REVIEW -- Marvel's What If...? - Season One: Episodes 1-9

Marvel's What If...? is an American animated anthology series created by A.C. Bradley for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. It is the fourth television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) produced by Marvel Studios, and the studio's first animated series. The series explores alternate timelines in the multiverse that show what would happen if major moments from the MCU films occurred differently. Bradley serves as head writer with Bryan Andrews directing.

Jeffrey Wright stars as the Watcher, who narrates the series, alongside many MCU film actors reprising their roles. Marvel Studios was developing the series for Disney+ by the end of 2018, with Bradley and Andrews on board. It was officially announced in April 2019. Marvel Studios' head of visual development Ryan Meinerding helped define the series' cel-shaded animation style, which was designed to reflect the films and take inspiration from classic American illustrators. Animation for the first season is provided by Blue Spirit, Squeeze, Flying Bark Productions, and Stellar Creative Lab, with Stephan Franck as head of animation.

The first season of What If...? premiered on August 11, 2021, and ran for nine episodes until October 6. It is part of Phase Four of the MCU. A second nine-episode season is expected to premiere as early as 2022. The series has received generally positive reviews, with praise for the voice acting and creative storylines and scenarios but some criticism for its animation, episode length, and writing.

Episode summaries

Episode 01: "What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?"

During World War II, Steve Rogers is chosen to become the world's first super-soldier, but is wounded by a Hydra spy before he can receive the super-soldier serum. SSR agent Peggy Carter kills the spy and receives the serum instead. She is enhanced, but banned from combat by SSR leader John Flynn. After she takes the Tesseract from Hydra with a vibranium shield created by inventor Howard Stark, Flynn reluctantly promotes her to the combat role of "Captain Carter". Stark uses the Tesseract to create a weaponized, armored suit for Rogers to pilot as the "Hydra Stomper". Carter and Rogers fight many battles until he goes missing while attacking a Hydra train. Carter and her allies find Rogers when they infiltrate a Hydra base and see Red Skull using the Tesseract to open a portal and summon an interdimensional creature, which kills him. Carter enters the closing portal to force the creature back. Almost 70 years later, the Tesseract opens another portal from which Carter emerges, meeting Nick Fury and Clint Barton.

Cast : Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter / Captain Carter, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine, Toby Jones as Arnim Zola, Bradley Whitford as John Flynn, Ross Marquand as Johann Schmidt / Red Skull, and Darrell Hammond as a Nazi general

Episode 02: "What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?"

In 1988, the Ravagers are sent to Earth by a Celestial called Ego to retrieve his son Peter Quill, but mistakenly abduct a young T'Challa from Wakanda. 20 years later, T'Challa has become the famous intergalactic mercenary "Star-Lord" and has been convinced by Ravager leader Yondu Udonta that Wakanda was destroyed. Nebula approaches the Ravagers and proposes to steal the Embers of Genesis, a cosmic artifact capable of eradicating galactic hunger, from galactic kingpin Taneleer Tivan. At Tivan's headquarters on Knowhere, they offer him the Power Stone as a distraction. Meanwhile, T'Challa looks for the Embers, but he finds a Wakandan spacecraft that was searching for him. Nebula seemingly betrays the Ravagers, who are captured, but this is another ruse to obtain the Embers. Tivan's slave Carina rescues T'Challa and helps the Ravagers defeat Tivan. T'Challa forgives Udonta for lying about Wakanda, and they return there so T'Challa can reunite with his family. Elsewhere, Ego approaches Quill, a Dairy Queen janitor.

Cast : Chadwick Boseman as Star-Lord T'Challa, Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta, Josh Brolin as Thanos, Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan / The Collector, Kurt Russell as Ego, Ophelia Lovibond as Carina, Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Djimon Hounsou as Korath the Pursuer, John Kani as T'Chaka, Sean Gunn as Kraglin Obfonteri, Chris Sullivan as Taserface, Seth Green as Howard the Duck, and Danai Gurira as Okoye

Episode 03: "What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?"

