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#5: Interviews with MARK HAMILL and Greatest American Hero’s WILLIAM KATT! Blast off with JASON OF STAR COMMAND! Stop by the MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE! Poke fun at a campy BATMAN COMIC BOOK! Plus: “The First Time I Met Tarzan,” MAJOR MATT MASON, Moon Landing Mania, SNUFFY SMITH at 100 with cartoonist JOHN ROSE, TV Dinners, Celebrity Crushes, and more fun, fab features! SHIPS JUNE 2019! #6: Interviews with crazy creepster SVENGOOLIE and Eddie Munster himself, BUTCH PATRICK! Call on the original Saturday Morning Ghost Busters, with BOB BURNS! Uncover the nutty Naugas! Plus: “My Life in the Twilight Zone,” “I Was a Teenage James Bond,” “My Letters to Famous People,” the ARCHIEDOBIE GILLIS connection, the PINBALL Hall of Fame, Super Collector DAVID MANDEL’s comic art collection, Alien action figures, the RUBIK’S CUBE fad, and more fun, fab features! SHIPS SEPTEMBER 2019! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazines) $8.95 (Digital Editions) $4.95

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THE CRAZY, COOL CULTURE WE GREW UP WITH! LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon, “How I Met Lon Chaney, Jr.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare Elastic Hulk toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of The Andy Griffith Show), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and Mr. Microphone!

HALLOWEEN! Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and an interview with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS! The long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! History of BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, SINDY (the British Barbie), and more!

40th Anniversary interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, horror and sci-fi zines of the Sixties and Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL (home of the Superman Celebration), SEA-MONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages, Superman and Batman memorabilia, and more!

Interviews with the SHAZAM! TV show’s JOHN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL (Billy Batson) Gray, the GREEN HORNET in Hollywood, remembering monster maker RAY HARRYHAUSEN, the wayout Santa Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the Spirit movie pilot, British sci-fi TV classic THUNDERBIRDS, Casper & Richie Rich museum, the KING TUT fad, and more!

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Volume 1, Number 111 April 2019 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Alex Ross COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Mike W. Barr Jim Joseph Jerry Bingham Barbara Kesel Charlie Boatner Karl Kesel Eric Bresler David Anthony Kraft Jonathan R. Brown Jim Krueger Richard Bruning Paul Kupperberg Bob Budiansky Bob Layton Sal Buscema John Paul Leon Jarrod Buttery Marvel Comics Ed Catto Brian Martin Howard Chaykin Christy Marx Brian Cronin Ron Marz Peter David Jim McLauchlin Tom DeFalco David Michelinie Zedric Dimalanta Luigi Novi Colin Dorman George Pérez Jo Duffy Bill Reinhold Michael Eury of Alex Ross Earth-Two Bob Rozakis Danny Fingeroth Scott Rubin Peter B. Gillis Rose Rummel-Eury Don Glut Scott Shaw! Grand Comics Walter Simonson Database Evan Skolnik Steven Grant Beau Smith Dan Greenfield Jerry Smith Butch Guice Roger Stern Jack C. Harris Roy Thomas Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Mike Tiefenbacher Heritage Comics Michael Uslan Auctions Mark Waid Rick Hoberg Alan Weiss Sean Howe John Wells Tony Isabella Marv Wolfman

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FLASHBACK: What If?: Infinite Alternate Realities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Numerous creators recall their contributions to Marvel’s original What If? series PRINCE STREET NEWS: Alternate Alternate Realities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Imagine that! Karl Heitmueller, Jr.’s at it again! FLASHBACK: Rethinking the Imaginary Tale for the Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The transformation of DC Comics’ out-of-continuity stories OFF MY CHEST: Alan Moore’s Amazing Sequel to the Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Charlie Boatner’s guest column connects a classic tale to a modern one PRO2PRO: Peter David and George Pérez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The colossal combo confabs about their epic Hulk tale, Future Imperfect FLASHBACK: DC Comics’ Elseworlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 The imaginary-story brand’s ups and downs FLASHBACK: Marvel 2099 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 An overview of the House of Ideas’ ill-fated futureverse FLASHBACK: EARTH X AT 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Alex Ross and friends look back at the trailblazing future-Marvel series BACK TALK will return next issue. BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $76 Economy US, $125 International, $32 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Alex Ross. Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, and related characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2019 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows, except Prince Street News, © Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Alternate Realities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

“First off, please don’t call them ‘imaginary stories’!” In his editorial in What If? #1 (Feb. 1977), Roy Thomas explained how he created the book. “The way Stan would plot most of those early issues was to ask himself the kinds of questions the readers must be asking themselves. What if, for instance, the Hulk and Thor fought it out? What if the Fantastic Four went broke? What if some of the Avengers left the line-up and other super-heroes joined? “Only one problem with that approach,” continued Thomas: “There are some stories you just can’t do in our ‘normal’ books.” Thomas emphasized that he didn’t want to do imaginary stories, but rather stories that occur on parallel worlds: “These stories are ones which actually do take place—not in our dimension or time continuum, but in worlds coexisting alongside ours. The stories don’t happen in our world—but they do happen!”

FANTASTIC FIVE

In Amazing Spider-Man #1 (Mar. 1963), Spidey, looking to make some money, attempts to join the Fantastic Four but is told the FF is a nonprofit organization. But what if Reed Richards had said yes? “What If Spider-Man Had Joined the Fantastic Four?” was the question asked in What If? #1 (Feb. 1977). In this particular alternate universe, Spidey’s inclusion pushes Sue even further into the background—so much so that when Namor comes a’wooing, Sue accepts the offer. This issue establishes the format followed by almost every subsequent issue: an introduction, a precis of established events, and a turning point—narrated by the Watcher (although this is the only issue with a Kryptonian cameo!). What If? #1 entrenches the title’s double-sized, bimonthly schedule. “The larger size was available and Stan and I agreed that that was needed for What If?” explains Thomas to BACK ISSUE. “Jim Craig, as a new artist, did a nice job on #1 with the story I just knew had to start the series. And I’m glad I had the idea to have the Watcher narrate the stories, so that they were tied, however loosely, with Marvel continuity.”

“HULK CHAT!”

