Tag Archives: what-if

What If…? S2 E9

Posted on by

Spoilers

“What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?”

Well, here we are. The finale of season two of What If…?, and it has been a glorious season. Several of these episodes truly took a leap from season one. I shouldn’t say that I disliked season one, because I liked it enough. It just does not stand out. It’s fine.

That is why season two has been so great. Because it went beyond what was before and improved everything: storytelling, animation, characterization… all of it.

The 1602 episode was the highlight of a fantastic season and its placement just before the finale raised the stakes for the finale. 

The finale turned out to be a step back from the best episodes of the season, but was a lot of crazy fun. 

Strange Supreme returned to his goal of saving his universe, especially Christine, and he tried to fool Captain Carter into helping him by retrieving Kahhori, who had slipped from his grasp. However, together Captain Carter and Kahhori fought against the Doctor.

Most of the episode was taken up by the two powerhouses battling the demonic doctor with their powers. Peggy seemingly kept acquiring even more power, through other MCU weapons that she obtained through the episode.

What was the most fun about the episode was the Cabin in the Woods type situation that happened. Supreme Strange had been collecting and imprisoning powerful forces from the multiverse. In order to distract Strange, Peggy freed them all, leading to a wild brawl among all of these Easter eggs. 

While this was a lot of fun, I kind of wanted more because the season had been so good. I’m not calling this a bad episode. It just did not quite reach the level of so many of the other episodes of the year. 

Though the final shot of the Watcher and Captain Carter standing in front of the Tree of Life from Loki season 2 finale presents a lot of possibilities for the third season, which has been confirmed by Marvel.

Final Episode Order:

E8  ”What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E9  ”What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?“

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E7  ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

What If…? S2 E8

Posted on by

Spoilers

“What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”

This season of What If…? has just been off the charts good. Every episode is just excellent, and then they come up with something that just transcends the rest of the season. ”What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602″ has taken that spot at the very top of the list this season and might be threatening season 1’s Dr. Strange episode as the best of the series.

We had seen Captain Carter pulled into the universe of 1602 by Scarlet Witch at the end of episode five, leaving it on a cliffhanger. We pick up here with Peggy trapped in 1602 but trying to save the universe from being destroyed.

There are some blue rift that appears in the sky that sucks characters way, and Hela, the queen, gets pulled away. Captain Carter could not save her and Thor blames her. 

Captain Carter runs from the new king, escaping from the castle. She stops to speak with the Watcher, whom she can hear narrating. She then perfectly describes, in layman’s terms, an incursion using a bubble gum analogy. Incursions are going to be important in the upcomng Multiverse saga, or at least that is what it seems.

We meet many of our favorite characters in new roles during this as we see Loki as a pretentious actor, Steve Rogers as a Robin Hood type character with Scott Lang and Bucky Barnes with him. Wanda Maximoff is the witch of the king. Nick Fury and Happy Hogan are with the king’s men. Bruce Banner is the man in the iron mask. Tony Stark as the mad scientist. Each one feels a perfect mix.

Once again, we get a Steve Rogers-Peggy Carter reunion that is both sweet and eventually tragic, as it seems as if it always is destined to be. 

The voice acting includes Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, Elizabeth Olson, Jon Favreau, Hayley Atwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Rudd, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch along the regular voice actors covering Tony and Cap, Mick Wingert and Josh Keaton respectfully. You can tell they do a special job on this episode, bringing an amazing chemistry to the characters. It is just so joyous.

The action in this episode is just sensational and as clever as you are going to get. The writing is brilliant. The dialogue from Loki during the first scene was some of the funniest of the series. How many Shakespeare references are you going to have in a Marvel series? Poor Yorick, indeed!

Something that I have noticed in What If…? this season is that, in comparison, there is more hope in these alternate realities. Last season, characters died. Universes were destroyed. There was a dread in most every episode. Yet this year, no universes have died. A minimum amount of characters have died. Tony Stark has shown up several times and has not died yet, and it became a joke last year that Stark was killed off multiple times. 

Using the 1602 concept, from the classic Marvel book by Neil Gaiman, is an excellent idea. This is so well planned out and it feels as if everything is working so perfectly. With Supreme Strange showing up at the end to talk with Peggy, (and a TO BE CONTINUED popping up on screen) will connect Captain Carter to Kahhori from episode 6 in some kind of finale. 

Just a remarkable episode of TV.

Up to Date Running Order:

E8  ”What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E7  ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

What If…? S2 E7

Posted on by

Spoilers

“What if…Hela Found the Ten Rings”

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is voicing a character in an animated TV show.

That is an amazing thing. It speaks to the MCU that there are so many of the actors who are willing to come back and provide lines for this project. Idris Elba was also back for just a few lines in this episode. It was really cool.

Of course, they did not get everybody back for their characters. Odin was in this episode and it was not Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Wenwu was not voiced by Tony Leung. Oh well.