Over the course of a week, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury attempts to recruit heroes for the Avengers Initiative, but they are each mysteriously killed: Natasha Romanoff injects Tony Stark with an unexpectedly fatal injection, Clint Barton accidentally shoots and kills Thor before dying in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, Bruce Banner / Hulk explodes, and Romanoff is attacked and killed while investigating the other murders. Before she dies, Romanoff tells Fury that the murders are related to "hope". The Asgardians, led by Loki, arrive on Earth to avenge Thor, but Fury proposes an alliance to apprehend the killer. Fury deduces that Hank Pym is the murderer and has been using his shrinking technology to commit the murders as revenge for the death of his daughter, Hope van Dyne, who died in the line of duty as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Fury and Loki defeat Pym, who is taken into Asgardian custody. Loki chooses to stay on Earth, becoming its ruler. Fury begins assembling more heroes, finding Steve Rogers frozen in ice and summoning Carol Danvers to Earth.

Cast : Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Jaimie Alexander as Sif, Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow, Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, and Mick Wingert as Tony Stark / Iron Man

Episode 04: "What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?"

After losing his girlfriend Dr. Christine Palmer in a car crash, Dr. Stephen Strange travels to Kamar-Taj and learns the Mystic Arts. He discovers the Eye of Agamotto, which can manipulate time, but is warned by the Ancient One and Wong that doing so could destroy reality. Two years later, Strange repeatedly attempts to use the Eye to save Palmer, but she still dies in every scenario. The Ancient One tells Strange that Palmer's death is an "absolute point" in the timeline that cannot be undone, but Strange refuses to listen. Using the power of the Dark Dimension, the Ancient One splits Strange into two alternate versions: one Strange accepts Palmer's death while the other gains power by absorbing mystical beings, becoming Strange Supreme. This evil version overpowers the good Strange, absorbs him, and uses his power to resurrect Palmer, tearing reality apart. Strange Supreme begs the Watcher for help, but he refuses to intervene. Palmer disintegrates and the universe collapses, leaving Strange Supreme to grieve alone.

Cast : Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange and Doctor Strange Supreme, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, Benedict Wong as Wong, Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, Ike Amadi as O'Bengh, and Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart

Episode 05: "What If... Zombies?!"

In the Quantum Realm, Hank Pym finds Janet van Dyne, but she infects him with a quantum virus. They return to Earth and cause a zombie apocalypse. Two weeks later, a group of survivors—Bruce Banner, Hope van Dyne, Peter Parker, the Cloak of Levitation, Bucky Barnes, Okoye, Sharon Carter, Happy Hogan, and Kurt—learn there is a potential cure at Camp Lehigh. They lose Hogan, Carter, and Hope to zombie attacks on the way there, where they meet Vision. His Mind Stone can reverse the virus, exemplified by a cured Scott Lang's head kept alive in a jar, but an infected Wanda Maximoff is immune to the cure and Vision has been feeding pieces of T'Challa to her. Maximoff breaks free and kills Kurt, Okoye, and Barnes. Vision commits suicide to give the Mind Stone to Parker. Banner transforms into the Hulk and sacrifices himself to battle Maximoff, allowing the others to escape. To broadcast the Stone's energy across the world, Parker, Lang, T'Challa, and the Cloak go to Wakanda, where a zombified Thanos wields a nearly-complete Infinity Gauntlet.

Cast : Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk, Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther, Paul Bettany as Vision, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne / Wasp, Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man, Jon Favreau as Harold "Happy" Hogan / Zombie Happy, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, David Dastmalchian as Kurt, Hudson Thames as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw

Episode 06: "What If... Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?"

In Afghanistan, Tony Stark is ambushed by the Ten Rings, but is saved by Erik "Killmonger" Stevens. They return to Stark Industries, where Killmonger exposes Obadiah Stane's involvement in the ambush before helping Stark build a humanoid combat drone using vibranium. Needing more vibranium to create a drone army, they arrange for James Rhodes to purchase it from Ulysses Klaue. At Killmonger's behest, Klaue leaks word of the transaction to Wakanda to lure in T'Challa. Killmonger kills both T'Challa and Rhodes, staging it as if they killed each other. Stark confronts Killmonger, but Killmonger kills him and makes it look like a Wakandan attack. Killmonger then kills Klaue and reunites with his relatives in Wakanda. Thaddeus Ross sends the drone army to attack Wakanda, but Killmonger helps the Wakandans defeat them, becoming the new Black Panther. As the United States prepares another attack, T'Challa's sister Shuri visits Pepper Potts, who was suspicious of Killmonger, and proposes an alliance to expose the truth.

