What If?
In What If Civil War Ended Differently?, a stranger appears in front of Iron Man, who is visiting Captain America’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Tony Stark is told of two diverse ways the Civil War could have concluded:
- The first is, "What if Captain America led all the heroes against the Registration Act?" In this reality, Tony Stark dies of the Extremis virus, leaving the U.S. government to choose Steve Rogers as the spokesperson for heroes, who as in the regular universe opposes registration. Though he manages to delay its passing, the Stamford disaster occurs as in the true reality. Without Tony Stark to provide a fairer path for registration, the government's response is more extreme. Governmental forces led by Henry Peter Gyrich destroy the resistance and many heroes are slain.
- The second is, "What if Iron Man lost the Civil War?" In this reality, Iron Man asks for Cap's help in chapter three instead of threatening him, thus Cap does not use the hidden weapon in his glove to disable Tony's armor. The heroes unite to stop the out-of-control Thor clone. The resulting goodwill convinces Captain America to help run the program as he is the only one the heroes will trust with their secret identities.
After that story, the stranger is revealed to be none other than Uatu, Earth 616's Watcher. Upon learning the truth of this alternate reality, Tony is devastated and weeps for the bright future he helped prevent.
In a special What If: Annihilation by David Hine and Mico Suayan, a cosmic war reaches Earth. The heroes unite to neutralize it, and many die in the first clashes. Captain America and Iron Man, after a final reconciliation, sacrifice themselves alongside Nova to deflect the full Annihilation Wave.
Read more about this topic: Civil War (comics), Other Versions
Famous quotes related to what if?:
“Many have dreamed up republics and principalities that have never in truth been known to exist; the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation.”
—Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)
“I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
—Bible: New Testament, Philippians 4:12-13.
Paul.
“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.”
—Janet Malcolm (b. 1934)
“Self-centeredness is a natural outgrowth of one of the toddler’s major concerns: What is me and what is mine...? This is why most toddlers are incapable of sharing ... to a toddler, what’s his is what he can get his hands on.... When something is taken away from him, he feels as though a piece of him—an integral piece—is being torn from him.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)
“More Safe, and much more modest ‘tis, to say
God wou’d not leave Mankind without a way:
And that the Scriptures, though not every where
Free from Corruption, or intire, or clear,
Are uncorrupt, sufficient, clear, intire,
In all things which our needfull Faith require.
If others in the same Glass better see
‘Tis for Themselves they look, but not for me:
For MY Salvation must its Doom receive
Not from what OTHERS, but what I believe.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)