"Common Cold" in the book asks if rhinoviruses could be eradicated if every human lived in isolation for five weeks, resembling the social distancing measures enacted globally a few years later due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Randall points out that it would be theoretically possible to do this, but the economic impact would be extreme. COVID-19 caused a global slowdown in economic activity that threatens to turn into a recession, particularly in the United States.
Hilarious in Hindsight: "Space Jetta" in January 2016, about the effects of a car re-entering that atmosphere, had one comic panel that jokes about SpaceX sending Teslas into space by accident. A bit over two years later, they did it on purpose.
Squick: The "mole of moles", which turns into a planet-sized mass of boiling meat slurry.
What If? #20 depicts a version of the Kree-Skrull war ending with Princess Anelle taking control of the Skulls and ushering in peace. Three years after that issue, the canon Anelle would die in the destruction of the Skrull homeworld, and has stayed dead ever since.
"What if Spider-Man Had Not Married Mary Jane?" became more like a canon after the release of One More Day in 2007.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: The parody issue (vol.1 #34) had a short story asking "What if Iron Man had an eating problem instead of a drinking problem?", showing Tony Stark becoming morbidly obese from over-indulging on fast food. According to Robert Downey Jr., he realized he'd hit rock bottom one night when he was scarfing down tons of fast food burgers, which lead to his quitting drugs and cleaning up his life...which, in turn, led to his being cast as Iron Man.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Plenty of scenarios in the comic actually happened as time went on - Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four in the Hickman run, Hulk became a barbarian in the Planet Hulk series, Comic-Book Time means that Captain America was probably revived decades after both iterations of "What if Cap were revived today?", Elektra's survival has been retconned in...
The joke scenario in #34, "What if Every Avenger Remained an Avenger", depicts the silliness of an Avengers team with around twenty-six members. Ever since Civil War (2006), that lineup has looked downright sparse.
Even more so, since Vol 3 has an early issue beginning with thirty-odd Avengers trying to stop Whirlwind robbing a bank, and tripping over one another.
"What if Spider-Man's Clone Lived?" (vol. 1 #30) would indeed be explored in the Canonical Spider-Man Arc "The Clone Saga". Some readers even argue that the "What If...?" Story turned out much better than the actual Clone Saga did!
In "What if J. Jonah Jameson adopted Spider-Man?" (v2 #82), Flash Thompson becomes the Scorpion. Years later in canon, he'd claim another power set that once belonged to Mac Gargan: Venom.
#46 of the second series, "What If Cable Destroyed the X-Men?", leans toward Harsher in Hindsight. The book opens with Cable killing Professor Xavier, Jean Grey, and Cyclops. This was released just a little less than a year before it was revealed that Cyclops was Cable's father.
The world shown in "What If Charles Xavier Had Become the Juggernaut" is effectively House of M, albeit with Xavier in charge instead of Magneto, a mutant-dominated world where humans are second-class citizens.
What If? Vol 2 11 is both this and Harsher in Hindsight. In the second story, "What If... The Fantastic Four all had the stretching power of Mister Fantastic?", Sue Storm marries Ben Grimm instead of Reed. The same thing happens in the Ultimate Marvel universe. Unfortunately, Ultimate Reeddoesn'ttake itnearly as well.
Volume 1, Issue 13 has a random pedestrian ask if Conan is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger would play Conan three years later.
In What If? vol 1 #34's "What if Ghost Rider Owned a Fast Food Franchise?", he wants you to have it HIS way... or else!
Volume 1, Issue 2: "What if the Hulk had the brain of Bruce Banner?" Good question.
Hovering between this and Harsher in Hindsight is the panel from the first gag #34 issue, "What if Luke Cage had found the hammer of Thor?" depicting the hilarity of a Jive Turkey, Blaxploitation Norse god. The joke became a lot weirder after the infamous What If...? Miles MoralesBecame Thor?! portrayed the exact same idea completely seriously.
