The X-Axis – 3 June 2026
UNCANNY X-MEN #29. (Annotations here.) The final part of “Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed”, and unless we’re coming back to some of this, I’m mostly confused. The Greymalkin prison storyline has never really worked, and it’s been one of the weakest strands of the post-Krakoan X-books, so I’m at least glad to see the back of it. Nor do I have a problem with Inmate X being a new character with a link to Corina Ellis (the foreshadowing was there), or with Ellis attempting a last minute face turn and being rebuffed. No, the problem with this arc is that about half of it is devoted to the Outliers/New Mutants material which doesn’t seem to tie in to the main plot in any way at all. It advances Mutina’s storyline, to be sure, but what was any of it about? I just don’t get it. Though it pales in comparison to…
STORM: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST MUTANT #5. (Annotations here.) Final issue of the run. It’s a blatant guillotine cancellation, despite having been solicited as a five-issue miniseries from the start, something which Ayodele only seems to have discovered when issue #1 was solicited. I don’t know what the lead-in times for this book are, but the series reads very much as if it reached for the emergency brake somewhere during issue #4, when the build-up to Storm’s “daughter” came to nothing and a scene set in her alternate timeline was compressed to a couple of pages. The final issue opts for attempting a thematic resolution and make a grand show of not resolving any of the actual plot on the grounds that we all know Storm wins somehow or other. To be fair, Ayodele does make an effort to tie his thematic resolution back to things that have happened over the course of the story. Still, the fact remains that it just stops, and with the best will in the world, this is the second time inside a year that I’ve read a guillotine cancellation issue from Marvel that played the meta card to get out of even going through the motions of resolving its storylines. (The other one was Astonishing Spider-Man Infinity Comic #36.) Sudden endings have always been a feature of superhero comics, and they’re never satisfying, but come on. More generally, the book’s ambition is laudable and always has been, and it’s a good thing that something so off kilter was able to exist in the current line, but it always felt like there were far too many ideas fighting for space at the best of times, coupled with frequently bemusing and confusing storytelling choices. But it swung for the fences, and you’ve got to at least respect that.
X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE #4. By Jeph Loeb, Simone Di Meo, Richard Starkings & Tyler Smith. Meanwhile, here’s the exact opposite of swinging for the fences. There’s a perfunctory plot about the whole “restoring the timeline” thing being a ruse – though it never made the slightest sense in the first place, being completely divorced from the original stories that it’s supposed to be referencing. There’s at least an effort to go through the routine of Gambit meeting an alternate Rogue, which is nothing new, and doesn’t fit with the original storyline that it’s supposed to be referencing anyway. But hell, at least that bit feels like Loeb wasn’t entirely asleep at the wheel when he was writing it. And yes, the art is often very pretty – Di Meo isn’t much good at location and atmosphere, but he does draw nice looking people. He’s making an effort, but there’s nothing else worth your time here.
CYCLOPS #5. By Alex Paknadel, Rogê Antônio, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo & Joe Caramagna. This is a bit more like it. It’s playing the classics, to be sure – isolate Scott from the team, force him to do the story with his eyes closed, have him inspire the sceptical new kids, his resourcefulness overcomes all – but the art is dynamic and the details are well built. You could probably have tightened it up to four issues but that won’t matter so much in the collection or on Unlimited. And yes, it does spell out the moral rather directly at the end. But the idea itself is sound: Scott can come across as a difficult and distant figure, but Donald Pierce serves as an opposite number who doesn’t care about the wellbeing of his followers at all, and regards them all as interchangeable bit part characters even though Paknadel has made sure to give at least a few of them real personality. At the same time, Scott gets to see that Pierce is turning these guys into soldiers and to be reintroduced to civilian non-combatant mutants, to remind him that not everyone ought to be in the X-Men. Very solid.
WHAT IF…? THE UNCANNY X-MEN #1. By Gerry Duggan, Jan Bazaldua, Arthur Hesli & Clayton Cowles. It’s “What if Cyclops had stayed with Madelyne Pryor”. Except it’s not quite that, because the turning point is actually that Madelyne gets saved at the end of Inferno, and Cyclops decides to retire as a superhero and go back to his family. That leads to Scott simply being a dad and living a normal life until Nate is old enough to become a teenage superhero, followed by an extremely abbreviated run through an alternate version of X-history. The timelines seem gratuitously garbled – why on earth does he have Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance taking place after Inferno? It doesn’t matter, but why namecheck them at all just to get it wrong? [EDIT: Never mind, I’m completely wrong about this. Atlantis Attacks was slightly after Inferno, and Acts of Vengeance was way after. That’ll teach me to do this stuff from memory.]
