Back Issue - #111

EARTH X’s 20th Anniversary with ALEX ROSS & JIM KRUEGER!

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ALTERNATE REALITIES: What If? • Bronze Age DC Imaginary Stories • Elseworlds • Marvel 2099 • PETER DAVID & GEORGE PÉREZ’S Hulk: Future Imperfect

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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 Jerry Bingham Charlie Boatner Eric Bresler Jonathan R. Brown Richard Bruning Bob Budiansky Sal Buscema Jarrod Buttery Ed Catto Howard Chaykin Brian Cronin Peter David Tom DeFalco Zedric Dimalanta Colin Dorman Jo Duffy Michael Eury of Earth-Two Danny Fingeroth Peter B. Gillis Don Glut Grand Comics Database Steven Grant Dan Greenfield Butch Guice Jack C. Harris Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Heritage Comics Auctions Rick Hoberg Sean Howe Tony Isabella

Jim Joseph Barbara Kesel Karl Kesel David Anthony Kraft Jim Krueger Paul Kupperberg Bob Layton John Paul Leon Marvel Comics Brian Martin Christy Marx Ron Marz Jim McLauchlin David Michelinie Luigi Novi George Pérez Bill Reinhold Alex Ross Bob Rozakis Scott Rubin Rose Rummel-Eury Scott Shaw!

Walter Simonson Evan Skolnik Beau Smith Jerry Smith Roger Stern Roy Thomas Mike Tiefenbacher Michael Uslan Mark Waid Alan Weiss John Wells 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

Jarrod 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

Hammer vs. Sword Marvel’s mighty God of Thunder went at it with Robert E. Howard’s wildest warrior in What If? #39 (June 1983). From Heritage’s archives, original cover art

by Ron Wilson and Mike Mignola, signed by Wilson.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Conan TM & © Conan Properties LLC.

with him? Cut to the Savage Land, a place where a totally bestial Beast could live his life naturally, alongside Ka-Zar, another sort of beast-man, and his sabre-toothed tiger. So, a happy ending to a potential X-tragedy.

The farewell shot is somewhat reminiscent of the final scene in the original Mighty Joe Young.”

Readers are probably aware that Galactus exiled the Silver Surfer to Earth after the Surfer’s betrayal in Fantastic Four #50 (May 1966). However, David Anthony Kraft and Mike Vosburg considered, “What If Galactus Had Turned the Silver Surfer Back into Norrin Radd?”

Reed Richards petitions the Watcher for help and Norrin returns to Zenn-La, only to find that Galactus got there first….

Kraft was asked if he was a fan of the Surfer: “Yeah, that was my classic time growing up. I remember being a kid reading the Galactus Trilogy. Those comics brought a tear to my eye. And when Stan launched the Surfer’s own book, I was there. Later, I wrote Spidey, and I actually liked writing Spider-Man, but Spidey never did it for me the way the Surfer did. So it was fun to get a

shot at him. And What If? was a good opportunity.

At that time, the bureaucracy grew so great that it started to be as much of a job to deal with the politics at Marvel as it was to actually do the freelance work.

Books like What If? were good because you could pitch something here or there to try to keep some work going.”

No happy ending for Norrin? “That wouldn’t be in keeping, I don’t think. It’s a tragic, self-sacrificing feature.

It was kind of an obvious idea to switch it—Norrin returned home but Shalla-Bal had made a similar sacrifice. He was ready but she was whisked off.”

As in Kraft’s Savage She-Hulk, Mike Vosburg provided art. Kraft explains, “Very rarely did you get the opportunity to choose the artist. Most of the time, if you submitted a plot, it went to whomever they elected to give it to.

And in the case of that What If? story, it was sheer coincidence that it went to Mike.”

WHAT MIGHT?

Issue #38 (Apr. 1983) is unusual in that it doesn’t explore turning points, but rather, possible futures.

“The Leaving” by David Michelinie and Paty Cockrum is a beautiful story about a life-long love. Fifty years in the future, the Avengers consists of Thor, Jocasta, Sunturion, Michael Rhodes (son of Jim) as Iron Man, and the Vision. We bear witness to an aged Scarlet Witch at the end of her days, and a sacrifice from Jocasta that puts her humanity beyond doubt.

