WHAT IF? vol.2 #30 (1991)
First story: by Jim Valentino & Dale Eaglesham
Second story: by Ron Marz & Rurik Tyler
Cover by Tom Morgan
This is an interesting way to do a What If: two stories that take the same exact question, “What If the Invisible Woman had her second child?”, but give two completely different answers.
In the mainstream continuity, the Invisible Woman had a miscarriage and lost her daughter (until she was later resurrected thanks to time travel shenanigans, because comics).
But in this reality, her son Franklin has nightmares about her pregnancy.
I never understood those times Franklin’s dreams are dismissed as “just dreams”. THEY KNOW he has precognitive abilities and THEY KNOW some of his dreams have already become true, so it’s always forced whenever they randomly don’t trust his power.
See? Told you!
Susan dies in childbirth, but the daughter survives. She’s actually named Susan as well, but thankfully they call her Suzy throughout the story so I’ll just call her that.
Franklin grows from being distrustful of his sister to outright hating her guts.
I can’t imagine why, she looks fine to me.
I get that Reed is not himself for having lost his wife, but… the smartest man in the world, ladies and gentlemen.
“There’s nothing to worry about, we are irradiating the people around us, you’re just being hysterical”.
Jesus Christ, Reed…
The Human Torch also dies of the same sickness, but the Thing is just turned back into a human.
Aaaand he’s killed off.
COME ON, THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!
Please, won’t SOMEONE be reasonable in this story? Anyone!?
Never a good sign when the most reasonable person in the room is Doctor Freaking Doom.
Also, a reason why this is another timeline? Doom is actually sitting down like a normal person.
See? Even DOOM can see Reed is not himself!
Turns out Franklin was right all along: his sister is a freaking Xenomorph!!!
Suzie kills Reed, so it’s up to Doctor Doom to save the day!
Aaaand he’s killed off.
It’s up to Franklin to save the day… by default, since he’s the only one still alive.
And so we end with the tragic reminder that things would’ve been better IF EVERYONE WASN’T A COMPLETE IDIOT.
That was a bleak ending. Will the second story be more upbeat?
Well it starts with both mother and daughter alive, so it’s good sign.
Reed’s tech confirms that Mary will get super-powers, but not what they are. So we have a montage of Mary’s childhood, which is what you would expect from a story like this.
Interestingly, due to the time travel shenanigans (and her super-intelligence) we never got to see the FF’s actual daughter Valeria have much of a normal childhood, so this a nice substitute.
We jump ahead quite a bit to Mary being a teenager, and she develop the power to heal others.
And her healing powers are quite something: she manages to heal an entire hospital, FROM EVERYTHING, even if it takes a toll on her body.
She even becomes the head of a huge movement, plus she can also cure pollution. SOMEHOW.
Even the Punisher is a fan!!!
Big Business and the President don’t like her, which is not surprising…
…as is the fact that the Avengers resign en masse rather than follow Washington’s order to take Mary down.
What is shocking is that Captain America agrees with the government (he’s not the first one to resign!? WTF!?). But it’s Hercules that gets the best scene, of all people.
Captain America shows up at Mary’s rally to STAB HER, but don’t worry: it’s not really Cap, more on that later.
This creates a massive riot, but Mary is able to heal herself and calm everybody down by “healing their minds”.
And so we end with Mary having a complete recovery, with the government being terrified of the social movement she’s inspired…
…and the revelation that “Captain America” was actually perpetual Avengers nuisance Gyrich.
The actual Captain America is totally going to murder him for what he’s done, and I’m perfectly fine with that.
Did any of this show up in continuity?
The daughter of Reed and Susan will of course return to continuity, with the name Valeria. She’s neither a life-sucking succubus or a messianic healer, just a human with super-intelligence. Other than the fact that she’s blonde, she has virtually nothing in common with Suzie or Mary.
Oddly enough, the only part that reminded me of Valeria is actually from the scene where Franklin goes to Doom for help. Doom is Valeria’s godfather and the two share a relationship not unlike that seen here with Franklin.
Silver Age-ness
First story: 0/10
Like you could do any of this before the 90s.
Seconds story: 2/10
The very simplistic way of looking at the movement inspired by Mary reminds me a little bit of some of the early attempts at social commentary.
Does it stand the test of time?
First story: 5/10
I had fonder memories of this one, but re-reading it… this is just trying too hard. The potential for a good horror story is definitely there, but the way it’s written requires every single character except Franklin and Doom to be idiots. They could’ve EASILY fixed it by stating that Suzy has some kind of telepathic influence over her victims. It would’ve been even easier to explain why Franklin and Doom were immune: the kid is a telepath, and Doom is notoriously hard to influence.
Seconds story: 8/10
This was much, MUCH better. There are parts that don’t hold very well… Captain America not resigning, plus Gyrich is a colossal dick but even he isn’t THIS terrible. But other than that, I can believe a story like this happening in mainstream continuity today.