AUTHOR'S NOTE: Doing something with the "What If" concept Marvel's made famous was always on the table for the IV, and just recently, the two of us forged an idea for how we could go about it, coincidently as the release of the Disney+ series draws near. We're gonna be going with a concept we speculate the show might go about, where these deviations all take place in one single alternate timeline instead of the comic's route of a different, self-contained tale in each issue, something more in line with a Marvel story called Bullet Points or the DC Elseworld JLA: The Nail, where one event going about differently in the past caused major ramifications to all that take place afterward. Also a touch of Loki sprinkled into this prologue, though there is no Sacred Timeline like in that show. Time's constantly in a flux here. As Renet said in No Road Home, time in the IV, "it's like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff."

DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely none of the properties you will see here. All rights go to their respective owners.

What If...?

Prologue: The Branch

The Ghost Zone.

A vast, endless void that resided in a place beyond space and time. Like its namesake, it is home to an endless number of spectral beings throughout the Multiverse, for this was, in essence, Purgatory. The land that was the in-between of Heaven and Hell. Here in this ether of souls, the spectral beings who resided here either lived in peace or sought to overtake the living world. Here in this place, there was a clock tower that floated through the void. Within this tower lives someone who could be considered a god, and, in a way, he was a god. A god of time. For this was Clockwork: Master of all Time. He saw every beginning and every end in the very Multiverse. He is ageless, timeless, and sees all in the endless river that is time.

Here, within his tower, Clockwork oversaw the flow of time not just within his own universe, but the very Multiverse itself. There was a belief that when a new world was born within the vastness of the Multiverse, they were destroyed, but this was false. For Clockwork and his fellow governing lords of the Multiverse, the Cosmic Council, [1] had decided that they had no right to dictate which worlds should live or die. So, instead of interfering with the creation of new worlds in the Multiverse, Clockwork would observe his universe's timeline and look out for any new branches that sprang from it, then proceed to observe and document his findings of this new universe.

However, these days Clockwork had been observing these new branches to his earth with a renewed vigor. Ever since his new assistant, Blendin Blandin, had been stricken with a vision of a terrible future where all of time was rewritten, Clockwork had a theory that this rewriting of the future, this 'Flashpoint', [2] was a threat that steamed from one timeline invading the main timeline, thereby causing a paradox. Granted, something like that hadn't happened before, but that didn't mean that it COULDN'T happen either. So, his vigilance over his earth's timeline was renewed, especially now that Heckapoo and the Sorceress of Grayskull were now hopping from one world to another to stop Salem's multi-world scheme alongside rather...unsavory allies to aid them. [3]

The time master looked over to his assistant, who was currently writing down various dates in his books. Through Blendin had mostly recovered by the madness of the Flashpoint, he was still a fragile soul and was still haunted by the horrors he saw in that dark timeline. Clockwork never pressed him further on the sights he had seen out of respect of his assistant, not wanting to steal away any sanity the poor man had left. Normally, Clockwork would dispatch the former time agent into these branches to carry out observations for him, but he had since kept Blendin on tower duties since seeing the Flashpoint.

Just then, among various branches of the main timeline, the master of time saw a new branch starting to grow apart from its main source and at a rapid pace, no less. Clockwork's eyes narrowed in curiosity at the growing branch and the speed it was growing. Fast-growing branches in the timeline were common, but this one was moving at quite a quick pace for even an alternate branch. As many Christmas' as Clockwork had seen, he had never experienced one for himself, so the arrival of a new branch in the time stream was the closest he would ever get to being given a gift. And much like a wrapped-up present, Clockwork had no idea what would be within it. Would be a world filled with light and hope, or would it be shrouded in darkness and chaos? It was impossible to know just by looking at the grown branch from a screen. The only way he would know what this strange new world held was by stepping into this bold new universe and seeing for himself.

"Remain at the tower, Blendin," Clockwork ordered. "I am going to investigate this new timeline that has grown."

"Uh, do you think that's a good idea, sir?" his assistant advised. "What if the Cosmic Council tries to contact you about Heckapoo's mission?"

"Tell them that I'm...indisposed at the moment," his master replied.

"But when will you be back?" the former Time Agent inquired.

"When I have seen all that I needed to see," the ghost answered.

Knowing what his master meant by that, Blendin timidly nodded in acknowledgment. With that, Clockwork took his scythe and cut a hole open in mid-air, creating a portal that lead into the alternate timeline that was the starting point for this new branch and would follow its progression from then on. Thanks to his spectral mastery over time, Clockwork could remain cloaked to this universe's occupants so he could observe them safely. And, as always, he will not interfere with the progression of this branch's timeline. He may, on occasion, bend that rule in his timeline, but if he did so in this branch, it would only splinter this branch even more with stranger and darker timelines.

If Clockwork was being honest with himself, he was almost excited at the thought of looking into this new world. What wonders or terrors did it hold? Being the master of time meant that he had a pretty good idea of how everything in his timeline started and ended. But this new branch meant a new set of rules, and while Clockwork was always the one for balance, sometimes, in his endless life, it felt good to be surprised every now and again. So, with all that in mind, Clockwork went into the portal, all the while wondering: What divergence caused this branch to begin with?

He was Clockwork, master of time. He saw every beginning and every end in the very Multiverse itself.

But even he sometimes wondered: "What If?"

[1] - As established in Part 24 of The New Frontier

[2] - As seen in Part 23 of The New Frontier

[3] - As chronicled in Savages: Multiverse