Michelinie was one of the earliest writers to use Jocasta, and is certainly responsible for her humanization, but admits to BI’s readers, “I remember doing a short What If? story back in the early ’80s, but until I reread it I had no memory whatsoever of what it was about.

I agree that it was kind of a heart-tugger, but I have to assume that it was an assignment offered to me, rather than something I sought out. I was a comics fan, but not the kind who wonders, ‘Okay, I liked that story, but what if this had happened?’ But projecting what might happen in the future is always fun, so I imagine that’s why I accepted the assignment. I did very little work for [then-What If? editor] Ralph Macchio, so I don’t think I would have been the first name to pop into his head when he was looking for a writer. This may have been shortly after I wrote the Avengers’ monthly title, and that might have been why he thought of me to do an Avengers segment.”

The second story in the issue, by Rick Margopoulos and Dan Reed, is set 30 years in the future and asks, “What If Sharon Carter Had Not Died?” The answer is that she and Captain America marry, have a couple of kids, and fight the Red Skull and the Skull’s son.

Alan Kupperberg provided story and art for “Daredevil: 2013,” wherein U.S. Vice President Foggy Nelson and his attorney, Matt Murdock, welcome the president of the new Russian Republic, Natasha Romanoff, to the United Nations. Her speech is interrupted by terrorist ninjas at the behest of the Kingpin, and our heroes must don their costumes one more time….

CONAN VS. THOR

In the eighth Thor Annual (1979), the Thunder God enters a mystical tunnel and emerges in the midst of the Trojan War. Zeus does not take the intrusion well.

In What If? #39 (June 1983), by Alan Zelenetz and Ron Wilson, Thor takes a different path and emerges in Corinthia, prompting the issue’s crossover, “What If Thor Battled Conan the Barbarian?” As the title suggests, Thor and Conan tussle before becoming buddies. But an amnesiac Thunder God feels the tug of something otherworldly and he seeks out Crom— with disastrous consequences.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

by

John 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

Lois Lane #19), carefully identified as an “imaginary series” to preserve the sanctity of the Clark/Lois/Superman triangle in the official Superman continuity.

In 1983’s Amazing Heroes #29, cartoonist and future Image Comics co-founder Jim Valentino penned what still stands as the definitive study of this sub-category.

“An imaginary story is any story which alters or in any way repudiates any preexisting continuity,” he wrote, “ergo creating a completely self-enclosed continuity in the process. In no way do the events in an imaginary tale affect or alter existent storylines; they are, in essence, purely speculative—or, if you will, fictitious.

“Imaginary tales can be further sub-divided into four basic categories of definition.

The first of these four is the most numerous, and shall be termed ‘actual’ imaginary tales. These are stories which proclaim (usually on both the cover and splash page) that they are imaginary tales and, in fact, comply with the above definition. “ ‘Inferred’ imaginary tales are those not claiming to be so, yet which correlate to the above definition. ‘Recited’ imaginary tales are stories that use a narrative device to tell the story (such as Superman’s super-computer or Batman’s butler, Alfred). The [former] was used in Superman #132 [in 1959], the first imaginary tale [in the Silver Age revival of the concept]. The final and least common is the ‘false’ imaginary tale. Such stories claim on the cover and/or splash page to be imaginary tales, but do not create their own continuity or fail in any way to depart from pre-established continuity.”

The imaginary tale concept was an immediate hit, one that produced such classics as the tragic “Death of Superman” (1961’s Superman #149) and utopian “Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue” (1963’s Superman #162).

Wonder Woman writer/editor Robert Kanigher countered with a series of “impossible stories” that united the toddler, teenage, and adult incarnations of the Amazing Amazon as side-by-side teammates with their mother (1961’s Wonder Woman #124 and others). Meanwhile, Batman editor Jack Schiff dabbled with the concept himself, notably in a recurring run of stories wherein an adult Robin and Bruce Wayne’s son became Batman and Robin II (1960’s Batman #131 and others).

There was an important distinction between the Kanigher and Schiff approaches and the Superman office. The former were less about “What if?” than simply ongoing alternate realities. With rare exceptions, each Weisinger imaginary tale stood on its own, positing a different scenario each time.