“What If the Hulk Had Always Had Bruce Banner’s Brain?” followed in What If? #2 (Apr. 1977). Classic Herb Trimpe Hulk artwork adorned this butterfly-effect issue. An intelligent Hulk helps the Fantastic Four in curing Ben Grimm (the FF disband). The rational Hulk doesn’t fall for Loki’s tricks (no Avengers). Banner and Reed Richards form a research team, soon to be joined by Charles Xavier (no X-Men). Thus, Earth has few defenders when Galactus arrives…. This issue hosts the first letters page: “Why Not?” (named by Marv Wolfman), featuring a letter from Mark Gruenwald. All of Gruenwald’s suggestions for future stories eventually saw print and he later became an editor on the book. “I don’t think Mark ever had any particular relationship to What If? while I was on it, unless he was handling a few of the assistant-editor chores while I was in L.A.,” recalls Thomas.

Team Expansion Spidey joins the FF in What If? #1 (Feb. 1977)—and a new Marvel concept begins. Cover by John Romita, Sr. and Joe Sinnott. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

2 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

by J a

rrod Buttery

DISASSEMBLED

At the end of Avengers #2 (Nov. 1963), the Hulk quit the team. What if everyone else went their separate ways, too? “What If the Avengers Had Never Been?” Of course, in Avengers #3, the Hulk and Sub-Mariner unite to destroy mankind—but in What If? #3 there is no Avengers team to stop them. Jim Shooter and Gil Kane present Tony Stark’s solution. Although Thomas was the creator and editor of the book, issue #3 caught him by surprise: “Once Marvel stuck in #3 without telling me in advance, I got kind of soured on it (and them) and eased off doing them all—first farming some out to Don Glut and then leaving the series entirely. The third issue might have been a fine story—I’ve never really read it—and Gil Kane’s art is always nice… but I considered it a betrayal by Marvel’s editorial department.”

INVADERS

Interviewed in Alter Ego #70 (July 2007), Thomas chuckled, “ ‘What If the Invaders Had Stayed Together After World War Two?’ Hey, guess what—they did! I’m happy that my view of that being a What If? that actually counted in Marvel continuity has prevailed. That story didn’t even really belong in What If?, but I did it anyway.” Thomas’ editorial in What If? #4 (Aug. 1977) asserted: “Because it wouldn’t fit anywhere else!” Indeed, at that time, the monthly Invaders title was going strong and there was no need to show the end of WWII. However, a story in What If? could show the end of the war and the events thereafter. We get to see the original Human Torch incinerate Hitler, the heroes’ reactions to the news that Captain America and Bucky have been (presumably) killed in action, and the men who took their places to continue the legend.

Nosy, Ain’t He? From page 1 of issue #1, writer/editor Roy Thomas makes it clear through the inclusion of the Watcher that What If? features glimpses of parallel worlds, not “disposable” imaginary stories. Interior comic scans accompanying this article courtesy of Jarrod Buttery. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

BUCKY LIVES

However, “What If Captain America and Bucky Had Both Survived World War II?” We find out in What If? #5 (Oct. 1977). As both characters mature, Steve Rogers eventually becomes head of the newly formed S.H.I.E.L.D. and Bucky takes over as Captain America. This was the first issue written by Don Glut. As Thomas explained in Alter Ego, “Don Glut needed work at the time, so I would come up with some of the ideas and he would write them. And after a little while, I drifted off totally from What If? once I’d done the handful of stories I thought up at the outset.” Glut agrees: “Yes, back in those days I always needed work and spent more time hustling for it than actually doing it. Roy was (and still is) a very good friend who was always looking out for me and throwing as many gigs as he could my way. (Thanks, Roy!) I think he explained the concept as something like—but different from—DC’s ‘imaginary stories.’ Unlike those, the What If?s actually happened, only in a parallel universe. That was an intriguing premise and opened many doors.” Glut had written some early sword-and-sorcery titles, but admits, “I was way more interested in doing the What If? stories, because they involved the Marvel superhero characters I’d been reading about as a fan. And I knew that, living on the West Coast, I’d probably never write any of Marvel’s first-tier superhero books. Writing these What If?s gave me a chance to try my hand at writing stories—albeit alternate universe versions—of some of the ‘big guns’ like Spider-Man, Thor, Daredevil, and Captain America. I did enjoy using characters I’d liked reading about as a fan and re-routing their lives along my own sometimes bizarre directions.”

Hulk… Smart! We’d say this Herb Trimpe/Tom Sutton splash page from What If? #2 is smashing, wouldn’t you? Courtesy of Heritage Comic Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Alternate Realities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

Dysfunction Junction (left) And you thought the Defenders were Marvel’s non-team? Writer Jim Shooter’s What If? #3 (June 1977) featured dynamite Gil Kane art, inked on the cover by Joe Sinnott and inside by Klaus Janson. (right) Beautiful original cover art (courtesy of Heritage) by penciler Rick Hoberg from What If? #5. Inks by Sinnott. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

FABULOUS FOUR

Thomas scripted “What If the Fantastic Four Had Different Super-Powers?” in issue #6 (Dec. 1977), with “invaluable plotting contributions from Christy Marx, Rick Hoberg, and Don Glut!” Glut elaborates: “As I recall, coming up with those different powers was a group effort that Rick, Christy, and I discussed at one of Rick’s parties. I seem to remember Rick coming up with the Mandroid concept— you know, stemming from Johnny’s interest in cars.” “That’s a completely accurate account,” agrees Hoberg. “My wife and I threw lots of great parties in those days, and on this particular occasion, Christie, Don, and I had a blast coming up with the new FF. The three of us were basically Roy’s West Coast bullpen at that time. Tremendous creative energy!” Hoberg also drew most of the issue, after Jim Craig penciled the opening salvo. “Roy gave me the chance to prove myself with this assignment, after having given me some work on books like Savage Sword of Conan,” Hoberg explains. “Jim Craig was going to begin work on the 3-D Man [in Marvel Premiere] for Roy immediately, so I came in to pinch-hit. And I must have at least gotten a double, because more work was quickly forthcoming.” Christy Marx (creator of Jem and the Holograms) was credited as “Kristy” in this issue. “Yes, that was me. It was a brief, passing phase,” confirms Marx. “Rick and I pitched the idea to Roy at a party, but I also followed up with a written document that laid out the plot, which I gave to Roy. I have a transcription I made of the original typed pages. You’ll see that my name is correctly spelled on the outline.”

