben teaming with Quasar, Tigra and Thundra.(I see Foster as a more reluctant super-doer) The Fantastic Five,perhaps? But I also want I. Wretch's SHIELD adventure as a prelude.
ReplyDeleteI think a spurned Pietro would definitely target the Great Refuge, in the hope of luring Johnny into a trap, using the mutate Lorelei to score a point.
As for the Swordsman, I still see him as part of a triangle with Mantis and the Vision. But i'd like to redeem him more thoroughly, returned to life by Immortus and dispatching Zemo to save Mantis in Limbo. All the key players are then still in place for the Cotati History of the Universe.
As I dropped out in the mid 80’s, I never know ‘what happened next’ anyway.
ReplyDeleteSo...Crystal jilts Quicksilver, who in a vain bid to prove himself superior to the Torch, recklessly goes after Ultron during Maximus’s attack and Pietro is killed. Johnny & Crystal have a daughter, who is not Luna, because Crystal doesn’t go the moon with the Inhumans. Their daughter becomes a fantastically powerful and dangerous mutant called Firestorm. In her teenage years she is exploited and brainwashed against humanity by her uncle ( Maximus) and is on verge of incinerating half the planet (in a Dark Firestorm stylie) and is ultimately only stopped by the one mutant whose powers can nullify her’s....which would be her aunt. I like the idea of Wanda and Maximus going head to head while the world burns behind them.
Richard