WANTED: NEW IMAGINATION FOR IMAGINARY TALES

Tall Tales of the Trinity Superman wasn’t the only Silver Age DC hero hosting imaginary stories—(top left) Batman #131 (Apr. 1960, cover by Sheldon Moldoff) and (top right) Wonder Woman #124 (Aug. 1961, cover by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito) were among the publisher’s other “impossible” adventures. (bottom) The Bates/Swan/ Adkins splash to Superman #230 (Oct. 1970), launching a two-part imaginary tale that signaled the end of retiring editor Mort Weisinger’s long reign.

TM & © DC Comics.

By the end of the 1960s, though, those scenarios had mostly been played out.

The Wonder Family and second Batman and Robin team were long gone and virtually every Superman-related imaginary tale was another variation on a Lois Lane marriage and her offspring. Such was the case with “Beware the Super-Genius Baby” (Superman #224, on sale in December 1969).

Scripted by Robert Kanigher, the plot involved evil scientist Professor Ulvo bathing a pregnant Lois in a ray that mutated her fetus into a super-genius with an oversized bald head to hold his prodigious brain. At a week old, the ungrateful brat was already lecturing Lois on her poor housekeeping and cooking while taking Superman to task for irresponsible behavior in stopping disasters. Written as farce, Kanigher’s story would have benefited from the cartoony, expressive stylings of Kurt Schaffenberger, but the former Lois Lane artist was now assigned exclusively to the Supergirl feature in Adventure Comics.

Instead, veteran penciler Curt Swan drew the script straight while inker George Roussos gave the finished product a frankly tired look.

Kanigher’s next imaginary tale came off a bit better, illustrated this time by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito (Action Comics #391–392, on sale in June and July 1970). The subject was again Superman’s son, but this version of the character was as inferior to his famous father as the super-genius had been superior.

Frustrated by Superboy, Jr.’s well-intentioned bungling and Batman’s repeated needling about his own overachieving offspring, Superman finally snapped and used gold kryptonite to permanently remove the 14-year-old’s powers. In the second chapter, remorse set in and the Man of Steel ultimately used Kryptonian science to transfer his powers into Junior… at the expense of his own.

Uncharacteristically for imaginary tales, Kanigher played coy on the identity of Superman’s wife, directing that her face appear only in shadow and that she always wear a blonde wig lest she be assumed to be the dark-haired Lois or red-tressed Lana Lang.

The two-parter also represented the final two issues of Action Comics that Mort Weisinger ever edited. Retiring on April 1, 1970, Weisinger handed off the title to Murray Boltinoff while Julius Schwartz was slated to succeed him on Superman a few months later. Like Action, Weisinger’s run on Superman closed with a two-part imaginary tale in issues #230 and 231. On sale in August and September 1970, the issues finished their production process in the hands of editorial assistant E. Nelson Bridwell. That explained such details as writer and artist credits on the stories, a rarity in the Weisinger era.

24 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

by

Charlie Boatner

You Asked for Moore!

The Silver Age classic “The Amazing Story of SupermanRed and Superman-Blue”— read by many Bronze Age babies for the first time in 1973 in DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-18—had a sequel, of sorts, in 2003 in Alan Moore’s Tom Strong #20. Covers by (left) Nick Cardy and (right) Chris Sprouse and Karl Story.

alan moore

TM & © DC Comics.

Fimb.

Although Alan Moore has retired from writing comic books and has written little in years, his influence is strong. He pushed the boundaries of what mainstream comics publishers would portray in imagination, spectacle, violence, and sex. Yet, some of his stories were affectionate, closely observed interpretations of the heroes of his childhood.

To children growing up in the late ’50 and ’60s, Superman was the benevolent, impossibly powered hero of Mort Weisinger’s editorial direction. Superman lived in a fanciful world filled with both mythical beings and science-fiction aliens.

When that world was too small, Weisinger allowed his writers to step outside of the series’ premise. As long as they labeled it an “imaginary story,” the writers could defy the limits of the franchise for one story.

Moore famously wrote the last story explicitly labeled as “imaginary” in “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, which ran in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583 (both Sept. 1986). However, this was not the end of Moore’s exploration of the ’60s version of Superman, and it was not Moore’s last “imaginary story” featuring the hero.