4 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

SPIDER-PERSONS

What If? #7 (Feb. 1978) asked, “What If Someone Else Had Become the Amazing Spider-Man?” Don Glut elaborates: “As memory serves me, I think Roy just said three other people without specifying who they should be. The ones I used [Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, John Jameson] were the most obvious choices, although I probably could have picked Harry Osborne or J. Jonah Jameson. But the three I picked seemed to allow for the best opportunities for portraying the Spider-candidates differently.” Its artist, Rick Hoberg, laments, “This Spider-Man assignment came to me so quickly after the previous story that I have to admit I was completely unprepared for the volume of work needed to do it justice. I hired an assistant who completely dropped the ball on me, creating more anxiety than I was already experiencing from deadline pressure. To be frank, I did as much reference work as I could from my comic collection, but ended up feeling like I did a terrible job on the story. Still, Roy seemed to feel it was more than adequate and we went on to the next job. To this day, it’s difficult for me to look at the art I did for that issue, even though lots of fans seem to love it.”

AND A BLIND MAN…

“I know the Daredevil idea was mine alone and Roy, at the outset, was a bit skeptical as to how such a minor thing as people knowing he was blind could build into a meaningful and exciting story,” states Glut.

“I think that the Captain America and Thor stories were also original ideas by yours truly.” Indeed, in What If? #8 (Apr. 1978), Electro asks Daredevil, “What color is my costume?” leading to “What If the World Knew Daredevil Was Blind?” and the first Daredevil What If? with a happy ending. This was also the first issue with a backup story, as Scott Shaw! pondered, “What If the Spider Had Been Bitten by a Radioactive Human?” Shaw! explains: “For about a year, I managed the American Comic Book Company in Studio City, California. I had already written and drawn a number of underground and ‘ground-level’ comic-book stories, but nothing yet for the mainstream publishers. Roy was one of my regular customers and we became friends. I think that Roy invited me to pitch him ideas for humorous backup stories for What If?, and this was the first one I came up with. The concept was just a flip of the original, so it wasn’t that brilliant on my part, but it gave me another opportunity to draw funny animals, a genre I was starting to build a reputation for.” Not content with Webster Weaver, the ’Mazing Man-Spider, Shaw! name-dropped another 20+ characters, such as Fishterio and Octo Doctorpuss! “The writing aspect came easily,” he admits. “Roy likes puns, I liked puns, and I was very familiar with Spidey’s history and foes up to that point in time. I should point out that the ‘radioactive human’ was based on Dr. Roger Freedman, a physics professor who’s one of my best friends and who lettered a lot of my early comics. It’s also noteworthy that my friend and neighbor Dave (The Rocketeer) Stevens penciled and inked the ‘straight’ panel of Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider.”

AGENTS OF ATLAS

Issue #9 pondered, “What if the Avengers Had Fought Evil in the 1950s?” Roy Thomas admits, “I wish I had written the 1950s Avengers story myself, simply because I really wanted to… but that’s not to fault Don’s [Glut]

story, which was very much along the lines of what I wanted. [Penciler] Alan Kupperberg worked hard on it, too, though his art wasn’t as developed at that stage as I’d have liked. I think that usually my input was just a general plotline, a concept, or at most a couple of sentences. Even with the 1950s Avengers I only had the general idea, and that 3-D Man, Venus, and Marvel Boy would be in the book. Gorilla-Man and Human Robot were Don’s additions, which I think worked very well. I don’t recall if I told him to add another character or two, but I can’t imagine that I wanted the group to be fewer than five people.” Don Glut confirms, “Yes, Roy would sometimes come up with a basic idea—like an Avengers group existing in the 1950s—and let me run with it. Roy told me not to use Captain America, Sub-Mariner, or the original Human Torch, who all existed in 1950s Atlas stories. I don’t recall why, other than maybe he had ideas of his own for those characters, or maybe because he wanted to give more space to some of the lesserknown heroes. “My favorite What If? has always been the 1950s Avengers one,” Glut reveals. “I’d grown up in the ’50s, which wasn’t such a long time ago when I wrote the story. So I had many fond memories of that era and was able to insert a lot of in-jokes and references.”

A Whole New You (Times 4) (left) Hoberg’s cover to the FF-starring What If? #6 (Dec. 1977). (right) A page from Christy Marx’s plot contributions to that issue, courtesy of the writer. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Alternate Realities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 5

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100-PAGE SPECIAL featuring Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom! Buyer’s Guide, Comic Book Price Guide, DC’s Comicmobile, Super DC Con ’76, Comic Reader, FOOM, Amazing World of DC, Charlton Bullseye, Squa Tront, & more! ALAN LIGHT, BOB OVERSTREET, SCOTT EDELMAN, BOB GREENBERGER, JACK C. HARRIS, TONY ISABELLA, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT, BOB LAYTON, PAUL LEVITZ, MICHAEL USLAN, and others!

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MERCS AND ANTIHEROES! Deadpool’s ROB LIEFELD and FABIAN NICIEZA interviewed! Histories of Cable, Taskmaster, Deathstroke the Terminator, the Vigilante, and Wild Dog, plus… Archie meets the Punisher?? Featuring TERRY BEATTY, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PAUL KUPPERBERG, BATTON LASH, JEPH LOEB, DAVID MICHELINIE, MARV WOLFMAN, KEITH POLLARD, and others! Deadpool vs. Cable cover by LIEFELD!

ALL-STAR EDITORS ISSUE! Past and present editors reveal “How I Beat the Dreaded Deadline Doom”! Plus: ARCHIE GOODWIN and MARK GRUENWALD retrospectives, E. NELSON BRIDWELL interview, DIANA SCHUTZ interview, ALLAN ASHERMAN revisits DC’s ’70s editorial department, Marvel Assistant Editors’ Month, and a history of PERRY WHITE! With an unpublished 1981 Captain America cover by MIKE ZECK!

