8 Weird Directions The Comic Book Movie Genre Could Take

7. What If...?

Not the upcoming Daniel Radcliffe rom-com but rather Marvel€™s What If... ? series, which began in the seventies as an outlet for Marvel to explore some of their more outlandish story ideas. The comic covered everything from genuinely intriguing divergent-timeline stories such as "What if Spider-man Had Never Become a Crimefighter?" to utterly bizarre tales such as "What if the Original Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?", including Stan Lee as Mr Fantastic and Jack Kirby as a cigar chomping Thing. It would be surprising in the least if any filmmakers attempted to bring the latter story to the screen, but adapting the What If... ? series in some way would offer an intriguing opportunity for creators to have fun with classic characters and scenarios, in a way which until now has been the sole reserve of comics. It's difficult to imagine What If... ? being explored cinematically in any form, unless that is if one of the Marvel films featured a divergent timeline story and gave a tip of the hat to the series in a knowing way. The most likely avenue for seeing this alternative comics reality made reality would likely be on television. Even then live-action would be a stretch but an animated TV series with a similarly humorous approach as The Super Hero Squad Show (but also an irreverent adult-oriented tone) would be a welcome addendum to the Marvel adaptation roster and a bold display of genre innovation.