THE ORIGINAL SUPERMAN-RED AND SUPERMAN-BLUE

One of the best-remembered imaginary stories is “The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue,” a three-chapter story filling Superman #162 (July 1963). In it, Superman creates, arguably, a perfect world.

It begins with the hero’s frustration at not being able to solve all problems of his fellow Kryptonian survivors in the city of Kandor and the world in general. (Only his cousin Supergirl suggests that he expects too much from himself, but his hubris is not a plot point.) To increase his brainpower, he tries an experiment on himself, but it has an unintended side effect.

He is twinned—he becomes two duplicate Supermen, both with increased intelligence, differentiated only by the color of their costumes.

Calling themselves Superman-Red and Superman-Blue, they immediately set out on his agenda, and a series of wonders results: • his home planet Krypton is restored • all diseases are cured • evil impulses are erased (Luthor and Brainiac are among those reformed) • the end of criminality means that the prisoners of the Phantom Zone may be released • the mer-people of Atlantis are transported to a new watery world of their own.

Finally, all of their challenges met, the Supermen choose wives.

The contenders are his sweetheart from his teens and his fellow newspaper reporter. At the time the story was published, Lana Lang and Lois Lane were friends and rivals—“Betty and Veronica” to Superman’s “Archie.”

Since there are two Superman, the twins reason that they each can propose to one woman, but the gentlemanly heroes go to great effort to be impartial about who gets to choose first. But the problem seems to resolve itself when Superman-Red muses that he would choose Lois, given the chance. “Blue” replies that he would choose Lana.

There is a triple wedding (Lois’ sister Lucy gets married to Jimmy Olsen). Lois and “Red” go to live on New Krypton, although “Red” will have no powers there. Lana and “Blue” stay on Earth. As the story ends, everyone seems happy, although Lucy seems doubtful. A final caption asks, “Suppose this imaginary story really happened? Which couple do you think would be happiest?”

COMMENTS AND REFERENCES

In the letters to the editor three issues later, a reader named John McGeehan wrote, “I think you showed… that if the forces of good were to triumph in every respect, eliminating all crime and disease from the world… and all the other problems solved—there could be no new stories… So thank the editor this was only an imaginary story!”

The editor replied, “We think you got the message!”

I like to think that Alan Moore took Lucy’s doubts and John’s comments as a challenge.

He was certainly aware of the Red/Blue story. In 1996, he started writing a playful Superman pastiche in the Supreme comic book published

by Image Comics. In Moore’s first issue, Supreme encounters imaginary versions of himself called Supreme-Gold and Supreme-White. But that was a cameo, and the idea was not further developed there.

TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES

Earlier, around 1987, while Alan Moore was still writing for DC, he proposed a crossover event featuring many DC heroes called “Twilight of the Superheroes.” Several Internet sites have hosted documents (essentially identical) which they identify as Moore’s proposal. A 12-issue series in the mood of Watchmen, the proposal described a near-future dystopia in which the heroes divide into several clans—the House of

34 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

TM

conducted by Jerry Smit transcribed by Brian Martin, with Rose Rummel-Eury

h

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

Not the Tomorrowland You Were Expecting?

At least you can find Waldo, if you’re eagle-eyed. Pages 4–5, a double-page spread from Future Imperfect #1. Script

by Peter David, art

by George Pérez, and colors by Tom Smith, here and throughout.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

GEORGE PÉREZ: There would not have been collaboration when he had his own magazine. I enjoyed the basic between Peter and me if my wife Carol had not read his primal nature of it.

Imzadi novel that he did based on the characters from SMITH: Do either of you remember the name of the Italian Star Trek: The Next Generation. She was enamored with artist who was originally considered for the project?

Peter’s style and said, if you ever had a chance to start DAVID: No. Absolutely no clue. If you contact Bobbie working with this guy, you should collaborate with him. Chase at DC, she might be able to tell you. The Italian So if it hadn’t been for my wife, I wouldn’t have guy dropped out for reasons that I never learned. gotten on to this project and had one of the [Writer’s note: Unfortunately, the artist’s name is landmarks of my career. lost to time. Neither the creative team nor original SMITH: Peter, were you always a Hulk fan?

