What If: Fantastic Four

    (Marvel, 2006)
™ and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

In 2004 Marvel resurrected the What If…? concept making it a series of one-shot specials. In 2005 it became the December event featuring six one-shots that introduced a new “watcher.”   Hector Espejo is the world’s greatest hacker, known to the online community as The Watcher. He is called this because he has hacked into the internet of another dimension. The alternate histories he sees there are drastically different than the kind of “familiar-yet-different” spin that have comprised “What if...?” stories.   When Rudion Richards’ space capsule disintegrated and exposed his crew to unknown radiation, they gain amazing super-powers. It’s 1951 and the Cold War is in full force, so Soviet leader Joseph Stalin appropriated the team to be enforcers of Soviet Union policy. This eventually leads them into a confrontation with the Avengers in a scenario that mirrors the Cuban missile crisis and becomes a watershed event.
In “What if the Fantastic Four Were Cosmonauts?” only Richards remains as a member of the titular team. The rest of the quartet are Piotr Rasputin, his sister Iliana and Natasha Romanoff—Colossus, Magik and The Black Widow respectively in the normal continuity.

— George Haberberger 
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#1

February, 2006
Cover Price: $2.99
8 copies available from $2.96 		Mike CareyMarshall Rogers