What if... Karen Page had lived?

[cyberghostface]

The story opens with a guy at a diner (who's clearly Bendis) recapping Matt's life.



He goes onto say how Karen was murdered by Bullseye and sent Matt on the downward spiral that he is currently on.



In this version of events, Karen is not killed but is instead injured and hospitalized. Almost losing Karen puts Matt in a state of rage and he finds out that Kingpin was the one who started the chain of events that lead to her predicament.





Matt attempts to give himself up to the police but Fisk had, in the event of his death, set up documents for his legal team exposing Matt as Daredevil that implicated him in his murder. As such the police arrest Matt first and he instead comes off as a guilty man being caught.

Foggy defends Matt in court and various public heroes like Captain America and Reed Richards come forward as character witnesses.

Comments

[dc2houseofmystery]

I wonder why the majority of What Ifs are so damn gloomy?

My favourite is "What if... Spider-Man killed Uncle Ben's killer?", because the end IS optimistic, no matter how grim the initial premise. I bought that bad boy twice, once when I was a kid and again recently because I couldn't find the first copy. I think it might have even been one of the first Marvel books I ever bought... man...

[locuatico]

FWIR, A lot of "What Ifs..." begin on the premise that, for all the problems the 616 universe had, it was STILL the best possible universe.

[dc2houseofmystery]

I had never thought about it like that. It's quite clever in a soul crushing kinda way.

Marvel everybody!

[lamashtar]

:/ That tendency of What Ifs to be *worse* than canon is why I don't bother buying What Ifs anymore.

[doctor_spanky]

I always thought it was just writers making use of the fact that What If's are non-canon, so they can use ideas and darker themes that editors wouldn't accept in regular books. Like no one can ever write a story where Spider-Man (actually) dies, unless it's a What If. At least that's how I see the originals; as for modern "What If?"s I think gloomy endings have come to be expected

It's fine with me, I always liked the "anything can happen"-ness reading them growing up

[scorntx]

"Anything can happen" is one thing, but with most What If...?s the "anything" is usually "lots and lots of people die".
It gets kind of repetitive after a while.

[tcampbell1000]

What gets me about this one is that it kind of plays out like Karen Page DID die and Matt just went to the anger stage instead of the depression stage first. Even when she's there, she completely fails to affect the story at all.

[jmacq1]

I think a good bit of it is the writers having the opportunity to kill characters they'd never get the chance to do in other venues. While that's mean-spirited, it does allow for a certain freedom that perhaps gets overindulged. Though a lot of What Ifs? are less "absolute doom and gloom" and more "Pyrrhic victory" types of situations but with at least a touch of optimism. And then every so often you get the outliers. I always wondered if the "What if Jessica Jones had joined the Avengers?" was just someone poking fun at the idea of Jessica being a Mary Sue type character. Because seriously...that one was...kinda bugnuts crazy (She averts Avengers Disassembled because she recognizes Wanda's crazy before anything happens and then goes on to marry Captain America).

Seriously...Jessica Jones and Captain America. OTP.

[freezer]

#WellActually: The maximum sentence for Voluntary Manslaughter in New York state is 30 years.

I was gonna say there's no way Matt would get the max (hell, they'd likely give him Involuntary Manslaughter at the most), but this is still 616!Marvel: Home of the Ungrateful Bastards.

[beyondthefringe]

Man, the Watcher is really slumming in those first pages, isn't he? Was this during his grim, gritty, more realistic phase? Is this how they'll bring him into the Marvel Netflix Universe?

[draganoche]

Isn't that just Bendis selfinserting himself?

[jmacq1]

Y'know, between the self-insert and the way this What-If turns out, it kind of takes on a really ugly implication that this is effectively a "take that!" to any readers who were displeased about Karen's death.

[cyberghostface]

I think you're reading into it too much, Bendis used the 'self-insert' as the narrator for the Jessica Jones what-if as well. It was just his schtick for his 'what if' issues.

Also he was bothered how no one seemed to care about Karen's death in the comics after the fact so he wrote in Matt having a nervous breakdown over it to bring it back to the forefront, so I don't think his motif was "people need to get over it".

[lamashtar]

He didn't kill her, though. That was Kevin Smith, and he's apologized vociferously, blaming his lack of imagination for what to do with her character.

[q99]

Not the worst outcome, as What-Ifs go.

[scorntx]

Y'know, for something asking about what happens if Karen Page lived, there's not a lot of Karen Page herself.
Kind of odd.
"She lives! And then runs away forever and is never heard from again."

[sarahnewlin]

Shes barely in it. What is the point lol

[cyberghostface]

It's not about her, it's just what would happen if she had lived.

[donnblake]

So this was clearly a "What-if Daredevil had killed Kingpin," story that got Karen Page's survival tacked on to... serve what purpose?

[cyberghostface]

As the catalyst.

[thatnickguy]

Wouldn't he be MORE angry if she died? He didn't go after Kingpin after learning he'd spilled all of Matt's secrets to Mysterio, but you'd think he wouldn't be so murdery if Karen lived.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Well, now I'm curious why his sentence got reduced.

[cyberghostface]

Because he helped out SHIELD.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Makes sense. That was my first thought, but then they treated it like it was something else.