Anyway, it’s a What If story, so naturally it all ends in disaster, because that’s how every What If story ends. Nice to look at, not without its moments, but I don’t really buy the attempt to sell it as a story about how Scott inadvertently dooms the world by putting his family first; the chain of events is far too remote to make that any sort of moral story. And seriously, can we have a moratorium on What If stories that end with mass death? It’s been a cliche for at least 40 years now.
For that Cyclops mini to be the best recent X-book is rough.
Wasn’t Inferno late 1988-early 1989 while Atlantis Attacks was 1989 and Acts of Vengeance in ’89/’90? X-Factor Annual #4 has Atlantis Attacks part 9 and Inferno Aftermath.
“The timelines seem gratuitously garbled – why on earth does he have Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance taking place after Inferno?”
Didn’t read the issue, but Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance DID take place after Inferno. Did you mean to say before?
Matthew-You are correct. “Acts of Vengeance” was definitely after “Inferno”, as the events of AoV led to ninja Psylocke, and Betsy was still in her original body during “Inferno”. “Atlantis Attacks” was a Summer crossover event, I believe, so slightly after “Inferno”, yes.
Re: X-Men of Apocalypse 4- The book doesn’t depict Rogue and Carol’s fight on the Golden Gate Bridge correctly. Rogue ambushed Carol, and the fight took them to the Golden Gate Bridge, where Rogue stole her powers and threw her off the Bridge. In this issue, Carol shows up on the Bridge and tells Rogue “Heard you’ve been looking for me”.
Also, in XoA 4, if I’m not mistaken, Rogue flies before absorbing Ms. Marvel’s powers, which she shouldn’t be able to do.
Re: What If- The Uncanny X-Men 1:
This was bad.
For starters, there’s no clear explanation of how Maddie survived Inferno. Duggan doesn’t seem to get that the entire point of What Ifs is to how a turning point changed reality. For example, in one What If, Loki was freed from his captivity in the tree before Donald Blake found Thor’s hammer and prevented Blake from finding it so that Blake was killed by the Stone Men of Saturn. Duggan merely has the Watcher say “This universe is very similar to the one you know so well… Madelyne Pryor unleashed demons upon the world and in the end, she lost her life in the ensuing Inferno. …but in this timeline, Madelyne Pryor was saved by X-Factor.” How? How was she saved, Duggan? Nobody acts like Maddie is a potential threat to Scott or the baby. Is the idea that Scott took her to a sorcerer shortly after Uncanny 234 and he managed to reverse what S’ym did to her? Did she get turned into the Goblin Queen but have a change of heart shortly after the demons came to Earth? Scott and Maddie wonder if Nathan was a mutant, so obviously Inferno didn’t happen the same way as in the main Marvel timeline, since they learned Nathan was a mutant during inferno, but there’s no clear explanation what DID happen. This Maddie seems to be mostly characterized as her pre-Uncanny 234 self (more on that below) but it’s not clear at all. What point did Maddie get saved and how makes all the difference to Scott’s characterization.
If you wanted to write a What If where Scott and Maddie stayed together, the obvious point of divergence would either be to have X-Factor 1 go down differently or to have Scott leave X-Factor and return to Maddie before the Marauders attacked her and Nathan. (I realize that Duggar’s plot required Maddie’s powers to awaken but there were a dozen ways that could have happened.)
Also Scott says to X-Factor “Now she’s given me a son” (meaning Maddie). Baby Nate was born over three years before Inferno. Why is Scott saying NOW?
Also, Jean didn’t have enough telepathy to mind wipe someone at the time of Inferno but she’s able to do it in this story.
Maddie barely had a personality in this issue- she gets a dozen lines and then she’s killed off. She seems to have her pre-Uncanny 234 personality but in practice, Duggan writers her just like Jean.
Regarding Acts of Vengeance and Atlantis Attacks- they did take place after Inferno but there are multiple continuity errors. First, Nathan was a baby at the time of Acts of Vengeance and Atlantis Attacks but he’s old enough to play baseball, have a crush on a girl and know what a moose is in this issue. Second, Emma was a villain at the time of Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance but she’s a member of the X-Men in this issue before Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance. Third, Toad’s Brotherhood was introduced after Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance (and we first met Phanatazia as a member of Toad’s Brotherhood) but in this issue Toad’s Brotherhood, including Phanatazia, appear before Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance.
