Fans of the animated What If…? series have felt a little deflated after the second season, which was due to arrive early this year, appears to have been delayed. There is some good news though, because there will be even more Marvel multiversal madness to enjoy thanks to the recent announcement that there will also be What If…? adult novels coming soon!
Marvel and Random House are collaborating to produce a number of novels following in the same vein as the What If…? animated series. There are currently three titles in the works, starting with What If… Loki Was Worthy? A Loki and Valkyrie Story, followed by What If… Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? A Scarlet Witch and Spider-Man Story, and finally What If… Marc Spector Was A Host To Venom? A Moon Knight and Venom Story.
Marvel Entertainment has already dropped the plot for the first of the three, What If… Loki Was Worthy? which will be released on March 12, 2024. The story, written by American paranormal and horror fiction author Madeleine Roux, focuses on a variant of Loki, one who has finally succeeded in killing his brother Thor. The story follows his road to redemption after he is kicked out of Asgard and he isn’t alone in his quest for absolution.
Much as the What If…? series starts off with a forward from the all-seeing Watcher, so too does this multiversal story:
“So many worlds, so little time. Infinite possibilities, creating infinite realities. Long have I watched the trickster god sow chaos. But…what if Loki saved Asgard from Tony Stark’s revenge?”
On the Marvel website, the plot for the book is laid out letting fans know exactly what they are in for. At the start of the novel we meet Loki at the height of his power, intent on showing his capabilities for wreaking destruction, only for him to realize too late he went too far. “Thor—Son of Odin, God of Thunder, wielder of the hammer Mjolnir—is dead. And Loki is responsible.”
Much as Thor was banished in the first Thor movie so too now is Loki, and our favorite god of mischief descends into despair, stuck “in a realm of boxed wine, instant noodles, and some sort of regional performance troupe known as the “Buffalo Bills.”” But, again much like Thor in the first film, it is through his time on Midgard (Earth) that Loki finally starts to grow, making friends with a character called Brian the Gecko (we do not know at this point if this is an actual gecko or a nickname) and coming to terms with his own shortcomings.
He will not be left in peace though as a Valkyrie comes barging into his sedate existence with one final mission, “to find a certain Dr. Jane Foster and pass on Mjolnir to its rightful heir.” This mission is not the only thing that Loki and Valkyrie will have to contend with, as a grieving and dangerous Iron Man has his sights set on removing all connections between his world and Asgard, which he considers responsible for the damage wrought on Earth, no matter the consequences. Now Loki is the only salvation Asgard has, but he must ask himself one important question, “Am I truly worthy?”
The author, Roux, is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling fiction author whose best-selling series Asylum has sold more than a million copies worldwide. She has written over 20 novels and has also collaborated with other notable pop culture franchises such as Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft, and Critical Role.
The other novels will follow soon after with What If… Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings?, written by Seanan McGuire, set to be published in July 2024. What If… Marc Spector Was A Host To Venom?, written by Mike Chen will arrive a few months later in October. There will also be audiobooks made available by Penguin Random House Audio.
As for the animated series we will have to wait and see when Marvel decides to set a new release date, after they flew past their initial release date of “early 2023.” Hopefully they won’t leave us hanging for too long!