Continuity is one of the greatest strengths and biggest weaknesses of long-running comic books. Marvel, in particular, benefits and suffers from this double-edged sword, given that they never reboot their universe like DC has. Decisions made sixty years ago are still canon today, even when stories do everything in their power to keep them irrelevant. We’ve watched Marvel’s universe grow and develop into the beautiful mess that it is today because every story has to build off the ones that came before, for better and worse. These comics have worked together to create one solid continuity made from hundreds of comics and decisions across years.
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Of course, there are some decisions made that leave fans wondering what could have been. That desire is what spawned one of Marvel’s greatest experiments, the What If series. Every issue asked the simple question of what if something different had happened? To celebrate fifty years since its first issue, the series is back in a big way and is asking the big questions that have left fans frothing at the mouth for years. Today, we’re looking at What If…? Uncanny X-Men #1, which asked what Marvel would look like if Cyclops stayed with his ex-wife, Madelyne Pryor. However, this series also brings back its greatest weakness and worst problem.
Family, Fridging, and Failures Abound
This issue picked up right after the original “Inferno” event, with Cyclops retiring from X-Factor to be with his saved wife and son. As a final act of heartbreak and love, Jean wiped Mister Sinister’s brain and left the Earth to let the couple live in peace. Scott and Madelyne kept the secret of their powers and their past from Nathan until his own great abilities awakened, at which point they became a superhero family. They were immensely popular and successful, even turning public support towards mutantkind for a brief moment. Unfortunately, nothing good lasts forever, and that includes Sinister staying out of their lives. When his memories returned, Sinister launched an attack that blinded Scott and killed Madelyne, setting Scott on a dark path.
Cyclops and the young Cable killed Mister Sinister and became much darker, war-like heroes on their quest to protect what they had left. By the time the Krakoa Age rolled around, with Mister Sinister dead, the mutant nation lacked the ability to resurrect people, meaning that death was permanent. This led to the Arakkii decimating Krakoa in the X of Swords tournament. The war-mongering mutants led a full invasion of Earth, which killed the final members of the Summers family and the rest of Earth’s heroes. Humanity tried to stop the Arakkii with nuclear war, but it ended up wiping everyone out, leaving the Earth a barren wasteland.
What If Everything Was Worse for No Reason?
The best What If…? stories thrust the reader into a world similar to their own, but diverge into something truly unique, or at least fulfill the promise of what the people who asked this question wanted to see. Instead, this story follows the worst direction these alternate-universe tales go. Instead of focusing on the emotional beats or family dynamics that the people buying this comic would want to see, it rushed through major events like a checklist, never giving the reader a moment to sit in the new direction. It literally killed Maddie for no reason halfway through the issue, which goes against everything this comic promised. Instead of giving us Scott and Maddie content, it fridged her to set up the dark future it was chasing.
By far, the worst aspect of any bad What If…? is how dedicated they are to “proving” that Earth 616 is objectively the best world it could be, and that anyone who says otherwise is stupid. The worst What If…?s always end with the world being destroyed or objectively worse off than before, just to tout how great the original Marvel Universe is. It feels so mean-spirited and senseless for no reason at all. Madelyne Pryor fans already suffer enough, and the last thing they needed is a story that practically promises to fix all those issues, only to immediately fall flat on its face. This didn’t deliver on the promise of the question at all. It just made me sad.
What If…? Uncanny X-Men #1 is on sale now.
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