Marvel's What If? (Season 1)

Disney+ just doesn't let up, does it? I think I might just be destined to watch all of their stuff. Still, I have been enjoying these MCU and Star Wars shows even with their flaws, and What If? seems like a nice change of pace. Being an anthology series, this will be much easier to review episode by episode:

What If... Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?: I remember when Agent Carter was airing, and learning that it was cancelled was devastating. So seeing Peggy, Howard Stark, and much of The First Avenger cast again was really nice. Peggy is such a likable and underrated lead, and I'm glad to see Hayley Atwell still nails the character even in a vocal performance. I think this is a good first episode to ease the audience into the show's What If premise before we start to get into the weird stuff like "Marvel Zombies", and there were plenty of things I enjoyed about it. There were some neat twists like Steve falling off the train rather than Bucky, and Peggy joining the Avengers. The ending really left me wondering if the show will tie everything together in some way. I also thought the animation was really solid, especially with the action. However, I think this episode did try to do a bit too much. It's like an entire movie condensed into a half-hour, with some pretty abrupt jumps between scenes. Maybe the fact that this is an altered retelling of an already existing movie holds this one back, but I think the pacing is the biggest problem for the series to overcome right now. Otherwise, it was a solid episode, but you probably wouldn't get too much out of it if you're not a fan of The First Avenger and/or Agent Carter.

What If... T'Challa Became A Star-Lord?: Thanos is a good guy? Nebula isn't a full-on cyborg? The Black Order works as security guards? Howard The Duck appears?! This was the kind of weird episode I wanted from the show, and it was insanely fun. I think what helped is that it's not just recapping a movie like the premiere, it's telling an original story that was far more well-paced. T'Challa had an actual character arc, with package to deal with, and the whole episode had that cool heist vibe to it. It was really nice to see Chadwick Boseman again, at least one last time. His T'Challa voice is so recognizable, and I'll definitely miss it. I still think the writing is a bit cliche and not too many of the jokes really landed (aside from the Thanos stuff), but in terms of pacing and even characters, this was a far better and more fun than the first. I'm also just surprised this episode made Thanos a likable character.

What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?: This was a bit of a different episode of What If?, as it doesn't reveal what the nexus event was until the very end. As a result, it feels like a whodunit story starring Coulson, Nick Fury, and Black Widow. It led to a episode that was surprisingly tense compared to the previous two, and the payoff of Hank Pym being the murderer worked pretty well. Whenever the episode was focused on that central mystery, it was really great. However, I also felt like it was a bit too packed, using scenes from pretty much the entirety of Phase 1 (though I did like the references to The Incredible Hulk). The pacing wasn't nearly as bad as the Carter episode, but there were so many characters being juggled throughout the episode. Otherwise, I thought this was a fun What If? episode. Definitely better than Episode 1, but not as good as Episode 2.

What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands?: So is Episode 4 just always gonna be killer in these MCU shows? Because this episode was shockingly good, completely outclassing the first three in so many ways. I wasn't even a fan of Doctor Strange, nor his first film, but this episode was great. It really helped that this episode felt the most focused of the four so far, centered around one specific character with one specific goal. The pacing was tight, and watching Strange slowly lose his sanity as he continues to try to prevent Christine from dying feels natural. I definitely got a bit of a Steins;Gate vibe from the first half of the episode, between Strange's repeated time travel, the introduction of the Absolute Point, and the sheer amount of sacrifices that go into changing it. Once Doctor Strange Supreme starts to absorb monsters and grow in power, the episode starts to lean more into horror. There's a bit of a cosmic horror vibe to the end of the episode, with Strange Supreme's final form resembling Cthulhu, the good guy being defeated, Christine rejecting Strange after all he's become, and The Watcher just being forced to watch as an entire universe collapses on itself and not being able to do anything about it. I was genuinely surprised by how dark the ending is, and I really want to see What If? continue to be gutsy like this. The animation was also really good this episode too, I think Doctor Strange's magic works really well in this medium. I also think this episode really solidifies the fact that we're going to be seeing intersections between these universes, as the reappearance of that tentacle monster from Episode 1 and Strange's ability to talk to The Watcher seem to hint at a bit of a larger plot than just an anthology series. Regardless, this episode was the gutsiest thing the MCU has done in years, and I hope What If? can continue to use its format to tell more un-MCU stories.

What If... Zombies?: Despite being probably the most hyped episode of the season, Zombies didn't quite do it for me in quite a few aspects. It felt a lot like Episode 3, with a lot of characters being juggled around and most of the episode being comprised of action sequences. I did like the action, though. Hulk vs Scarlet Witch was cool only if we only got to see just a bit of it, and the episode incorporated just enough zombie violence without earning the show a TV-MA rating. I thought the main cast was a solid lineup of characters, if a bit overstuffed. The highlight was Spider-Man, who got all the emotional moments and finally name-dropped Uncle Ben, but I also enjoyed seeing Kurt from the Ant-Man films back for a while. My main issue though was just how lighthearted the episode was. Even though all their friends were dead, the remaining Avengers were still cracking quips, and none of the death scenes aside from Wasp's really had time to breathe. While most of the episodes seem to end with a bit of a cliffhanger (except the fourth which actually feels like a full story), this episode genuinely felt like it was setting up for a second half. The ending about Thanos being on Wakanda feels less like a cruel twist ending and more like a plot thread that needs to be tied up. Overall, this episode was fine, but I'm starting to worry that Episode 4 may have spoiled me on the rest of the series.

