The Good
One of the problem with most recent WHAT IF? stories is they seem to follow the same forumla. Something changes, everything goes sour and then the story ends. It's felt as if they were meant to show us that as horrible as things may have gone in a normal story, the other options always end in the worst possible ways.
Jimmy Palmiotti's take on AVX is different right from the beginning. Instead of a single issue to cram everything in, this is a four-issue miniseries. That allows us to take a longer look at the differences and possible repercussions single acts can have. With Palmiotti behind the wheel and knowing that "anything goes" is possible, you can imagine that this story is going to be insane.
Jorge Molina does a good job capturing the essence of the original series. There are a lot of characters involved and we're off to a great start.
The Bad
There is a lot of set up here. This is understandable to be accessible to readers that didn't necessarily read AVENGERS VS X-MEN. For those that did, we're seeing a lot of similar things before the big "change" occurs.
Before that event happens, there are a couple characters that already felt a tad out of character. And the idea of Magneto being or believing to be the best person to help Hope prepare for the arrival of the Phoenix Force seems a little presumptuous.
The Verdict
This is going to get ugly. I mean that in a good way. WHAT IF? stories give writers free reign over telling whatever kind of story they want. While the original AVX was seemingly meant to be a big epic story, there were some areas where it fell flat. In the WHAT IF? format, plus the fact that this is a four-issue miniseries instead of a one-shot, Palmiotti will be able to dig deep and really cut loose on the Marvel Universe. That alone is reason enough to check this out.