Also, what’s the point of Emma’s appearance this issue? Duggan seems to want to shoehorn her into everything.
And yeah, the story tries to claim that Scott’s decision to stay with Maddie and Nathan caused this bad future but it seems like most of the problems were caused by Jean’s bad decisions. She wipes Sinister’s mind but does such a poor job of it that his memories return leading him to seek vengeance and then takes off for outer space. (Yes, I know the Watcher said she was planning on returning- Duggan is obviously saving that as a sequel hook for another What If.)
The Storm books consistently had great art. Top notch. But tbh I gave up on trying to follow the plot ages ago.
My very favorite What If…? story will always be What If Phoenix Had Not Died? where I believe the entire universe was eventually destroyed. Good stuff.
But I also remember liking What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers? where JJ averts Avengers: Disassembled by noticing that Wanda was having mental health issues and getting her help. I’m not sure that issue *didn’t* end with everyone dying, but there was at least that one genuine bright spot. Maybe she also marries Steve Rogers? So two bright spots.
I think my favorite issue is always going to be the first humor issue, followed by the Marvel Bullpen as FF. Honorable mention for the DD/Shield issue and “the avengers defeat everybody.”
Bleeding Cool’s Weekly Bestseller List is out. Uncanny X-Men 29 came in 4th. Cyclops 5 came in 10th. What If?… Uncanny X-Men 1 came in 11th. Deadpool 5 and Storm: Earth’s Mightiest Mutant 5 didn’t make the list.
This has been a good week for Cyclops fans.
It doesn’t seem like Percy’s Deadpool series is doing too well. (Of course, it’s no surprise that nobody wanted to by the last issue of Storm.)
My favourite What If? story was the origin of the Cat People. What? If it was published in an issue of that series it still counts, right? (see what I did there?)
Runner-Up: Chris Claremont somehow completely botches the simple premise of What If Magneto had Formed the X-Men with Professor X? for the sheer entertainment value.
PLANET SHE-HULK was another abrupt cancellation this year that went for the meta angle to swiftly resolve its storyline (although it did have token montages to give an idea of how the series would have gone on, which is more than STORM did).
In other X-news, there will be a new Avengers series written by Chip Zdarsky in November spinning off out of Armageddon. The members are Spider-Man, Daredevil, Logan, Captain Marvel, Luke Cage and a new hero as the sixth member. (Many are speculating the sixth member is David Colton.)
I wonder If Logan will be leading the team in the ongoing or just gathering them together in Armageddon.
So it looks like Storm isn’t returning to the Avengers.
This lineup is obviously based on Bendis’s New Avengers. Although Zdarksy obviously included Spider-Man and Daredevil because he’s written them before.
The only “classic” member in this lineup is Carol. And considering Carol a classic member is odd because she really wasn’t considered one of the core Avengers women in the 20th century. The two core Avengers women were Jan and Wanda. Carol was ranked with the lesser Avengers women- Black Widow, Monica Rambeau, Tigra. But Disassembled had Wanda go crazy and Jan was much less prominent after Disassembled. And then in the movies, Jan wasn’t even an Avenger because she was an old lady. Meanwhile Carol was receiving a big push. So now Carol is arguably considered the premier Avengers woman.
Looking at this lineup, I have to wonder if DNX was originally supposed to be the X-Men and the Avengers vs. Beast. But by the time it came out, the only Avengers on the lineup who had a connection to Beast were Logan and Carol. So MacKay decided to use the Fantastic Four instead.
In other news, Cable will be one of the Defenders during the Queen in Black series.
Darkstar will also be one of the Defenders. Writer Tom Waltz describes her as “tough yet elegant and worthy of redemption” which suggests that Darkstar will be redeemed during Queen in Black.
@Thom H- I hated What If Jessica Jones Joined the Avengers? It felt like Bendis was shilling his pet character.
I’ve been buying the AoA series because the guy who runs my LCBS accidentally put it in my sub and I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. I like Simone DiMeo’s art enough, but the book is so badly written. I end each issue wondering what the point of any of it could be.
I only bought the What If…? issue because I buy every What If…? comic. Wow, what a sloppy mess! It looked great, at least, which is more than I can say of most What If…? comics. I liked seeing some Arakki characters, at least. I don’t buy the idea of a photogenic mutant family turning the tide of public opinion. At best, they’d be “the good ones” while most mutants still got harassed.
