What If #4: What If the Invaders Had Stayed Together? Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins tell a new tale of Marvel’s WWII heroes. Interestingly, it starts out with action and Uatu doesn’t appear until page 7. It also rewrites history, having the original Human Torch incinerate Hitler.
My question is: Did this really happen in the 616? This happens before Uatu introduces the idea that the team stayed together past the point, in the 616, where they broke up. And from here, we see the heroes reacting to Captain America and Bucky “dying” in the aerial explosion that actually dropped and froze Cap in the Antarctic Ocean. The “What If?” portion of the story happens at the instruction of President Roosevelt…
And are followed by the introduction of a brand-new, replacement Captain America.
From there, the story just gets stupid and predictable, with the “real” Cap ultimately returning. But I’m saying that the first part of this story is canon and actually happened…Original Human Torch killed Hitler!
Therefore, The Invaders are tagged as characters who actually appear in 616 continuity in this comic.
The next issue was similar to this one, asking, What If Captain America Hadn’t Vanished After World War 2?
In this story, by Don Glut and George Tuska, Bucky became Captain America. And Rick Jones becomes his Bucky.
So this story also actually happened. So far every single issue of What If? I’ve read has had aspects that became canon in the 616 Universe.
Very interesting!