FI editor Bobbie Chase could remember the artist in question.] Then, for a little while, DAVID: In my younger days, not so we were thinking of using Sam Kieth. much, because the Hulk seemed kind I remember I was at lunch in San Diego of one note to me. He would basically wander around until somebody made [at Comic-Con] with Bobbie Chase and the mistake of trying to attack him, Sam Kieth discussing Future Imperfect, and then the Hulk would beat on them and indeed, it’s at that lunch that I until they stopped moving, the end. finally came up with the end to the story.

Consequently, the intrinsic sameness of [When I explained it,] Bobbie was going, “Oh, my God, that’s brilliant! That the stories did nothing to respect me sounds fantastic.” as a reader, and apparently I was not But then Sam wasn’t interested in alone because when I came onto The peter david doing it. He read over as much as I had Hulk, the sales of the book were not © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. done—I think I had written the first half exactly stellar.

SMITH: George, how about you? Did you like the Hulk? at that point—and he read it over and he said he just didn’t PÉREZ: I enjoyed reading him in the early 1960s when know how to approach it artistically. Those were his words— it came out. He was always a character that was a big he didn’t know how to approach it artistically—and I’m bruiser, not much more than that. I enjoyed his backup going, “Okay, I’m not entirely sure what that means, but feature when he came into Tales to Astonish and then okay.” And then I ran into George. And I mean that almost

38 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

by

Ed 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

Branded Alan Brennert and Norm Breyfogle’s Batman: Holy Terror, touted in this 1991 DC house ad, officially kicked off the Elseworlds imprint. Scan courtesy of Ed Catto.

TM & © DC Comics.

out. Or perhaps it was to help young readers avoid being blindsided or confused.

And, like any brand, this one provided a quick shortcut for consumers so the idea wouldn’t have to be explained to them again and again. Readers would see the “imaginary story” blurb and instantly understand that the ground rules (and characters, situations, and settings) had changed. There was also the implicit assurance that the regular storyline would return the very next issue.

These wild stories could stretch the status quo, and oftentimes seemed as if they were inspired by a focus group of kids on a playground in Small Town, USA. One can imagine them screaming, “We want to see what happens when Batman and Superman are brothers!” [Editor’s note: Actually, Silver Age Superman comics editor Mort Weisinger, chief overseer of DC’s imaginary stories, sometimes consulted focus groups of children.] Stories would often explore the ramifications of continuity-altering situations (such as a hero getting married), often with disastrous results. Young readers would be relieved that that crazy turn of events didn’t actually really happen.

One quick note: As his professional star was rising exponentially, British comics writer Alan Moore famously pondered the fact that every story was in fact, an imaginary tale. He would draw the paradoxical conclusion that everything published is an imaginary tale, thus rendering the “imaginary story” branding irrelevant.

Fans would get the idea that his question was asked more to ruminate aloud about perplexing nomenclature rather than to invalidate a well-loved brand.

FROM IMAGINARY STORIES TO PRE-ELSEWORLDS

Most Popular Elseworlder The Dark Knight starred in more Elseworlds than any other DC character, including this trio of titles.

TM & © DC Comics.

Mark Waid is a successful writer and creator who started out as a very dedicated fan. In fact, he loved the old imaginary stories so much that as a high school student, he created his own index of every one that DC published.

In the late ’80s, Waid, then an editor at DC Comics, was working on an 80-page Secret Origins Annual. The idea was to include four imaginary stories with different heroes in this special issue. He had an idea for a Superman story, but needed help with the others. Waid called his great friend and co-worker, Brian Augustyn.

Augustyn had an idea for a story with MARK WAID Batman and Jack the Ripper. The notion blossomed until this concept overshadowed © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. the original idea of being just one of four stories in an anthology. It would be its own important comic. From there, things happened very quickly.

As luck would have it, as Waid and Augustyn were passionately planning the project, rising star artist Mike Mignola walked into the office to deliver his final pages of Cosmic Odyssey. After a bit convincing, Mignola was onboard.

Waid then went to the editorial office of the man in charge—Dick Giordano.