Cast : Michael B. Jordan as N'Jadaka / Erik "Killmonger" Stevens, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Paul Bettany as J.A.R.V.I.S., John Kani as T'Chaka, Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart, and Mick Wingert as Tony Stark

Episode 07: "What If... Thor Were an Only Child?"

After defeating the Frost Giants, Odin discovers the abandoned infant Loki and returns him to Laufey. Centuries later, Odin's only son Thor has become a boisterous, party-loving prince. While Odin sleeps and Frigga is away, Thor travels to Earth to host a large party with aliens from across the universe. His arrival attracts the attention of Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis, who join the party. As Thor and Foster grow close, acting S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill summons Carol Danvers to end the destruction caused by Thor's antics. Danvers is unable to defeat Thor without exerting her full power, so Lewis and Hill suggest she take the fight to a less populated area while Foster contacts Frigga with Heimdall's help. Hill readies a nuclear strike as Danvers and Thor begin to battle again, but Frigga contacts them and says she is coming. Thor and the party-goers clean up the mess before she arrives. Later, Thor asks Foster out on a date, but is interrupted by an army of drones led by Ultron, who is in Vision's body and possesses all six Infinity Stones.

Cast : Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow, Taika Waititi as Korg, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Jaimie Alexander as Sif, Seth Green as Howard the Duck, Alexandra Daniels as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, and Rachel House as Topaz

Episode 08: "What If... Ultron Won?"

Ultron, having taken the Mind Stone and Vision's vibranium body, has defeated the Avengers and launched a global nuclear holocaust, killing most of humanity. When Thanos appears on Earth to complete the Infinity Gauntlet, Ultron bisects him and takes the rest of the Infinity Stones, using them to create a massive drone army with which he wipes out almost all life in his universe. Ultron then hears the Watcher, discovering the existence of the multiverse, and attacks the Watcher in his multiversal observatory. Meanwhile, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff survive Ultron's attacks and find a copy of Arnim Zola's mind in Siberia. They upload Zola into a drone body to try to destroy Ultron's hive mind, but it fails because Ultron has left their universe. Barton sacrifices himself to allow Romanoff and Zola to escape from other drones. Ultron battles the Watcher across different universes and defeats him. The Watcher flees to Strange Supreme's collapsed universe to ask him for help while Ultron plans to conquer the multiverse.

Cast : Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye, Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Toby Jones as Arnim Zola, Ross Marquand as Ultron and the Sub-Ultron Sentries, Josh Keaton as Steve Rogers / Captain America, Mick Wingert as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Alexandra Daniels as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange Supreme

Episode 09: "What If... the Watcher Broke His Oath?"

The Watcher recruits Strange Supreme, Captain Carter, Star-Lord T'Challa, "Party" Thor, Black Panther Killmonger, and a Gamora variant who killed Thanos from their respective universes to battle Ultron. They confront Ultron in a lifeless universe where Strange summons a horde of zombies, which Ultron overpowers. In Ultron's home universe, the team finds Natasha Romanoff. With Carter's help, Romanoff shoots Ultron with an arrow containing Arnim Zola's mind. As Zola takes control of Ultron's body and fights Killmonger over the Infinity Stones, Strange and the Watcher seal them in a pocket dimension, which Strange agrees to watch over. The Watcher returns Strange, Carter, T'Challa, Gamora, and Thor to their respective universes. Romanoff refuses to return to hers, so the Watcher brings her to one in which the Avengers candidates were assassinated, where she helps defeat Loki. In a mid-credits scene, Carter and her universe's Romanoff discover the Hydra Stomper armor with someone inside.

Cast : Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter / Captain Carter, Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow, Georges St-Pierre as Georges Batroc, Chadwick Boseman as Star-Lord T'Challa, Michael B. Jordan as N'Jadaka / Erik "Killmonger" Stevens, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange Supreme, Toby Jones as Arnim Zola, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Kurt Russell as Ego, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and Mick Wingert as Tony Stark / Iron Man

The Verdict:

I'm going to tackle this beast slightly differently than other various television shows and content in the MCU. Since What If... deals with allegedly standalone one-off stories, I'm going to review each one of them individually for this season, offering my thoughts as you have all come to expect with my reviews and write-ups to date. I'll say it right off the bat though that I'm a little disappointed that this series is dead set on sitting most of these stories close to home within the MCU's continuity instead of leaving everything on the table of getting an adaptation or an exploration from the comics continuity as well. Seriously... think about the possibilities if they explored some What If... tales within the worlds/universes of some of their cancelled animated properties from the past, such as beloved favorites - Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, X-Men: The Animated Series, or Spider-Man: The Animated Series? It just feels like a missed opportunity to pigeon-hole themselves into the small confines within the Marvel Cinematic Universe's continuity to this point.

