CBR: Steven Grant Talks "What If? Spider-Man: Back in Black"

[CBR News]

We speak to Steven Grant about “What If? Spider-Man: Back in Black,� in which
he and artist Gus Vazquez depict what might have happened if Spidey's wife
Mary Jane was shot instead of Aunt May.


Full article here.

[CMBMOOL]

I said it before and I'll say it again, this is as close to a What IF OMD as we are going to get.

It got to be good if Mephisto isn't going to be involved in this.

[The Valeyard]

These new What Ifs are too short to tell a decent story. They never have the meat the older What Ifs did. If you're going to present an alternate take on an EPIC Marvel story, you should make it long enough to properly tell the story.

Here's an alternate look on a 6 month long event and we're gonna cram it into 22 pages and charge you $3.99.

No thanks Marvel.

[Bugaboo-X]

But!... But!...
BUT PETER WAS NEVER MARRIED TO MARY JANE!!!

((I'm typing the rest of this message blind -- my eyes have rolled up into the back of my head in a fit of sarcasm...))

[ZT4]

Grant's a good egg, wrote some great Spidey stuff in the 1990s. "Circle of Blood" is a fun Punisher arc too.

[Karl Cook]

I may just have to check this one out...

[ZeoVGM]

Sounds good. I just wish the quality of the What If one-shots were higher. It definitely works better as a one-shot type of book, rather than an ongoing.

[BlackToe]

Sounds good. I just wish the quality of the What If one-shots were higher. It definitely works better as a one-shot type of book, rather than an ongoing.

Yeah those classic WhatIf's still blow the other mainstream comics out of the water for re-readability for me. The quality was absolutely unmatched. Even the Captain America vs Conan and the Thor vs Conan issues. Some of the greatest WhatIf's in my opinion. Hell EVEN the golden age WhatIf? classics are still readable over alot of modern day material.

[WadebeforeSlade]

I agree, these new What Ifs are usually pretty terrible and always end with a typical whimper ending. Not like the old series What Ifs which usually had a real twilight zone type of ending. Anyways, we have seen what happens to Spiderman if his family dies done best in Vol. 2 of What if, I think an issue in the 20s where the Punisher had killed Daredevil. Punisher shoots Spiderman in the shoulder, he gets taken to the hospital and unmasked, the Maggia uses a rocket launcher on the his AUnt May and Mary Jane, and then Kingpin unleashes a drugged out Spiderman on the Punisher. Its a brutal fight scene and we get a blow by blow from the Punisher as Spiderman does not pull his punches, "that could shatter concrete" according to the Punisher. I recommend it. This looks ok, but I have been burned so many times by these What Ifs that I have to almost read them through before I buy them now.

[chastmastr]

“Marvel comics are really a lot more fun to write now because Marvel has seriously embraced moral ambiguity..."

Which is why I'm not finding most of them fun to read anymore.

David

[StoneGold]

Eh, typical What If ending from any era: and everyone died.

[ZT4]

Which is why I'm not finding most of them fun to read anymore.

"Shades of Grey" was slowly seeping into everything by 1999, now that it's embraced, it's impossible to find a unique voice in any comic.

[chastmastr]

I honestly think things started to go awry in mid-2004, and I'm tempted to blame Dan Buckley. Under Jemas things were not this bad at all.

[Venom]

Definitely picking this up. The only criticism I have with the What Ifs? is that they're too short these days compared to the old ones. At times they can feel rushed because of the page restrictions.

[David Walton]

Definitely picking this up. The only criticism I have with the What Ifs? is that they're too short these days compared to the old ones. At times they can feel rushed because of the page restrictions.

Yeah, and the page restriction seems especially arbitrary now that these don't have come out on a monthly schedule--or any kind of schedule, really. "Back in Black" was what, three years ago now?

It'd be a good time to just cut the writer loose.