And then there was the time The original X-men became purse snatchers...

[wizardru]

I've been going through my comics and inventorying them and selecting what to sell...so I've come across lots of stuff, lately. Here's one I forgot about.

So the year was 2001 and the title was "Fantastic Four: Bigtown". The conceit of this "What If..." story is a simple one. What if Tony Stark and Reed Richards actually went ahead and changed the world? The results are....not what you'd expect.

Manhattan now is one super future city that has expanded over the rest of the five boroughs and Newark and beyond. Things have improved so much that Johnny Storm's girlfriend Soledad is heading over to a much nicer Newark to buy him a present.


But there she's ambushed by....The Mutts?!? Yes, it's actually the original five X-men, working as the world's least efficient street thugs.



Soledad gets saved by THE X-SQUAD. The only guy I know in that group is apparently Speedball...the rest are all original and non-descript characters. They are a product of a collaboration between...really...Hank Pym and Charles Xaiver making artificial mutants to act as cops. (Ruin? Wrecker? Who are these people?)

This doesn't sit well with everyone...especially The Brotherhood! You know, the group with Havok, Storm and Wolverine?



The Avengers and FF show up and put them down. There's also a subplot how all of the biggest villain names in the MU are trying to organize against the status quo. A meeting with the Red Skull, Dr. Doom, Magneto, Ultron, Namor and the Hulk that goes about as well as you might expect. There's also some subplots about Hawkeye and Mockingbird's marriage fragmenting after she kills a guy to save his life.

It's kind of a weird comic that is trying very hard to be an elseworld title. Just thought I'd share.