FOURTH WORLD AFTER KIRBY! Return(s) of the New Gods, Why Can’t Mister Miracle Escape Cancellation?, the Forever People, MIKE MIGNOLA’s unrealized New Gods animated movie, Fourth World in Hollywood, and an all-star lineup, including the work of JOHN BYRNE, PARIS CULLINS, J. M. DeMATTEIS, MARK EVANIER, MICHAEL GOLDEN, RICK HOBERG, WALTER SIMONSON, and more. STEVE RUDE cover!

DEADLY HANDS ISSUE! Histories of Iron Fist, Master of Kung Fu, Yang, the Bronze Tiger, Hands of the Dragon, NEAL ADAMS’ Armor, Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu mag, & Hong Kong Phooey! Plus Muhammad Ali in toons and toys. Featuring JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, STEVE ENGLEHART, PAUL GULACY, LARRY HAMA, DOUG MOENCH, DENNY O’NEIL, JIM STARLIN, & others. Classic EARL NOREM cover!

GOLDEN AGE IN BRONZE! ’70s Justice Society revival with two Pro2Pro interviews: All-Star Squadron’s ROY THOMAS, JERRY ORDWAY, and ARVELL JONES (with a bonus RICK HOBERG interview), and The Spectre’s JOHN OSTRANDER and TOM MANDRAKE. Plus: Liberty Legion, Air Wave, Jonni Thunder, Crimson Avenger, and the Spectre revival of ’87! WOOD, COLAN, CONWAY, GIFFEN, GIORDANO, & more!

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ARCHIE COMICS IN THE BRONZE AGE! STAN GOLDBERG and GEORGE GLADIR interviews, Archie knock-offs, Archie on TV, histories of Sabrina, That Wilkin Boy, Cheryl Blossom, and Red Circle Comics. With JACK ABEL, JON D’AGOSTINO, DAN DeCARLO, FRANK DOYLE, GRAY MORROW, DAN PARENT, HENRY SCARPELLI, ALEX SEGURA, LOU SCHEIMER, ALEX TOTH, and more! DAN DeCARLO cover.

BRONZE AGE AQUAMAN! Team-ups and merchandise, post-Crisis Aquaman, Aqualad: From Titan to Tempest, Black Manta history, DAVID and MAROTO’s Atlantis Chronicles, the original unseen Aquaman #57, and the unproduced Aquaman animated movie. With APARO, CALAFIORE, MARTIN EGELAND, GIFFEN, GIORDANO, ROBERT LOREN FLEMING, CRAIG HAMILTON, JURGENS, SWAN, and more. ERIC SHANOWER cover!

SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE 40th ANNIVERSARY! CARY BATES’ plans for unfilmed Superman V, ELLIOT S. MAGGIN’s Superman novels, 1975 CARMINE INFANTINO interview about the movie, plus interviews: JACK O’HALLORAN (Non), AARON SMOLINSKI (baby Clark), JEFF EAST (young Clark), DIANE SHERRY CASE (teenage Lana Lang), and Superman Movie Contest winner ED FINNERAN. Chris Reeve Superman cover by GARY FRANK!

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by J o

hn Wells

What if Clark Kent and Lois Lane got married? Would the legacy of Batman be carried on by Dick Grayson? How would the world react to the death of Superman? By 1970, all of those questions had been asked and answered—sometimes on multiple occasions—in the pages of DC comic books by way of a concept that editor Mort Weisinger dubbed the “Imaginary Tale.” The concept of alternate history was not new, even then. In Joanot Martorell’s Tirant lo Blanch (1490), the city of Constantinople did not fall to the Turks as it had in the reality of 1453. French writer Louis Geoffroy imagined Napoleon Bonaparte’s conquest of England in an 1836 tome and Noël Coward’s 1946 play Peace in Our Time posited Nazi occupation of the United Kingdom following victory in the Battle of Britain. World War II figured into DC’s earliest alternate histories, starting with a two-page fantasy by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in Look Magazine (February 27, 1940) wherein Superman snatched up Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin for judgment by the League of Nations. Once the U.S. had actually joined the war effort, 1942’s Action Comics #52 and Batman #12 each grimly postulated a United States that had fallen to the Nazi scourge. Meanwhile, Superman tilted toward lighter subject matter in several prototypical “imaginary tales.” In issue #19 (1942), for instance, had Clark Kent dreaming that Lois Lane had discovered his identity in one tale mort weisinger while another had them impossibly attending © DC Comics. the then-new theatrical Superman cartoon. A 1943 story transplanted Lois and Clark to the Gay Nineties (Superman #24), while a 1944 episode sent the Man of Steel back in time as a “StandIn for Hercules” (Superman #28).

SILVER AGE SUPPOSITIONS

The potential of such out-of-continuity stories wasn’t truly recognized until the late 1950s, when the aforementioned Mort Weisinger launched an all-out campaign to expand and enrich the core details of the Superman series into a bigger, grander mythology. Along with establishing more malleable characters like Supergirl and locales like the Phantom Zone and Kandor, the veteran editor also realized there was nothing to stop him from running stories that completely broke away from its most enduring conventions. Hence, a series of stories were Lois and Clark were husband and wife (beginning in 1960’s

Same As It Ever Was At the dawn of the Bronze Age, goofy imaginary stories like this one in Superman #224 (Feb. 1979) teetered into absurdity. Cover art by Curt Swan and Jack Abel. Comic scans in this article courtesy of John Wells. TM & © DC Comics.

Alternate Realities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 23

Double Wedding Ring any bells beyond wedding ones? Panel detail from Tom Strong #20 (June 2003), by Alan Moore, Jerry Ordway, and Karl Story. TM & © DC Comics.

likely choice for the original, since our hero’s affection for her formed when he was an adult. We might imagine that, when Red voiced his preference for Lois, Blue’s decision became obligatory. Blue chose Lana in a selfless attempt to keep the peace. If Blue and Lois regretted their choices and were attracted to each other, they might fall into each other’s arms, mirroring the events in the conclusion to “Tom Stone.” Brainiac (no longer a villain) or one of Superman’s robots might discover the affair. Lois would destroy the android. Friends of the two Supermen would choose sides. Superman-Red’s fellow Kryptonians might back him and become superpowered again when they attacked Blue on Earth. Friends, teammates, and former enemies of the original Superman would probably fight on the side of Earth and Superman-Blue. In the terminology of “Twilight of the Superheroes,” it would be the House of Red versus the House of Blue. Moore’s work suggests two possible endings. In “Tom Stone,” the timeline was erased. However, we may not have that luxury with an imaginary story. I suspect that his Red/Blue sequel would end like “Twilight”—with the superpowered clans eliminating each other, giving Earth back to ordinary and Earth-born creatures (but leaving an unknown level of destruction).

