Reading the thread about the smartest person in the Marvel Universe got me to thinking about Peter Parker. It's clear that in the comics, Peter is not only very intelligent, but pretty nearly super-intelligent. With that in mind, I thought about a "What If...?" story: "What If Peter Parker Have Never Gained Super Powers?"

In such a story, Uncle Ben would still die as the result of nobody stopping the thief that killed Ben from escaping from the police officer. In fact, it could be that Peter Parker got famous for some invention he created that got him on TV, and also gave him the big head he had as Spider-Man in the original version of the story. That way, it could still be Peter that intentionally fails to stop the thief from escaping the law.

The death of his uncle due to his refusal to act against a criminal, could still lead to Peter fighting against injustice, but using his inventions to do so instead of super powers.

Does anyone else have any "What If...?" stories?

Hmm. Tricky. It ws my impression that the gist of any What If story was "We did it right the first time, so if we'd done it differently everything would unravel and the world would be doomed."

With that in mind, a Peter Parker without super-powers would not be photographing Spider-man for the daily Bugle. He would not "grow out of" his gangly nerdy appearance thanks to the regular work-oouts he got as Spider-man. He would not have the POWER to assume great responsibility. He would however have fewer impediments to full scholarships and an academic career.
So a few years down the line I see him as single, nerdy, succesful scientist. Aunt May dead. At this point several of the supporting cast, most notably John Jameson would be dead, but Norman Osborn would still be alive, and still be the Green Goblin. Peter should work for him.

After that you'd have to pick a situation where Spider-man saved the day directly or indirectly and say that without Spider-man the world ended. I guess the traditional thing would be to have him become a herald of Galactus. Hey, let's make it AFTER Galactus has already half eaten the earth.

Maybe Doom and Osborn work together to use the Surfer's power against Galactus and Peter thwarts their plans by letting himself be consumed by the Power Cosmic. Yeah, That'd work.
And then you get a riff on how Peter as Galactus' herald has to decide the fates of entire planets. With great power comes great responsibility.

Okay, if Peter hadn't been bitten by the spider, he probably would have been at home the night the Burglar broke in. And, since his ego would not have been pumped up by the taste of fame he received in the "real" universe, he might have instinctively tried to be a hero and gotten himself shot.

Knut wrote: ...It ws my impression that the gist of any What If story was "We did it right the first time, so if we'd done it differently everything would unravel and the world would be doomed"...

Not always. There were some that had happy endings.

I missed those Matt, I read so many sad What If storries that I avoided picking up the book. I was always afraid that if the different What If Universes could have such bad luck what about the actual Marvel Universe? Was it destined to go to the shitter the same way so many of the What If comics?

One of my favorite What If comics was a joke issue, where it did different Marvel Universe spoofs. Aunt May as Iron Maiden, Black Widow eating Spiderman, Daredevil was deaf, She-Hulk done in a I Love Lucy fasion. I love seeing Morning funnies style Marvel heros in a  comical kind of way on occasion.

I wrote an outline for a What If ...? story when I was in high school. It would have been What if Bucky had lived?

The main thrust was that the Nazi's had found Bucky frozen after the explosion. They knew The Red Skull couldn't live forever so they decided to create a new one and brainwashed Bucky while he was in a catatonic state. Then when the original was too old he would be the new Skull. This would have been the reveal after the main story played out. The story would have been that Captain America heard underground rumors that The Red Skull had returned from the dead and was planning a nuclear threat with Baron Zemo's son. Along the way to finding The Skull and Zemo, he would uncover clues to reveal the new Skull to be Bucky. He would be so overwhelmed by the news, he would be easily captured by Zemo's men. In the climax, Cap wouldn't be able to stop the bomb from exploding, but would have made Bucky remember who he was. With only Bucky able to stop the bomb he leaps aboard and sacrifices his life to stop the bomb from reaching Washington DC. The Watcher would have gave a summary that no matter which universe he watches, Bucky always dies a hero.