I did a What If re-read earlier this year and they’re more miss than hit, but there are some gems there.
My personal favorite is What if 98, What if Mystique kept Nightcrawler, though a lot of that is for nostalgia–it was my first What If issue I got as a kid, and the Leonardo Manco art is stellar. (The reference to VC Andrews in the cover, is, ah, odd.)
My favorite What Ifs…? include but are not limited to:
“What if … Rick Jones became the Hulk?” One of the funniest comics I’ve ever read, with the Hulk talking like a ‘50s greaser caveman.
“What if… Conan Walked the Earth Today?” The second What If…? to feature Conan in the 20th Century. Worth it to see Conan the Pimp.
“What if… Captain America was Revived Today?” A genuinely moving Cap story.
“What if… The X-Men Stayed in Asgard?” A fun comic that is my favorite Jim Valentino issue; he wrote and/or drew several issues in the ‘90s series’ 1st year or two. Most of them were pretty good.
“What if… the Original X-Men had Remained a Team?” and “What if… the Punisher had Killed Spider-Man?” Kurt Busiek also wrote some early ‘90s What Ifs…?, and these two issues were engaging.
“What if… Wolverine Became Lord of the Vampires?” Gloriously silly and kind of dark.
“What if… Rogue had the Power of Thor?” Another genuinely good issue, the highlight being her talk with Odin.
“What if… starring Sabretooth” An intense, creepy story and a rare Frank Teran art job.
“What if… featuring Rogue” An interesting idea and a rare Leonardo Manco art job.
“What if… Magik Became Sorceror Supreme?” One of the best written and drawn issues of the series, and one of the best comics to ever star Magik.
@Person of Con: yeah, What If…? isn’t a series you go to for high-quality comic book storytelling at its finest. It’s (mostly) fun junk. That VC Andrews quote was kind of wild- I never read the book or saw the movie, but everyone found out what Flowers in the Attic was about and it’s not something you want to reference in a super-hero comic.
“What if.. the X-Men Stayed in Asgard?” was one of those issues where the most interesting developments were the ones the story didn’t focus on. It’s mentioned that Rachel, Scott and Jean were part of a new X-Men because X-Factor didn’t exist. What happened to Maddie? What sort of relationship did Rachel have with her parents? (At this point in the main Marvel continuity neither Jean nor Scott knew Rachel was her daughter.)
I’m also not believing Doug would stay in Asgard- he’s no warrior. And the story treats Rogue as unable to absorb Asgardians, which isn’t true- she absorbed Thor but couldn’t absorb Loki, who’s genetically a Giant.
“What If…?”
Usually the answer is “lots of people die”. That’s what if.
I remember reading X-Men coming in from the animated series in the 90s. There will still people who hated Cyclops for leaving Maddie. My attitude was “get over it…. I was too young to read when that happened”
My favorite What Ifs are:
“What if the Hulk killed Wolverine?” from the 90s, I think it was issue #50.
And then the 2000s “What If: Avengers Disassembled” written by Jeff Parker, a thought-out alternative take on the whole thing, with Beast as the narrator/lead, and great art by Aaron Lopresti.
“get over it…. I was too young to read when that happened”
GET OFF MY LAWN!
Oh wait, this isn’t my lawn…
If you hear a silver alert, it isn’t about me.
*shambles off to Citrusville and the Everglades*
Anyone remember that What If…? mini that was “What If … we did half a dozen stories that in theory are all set in the same alternate universe, but they’re so detatched from each other it never really comes up except in the framing sequence?” That was odd.
@ Daibhid C: vaguely! Then again, my memory for comic book plots ranges from “highly specific” to “not at all,” with stops along the way of “completely wrong.”
@ Pat: Hell yeah, What If…? (‘90s series) 50! I liked the weird art by Armando Gil, the only other credit I remember from him being Avengers Annual 10 (inking Michael Golden). Being a huge fan of both Hulk and X-Men, I enjoyed that one. I actually read it before I’d read “Fall of the Mutants;” it was interesting getting context for that issue of What If…? after the fact.
The Avengers What If…? you mentioned was another good one. I also enjoyed “What If… General Ross Became the Hulk?” from the batch that gave us the Jessica Jones story mentioned above (not a favorite of mine). It was so out there- General Ross as a Hulk? Can you even imagine?!?!