Episode 1: "What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?"

The entire premise of this episode rolling off the notion that Peggy Carter was injected with the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers. A few of my friends who are into female muscle growth/transformations and the like (think amazons in the same vein of She-Hulk), like myself, were a little disappointed that Peggy's transformation wasn't a bit more dramatic. She just gained a little height and barely added some muscle to her figure/build. Outside of that, I thought this was a stellar start to this animated series. I thought it was pretty cool that Steve Rogers still found a way to contribute to the war effort by piloting a repurposed HYDRA Stomper that was modified by Howard Stark in the same vein of what would be similar to Tony Stark's Mark I armor prototype for the Ironman armor. I thought there were some clever nods to Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot in terms of that design too, but I'm sure that reference is going to go over a lot of people's heads.

Peggy's brand of combat as her universe's Captain America was a sight to behold in my eyes. She fought like the Cap that we're accustomed to with her own flair added to the fighting style and finesse to make it her own. As a result, Peggy's combat sequences come off as brutal, yet extremely pleasing to watch. It sets the standard and tone for this unique brand of high quality animation coming out of Marvel Studios.

If I'm honest, I didn't understand why she was sporting more British regala in her costume design despite being familiar with her background/country of origin when she was still working as an American soldier.

When Steve Rogers and the HYDRA Stomper were captured by the Red Skull, I was expecting that he would be made into her universe's Winter Soldier, but that notion proved to be incorrect... at least at this moment anyway.

I wonder how many people caught on that the creature that Peggy was fighting was one of many that Strange Supreme was summoning and absorbing in Episode 4? I'm pretty sure that it was Shuma-Gorath if I'm not mistaken, despite being unable to see its entire body.

Episode 2: "What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?"

I found this episode to be one of the weakest episodes throughout this entire eight episode season, despite it being a pleasure to hear Chadwick Boseman's portrayal of T'Challa one more time.

Don't get me wrong. I liked some of the design changes to Nebula, The Collector, and cameos from a few other characters (first of two appearances of Howard the Duck in this series, along with a kinder Thanos), but I found it hard to care about this alternate take on T'Challa when Marvel Comics have actually sent T'Challa to space recently. As a result, I didn't see what was the big fascination with this idea.

I did think it was pretty cool that instead of a full scale invasion on Wakanda, all of the aliens and what not were welcomed there in open arms upon T'Challa's homecoming at the end of the episode. That made a good moment.

Episode 3: "What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?"

I felt that this episode slipped underneath the radar of a lot of casual fans who may not be familiar with Hank Pym/Ant-Man's comic book history. This episode gave us our first dosage of HBO Max's Harley Quinn's Lake Bell (Poison Ivy) lending her voice talents as Black Widow/Natasha Romanov in this series. If Scarlett Johannsen wasn't onboard at this point (especially given the time of her lawsuit that has been apparently settled as of this posting) following the Black Widow film, then I don't see why anyone should have any issue with Lake Bell's casting. Besides, she seems to have a knack for voicing these lethal redheads in animation anyway.

I thought it was pretty awesome that they did an animated recreation of the college campus fight sequence from The Incredible Hulk, despite the fact that a lot of people tend to dismiss or completely forget that it's a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. My only problem with that scene, especially after reading Immortal Hulk comics currently, is that I know that wouldn't be enough to kill the Hulk for good. This ended up being the first occasion in this show where I had to turn off my comic book knowledge off for the sake of not getting annoyed with these sometimes questionable choices and/or logic in the MCU.

Thor's death was equally questionable as conventional weaponry shouldn't be able to kill an Asgardian, but I couldn't remember if Thor was completely depowered when Odin banished him and the hammer to Earth in his original MCU film, so I gave this a pass. This episode started the trend of killing off Tony Stark that ironically became a meme by the time this show was over.

