What If #17: Ghost Rider, Spider-Woman, & Captain Marvel were villains

[lordultimus]

In the first story, Satan (later retconned to be Mephisto) allows Johnny Blaze's foster dad Crash Simpson to live his record-breaking attempt to jump cars. Satan shows up after to collect Johnny's soul early, turning him into the Ghost Rider. The Ghost Rider kills Crash in front of his daughter and Johnny's girlfriend Roxanne, then runs off while he still has some control over himself. Over the next few months, the Ghost Riders kills criminals to collect their souls for Satan. He is finally confronted by Roxanne, who has tracked him down after realizing who he really is.







The second story has Spider-Woman still the amnesiac Arachne, a pawn of the Hydra agent Count Vermis, who promised her that he would uncover the secrets of her past. In a Hydra mission to rescue Arachne's lover, the Hydra agent Jared, Nick Fury throws Jared in front of him to block a venom blast, killing Jared.



Arachne flees, realizing that Hydra is her only protection now. SHIELD manages to track her down, capturing her while Vermis manages to escape. At Arachne's murder trial, Vermis is called by the defense, who testifies that she cannot be tried in a court of law, claiming that she is not a human but a mutated spider. Arachne calls him a liar, and since she realizes that none of them care about her, the only way to discover who she is is if she's free.





The third story begins with Mar-Vell battling the Kree Sentry robot awakened by his superior Yon-Rogg, trying to stop it from destroying a nuclear base, thereby ruining the Kree's intelligence mission.





Since Mar-Vell couldn't destroy the robot without being branded a traitor, with the help of the base's head of security Carol Danvers, he manages to magnetize the Kree Sentry robot to a launching missile, where it explodes in space. It remains intact but nullified, away from where Earth scientists can reach it. Yon-Rogg shows up and battles Mar-Vell, but without taking a breathing serum or wearing a helmet he begins to suffocate and ends up executed by Ronan.

Comments

[scorntx]

So, in the reality where Crash Simpson doesn't die... Crash Simpson still dies, just a little bit later.
Oh, What If...? Never change.

The amusing bit about the Spider-Woman one is the assumption that Nick Fury would actually stay dead when killed.
Because it's always a freaking LMD. Even when it's not, the minute they turn their head, BAM. LMD.
And even if it isn't, he'd still be brought back somehow by the end of the month.

-"But now SHIELD knows I'm in Paris"-
Yeah, can't imagine what may have tipped them off.
... it really is amazing that in those days, and right up until the late 90s, superheroes actually could disguise themselves by sheer dint of wearing a trenchcoat and hat over their regular costumes.
It's like an inversion of that platypus...

Kind of like how Mar-Vell's What If...? is just "What If... The Kree Empire had a Kree Resources division?"
(Also, Ronan the Public Accuser just... just doesn't have the same oomph. Makes him sound like a lawyer.
... which would be hilarious to see, really.)

But gosh, the Spider-Woman and Captain Marvel stories are a little open ended.
Was the hope that someone might write in asking them to continue those stories or something?

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I'm failing to see how this makes Mar-Vell a villain, per se. Did he originally renounce the empire before?

[zachbeacon]

The answer to the questions on the cover are ...

Isn't Ghost Rider kind of a villian already?

Spider Woman would be a Skrull.

Captain Marvel would be Carol Danvers.



The real question is "do they kill off Spider-Man in this story?". It isn't a proper WI story without a Peter Parker death. I'm sort of amazed there were enough Spider-People left alive to build that army in Spider-Verse.

[jgeils]

Gee, I hadn't realized Carmine Infantino died back in 2013. I'd hoped he was just living outside the spotlight like Steve Ditko.