THE FALL OF CAMELOT

Of course, the idea of a utopia undermined by a betrayal between friends is familiar— it is the basic plot of the King Arthur legend. Arthur founds Camelot on a chivalric code of mercy and honesty; an affair between Arthur’s wife and best knight triggers a civil war. Moore’s interest in King Arthur may be seen in the “Twilight” proposal. One part reads, “To complicate things, Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel are having an affair behind the Captain’s back, Guinevere and Lancelot style, which has every bit as dire consequences as in the Arthurian legends.” The Arthur legend and the stories it has inspired suggest that Heaven-on-Earth is impossible because of human nature. Whatever humanity’s best intentions, our passions are unpredictable and more powerful.

Back in the “Tom Stone” story, when the android discovers the tryst, he says, “We had a Golden Age… Utopia! Now you two have thrown it all away, and you did for cheap sex!” It makes sense that an android would see it this way, because a utopia in an imperfect world must be built on good intent and law, as an android’s mind is built of instructions. However, Dhalua objects, “We did it all for love.” As I assume Lois would have said in her version. Moore seems to say that passion rejects Camelot, but is also consolation. His final word, through the Tom Stone narrator, is, “Love is all we have… in any universe.” CHARLIE BOATNER’s last appearance in BACK ISSUE was an interview in #72, discussing his Batman/Metal Men story in The Brave and the Bold #187. Read more of his stories at www.BureauofBeasties.com.

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conducted by

Jerry Smith

transcribed by Brian Martin, with Rose Rummel-Eury

Evil Twin George Pérez’s powerful covers for the prestige format two-issue epic from late 1992 and early 1993, The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

What is your favorite Incredible Hulk story? The Hulk’s property-destroying battles with the Thing, Thor, or the Sub-Mariner? His adventures in the subatomic world of K’ai and the tragedy of Jarella? His ongoing conflict with the military and General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross? His time in the Defenders? For my money, the greatest era of The Incredible Hulk was the run by writer Peter David and a cadre of superstar artists. And the finest story from that era was Future Imperfect. It’s a simple and elegant concept. The Hulk—now a perfectly merged Bruce Banner/Hulk resulting in a super-intelligent but aggressive mix of both— is confronted by a band of time-travelling rebels and convinced to come with them to fight a future tyrant. The group is led by Janis, who bears more than a little family resemblance to Hulk sidekick Rick Jones. The group then transports the Hulk to a future ruled by a superpowered dictator known as… the Maestro. Who is the Maestro? How did he conquer the world and destroy all its heroes? And why is the Hulk the only one who can defeat him? The answers are revealed by David and one of the all-time great superhero artists, Mr. George Pérez. I had the great fortune to speak to both comic pros about their work on this groundbreaking story. Future Imperfect made its debut on comic-book stands with the first issue of a two-part prestige format miniseries in December 1992. It has been lauded, reprinted, and celebrated ever since. This is the story of that story. (SPOILER ALERT! In the interests of an honest and revealing discussion, plot details regarding Future Imperfect, including the resolution of the tale, are revealed below.) – Jerry Smith

JERRY SMITH: Peter, I believe your epic run on the monthly Hulk comic began in ’87… PETER DAVID: No, it started earlier than that. People ask me what was my first issue of Incredible Hulk, and if I’m being strict in my response, the answer is #328 (Nov. 1986), because that’s the first issue of The Hulk that I ever wrote. However, my regular run on the book started three issues later, with issue #331 (Feb. 1987). SMITH: When Future Imperfect #1 came out in December of 1992, you had been on Incredible Hulk for five years or more. What inspired you to add to your workload with another high-class Hulk tale? DAVID: Bobbie Chase, my editor on the series, came to me and said that she wanted to develop a project with this Italian artist who was interested in working for us, and his strength was doing stories that were set in dystopian futures. So she wanted to know if I could come up with a dystopian future tale of the Hulk. In thinking about that I said, since we’re talking about a book that’s going to be largely set in the future, why don’t we simply flip-flop Terminator? Instead of having a hero from the future coming into the past to help save the world, I would have the Hulk from the present day being transported into the future to save the world. And then I started thinking, well, what kind of menace could there be that only the Hulk is the one who can deal with? Why not Thor, why not Captain America, why did it have to be the Hulk? And that’s where I came up with the idea of the Maestro. If there’s one person who can take out a future evil version of the Hulk, it’s going to be the present-day Hulk. SMITH: George, how did you get involved with Future Imperfect?

Alternate Realities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 37

Right Back to Where I Started from Hulk outsmarts Maestro in this climactic two-pager from Future Imperfect issue #2. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

But yes, we did a four-issue [series] with that. The one where it looks like Odin is wandering around the Earth and the readers are going to be going, “Wow, Odin’s in this; this could be interesting.” Then it turns out, no, that’s just what Bruce Banner looks like, that’s what the Maestro looks like when he becomes Bruce Banner. Fun stuff. SMITH: Believe it or not, Future Imperfect is now over 25 years old, and it’s still being reprinted. Looking back on it, what are your impressions today of the story? DAVID: I’m sorry, I don’t do impressions, I’m a writer. SMITH: [laughter] DAVID: Sorry. What are my impressions of the story? Whenever you’re a writer and you envision a story as you’re writing the script, you have in your mind what it’s going to be like and how it should affect the readers when it finally comes out. On your average comic-book story, if you get 60 to 70% of what you imagined in your head, you call that a win. Future Imperfect is like one of like two comic-book limited series I’ve ever done that hits it at 100%. That is everything I could have wanted and more. SMITH: As a fan, I agree with that. May I ask you the other story that hit 100%? DAVID: The Atlantis Chronicles, which I did for DC. [Editor’s note: That was spotlighted recently in BACK ISSUE #108.] Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of other stuff that I am singularly proud of, but I would say that Future Imperfect and the Atlantis Chronicles are the two best limited series I’ve ever done.

