Marvel seem to have started shipping a random bunch of one-shots in almost every month.  December's effort is another batch of What If? books, following on from the wave that came out this time last year.

This time round, the gimmick is that all the various titles take place on the same world.  This is the only one I'm buying, but from the descriptions, it's not immediately clear how that makes any difference.  After all, this is Wolverine during the Prohibition.  Since the world as a whole isn't drastically altered, it's hard to see why it should matter whether it's the same world as the other one-shots - Captain America in the Civil War, Namor in World War II, Daredevil in feudal Japan, the Fantastic Four in the Cold War, or Thor in outer space.

The story reunites current Wolverine writer Daniel Way with artist Jon Proctor, who previously collaborated on the abortive Gun Theory.  It's a high concept affair, but not in a good way.

It's the Prohibition.  Wolverine is, as ever, the local hard man in rural Canada.  Does Way take advantage of Wolverine's different setting to bring out a new and illuminating side of the character?  Does he hell.  No, the story is simply that Wolverine is living a peaceful life when the Punisher's origin befalls him.  So he becomes the Punisher (without the name but with a makeshift version of the costume), and heads off to fight organised crime.  It's Wolverine versus Scarface, the tenuous link being that Scarface is actually Dog from the Origin series.

Hands up anyone who cares.

What if Wolverine was the Punisher?  What kind of a story idea is that?  If that's all it takes to get a pitch commissioned these days, I should give this writing lark a go.  Here's some.  What if X-23 was a man?  What if Captain America was allergic to cats?  What if Daredevil was an accountant? What if Wolverine had a pet monkey... in space?  That one's a five-part miniseries.

This is a non-concept, a punchy solicitation with no story behind it.  What if one character was like another very similar character... in period costume?  And that's it. 

Too slow and ponderous even for camp value, this is technically competent but ultimately pointless.  I remain largely baffled by Marvel's evident conviction that Daniel Way is any sort of major talent, let alone a marketable one.

Rating: C-

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