That What If really hit the biggest cliches. Heroes getting maimed and killed in circumstances where they’d normally be just fine. Mutants become loved somehow (which goes nowhere). And of course, everybody dies.
In this case, I really can’t buy that not being able to terraform Mars would lead to a world destroying war. It’s not like there aren’t other places Arakko could have gone, like the Blue Area or Limbo.
@Pat: I’ll second liking Parker’s take on Disassembled. He took the random events plot of the original and had them make an actual sort of sense.
@Michael: Understandable. I thought it was nice to see Bendis give Jessica some wins for a change, but I’m a big fan of the character. Before I looked up the actual title, I had been thinking of it as “What If Jessica Jones Had Some Self-Esteem?”
@Michael Loughlin: I had totally forgotten about that Magik issue of What If…? I meant to pick it up when it came out, but it slipped my mind. Thanks for the reminder!
I barely remember of the 90s or 21st century What Ifs. What’s also funny is how many of the 70s/80s stories ended up actually happening.
Rick as the Hulk, Jane Foster as Thor, Spidey joining the FF, Hulk w Banners Brain, barbarian Hulk…
Issues I forgot to mention earlier …
What we could now call the Agents of Atlas Avengers
Shang Chi and Dr Fu Manchu
Babyface dr doom vs Mephisto
my memory for comic book plots ranges from “highly specific” to “not at all,” with stops along the way of “completely wrong.”
You speak my truth.
I’m sure I read quite a few of the ’90s volume of What If?, but I don’t think I liked many of them. I liked most of the characters, so reading stories where they died wasn’t really what I was looking for.
But there was issue 100, where we got Spider-Girl, and I don’t remember the issue number, but the one where the Punisher succeeded in killing Spider-Man back when the Punisher was first introduced.
Not because he killed Spider-Man, but there’s a couple pages in there, after Frank Castle finds out that he didn’t kill some master criminal, just some college kid, where he’s got basically every superhero in NYC gunning for him. It was nice to see the idea that other heroes liked or respected Spider-Man enough to take his being murdered personally.
It was certainly useful as a vehicle before marvel really had a multiverse, apart the rare alternate reality or alternate future like MTIO 50 or Days of Future Past. And you had various counter earths over the years. I can’t recall Marvel doing many “imaginary story” issues like Mort Weiss get did at DC.
@Thom H: my pleasure! I don’t usually recommend comics because people’s tastes are so varied, but that Magik What If…? is good enough that I have no reservations saying it’s worth a read.
@Oldie: glad I’m not the only one.
@ CalvinPitt: issue 26 from the ‘90s What If…? series. Kurt Busiek pre-Marvels and Luke McDonnell post-Suicide Squad. Good stuff! I almost skipped that issue because I wasn’t a big Punisher fan, but I bought it and found it moving. I didn’t like the art though, because I was young and dumb and hadn’t Suicide Squad yet. Turns out, McDonnell’s a pretty friggin’ good artist!
What If…? isn’t known for having great artists work on the series, but Kirby, Miller, Kane, Colan, Silvestri, and Buscema all contributed to v1; Ditko drew the special in the ‘80s; Hitch, Manco, Teran, Capullo, Valentino and Lim in their primes, and Buckler contributed to the ‘90s series; Paul Smith, Mahfood, Oliffe, Andrade, Lark, Edwards, Oeming, and others drew later stories. It wasn’t only a repository for untested artists and not-quite-faves.
A few What Ifs which always hit me the hardest:
#32: What If the Avengers Had Become the Pawns of Korvac? aka the entire universe dies
#44: What If Captain America Were Not Revived Until Today? aka fake Cap ushers in an age of fascism
#45: What If the Hulk Went Berserk? aka oops people die.
v2 #1: What If… The Avengers Had Lost the Evolutionary War? aka everyone evolves!
What If stories need to have death or at best a slightly askew status quo. Otherwise you’re basically saying the original story had a bad outcome. You can do that once or twice, but too often and it would make the heroes look like incompetents making everything worse.
Mind you, I understand the complaint. I stopped watching the modern Doctor Who when I realised that every single episode a bunch of people died while the Doctor fiddled with his screwdriver.
I had the opposite problem with modern DW eventually. People constantly die only to not actually die, either thru time shenanigans or being turned into an Autonomous or what have you… I think Amy, Rory, Clara and prob the Doctor himself died and then weren’t dead.
