What If... Sgt. Fury Fought WWII in Outer Space?

Sorry this is so late, I was watching the big Doctor Who finale, or "What if Russel T Davies?" But now I'm all paradox-ready to talk about What If? #14, the first issue to really cheat at the concept. This isn't a What If per se, but an Elseworld with a flimsy excuse for a turning point.

You've been warned.

What If Vol.1 #14 (April 1979)
Based on: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #62 (the attack on Pearl Harbor)
The true history: They fought WWII in WW II.
Turning point: What if Leonard da Vinci's inventions were built during his lifetime (and then a lot of crazy stuff happened)?
Story type: Elseworld
Watcher's mood: Fighting the power.
Altered history: Leonardo's flying machines are built and by the 1800s, mankind has reached the moon. By 1903, we're going out "to other galaxies". That is one mean progression curve.
I get we attract the attention of a lot of aliens, because by 1943, the solar system is split into alpha and beta sectors (never mind that the planets must change sectors during their natural revolutions), and Earth has just been dragged into the War when snake-like Betans (is that racist?) attack Station Pearl. Of course, despite the course of history changed from the Renaissance on, everybody that's alive in our reality is also alive in this timeline, and doing very much the stuff they used to, and espousing a culture identical to the one in our world (Kewpie dolls and all). You WILL believe a man can smoke his cigar inside his helmet!
Our boys have a few new toys, like sonic bugle guns, but otherwise are forced to deal with the same hardships every soldier has to - alien girlfriends at home, enemy ambushes, and of course, square commanding officers.
The aliens attack Midway Station and Earth is betrayed by an admiral on the Yorktown - Baron Strucker! Seems like he's peeved that the current war has squashed the hopes and dreams of the Nazi party. Once a WWII German, always a WWII German.
This Strucker meets an end similar to ours' as he's sucked out of a ship and into the cold environment outside. I don't know if a vacuum is more survivable than the ocean, but Hydra has many heads, as they say. As we leave this parallel world, the end of the war isn't revealed, but it sort of has to be the destruction of the Betan world, followed by their successfully stealing the stereo industry, comics and baseball from Earth.
Books canceled as a result: I'd say all of them eventually. You could do super-heroes in outer space, no problem, but Marvel hasn't had much luck in porting their properties over to "the future". Just look at the 2099 line, or the original Guardians of the Galaxy.
These things happen: Well, no, they don't. However, Fury and Dum Dum did manage to get out into space eventually. Go SHIELD!

Next week: What if four different people had become Nova?
My guess: Nova would have been this much closer to getting Amalgamated with Green Lantern when the time came.

Comments

Anonymous said…
That universe is so advanced they have invented smokeless cigars!

Siskoid, you will only talk about What If v1? Not v2?

Roger
Siskoid said…
Ask me again next year. I'm going through them in order, after all.