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The answer's pretty simple: there would be much awesomeness. I can't even remember how I came across this, but the moment I did, I knew I'd be sharing it here. So here we have 9 scans from What If #10 (35 pages). This is my first post here, so please let me know if I've erred anywhere. I also uploaded these using image shack, but I'm not sure what the limits are there, so if they disappear or if there's a better place to upload, please let me know that too.

Warning: This is pretty image-heavy. Also, some ableist language is used in the comic itself.

They weren't kidding about the shock ending, either. Though "mind screwingly random" would probably be a better description. Anyway! So the story goes, Jane Foster is accompanying Donald Blake on his fateful hike. He's a pretty mopey fella, constantly apologizing for being such a burden...and privately angsting over the fact that no one, especially not the lovely Jane, could ever love someone with a bad leg. He's wrong about that,but before Jane can drop any more hints that really, all the moping is unnecessary, there's a random alien monster attack, and they get separated. Jane ends up in a mysterious cave where she finds a mysterious stick, and Don is cornered (and eventually falls off a cliff). Then this happens:

And Jane jumps right into action, being awesome. (Apologies for the slightly clipped scan here, folks)

Yes, the monsters run away because they assume that if a simple woman is that strong, there must be even stronger dudes around. Sigh. Anyway, moving on, Jane jumps right into a life of derring-do and crime fighting, and she's pretty darn good at it. Loki gets wind of some of this, decides to stir up trouble, and is surprised to find Thordis, not Thor. This does not cause him to rethink his plans much, at least not initially...except for the part wher Jane clobbers him.

So Loki comes up with a new plan: tattle. He tells Odin, Odin summons Thor(dis) to Asgard, and Loki rubs his hands together in glee, because she's a girl! That makes him the only son! Odin has kittens. Jane is kind of put off by all their drama. And super annoyed at the warriors three unrelenting attempts to hit on her.

So Odin banishes Jane, but she certainly isn't minding. Instead, so goes back to kicking ass and taking names, fighting along side the Avengers, and being cool. Sif, still bummed out about the whole Thor thing, decides to go to Earth, track down Donald Blake, and mack on him. As you do. Her plan is slightly complicated in that involves faking drowning, waiting for him to save her, healing his leg, and then more-or-less asking him if he wants to make out. But the plan works, and soon enough he's declaring his undying love. Sometime later, Loki attacks again, and Sif is injured, and Jane finds out the hard way about Dr. Blake's fickle ways.

Jane gets over it pretty quickly though. She's having a little bit too much fun being awesome to angst over it. After all, there's still Loki to deal with, but that's a fight that's over relatively quickly. Time for a job well done. But Odin has other plans...

So now Jane's bummed. Not only has Odin ruined her fun, she's got to watch as her almost-boyfriend turns into a Norse god and goes right back to putting the moves on Sif.

But Odin has a consolation prize in mind....and this is where it gets really, really, random.

Oh man. That last panel. That's pure crack. I laughed for about ten minutes.

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From:

magus_69

His "sincerity" is his-- nah, too easy!

From:

seisachtheia

Too easy, or too obvious? Because there's definitely that vibe. Oh god. My brain went there. It's full of entendres about things with one eye. I really wish it hadn't.

From:

greenmask

Hah! That last pink panel is classic. What an asspull!

Happy first post!

From:

icon_uk

On the plus side, I think he's less likely to shapeshift for some exotic nookie with the first pretty human girl or boy that catches his eye (no pun intended) than certain Greek all-fathers....

From:

leoboiko

Well he is a shapeshifter/trickster, and he’s very, er, productive too. Perhaps he’s just better at covering it up? :)

From:

vitruvian23

I remembered all of this except the cracktastic ending. As to that, what the Frigga?

From:

robinzegblu

Has Marvel Odin always had two eyes?

From:

eyz

He only had one in some of the recent stuff I read...so he lost it at some point...?

From:

hero_of_lallor

Jack Kirby's Odin always had two eyes. I can't remember when he lost it, a couple of Ragnoroks a go.

From:

abriel

So it ends with Odin macking on his son's ex-girlfriend. Oh my.

From:

seisachtheia

Those are going to be some awkward family dinners.

From:

icon_uk

Still better than Olympus, where your mother is often your aunt and your uncle is quite likely to be your brother too.

From:

mrstatham

Zeus bores everyone by repeatedly using that anecdote where his mother fed his father a stone instead of him.

From:

eyz

~awkward!~

From:

capt_satellite

I don't think Odin is wearing any pants.

Seriously, though..."What if?" was a favorite of mine back in the day...I remember that issue well. At first it was a lot of fun, and the art was good....the pencilers were obviously getting a kick out of doing. After a while, the art and stories ran the gamit from ok to abominable, but it was cracktastic indeed.

It looks like John Buscema on the art, if I am not mistaken. The second of his 2 Conan "What If?" issues was hilarious: it was about Conan in present day (1977 I think?). I think some of that was posted on SD a while back.

From:

seisachtheia

I think I saw that one when I went looking to see if this had been posted previously...was that the one where he ends up being all pimped out? The one that really had me going, "okay, they were seriously just all on drugs when they came up with these" was the one where the Marvel staff secretly became the Fantastic Four. Which they then used to come up with stories about the "fictional" Fantastic Four. It was just so gloriously silly.

From:

silverhammerman

I'm pretty curious as to why we haven't seen either Elseworlds or What If? in years. I think there was a What If? series a few years ago, it involved a Soviet Fantastic Four, but we haven't seen anything recently. Which is too bad, because it does look fun.