Everybody Lives was great the first time….
I vaguely remember a “What If the Sub-Mariner joined the Fantastic Four?” issue which kept teasing that it’d go in the typical Everyone Dies Horribly direction, but didn’t. Namor is a respected hero, eventually marries Sue and Reed comes to accept it, and everybody generally ends up as happy or happier than they were in the main timeline.
Which ends up hitting harder than a lot of deaths in its own way, because it’s outright saying that most of Namor’s problems could’ve been avoided if he got his head out of his ass, swallowed his pride, and played nicer with other Marvel heroes.
I think Si has the right of this. Every What If story implicitly asks the question, “Why didn’t we have this happen originally?” The easy answers are:
1) Everything sucks / everybody dies
2) Utopia — which means no more stories to tell.
3) Things end up reaching the same status quo via an alternate route, so who cares?
There are some exceptions, of course, but this is the baseline.
@Mike Loughlin: I’ve have loved What If…Sabretooth forever. A self-contained story that matches the typical darkness of What If but is primarily situational and not universe-ending. The story conceit of Jubilee trapped alone in the mansion against Sabretooth is pretty good too.
Was that Sabretooth issue from the ’90s, towards the end of the series? I want to say there was an explicit editorial directive to reposition What If? as a horror series, however briefly. (Or maybe it wasn’t explicit, but merely a byproduct of Marvel’s late ’90s obsession with bronze age revivals – which included a bunch a ’70s horror characters/the genre overall.)
I think what everyone is forgetting about nineties WHat If… is that no matter what, Aunt May always has a heart attack. Peter is unmasked? Heart attack. Peter isn’t unmasked but something else happens? Heart attack. Something completely unconnected to Spider-man happens? Heart attack.
I haven’t read an enormous number of What Ifs, but there was one I quite enjoyed. It was “What if Spider-Man killed?” I was expecting him to turn into a Wolverine, slippery slope and all that. But it was actually him having somehow even more guilt than in the regular comics. It was a nice character piece, though the plot didn’t really go anywhere.
Also, Aunt May basically had one endless infarction from her debut until maybe the mid 90s. It was her defining attribute, not limited to What If.
“Aunt May basically had one endless infarction from her debut until maybe the mid 90s.”
https://theonion.com/beloved-minister-dies-just-as-he-lived-of-a-heart-attac-1819564193/
@Alexx Kay- One of the more pointless What ifs was What If the Punisher’s Family Wasn’t; Killed in Central Park? So they get killed by crooked cops at home instead of mobsters in Central Park and Frank becomes the Punisher anyway. What’s the difference?
Re: Aunt May- It’s been established that May had a heart condition since she was a young woman and that’s why she never had children. The one time she became pregnant, she lost the baby. Although Kelly seems to have be retconning that since in his latest issue of Amazing a man claiming to be the son of Ben and May shows up.
Kelly also suggested that Peter was involved in setting a (pedophile’s?) house on fire as a kid in the latest issue of Amazing. Kelly’s run is really Jumping the Shark.
@Michael
In which case , in the “real world” (I.e. ours) Frank Castle / Punisher gets co-opted / appropriated as a symbol by the opposite end of the political spectrum instead (I.e. the ones with the slogan ACAB / 1312 ) .
@Jdsm24
Eh. As if!
I second the recommendation of What if Magik became Sorcerer Supreme – it’s a great one shot. Though it fails it’s stated mission miserably (iirc Magik does not become Sorcerer Supreme in that book).
I was a newbie comic reader when What If? vol. 2 debuted. In many cases I read the What If story before I read the original. I devoured What if the X-Men Lost Inferno over and over again. It was my first introduction to a bunch of characters, including Rachel, Dr. Strange, Dr. Druid and others. What if Daredevil Killed the Kingpin was my first Daredevil story. I remember several others quite fondly.
Some solid X-related What Ifs I haven’t seen mentioned yet are two by Kurt Busiek (“What If Professor X Had Become the Juggernaut?”, vol. 2 #13, and the two-parter “What If Cable Had Destroyed the X-Men?”/”What If Magneto Took Over the USA?” in #46-47); the shockingly dark “What If the X-Men Had Lost Inferno?” (#6) by Danny Fingeroth; and Benny Powell’s “What If Legion Had Killed Magneto?” (#77), which could’ve used an extra issue but certainly had a very interesting alternate scenario for LegionQuest