Black Widow was left to solve the mystery of the mysteries deaths behind each of the Avengers, until she finally figured it out once she was targeted by their mysterious assailant. Widow's life wasn't spared, but she managed to get the last clue to Nick Fury, who was forced to make a deal with Thor's brother, Loki, who came with the forces of Asgard for retaliation.

The Avengers' mysterious assailant ends up being a deranged, mentally unstable variant of Hank Pym/Yellowjacket. I loved this reveal, personally, because this gave us a glimpse of what a more comics accurate version of that character would be like in the MCU - if he wasn't a murderer anyway. Pym was driven insane by Hope Van Dyne's demise as a SHIELD agent and sought out to eliminate everyone on Fury's list of potential Avengers on the Avengers Protocol that Fury has his eye on. While Loki assisted Fury in dealing with Yellowjacket, he was quick to continue an invasion of Earth once the smoke cleared on that ordeal. What Loki didn't expect was that Nick Fury still had an eager and ready Captain Marvel to call upon as a last resort as this episode came to a close.

Episode 5: "What If... Zombies?!"

I'll admit that this was an episode that I particularly wasn't very fond of at all as I have had my fill of zombies for the past decade or two, whether it's from the mainstream obsession with highs and lows of AMC's The Walking Dead or video games whoring that subject manner out like an old reliable crutch when nothing else is selling. I had little to no enthusiasm of seeing Marvel's heroes reduced to being the living dead. Sure, this episode made for some unique battles but it made for more questions than feasible answers to the overall problem.

Vision couldn't bring himself to cure everyone when he was trying to keep zombie Scarlet Witch "alive" and quench her hunger in the process since she was allegedly immune to the cure via means with the Soul Stone. We did get some cool moments of Bucky inheriting Captain America's iconic shield and giantess fans (like myself) getting to see Janet van Dyne bust out her lesser used expansion powers to become Giant-Woman. Given the situation at hand, it came off more as a joke for too much of its runtime, especially from Spider-Man and the head of Ant-Man/Scott Lang. I guess they were trying to make light of a bleak situation, but at the same time, I felt this episode was trying too hard to be Shaun of the Dead with superpowers in a sense.

Then again, this episode wasn't for me in the first place as I never saw the fascination with the Marvel Zombies line of comics, so I knew this was going to be an episode that I wasn't going to be crazy about going in.

Unlike the previous episode, this episode ends on a slightly lighter, optimistic tone for the fate of this universe since Wasp, Vision, and Hulk sacrificed themselves to allow the others to escape with the cure to the zombie outbreak. A part of me feels like Hulk would survive the zombies and give zombie Scarlet Witch a run for her money for a bit. As for her, this wouldn't be the last time we would see that insanely powerful character show up in this show...

Episode 6: "What If... Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?"

I felt this episode was a massive missed opportunity. It had potential to redeem Killmonger's character, but it ended up circling right back around to his same motivations that we saw in Black Panther. I didn't understand why waste the time to go that same route just with a minor detour, while killing off Tony Stark for the third time in this season (again contributing to the memes). They merely setup Killmonger as a bigger villain in this story than he was in Black Panther by killing off both T'Challa and Tony Stark, but left most of the world in the dark of his true intentions while both Pepper Potts and Shuri plotted to expose the truth of his deception.

To this episode's credit, it did have a few good action sequences and we got to see the Dora Milaje get some more shine here, even though Okoye was part of the previous episode too. I was thinking that both King T'Chaka and T'Challa's mother would be more privy about Killmonger given the shady circumstances of his arrival to Wakanda, but they were easily won over by his farce. He was about to be exposed by War Machine but he covered his tracks on that ordeal by killing him with T'Challa at the same time with neither Wakanda nor the US governments privy of what he was really scheming. This causes them to be at odds with each other with himself in the middle as the "hero" to both sides. It's brilliant, strategically speaking but once again, it returns to my initial point. It is simply retreading familiar territory with a much better scheme at play instead of the one that I, along with very few others, poked holes in the Black Panther film. By the end of this "victory" from Killmonger I was left feeling it more than ever that it was such a missed opportunity not to redeem this character as a genuine hero instead of him being a villain.

Episode 7: "What If... Thor Were an Only Child?"