Blending Hela and Wenwu (from the Shang Chi movies) was an interesting trick. Taking the whole Thor-banished-to-earth-until-worthy bit and making it work for Hela was a neat addition to the story. The set-up was strong and the execution was really solid too.

I found Hela’s character arc to be a very done one, reminding me of the Loki arc, and, of course, you give a strong character arc to one of the best actors working today, you get some great storytelling. Plus, Cate Blanchett has experience in the voice over world, which does have its benefits in performances.

It sounds like a skipping record, but I’ll say it again. The animation of this season of What If…? has been stellar. I love the parallels drawn between scenes from the MCU movies and what we see animated in What If..?.  For example, the scene where Hela cannot budge the crown was very similar to the scene when Thor could not move Mjolnir in the first Thor movie. These echoes are throughout the series and show the cleverness of the writers and creative personnel working on What If…?.

There are only two more episodes to go on this daily release of season two. I have loved watching these episodes in this manner and I hope there will be other opportunities to follow this in future times.

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E7  ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

What If…? S2 E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

“What if… Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

Famously, DC character Harley Quinn made her actual first appearance in the Batman: The Animated Series TV show. Marvel Studios has taken that path with their all-new character Kahhori, a member of the Mohawk Nation, in this What If…? episode.

The creators tied Kahhori’s origin to the Tesseract, which in this universe, arrived on earth after the destruction of Asgard by Surtur during Ragnarok. 

The animation, which has been next level during this entire season of What If…?, is absolutely stunning in this episode and feels as if the animators took it even higher than they had up until this point. Everything here is just gorgeous to look at. The design of Kahhori and her people were outstanding. The fire in the background with the Spaniards was breath-taking. It truly was a beautifully constructed and drawn episode.

The story does feel rushed, but that is the format more than anything else. They have kept these What If…? episodes to a tight 30 minutes for the most part, but this is another one that could have done well with another 10 minutes or so.

The episode was practically all in a different language, which is quite the choice. Only the Watcher and Supreme Strange at the very end speak in English.

Speaking of, Supreme Strange does make an appearance at the very end of the episode, clearly there to set up for the finale. The Supreme Strange episode is listed as the 9th episode of the season, which followed the 1602 episode. Something is telling me that they may be a crossover between them much like last year’s Ultron was.

It will be interesting to see what role Kahhori will play in the MCU moving forward or if she is just a staple in the What If…? section. If she is successful, it can show that Marvel does not have to settle for the characters that are already made which would open up a whole new world of possibilities.

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E6  ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

What If…? S2 E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?”

This is a sequel to the Captain Carter episode and the finale of season one and I was thoroughly entertained by it.

This episode was a combination of the Winter Soldier and Black Widow movies. There was an awesome pairing of Captain Carter and Black Widow, the characters. Hayley Atwell and Lake Bell have some great chemistry.

We have the Peggy Carter-Steve Rogers love story at the heart of this episode as well, just told in a different perspective. 

Since this is What If…?, I had some serious anxiety during the action scenes that one of these characters were going to die and I did not want that. It says something about the stakes of your episode when I was legitimately nervous that the characters were in danger.

The scenes in the Russian fake town were creepy as could be, and were filled with some of the best action sequences of the series so far. The choreography is exceptional. As it has all season so far, the animation is spectacular. 

Rachel Weisz returned to voice Melina is a cool thing too. 

The very ending of the episode messed with the mind as well as even the Watcher was surprised by what he saw. Peggy Carter fell through a portal and showed up in the Marvel 1602 universe with Scarlet Witch standing before her. That was a really exciting pre-credit tease.

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E5  ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

What If …? S2 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”

What If…? takes a step back to give some background on an event from last season. There were reports that indicated that one of the episodes from season one had been removed and potentially sent to season two. It was the episode featuring Gamora, the Gamora from the Guardians of the Multiverse episodes.

This episode kicked off with the Watcher reminding us of the Guardians of the Multiverse and saying how Gamora was a member that we had not been introduced to prior, and that her story began in someone else’s.

He meant Tony Stark. The episode takes place after the events of Avengers 1, when Tony took the nuke through the portal and he did not find his way back to New York. Instead, he ended up on Sakaar to face off with the Grandmaster, voiced once again with an over-the-top flair by Jeff Goldblum. 

This episode is meant to be in the Mad Max style, and it does a lot with the concept of racing that can’t help but make people think of NASCAR or Mario Cart.

Special affirmations should go to Mick Wingert, who voices Tony Stark, replacing Robert Downey Jr. in the MCU, which cannot help but be a huge task. He does a wonderful job of sounding like RDJ, but not just being an imitation. 

Overall, this episode was a little messier for me than the others from season two. It did have some good humor in it, but the races were too hectic for my tastes. I have been a huge Mad Max fan so I can see this one being a little lesser in my view.

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

E4  ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”