James Stokoe Covers 'What If? Age of Ultron' #2 for Marvel

On sale throughout April, What If? Age of Ultron is a weekly five-issue series written by Joe Keatinge that takes the central story mechanism of Marvel's Age of Ultron -- what would happen to the Marvel Universe if Hank Pym had never created the malevolent artificial intelligence Ultron -- and applies it to some of the publisher's iconic heroes. What would happen in a world without the Wasp? What would happen in a world without Thor? And so on.

What If? Age of Ultron is particularly notable for its artist roster, which includes Chris Stevens on covers with interiors and variants by talents not typically associated with Marvel titles. Among them, Ming Doyle, Piotr Kowalski, Mico Suayan, Ramon Villalobos, Raffaele Ienco and James Stokoe, whose variant cover for issue #2 you're seeing here for the first time.

Issue #2 of What If? Age of Ultron depicts a world without an Iron Man to put at end to the Armor Wars. Stokoe's cover does a great job of telling that story in a single image, filling every bit of the page with the kind of hyper-detailed violence and chaos that has made his books like Orc Stain and Godzilla: Half Century War so popular with fans of great artwork. The variant is Stokoe's first Marvel work since his contribution to the Strange Tales anthology in 2010.

Here's Marvel's hype copy for What If? Age of Ultron #2 along with the "standard" cover by Chris Stevens.

WHAT IF? AGE OF ULTRON #2
JOE KEATINGE (w)
RAMON VILLALOBOS (a)
Cover by CHRIS STEVENS
VARIANT COVER BY JAMES STOKOE
THE SECRET ARMOR WARS!
• In a world without Iron Man, the Armor Wars are fought without a victor, scorching the Earth!
• Years later, one of the last remaining superheroes, an aged Amazing Spider-Man, must form a Fantastic Four the likes of which our world has not seen in years!
• Teaming with Ghost Rider, the Incredible Hulk and Wolverine they are in pursuit of the one weapon that could unite the planet — The Forgotten Iron Man!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99