SMITH: George, what about you? Impressions ... er, thoughts on the story? PÉREZ: For me, it was just something I wanted to do, [and] I wanted to work with Peter. Obviously, we would work together again on Sachs and Violens, a totally different type of story. But I had been working on so many team books, [Future Imperfect] was one of rare times I was working on a single-character book. Yes, there were a lot of characters in it, but it primarily spotlighted two characters, the Hulk and the Maestro, with support by the aged Rick Jones and his granddaughter Janis, plus a couple of other characters in there. But primarily it was just a hero and a villain. So that was unusual for me. But again, it was one of those, “Okay, I have two single characters, they have to have a world that is around them,” so that was a lot of fun. And Peter was very, very clear in the type of world he was looking for, and it made it an easy one to design because he described it vividly; I can play with that. When I created the first page showing the castle of the Maestro, I said, “Okay, this is the evil Wizard of Oz. This is the Emerald City in a decadent society,” because I was channeling Oz when I created that and, of course, it being colored green emphasized the point. If I hear [Maestro’s] voice, I can actually hear the amplified Frank Morgan voice when he was doing the head version of the Wizard, the same bombastic sound. The writer would like to graciously thank Peter David, George Pérez, and Bobbie Chase for assistance with this interview. Special thanks to Mr. Pérez for the extra time he volunteered due to a technical glitch. It is a pleasure to discover your heroes are also nice people. JERRY SMITH is a sales geek, freelance writer, and lifelong comic-book reader from northern Kentucky.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

by E

d Catto

Did it all start with Christmas? There is an argument that alternate-reality stories began with Charles Dickens’ famous tale, A Christmas Carol. A Christmas Story in Prose: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas is the actual title, but, much like San Diego Comic-Con, no one really uses the real name. (SDCC, anyone?) In Dickens’ tale, the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, serves as both villain and hero. Amidst ghosts and rattling chains, he is shown an alternate path that his life may take. Indeed, he’s destined for a grim fate if he doesn’t change his ways immediately. Scrooge sees his life and his actions in a new light, of course, and seeks to mend his ways. Lost upon most readers is the fact that this story was in line with the efforts of Knickerbockers like Washington Irving (originally writing under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker), Clement Clark Moore, and John Pintard, as a way to harken back to the good old days and eschew modern traditions. The fascinating part is that there were really no “good old days.” They were just a fiction. Although a classic, Dickens’ story suffers from a lack of cohesive branding. Is it a Christmas tale, a ghost story, or an alternate history? That conceptual blending was the genius, and the ultimate undoing, of DC Comics’ “Elseworlds” brand. Elseworlds was designed as an umbrella stamp to help readers instantly identify DC’s alternate histories with existing characters.

ELSEWORLDS PRECURSORS

There were several other cultural touchstones that paved the way for Elseworlds. Christmas again ushered in a famous example with Frank Capra’s perennially favorite film It’s a Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. In the third act of this story, the hero is granted a front-row seat of what the world would be like if he had never been born. It’s a chilling and heartwarmingly masterful story, reinforcing the “it’s not so bad” mentality. Jerome Bixby’s “Mirror, Mirror” episode from the original Star Trek TV series offers the premise: “What if all the good guys are now the bad guys?” The regular protagonists, along with the viewers, are given a guided tour of how wrong things could go by simply draping this premise over the existing world-as-we-know-it. This may be a bit of a stretch, but the 1938 movie version of The Wizard of Oz is essentially an alternatehistory story, although seldom branded as such. While the book documents young Dorothy’s trip to an actual, albeit whimsical, land, the movie version simply presents an alternate world where familiar faces are established in completely different guises and settings.

JUST IMAGINE!

DC Comics was the first to brand these types of stories as “imaginary stories,” so that readers could easily seek them

Imagine That… …a Victorian Era Batman. A Gotham by Gaslight specialty piece illustrated by Mike Mignola at the 1989 San Diego Comic-Con and colored by an artist who signed his work “Newman.” Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Batman TM & © DC Comics.

Alternate Realities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 45

Batman Beyond Writer Byron Preiss (with Steve Ringennberg) and artist P. Craig Russell posited a 31st Century where the Wayne family’s legacy was the mantle of the Batman, in the vein of the Phantom. From Robin 3000 #1 (of 2). TM & © DC Comics.

Like the other team-up stories discussed, Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta was just a cross-company team-up looking for an empty bed to crawl into. After that, it was just JLA: Age of Wonder, a Victorian-based two-parter in 2003, and JLA: Destiny in 2004, a gritty four-parter, plus the already-mentioned JLA: Another Nail, and then it was lights out for Justice League Elseworlds. For whatever reason, the Justice League generally didn’t work well in Elseworlds stories. There were exceptions, like Justice Riders, but the biggest successes, Kingdom Come and The Nail, weren’t beholden to the Elseworlds brand. Like a teenager who had outgrown her favorite youthful outfit, they didn’t quite fit into Elseworlds.

THOSE OTHER JUSTICE GUYS

The Justice Society of America enjoyed forays into the realm of Elseworlds, but each seemed to grow into its own brand. The two-issue JSA: The Liberty File presented the Society as a WWII special-operations team, with highly stylized art by Tony Harris, who co-wrote the series with Dan Jolley. In its sequel JSA: The Unholy Three, they got the band back together for one more gig. While branded as an Elseworlds story, writer James Robinson’s and artist Paul Smith’s The Golden Age, another Justice Society adventure, was subsequently incorporated into DC continuity by Robinson in his Starman series. Scribe Geoff Johns would follow suit in his ongoing Justice Society series. Like Marvel’s What If? #4, The Golden Age was almost too good to let languish as unofficial. These JSA tales could not be easily described as Elseworlds stories and minimized the brand. Indeed, the heroes were not in unfamiliar places—they were in very familiar places. Both The Liberty File and The Golden Age became brands of their own, shrugging off their Elseworlds raiment and dismissively rendering the brand either unimportant or superfluous.