“He was a mentor,” says Waid. “I started acting it out. Dick was always an encouraging manager. He signed off on it and it was a go!” The project grew into what we know today as Batman: Gotham by Gaslight.

WRITERS RUMINATING ON ELSEWORLDS

The idea of alternate-reality stories would resonate with both fans and creators.

Former DC editor and writer Jack C. Harris has a love for comics, a strong Elseworlds credit, a great memory and a concise way of framing comics history. “The Elseworlds concept grew out of Mort Weisinger’s ‘Imaginary Story’ concept in the Superman line; stories that did not fit into the issue-by-issue continuity of the regular titles,” says Harris. “This allowed him to present stories of a ‘What if?’ nature: What if Superman married Lois Lane?; What if Jimmy Olsen married Supergirl?; What if Luthor murdered Superman?; etc.

The concept was expanded into Elseworlds, which could involve any character in the DC Universe and just about any idea was allowed to fly.

46 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

by

Jonathan 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

In the Year 2099 Launching Marvel’s 2099 line: (top) Spider-Man 2099 #1 (Nov. 1992), with a foil cover. Art by Rick Leonardi and Al Williamson. (bottom) While writer Peter David detoured from the Lee/Ditko original in creating his futurist Spidey, one aspect carried over, as shown in this page from issue #1: friction with the authorities.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Sadly, this project would not come to reality in this way.

However, it would be a foundational moment for the 2099 imprint, specifically with the title Ravage 2099 and the seed for John Byrne’s graphic novel 2112, which introduced Byrne’s Next Men characters.

In “Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed” #27 on CBR.com, Brian Cronin reported that in a forum post, John Byrne wrote, “In 1990, Stan Lee contacted me and asked me if I would like to be ‘editor-in-chief’ of a whole new line he was going to create at Marvel—a line which would be set in Marvel’s future, unconnected to the Marvel Universe as we knew it. As it happened, I had been giving some thought to a ‘Futureverse’ of my own, and, being flattered by Stan’s offer, I suggested that what I had come up with (but at that time thought I had no place to develop) would fit the bill for his project. To this end I plotted (Stan was to script) and drew a 64-page ‘pilot.’

“When Stan saw the pilot pages, he asked for more specific MU references. I’d tried to keep the thing ‘clean,’ so as not to turn the whole MU into a Superboy story, but Stan thought we SHOULD at least HINT at what had happened to some of the folk we knew from the present continuity. Fortunately, since my story was told in the 64 pages, this meant only adding some 12 additional pages and some bridging material to make them fit. Thus, when I took the project back it was, luckily, not a case of re-writing or re-drawing, but simply of removing pages I had not wanted in there in the first place. I’d taken a set of concepts, bent them slightly to fit Stan’s needs, and then had only to ‘unbend’ them to get back to my own original material. Stuck with 64 pages and no thought of where to put ’em—I did not want to offer the book to DC, since that seemed vaguely scabrous somehow—I mentioned my dilemma to Roger Stern, who suggested I give Dark Horse a call. I did. They accepted the proposal with open arms. I also pitched NEXT MEN, which had been floating in my brain for a while, and which they also liked.

[Editor’s note: Dark Horse Comics published 31 issues of John Byrne’s Next Men from 1992 through 1994.] I then realized the tiniest bit of tweaking in the dialog would make my graphic novel—now titled 2112—into a prequel/sequel pilot for JBNM.”

ZIGGING WHERE LEE AND DITKO ZAGGED

While this project fell apart, there was still potential in telling stories set in the future of the Marvel Universe. Marvel’s editorin-chief Tom DeFalco would assemble another team to take a stab at taking Marvel into the future. In the book Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, Sean Howe wrote, “With pressure to beat 1991’s astronomical sales figures, DeFalco and the editorial staff focused on its big launches… A discarded Stan Lee/John Byrne project about Marvel characters in the year 2099 was retooled into an entire new line of comics: future versions of Spider-Man, the Punisher, and Doctor Doom provided plenty of collectible product.”

Before the line of comics could be written, the right editorial presence had to be put in place to shepherd the line. Enter Joey Cavalieri. The former DC Comics staffer was brought on as the line editor for the Marvel 2099 titles. Sarra Mossoff would serve as the line’s first assistant editor (others would follow).

