Sometimes alternate timelines are created for action figure tie ins. Sometimes it's to save some flagging sales. Very occasionally it's because somebody actually has a good story to tell, as was the case with Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert, which transposed all the big Marvel characters to King James's England. Peter Parquagh was an assassin with a spider fixation, Carlos Javier lead the hated and feared witchbreed, and Sir Richard Reed set sail on the good ship Fantastick. The miniseries ended with the alternate timeline being fixed and doomed to destruction until The Watcher plopped them into their own pocket universe, which was jolly nice of him.