IT’S A BIG TOYBOX

Elseworlds offerings for other DC heroes were hit or miss. Robin 3000 (1992), for example, was an early Elseworlds and its lovely art by P. Craig Russell made fans sit up and notice. But in general, the misses seemed to have outnumbered the hits. The time Steel was thrown into the Deep South during the days of slavery (in Steel Annual #1) didn’t quite click with fans. Likewise, Tom Veitch and Frank Gomez’s Kamandi: At Earth’s End (1993), a six-part Elseworlds series published as a standard comic book, failed to catch on. Interestingly enough, a bearded and bedraggled Superman would play a similar role in Veitch and Gomez’s Superman: At Earth’s End in 1995, with similar creative results. And then there were the times the brand got into trouble. An Elseworlds 80-Page Giant featuring the Super-Sons of Superman and Batman was

recalled and most of its print run scrapped due to inappropriate material in one of its stories. [Editor’s note: That would be Kyle Baker and Elizabeth Glass’ infamous—and insanely funny—“Letitia Lerner, Superman’s Babysitter,” which featured a controversial, comical scene of baby Superman in a microwave oven.] A 2003 Teen Titans Swingin’ Elseworlds Special by original Titans writer Bob Haney and artists Jay Stephens and Mike Allred was never published despite pleas from fans. [Editor’s note: It eventually saw print in 2008, although as a “Lost Annual” and not as an Elseworlds book.] As far as fans were concerned, the bland overuse of the Elseworlds concept signaled that the brand was running on empty.

STAND BY YOUR BRAND

Elseworlds was an enduring concept that grew too fast, and too frequently became a holding spot for unrelated creative endeavors. It’s tough when a brand gets away from its custodians. In the ’90s, while working at Nabisco in brand management, I argued for establishing guidelines for the OREO brand. The fear was that it would become just a flavor, and not the experiential cookie that was shared by one generation to the next. Senior management agreed with my point of view. But a few short years later, the quest for short-term profits drove a rash of odd OREO variants (Birthday Cake OREO, Pina Colada OREO, Kettle Corn OREO). A brand that had once meant something special to consumers, and to the company, morphed into a wacky platform for silly flavors. And that’s ultimately what happened to Elseworlds. “There was a running spreadsheet of Elseworlds in development,” remembers Mark Waid. “Some were ridiculous: Flash in the Trojan War, Batman 33 A.D.” Waid feels strongly that when Elseworlds proposals included the Flash in the Crimean War, it had all gone too far—“At that point, you have to refocus.” By 2003, the Elseworlds brand ultimately disappeared. DC has created other “alternate reality” brands over the past two decades, with varying degrees of success, including RealWorlds (stories set in the ordinary world), Just Imagine (Stan Lee’s versions of DC heroes), Tangent (reimagining DC heroes in a different, yet cohesive universe), Amalgam (merging DC heroes with Marvel characters), Hypertime (overlapping alternate timelines), DC One Million (future stories), and more recently, 2018’s Metal (grim versions of Batman). Even Elseworlds itself was rebooted in 2010 with the miniseries Superman: The Last Family of Krypton, yet at this writing no further Elseworlds projects have been released. The original brand’s missteps and overuse do not mean that there weren’t glorious Elseworlds stories told. Or that there are others left to tell. There just might be a few more opportunities to make characters who are as familiar as yesterday seem as fresh as tomorrow. Who knows what the future might bring? ED CATTO is a marketing strategist with a specialty in pop culture. As co-founder of Bonfire Agency, Ed is dedicated to connecting brands with the “Geeks of the World” in innovative and authentic ways. And as a “retropreneur,” Ed leads a team specializing in rejuvenating brands (including Captain Action) for today’s audiences.

58 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

by J o n a t h a n

Rikard Brown

The future has come, gone, and left its imprint on Marvel Comics. During the comics boom of the 1990s, Marvel would launch a new imprint called Marvel 2099. This imprint would consist of titles that told the story of what would happen to the Marvel Universe in 100 years. The stories created for this new line drew on themes often seen in the steampunk and dystopian genres. The line between human and computer has been blurred. A major corporation has garnered enough power and wealth to be the true force running the world. In the middle of this new world are new versions of the superheroes of old. In this article we will take a behind-the-scenes look at how the line developed, its rise in popularity, and its eventual demise. We will also look at the impact the line has had on the comics medium and superhero genre in modern history. So buckle up and get ready. Where we are going, we don’t need roads. We are going back to the future.

FROM WORLD OF TOMORROW TO NEXT MEN

Marvel fans’ first taste of the future would come from the man who was a foundational figure in its past, Stan “The Man” Lee. In his “Stan’s Soapbox” articles for Marvel Age, at that time the company’s self-published fanzine, in 1990 the seminal creator began to tease an upcoming future-based project. The first tease came in Marvel Age #90 (July 1990), stan lee where Stan wrote, “These past few Gage Skidmore. months I’ve received lots of mail from puzzled true believers asking why I’ve been writing so few comic books lately. Of course, they never quite made it clear whether they’re happy about that or not! But being an incurable optimist I figured, ‘Wow! Maybe some readers actually miss me!’ That’s why I recently had a pow-wow with one of today’s most popular artist/writers. (No, I won’t tell you who until later. It’s too good a surprise to spill now!) We decided to create a whole new superhero world—based on a unique concept that will give Mighty Marvel an entire array of heroes and villains such as you’ve never seen before! And best of all—they’ll be an integral part of the Marvel Universe, even though they’re totally different.” In the next “Stan’s Soapbox” from Marvel Age #91 (Aug. 1990), it was revealed that Lee was working with John Byrne to create a graphic novel. Byrne would co-plot the series, alongside Lee, and provide art. The story would focus on a Stan Lee-created character called Ravage and be entitled The Marvel World of Tomorrow. The title would be set in the Marvel Universe, but a little more than 100 years in the future. It is here we see the time setting of 2099 first being introduced. Stan would continue to tease the project in the following months’ “Stan’s Soapbox” articles. In the April 1991 cover-dated article, Lee would write his final tease for the project, stating that the real title would soon be coming, but that he would talk less about the project.