Cavalieri’s first job would be to assemble the creative talent to launch the line. He began to invite pitches from various writers for the upcoming titles.

One of the writers that was asked to pitch was Peter David, who was asked to submit a proposal for a Spider-Man story set in a hundred years in the future. “The first thing I did was decide that he would not be a descendant of Peter Parker,” David tells BACK ISSUE about the experience. “Instead I decided to zig everywhere that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko zagged. Peter was a standard white guy. I gave [Spider-Man 2099] a mixed ethnicity, picking Irish/Mexican because I wanted to give him two backgrounds that didn’t remotely seem to go together. Peter was an orphan.

Miguel (named after actor and friend Miguel Ferrer) O’Hara would have a mother. Peter was an only child. Miguel would have a brother. Peter was in his teens; Miguel would be in his mid-20s.

Peter had no idea how to approach girls. Miguel would have a fiancée. Peter basically scaled walls via magic. Miguel would have talons. Spider-Man web-swung; Spider-Man 2099 would, much like 60 • BACK ISSUE • Alternate Realities Issue

by

Eric 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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needed to emerge beyond just my first instinct of not all entries relating to Earth X include Daredevil with a high characters are going to wear the same costumes and that, collar and horns à la the character’s reinvention courtesy getting older and heavier as people do, you’d have an of Tim Sale (#5, May 1996), Dr. Doom by future Earth X out-of-shape Spider-Man. That was the smallest thought penciler John Paul Leon (#6, June 1996), and a Machine that I had when first sitting down with a piece of paper. Man revamp by Dave Johnson (#21, Sept. 1997).

“Once I started to visualize making Captain America Krueger recalls his first conversation with Ross about somebody who looked like he had suffered the scars of the project. “He said, ‘So, Wizard contacted me wanting all these years of fighting and that in a way he had torn me to do what the Marvel characters would look like old away everything, the costume was ripped to shreds, and changed in the future… I have some sketches of things I’ve been thinking of and my basic idea is the skin was itself a patchwork quilt of scars, and then using the flag as a drapery on him, we’re gonna call it Earth X, the world has gone it suddenly took form as, ‘Oh, this isn’t a Earth X-Men, everyone has mutated. I don’t have any other ideas beyond these sketchsilly idea, there’s actually something here.’

So one decent concept on a character es and that. You do these ‘Time Slip’ stories; reinvention led to another and another. why don’t you do a thing on these characters?’ So I wrote a little paragraph on All these ideas just blossomed and then it seemed like, ‘Oh, okay, I’m not each of the characters doing to them laughing at this anymore and there’s what I did in ‘Time Slip.’ ” something visually dynamic here.’ ” Ross remembers, “As soon as I did that first sketch page I called Jim up asking if Ross reached out to writer Jim Krueger early on in the creative process. he would contribute some stuff to this.

They had initially met in 1993 during I thought that he could write some the promotion for Marvels (Krueger notes, some background material in this jim krueger worked in the Marvel offices at the sketchbook, that would ground it with a little more depth. And that led to him time), and the pair quickly bonded over Courtesy of Jim Krueger. a shared love of Machine Man and 1970s Marvel-era Jack proposing a large reason for why, from my original premise, Kirby. Ross was an admirer of Krueger’s self-published book ‘If the entire world is all-mutant, how did that happen?’ ” Foot Soldiers, as well as his ongoing “Time Slip” feature in That very idea of a mutated populace was formed Marvel Vision. A kind of two-page What If?, “Time Slip” by Ross as a reaction to the ongoing success of Marvel’s featured reinventions of Marvel characters by an all-star X-Men. “The name Earth X is not strictly some kind list of artists including the likes of Mike Allred, Paul Pope, of rip-off of the alternate earth from DC’s timeline,” and Bill Sienkiewicz. Krueger would then pen origins for explains Ross. “It’s actually meant to be a reflection the characters based on the artists’ interpretations. Notable of the over-popularity of Marvel’s X-Men for 20 years

The Devil You Say! (left) A spooky concept sketch for Daredevil, by and courtesy of John Paul Leon. (right) Ross’ lumpy Logan and Jean Grey character studies.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Alternate Realities Issue • BACK ISSUE • 71

