Don Zomberg wrote: Peter Parker began as an Everyman that the average reader could relate to. He soon thereafter became what the average reader wanted to be.

Peter was always both.  When he was well written by authors who understood the character, Peter was both Everyman and someone to aspire to be.  Peter himself couldn't wait to don his costume and leave behind the world of bullies and rejection he lived in as a civilian.  So Peter was the best kind of wish fulfillment.  His everyday life was similar to that of the readers, yet he was able to become something the readers also wanted to be.  They, like Peter, wanted to be able to escape, if only for awhile, their normal lives and become something spectacular (pun intended).  I know I did. 

What if Rick Jones Became the Hulk?, What if the Original Marvel Bullpen Became the Fantastic Four?, the two Doctor Strange What Ifs (Had Never Become A Master of the Mystic Arts and Had Become a Disciple of Dormammu), What If Elektra Had Never Died?...

Admittedly, there were a lot of bummers, from Jo Duffy's What If Phoenix Hadn't Died? to the two Spider-man joins the Fantastic Four issues to...well, you know the drill. What if World War Two Had Been Fought in Outer Space didn't have an unhappy ending...it was just loopy.

Cheers, Jon

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WHAT IF? was a book that lost its way pretty fast. The 4th issue -- featuring the Invaders -- was not even a "what if?" at all! And by the time we go to stuff like Rick Jones becoming the Hulk, or Jane Foster becoming Thor ---- well, things had strayed pretty far from their roots in the Marvel Universe. In a way, WHAT IF? contributed to the processes of "deuniquing" characters sneaking over from DC. Issue 3 was probably the best of the whole run, but it was really depended on Iron Man ceasing to be unique (and then ceasing to be! Another problem!). When other characters started getting the powers we were really in trouble. ANYBODY could be the Hulk. ANYBODY could be Spider-Man. ANYBODY could be the FF. Etc.

That early Spider-man is Betty Brant, Flash Thompson et al. at least had the coda in which it was revealed that Peter Parker was really meant to be Spider-man after all, something most of those other issues lacked. The most laughable late What if? (series 2, I think, but I'm not really sure) was the one in which Tony Stark becomes Master of the Mystic Arts, complete with computerized spell-casting. I'd add that the knee-jerk tragedy and downbeat endings also seemed to seep into regular comics (as noted above by someone else, What if became Now Then). The worst large-scale examples of super-depressing endings were the What if Phoenix Lived? (She destroys the universe) and What if Korvac/Michael had lived? (He destroys the universe). Because 12-year-old readers love crushingly depressing endings!

Cheers, Jon