What If... Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?: Killmonger is my favorite villain in the whole MCU, so I might have a bit of a bias here, but I really enjoyed this episode. They got the most important thing right, they nailed the character. Killmonger is still as interesting as he was in Black Panther, with this episode giving a bit of screentime to his oft-mentioned military background. This episode also showed how manipulative and brutal he could be, showing off an incredible gambit to become the Black Panther, and it works perfectly. Killmonger also kills a lot of people to get his way, particularly Iron Man, Rhodes, and T'Challa himself. Thankfully, unlike last episode, these deaths actually get a bit more time to breath. Michael B Jordan isn't quite as intense in live-action, but his voice acting was generally really good to. Aside from the obvious highlight, I liked to get to see more of pre-character-development Tony, even if he didn't get too much screentime. Rhodes's interaction with Killmonger was cool too, though technically he should have been modeled after Terrence Howard during that time period. I also really liked the ending of Shuri teaming up with Pepper, that's definitely something I would see another episode of. Overall, one of the better episodes for me.

What If... Thor Was An Only Child?: What was this episode? This one didn't work for me at all! The whole storyline is just that Thor is holding a party that could destroy the planet and SHIELD wants to stop him. That's all. Otherwise, this episode was just a series of random cameos and jokes that honestly didn't land a lot of the time. There were a few chuckle-worthy moments, like Darcy marrying Howard The Duck and Surter hitting on the Status Of Liberty were pretty good, but otherwise, I found this episode to be kinda unfunny. The cameos and easter eggs also went way too far at this point, to a point of self-indulgence that not even the MCU has managed to reach yet. And then there's the ending. I get that What If? has this shtick where every final scene has to be a big cliffhanger or downer setting up some future episode of appearance of these characters, but they almost always feel abrupt. This one was especially strange, not only did it conflict with the episode's attempt at a comedic tone, but there was nothing foreshadowing "Infinity Ultron" showing up at all. The whole episode just felt like a waste of time, easily the weakest in the series and probably one of the worst MCU things I've seen in a while.

What If... Ultron Won?: So it turns out there's a reason Infinity Ultron just showed up out of the blue, and it's because he's the main villain of the season! Coming after three episodes ranging from meh to just plain awful, this was definitely one of the better ones. I like that Uatu was pretty much the main focus of the episode, and the exploration of how his "don't intervene" vow can take a toll on both him and the universes he watches. So seeing him come face to face with Strange again after Episode 4 and admit he needs help was a really good moment. Infinity Ultron was an alright villain, though he did kinda feel like just a robotic Thanos (speaking of which, seeing him sliced in half was kinda cool). The Hawkeye and Black Widow stuff was entertaining since I really like them as a pairing, though once it became apparent this episode would be about Uatu, I kinda stopped caring what happened to them. Overall, this episode was mostly set-up for the finale, but I enjoyed it more than most other What If? episodes. It was well-paced, balanced its tone well, and did a good job at raising the stakes to the point that Uatu would need to break his vow.

What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?: This finale was... decent. Seeing the characters from different episodes unite was pretty cool, and they had a lot of genuinely entertaining interactions. The final battle with Infinity Ultron had some cool moments, the muted black-and-white aesthetic as Widow used Zola was cool, and there was a pretty neat cliffhanger. It did a solid job of tying everything up into a satisfying bow and touching upon pretty much every episode. However, as per the usual, I have my gripes. First of all, a lot of these previous episodes had cliffhangers that weren't realized resolved rather than interrupted, with the most glaring being Episode 5's. I really wanted to see a Pepper and Shuri teamup, but we never got that. One of the Guardians Of The Multiverse was an alternate Gamora wielding Thanos's sword, but since she didn't end up having an episode, I was left really confused. And there are the plot elements that just confused me, like how Zola's arrow just happened to conveniently be nearby and while it didn't work last episode, it worked really well this time. Or how The Watcher decided Party Thor out of all the possibilities in the Multiverse would be a good candidate. Still, I did enjoy myself with this finale and it was definitely one of the show's better episodes.

Overall, while I really tried to give it a fair shake, I ended up not really liking What If?. An anthology series is supposed to be varied and experimental, but I just didn't get that feeling from this series. Most of the episodes felt like rushed versions of MCU movies, suffering from wonky pacing and cliffhanger endings that mean you couldn't really enjoy them on their own. And while I enjoyed the ending, the addition of serialization meant that Marvel couldn't even make an animated anthology series without going back to focusing on canon. Compared to the endlessly creative Star Wars Visions, What If? felt like more Marvel, for better or worse. Not to mention the wonky tone, the unremarkable animation, and the pretty awful scripts. Not to say there weren't episodes I enjoyed. Doctor Strange's episode was fantastic and I liked the final two episodes, but otherwise, I'd say this is one of the worst things Marvel has ever done.

1.5/5 Stars