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS I was putting my nephew into the series. My nephew was ISSUE IN PRINT a teenager at OR the DIGITAL time, and FORMAT! when I’d seen him at some

point in ’96 or ’97, his manner struck me as this kind of representation of modern teenagers. Basically, I was having a dim view of my nephew that thankfully would turn out to be completely incorrect about the person that he is or even was. But it inspired me to think that it would be a crazy thing, you have all these awful mutated-looking characters, but the most powerful of all is just this young kid who has the power to control everybody else. Now my teenage nephew is a man in his mid-30s, who is a personal trainer.

He has as much muscle as I’ve ever drawn on a superhero character, that’s what’s become of the real Skull kid.”

This new Skull has sacrificed the mind of a battle-scarred Steve Rogers, allowing him to witness the destruction of the country that he holds so dear. Along for the ride are new, but familiar heroes including Wyatt Wingfoot as BACK ISSUE #111 Redwing, the human embodiment of Falcon’s sidekick, ALTERNATE REALITIES! Cover-featuring the 20th anniversary of theJIMdeath-defying, motorcycle-riding Daredevil, an ALEXand ROSS and KRUEGER’s Marvel Earth X! Plus: What If?, Bronze Age DC Imaginary Stories, Elseworlds, 2099, and homage to Marvel’s late Marvel 1970s Human Fly, whose true PETER DAVID and GEORGE PÉREZ’s senses-shattering Hulk: Future identity was but never Imperfect.

Featuring TOMhighly DeFALCO,debated, CHUCK DIXON, PETER B. revealed (at least GILLIS, PATyet).

MILLS, Readers ROY THOMAS, manyintroduced more! With an Earth not areandalso to a bevy of radical X cover

by ALEX ROSS.on familiar heroes, from a retired and outnew takes (84-page FULL-COLOR $8.95 Thor, the result of Loki’s of-shape Peter Parkermagazine) to a female (Digital Edition) $4.95 traditional trickery. One interesting spin on a classic concept bit.ly/BackIssue111 was the creator’s splitting of the Hulk and Bruce Banner into two beings, the latter in the form of a child.

“Jack Kirby’s style [for the Hulk] in ’63 looked sort of ape-like; I wanted to go back to the most extreme, subhuman appearance the Hulk could have,” explains Ross.

“And then the idea that you’ve split the two characters;

all of the animal, all of the rage stuff goes into the Hulk creature, and all of the intellectual stuff goes into the kid.

It’s like if you’re talking about everything that’s male, that’s testosterone, is removed and put into separate characters, and that’s why you don’t have Bruce Banner as a man, you have him as a child. And in its own way it becomes a weird homage to Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy.” Krueger elaborates, “I was drawing on some of the amazing things that Peter David had done. I think it was [Incredible Hulk scribe] Bill Mantlo who originally suggested that Banner was abused as a child and had this hidden rage.”

On the other hand, there were some characters of note that didn’t fare as well in the future, including the lazy, couch-bound Wolverine. “I wanted to kind of poke fun at Wolverine,” explains Ross. “I really wanted to bring Wolverine down a peg because I was so sick of the attitude-driven characters who were nothing but all this adolescent rage and attitude.”

“We were really mean to Wolverine,” admits Krueger.

The series is steeped in continuity, allowing appearances for such obscure characters as Woodgod, Omega the Unknown, and Texas Jack, the latter being a Kirby-created supporting character from Captain America. “Basically the reason it’s such a hard read and got progressively harder with the following series is that we wanted to take the time to acknowledge virtually everything we could think of in Marvel history,” admits Ross. “There are so many characters and fun ways to reflect them back, to show some twist in the way to perceive them.”

The book culminates in two epic battles as Captain America gathers an army to take down the Skull and a

A World, Mutated (left) Original Leon/ Reinhold art featuring Medusa and the Inhumans, from Earth X #1 (Apr. 1999). (right) Earth X’s Hulk— seen here on a page from issue #4— borrows from both Jack Kirby’s original primal version of the character and Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy, as well as writer Bill Mantlo’s psychological take on Bruce Banner.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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