From:

silverhammerman

Oh, never mind, a quick wiki search reveals that they're still doing What If? much to my surprise. My questions about Elseworlds still stand though.

From:

skjam

Supposedly, there's a Grant Morrison series that will be dealing with the New52 Multiverse and thus functioning as a Elseworlds mini.

From:

silverhammerman

Multiversity I think. We've been hearing about it for years though, so I'm not sure if it's actually coming now. Which is sad because it sounds awesome, among the worlds is supposed to be a pulp based one featuring Doc Fate, a riff on Watchmen using the original Charlton characters, and a universe that I think I saw described as All-Star Captain Marvel. I want that book so bad.
Hopefully now that Morrison is taking a step back from monthly comics for a while he'll have a chance to finally finish the damned thing. And hopefully with a more easily comprehensibly ending than Seven Soldiers had.

From:

mrstatham

DC apparently only started doing Elsewords because the Multiverse was basically shut off to them, from what I recall, and I also remember in an interview from a view years back that Didio in particular isn't a huge fan of them. I can't remember why. But it's telling that since they brought the Multiverse back, they promptly ransacked a number of the best Elseworlds to use as parallel worlds; Gotham by Gaslight, Red Son and the like were all plundered during Countdown.

As for the What-Ifs, they do still do those, yeah, but they aren't nearly as entertaining as they used to be because they all revolve around big modern events and stories, like Civil War or The Other and stuff like that; They aren't quite as interesting.

From:

biod

There was à pretty cool one I remember where Spidey became an assassin and abuses his spider-sense.

From:

seisachtheia

There was something in these scans that did make me curious though- both here and in other comics, kind of at random, I've seen Loki referred as Thor's half-brother. What's up with that?

From:

q99

Really he's adopted, but I think half-brother was the story Odin used for awhile. Or something.

From:

lbd_nytetrayn

Indeed.

From:

q99

Making her a goddess makes sense. Sorta the Beta Ray Bill thing.

Asking to hook up with her? That I did not see coming!

From:

darth_cloudo

Wow uh...I was not expecting that at all. I mean Jane as Thordis was really awesome, but that ending...uh...hrm. . _.

From:

darkblade

So Odin dresses a woman he wants to marry like Loki, after she dressed like Thor on her own for an extended period of time. That's a little creepy.

From:

seisachtheia

That....is a really good, creepy point. And now I feel even *worse* about the lack o' pants in the last panel.

From:

darkblade

"Do I always have to dress like your sons?"

"Yes. This pleases Odin."

"'Kay well I'm going to Olympus for a while then. At least they are open about their uh issues."

From:

seisachtheia

"The Avengers! Um. I'm sure they're assembling or something, and I'm still a member and all so you know I wouldn't want them to think me a flake or anything, so I'll just be going...."

From:

donnblake

So... how does Thordis fit in to the fact that Eccleston will be in the next Thor movie?

From:

cherrybomb

He'll take you for a ride in his Thordis, nudge nudge wink wink.

From:

seisachtheia

Gives a whole new meaning to, "Hordes of barbarians (or whatever the line was) couldn't get through those doors, and believe me, they've tried", doesn't it?

From:

donnblake

The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan, I believe.

From:

blackruzsa

You win today.

From:

tessiebee

Eccleston? Chris Eccleston?

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m805ueXuNH1ro3dj2o4_250.gif

From:

leoboiko

first time I see Volstagg hitting on someone; I suppose this universe’s has no "mate" either. (that, or they’re poly.)

From:

mesmiranda

It depresses me how much flak Jane gets from the Thorki/Thunderfrost/shipping side of the fandom, in light of the recent movies, and this confirms my opinion of how awesome she is.

From:

hero_of_lallor

Jane gets flack from everyone who believes a woman has to be violent to be powerful. Jane is the most personally powerful woman in Thor's cast . I think that is the interesting comparison. Jane has a will of iron, she's been put through hell at Marvel but she isn't physical. Sif is physical but she's personally weak, and filled with self pity and doubt.

From:

liara_shadowsong

...I think I'll just stick with "Jane Foster is awesome" and "comics canon is often more crack-tastic than even fandom can hope to match".

From:

raisedbymoogles

So, Jane proves her badassery, and her reward is to get married to an old guy? Uh, no thanks.

From:

seisachtheia

Yeah. It's especially random and weird in the full comic, where you've got basically 34 pages of Jane being completely cool and collected and confident and kicking seven kinds of ass all over the place. Thor kinda starts to pale in comparison. So it kind of comes across as if the writer hit the last page and went, "shit, I can't actually have Jane continue to be this awesome and go back to kicking ass indefinitely, there has to be some way to get things back to the status quo (or close enough). I know! Pants-less Odin! Solved." Because it is just that random.

From:

hero_of_lallor

I think this was an ill judged reaction to Stan Lee writing her out a few years earlier. Stan had set up Jane to be an awesome, worthy goddess for about 50 issues before ditching her in a story where she was deemed too cowardly. It was out of character. So then came this story which fulfilled the promise of what Stan set up and cast off. It also calls Thor out and shows him really badly, he only wanted her when he thought he couldn't do any better. So, the writer seems to have thought, Jane is too good for Thor, he can have the whiny Sif and Jane can be a Queen but to be the Queen she has to marry the old guy which sours the ending.

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What if Jane Foster had the power of Thor?

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