This episode, mostly regarded as "Party Thor" by fans on social media, was mostly hit or miss for me. I liked the premise of Thor being a tad irresponsible without having his adopted brother, Loki, in his life to sway him to being a more "responsible" Asgardian instead of acting like a college frat boy. This episode brought back Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) in this reimagining of their first encounter with the God of Thunder. The silliness of this entire ordeal made for a lot of hilarious moments that I honestly didn't take serious

in the slightest from start to finish. I did love that we did get an excuse to bring back Darcy (voiced by Kat Dennings herself) with Jane Foster here for some added hilarity to this oddball turn of events. I mean, seriously, how could you take light of this entire situation being presented as comedy without including Kat Dennings/Darcy anyway? You really can't. I raved about Darcy's return to the MCU enough when it came to WandaVision earlier this year and her appearance here gets the same amount of praise and approval. Of course, she contributes the only way she can with her natural charisma and charm that she's known for in her own acting style in a lot of these comedic roles. Sue me, but I'm a little biased towards Kat Dennings' performances in these roles after being a fan of her various work in TV sitcoms and films.

There were a lot of cameo appearances in this episode too, but I'm not even going attempt to try to remember all of them as I missed them myself.

There was a nice bit of fan service here for those who have been clamoring to see who would win in a fight between Thor and Captain Marvel as Carol was assigned as the "party crasher" of sorts enlisted by acting SHIELD director Maria Hill to end Thor's chaotic partying before it led to the end of Midgard/Earth. I thought this was a highlight of this entire episode, with them fighting not once but twice in this episode. I don't rank this moment higher because I was entertained at Thor's fear and panic to clean up his mess once Jane alerted Frigga of Thor's activities a bit more. Plus, let's not forget about the cliffhanger that this episode ends on...

The closing moments of this episode sees a multiverse variant of Ultron, who has all of the Infinity Stones while inhabiting Vision's body, invade this world while "Party Thor" looks on in horror as Ultron and his countless drones arrive. I thought this was the biggest surprise and highlight in this entire episode. I immediately went on social media after the fact and asked, "How come we didn't get an episode about THAT guy in the ending of this episode?"

Little did I know was that Ultron was going to be the main antagonist of the remainder of this season...

Sidebar note: How many people were aware that this character is supposed to be Topaz from the Ultraverse? My mind was blown after realizing this when I was looking up the voice cast for this episode. I'm surprised that there wasn't a bigger deal made about this character's inclusion into the MCU when Thor: Ragnarok first released into theaters. Hell, the Grandmaster is even wielding her staff too. I can't believe that I didn't pick up onto any of that sooner. It would be very interesting if we actually see more characters from the Ultraverse integrated into the MCU going forward as Marvel Comics actually owns those characters from Malibu since buying them out.

As for Topaz, I'm guessing that she's that character in name only and not the "queen" that she was depicted as in the old Ultraforce comics and Saturday morning cartoon of the same name.

Episode 8: "What If... Ultron Won?"

From the tone and style of this episode right off the bat in this apocalyptic future instantly made this one of my favorite episodes of the entire season from a narrative perspective alone. We got a "true" Age of Ultron in a sense where he wiped out most of humanity, along with the Avengers with a one-armed Hawkeye and Black Widow as the only surviving members.

While a lot of people took great issue with Ultron instantly defeating Thanos with ease and taking all of the remaining Infinity stones, I merely busted out laughing as it seems like the MCU is continuing this trend post-Endgame where they are trivializing the power of the Infinity Stones. Ultron merely had the Mind Stone versus 5 other Infinity Stones and beat Thanos in an instant. I'm not even going to entertain the thought of explaining, rationalizing, nor internally processing that moment and merely brush it off as another moment in this ongoing trend of trivializing the Infinity Stones. If you want someone to rationalize or debate this moment all day until they are blue in the face, take a look on social media or Reddit. There's more than enough people complaining about it.

Clint and Natasha's quest in a hopeless situation made for an exciting episode from start to finish. Hell, I would have been happy with this entire season being focused in this universe if I'm perfectly honest. It would have made for some great television with these Metal Gear Solid-esque "stealth" missions for Clint and Natasha. I enjoyed the small nod to the Black Widow film with Widow finding Red Guardian's shield and taking it for her own. Her "father" would be proud. The final moments of this episode saw Clint prove his bad-assery (for what feels to be like the millionth time in Marvel animation... Seriously, rewatch Avengers: EMH on Disney+ and see how many times this point is brought up as much as the DCAU has to prove Batman's worth at every opportunity.) to prove his worth as he sacrificed himself for Natasha could escape with Armin Zola's AI downloaded into one of Ultron's drones. Unfortunately, the plan fails as Ultron had already escaped that universe after discovering The Watcher's presence.