Doom Became Sorcerer Supreme: Doctor Doom is once again depicted as a brilliant and charismatic mastermind. He comes under the tutelage of the Ancient One to become this reality's version of the Sorcerer Supreme. Doom is so Crazy-Prepared that he predicts a murder attempt by Baron Mordo and instead turns him into his mind-controlled servant. Doom and the Ancient One outwit Mephisto to save the soul of Doom's beloved mother. When Dormmamu invades, Doom responds by sending him to New York, where he knows the resident heroes can hold him off while he has the Fantastic Four discreetly get a stone that can be used to banish him. Defeating Dormmamu at the cost of his life, Doom reveals he's even prepared for this and has his Doombots kidnap the innocent Dr Strange and overwrite his mind with that of Doom. A brilliant and analytical mastermind, Doom ultimately wins and gains the power of the Sorceror Supreme for eternity.
Spider-Man: The Other: The Venom symbiote uses the full extent of its natural abilities and relentless cunning in pursuit of its goals. Sensing that its first host Peter Parker has gone into a coma, the symbiote breaks out of the Raft, effortlessly killing most of the guards and taking one over to use as an interim host before abandoning him to permanently bond with Parker, taking over his body and rechristening itself Poison. Intent on finding a mate to join him in his new life, Poison breaks into the apartment of May Parker and Mary Jane Watson, the latter of whom he intends to bond with his spawn, and easily defeating Wolverine and Luke Cage when they try to intervene. Although spurned by Mary Jane, Poison is undeterred and simply exhumes the corpse of Gwen Stacy to make her his symbiote bride instead.
Infinity — Thanos: Thanos, The Mad Titan himself, used the war between the heroes of his universe and the Builders to achieve his own goals. Offering his help to Avengers, Thanos easily manipulated all of them, earning trust of every hero, aside from Captain America. Leading the heroes and his forces to finish off the Builders for good, Thanos reveals that his true motivation was to take his revenge upon the Builders for corrupting his son. As Captain America discovers this, Thanos manages to kill him, before convincing Avengers to let him take Captain America's place, effortlessly convincing them that he was murdered by enemy forces. Gaining influence over Earth, Thanos tracks down Illuminati in Necropolis and offered them a deal that they can't refuse.
Peter Parker Became The Punisher : Peter Parker himself is the deadly Anti-HeroThe Punisher. Tracking down and murdering the man who killed his Uncle Ben, Peter becomes a ruthless Vigilante Man dedicated to protecting his loved ones at all costs. With a combination of cunning tactics and custom ammunition designed to target his enemies specific weaknesses, he effortlessly dispatches the Sinister Six in brutal fashion adding the Kingpin along the way while being content to let rival gangs thin each other out in random gang violence. When Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin kidnaps his beloved Gwen Stacy, Peter shoots him on the spot and succeeds in saving Gwen. Regretting his actions, Peter abandons his vigilante lifestyle for a peaceful married life with Gwen but not before leaving his shredded costume trashed in a back alley for a young war veteran named Frank Castle who just lost his family in a mob hit to discover.
Older Than They Think: The "What if..." genre, which begins with a question (almost always starting with the words "what if") about things playing out differently and then making educated guesses, began with authors of counterfactual history long before the comic. Counterfactual history is a subgenre of history and makes questions about real-life events (such as "What if X battle was won by the other combatants?", "What if an assassination attempt failed/was successful?"), and although it is speculation, it must be based on real-life context to evaluate the likelihood of the proposed outcomes.
The issue where Jane Foster becomes Thor ends with Odin making her marry him. And apparently Jane has no problem with this.
In the Battleworld issue, Steve Rogers is happily married to Rogue... or more accurately, Carol Danvers in Rogue's body, which has completely supplanted Rogue. And they've had a kid.
which described exploding pressure cookers among other things, came six days before somebody used a pair of pressure cookers filled with shrapnel to bomb the Boston Marathon