Tomorrow Today A Marvel house ad from 1992 announcing the first four titles in its 2099 line. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Alternate Realities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 59

It’s Clobberin’ Time (in 2099) Our fearless, fantastic foursome, as seen in Fantastic Four 2099 #1, pairing writer Karl Kesel with the original Spider-Man 2099 art dream team, Rick Leonardi and Al Williamson. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

year 2100. The idea we would have done with the Fantastic Four was that something had happened to revert all of them to teenagers, except Ben. Ben would still be Ben. Johnny would have been a 12-year-old kid with a book of matches. He would have been a very dangerous and irresponsible boy. Reed would be like Luke Perry on Beverly Hills 90210, where he is the quiet, laconic guy. He would use his amazing mind to tinker on hotrods. I thought Sue would be a real rebel, doing things like sneaking out. She is invisible—of course she would sneak out at night! Then she would get into a lot of trouble that way. It would be Ben trying to ride herd over all of them. The core of this story would be to see Reed and Sue fall in love again. They would still have their powers, but no memories. They are not married. They are teenagers, and they don’t know each other. In the original book they already started as boyfriend and girlfriend. So I always thought it would be real interesting to see how these very different personalities came together and become the couple they became. “I was really excited because I thought there was a lot of interesting stuff to do. What Ben would be doing was being the one saying, ‘I am going to find a way to cure you guys.’ This would be a reversal on what Reed always tells Ben.” This was not how the future would play out for the Marvel 2099 books. By the end of 1996, all of the remaining books in the line would be cancelled in one last-ditch effort to keep the continuity on life support. The entire 2099 line was reduced to one book, 2099: World of Tomorrow. The first issue’s cover date was September 1996. The book boasted a humongous cast that included, but was not limited to, Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, X-Nation, and Doom. The book attempted to end dangling threads left from the demise of the line and bring all of the remaining 2099 readers to one title. 2099: World of Tomorrow was written by Joe Kelly and Ben Raab and had a rotating group of artists. In Joey Cavalieri’s absence, James Felder would serve as editor. This failed to reignite fan enthusiasm for the world of 2099, and after eight issues the series was cancelled. In 1998, Marvel published the final story of the 2099 line in the one-shot 2099: Manifest Destiny. Len Kaminski wrote the tale and Mike McKone served as penciler. Tom Brevoort edited this last dance in the original 2099 line. The story focused on giving the remaining characters a send-off and shutting down the future world of 2099.

The 2099 line of comics began with a bang and cascaded into silence. The books did leave an impact on Marvel Comics. We have already spoken about the lasting impact of Peter David’s Spider-Man 2099, but it is not the imprint’s only mark. Marvel 2099 would serve as inspiration for new creators to attempt their versions of what a future Marvel would look like. In 2004, Robert Kirkman of The Walking Dead fame would create his own version of 2099 in Marvel Knights 2099. In recent years, Marvel 2099’s evil corporation, Alchemax, has begun to appear in regular Marvel Universe continuity. Secret Wars (2015) included characters from the 2099 Universe. Peter David wrote a tie-in book called Secret Wars 2099 and introduced a new set of Avengers that were sponsored by Alchemax. In 2016, Gerry Dugan began to write stories about Deadpool existing in the 2099 Universe, as a part of the ongoing series Deadpool (inset). The 2099 franchise also showed Marvel the value of having a line with a basic streamlined continuity for new readers, a concept the publisher would use when it launched the Ultimate line in the early 2000s. The future may have only lasted six years at Marvel Comics, but its impact remains bright to this day. JONATHAN RIKARD BROWN holds an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Georgia and an Mdiv from Emory University. He currently serves as the assistant pastor of Atlanta First United Methodist Church. His interests include comics (obviously), video games, modern expressions of religion, and professional wrestling.

68 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

karl kesel

by E

ric Bresler

Marvel Comics closed out the 1990s with the epic “What If?” that is 1999’s Earth X maxiseries, a successful, high-profile project spearheaded by Alex Ross that would go on to influence two decades’ worth of superhero storytelling. Set in a dystopian future in which all of humanity has gained super-abilities, the project allowed Ross to reimagine an entire company’s worth of characters while also, with the assistance of co-writer Jim Krueger, providing an origin for the Marvel Universe itself. The project is as ambitious as it sounds, with deep roots in continuity arising from a love for the source material and a storytelling scope that was unlike anything else on the stands at that time. In honor of the book’s 20th anniversary, BACK ISSUE will look back at the unique origins of the series as well as its development and legacy.

alex ross

ORIGINS

The origin of Earth X can be traced back to a 1996 editorial meeting at Wizard, Courtesy of Alex Ross. the industry’s most popular comicscentric print magazine for two decades (1991–2011). The hottest book on the stands that summer was Kingdom Come, an alternate-future tale of the DC Universe developed, painted, and co-plotted by Alex Ross alongside writer Mark Waid. This was two years after the blockbuster success of Marvels, the Ross-painted miniseries that saw his stunningly realistic style applied to the existing origins of the Marvel Universe. Marvels dealt with the company’s established, continuity-fueled past, while Kingdom Come allowed Ross the creativity to populate a future filled with new legacy characters and revamps of established ones. Ross’ return to Marvel would allow him to take a similar approach to its universe, though simply stating that Earth X featured “Kingdom Come-ized” versions of Marvel characters would be a gross oversimplification. Jim McLauchlin, then senior staff writer at Wizard, recalls, “It really all started at a staff meeting when I was working at Wizard. Kingdom Come had just come out and it was certainly all the rage; it was very much these sort of alternate-future versions of DC heroes. So when planning out feature articles for a future issue we said, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great to see Alex Ross do that same sort of thing with Marvel? Let’s do Kingdom Come, but make it the Marvel version.’ I got in touch with Alex and said, ‘Hey, man, we’re looking to do this feature… Here’s what it is, are you interested? Let your mind run wild.’ ” Ross’ initial reaction wasn’t a positive one. “I scoffed at it,” Ross tells BACK ISSUE. “I took it with a sense of insult. There was something about it that just didn’t sit well with me, that I should take what worked in this DC series and apply it as a paintbrush to any group of characters. In some ways it would undermine the integrity of what I’d done with Kingdom Come. After a year to percolate, I thought giving it a shot could be fun; there was an aspect of getting over myself that came to mind. Something

Marvel’s Future… and Past Logo-less Alex Ross cover to the Earth X Special Edition, distributed with Wizard magazine. Scan courtesy of Alex Ross. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Back Issue #111