Paul Smith is a name I wish graced more projects as his work on "Uncanny X-Men" rates right up there with John Byrne's work on that title, and the only reason why Paul Smith hasn't gained the fan base he deserves is that he dropped completely off the map for a couple decades, and his recent output has been seemingly limited to his work on James Robinson's "Leave to Chance" miniseries. Still, he is providing the art on this one-shot, and he turns in some lovely work, as while his work is clearly tailored to match the appearance of the early Fantastic Four adventures, he manages to put his own spin on the material, as how can one not smile at the looks on Ben and Reed's faces after Victor has kicked them out of his room. The transformation sequence is also nicely handled with Victor's transformation into the Thing being the highlight. Now his version of the Hulk did look to have a head that was out of proportion with the rest of his body, but I suspect this was an intentional visual homa Read Full Review

This issue of What If? featuring the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom does nothing impressive as it simply retells the origin of the F4 with a twist that doesn't work in its favour.

It's a well known fact that Ben Grimm became The Thing after getting exposed to cosmic rays while piloting a rocket ship carrying himself and his friends Reed Richards, Sue Storm and Sue's brother, Johnny. After being exposed and crash landing back to Earth, the four realised they had super powers and became the Fantastic Four. However, what would've happened if Victor Von Doom had traveled with them instead of Ben on that fateful day?

That's the question this issue poses as it tells us this story, beginning with Ben and Reed's college days where, after going into Doom's dorm room, glancing at his notes and being evicted by the room's tenant, they are soon met by Doom, who begins to act a bit too friendly to Reed, which soon severs the friendship between Ben and Reed.

The story then jumps forward five years, showing the rocket ship launch that births the F4. Ben and Reed haven't seen each other this whole time. After the ship launches into space, Doom reveals his true intentions while the cosmic rays bombard the ship's passengers. Obviously, things go south, the ship crashes back to Earth and everyone is given powers from said rays. After Doom sees what's become of him, he is enraged and begins attacking Reed and the fight soon spills over to where Ben is outposted with his army unit, as they are guarding an important experiment.

The problem with the story is that it doesn't untilize this scenario at all. Doom becomes The Thing, blames Reed, is defeated and flies away. Ben gets powers as well, becoming a familiar hero in the process and takes Doom down, while retreading the origin story of said familiar hero. Sue and Johnny don't do much, besides forming a barrier to protect Reed and throwing a fireball, respectively. Reed is able to calm an out-of-control Ben down and fails in trying to persuade Doom to stop attacking and let the former cure the latter. The F4 is formed in the end, only Ben is another hero and Doom remains as The Thing. That's it.

The artwork is average and does nothing to stand out from other F4 stories. The only memorable panels are Doom becoming The Thing, Ben going hero and the final panel, showcasing this version of the Four, alongside characters they had adventures with in the original comics series in the sixties. Aside from that, artwork is easy on the eyes, but not very interesting or distinctive. Excluding the panels mentioned above, the art is bland and is nothing to be impressed about.

This What If? story is nothing great as it just gives us the F4 but with Ben Grimm turning into another superhero and not The Thing. This book is not worth reading as it only makes some small deviations from established events and nothing of note happens. There are better What If? and F4 stories out there. Don't bother reading this one. more