The fight between The Watcher and Ultron (armed with all six of the Infinity Stones) made for a dazzling fight across multiple universes in the Multiverse until The Watcher found himself overwhelmed and forced to retreat to the collapsed reality of Strange Supreme. I can't imagine how much production time was spent on putting that fight between The Watcher and Ultron together from concept, storyboarding, and visualizing the whole scope of it properly, not to mention animating it. That was a technical, visual "marvel" in its own right.

That fight alone makes me excited for what else could be in store for not only the future of this series, but what else Marvel Studios' animation department could cook up involving some of their other properties. Maybe, just maybe, they could finally compete with Warner Bros./DC Comics in that regard where they never could compete with them in that aspect after the 90's.

Episode 9: "What If... the Watcher Broke His Oath?"

This episode was pegged as the season finale, but many people like myself may be confused at a few things going into this episode right off the bat. First of all, it should be noted that there's a missing episode in this season, namely one following the Gamora that we meet here in this episode that was recruited to join the Guardians of the Multiverse. Series producers have already released a statement that due to production issues during development, thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, that episode had to pulled to make sure this series debuted on schedule. Fortunately, that episode in question will be added to Season Two's episode order, so we will get to see the story behind this Multiverse variant of Gamora who has defeated Thanos in her universe.

With that confusion out of the way, the overall theme of this episode is The Watcher breaking his oath and deciding to put together a team to defeat Vision-Ultron. I found the team members that he assembled to be comical since he went with a full team of heroes, outside of Strange Supreme and Party Thor, who didn't have any superpowers outside of weapon expertise and hand-to-hand combat prowess. Okay, okay, Captain Carter has super-strength, but that didn't mean much against someone who is armed with all of the Infinity Stones. And why didn't they recruit Spider-Man from the Marvel Zombies episode? Then again, they made the right choice later in that episode when Strange Supreme summoned Zombie Scarlet Witch to fight Ultron, so yeah...

Let's all be honest here though. Strange Supreme was doing all of the heavy lifting in this episode when it came to battling Vision-Ultron. He first cast the spell that protected all of the Guardians from getting instant killed from the Infinity Stones, along with him going toe to toe with Vision-Ultron on several occasions without the help of his allies. One could argue that's merely a testament to how much power that he has amassed in his (failed) quest to revive his love, but another could say that it's flat out bullshit that he has essentially a cheat code/hack exploit to neutralize the effects of the Stones as a cop out for the other Guardians can fight Vision-Ultron on a level playing field when not even The Watcher himself could beat him. I'm not going to complain too much about that as it made for another amazing battle to watch, much like the battles in the previous episode. My only gripe about it was that it made for the bulk of the action here a one-man show in a sense.

I did like Gamora's plan for the Infinity Breaker, but that didn't pan out as her device/weapon was made to destroy the Stones from her own native universe, not Vision-Ultron's. This led the Guardians back to Vision-Ultron's universe where they were able to enlist Black Widow from this universe to their aid. Her and Captain Carter instantly bonded, with Carter reminiscing back to the Widow she left back in her own "modern" timeline. I can't speak for anyone else, but for a moment, I thought they were hinting at a lesbian relationship between the two. That was mainly because Lake Bell, who voices Widow in this series, also voices Poison Ivy in the Harley Quinn HBO Max DC Universe adult animated comedy. I wouldn't be surprised if more people got that vibe too, but there's no harm in it either way. That being said, the course of action turns to completing Widow's original plan from the previous episode - infecting Vision-Ultron's main body with Armin Zola's AI. With some clever teamwork between Carter and Widow, the plan works out, only for Zola to take control and override Ultron's programming while dispelling the Infinity Stones from his body. That's when Killmonger tries to take the stones for himself, only for Zola to attempt to reclaim them for himself. This is where The Watcher and Strange Supreme spring their trap, locking both of them outside of time and space within their own confined reality/pocket dimension - neither unable to take the Stones for their own. Strange agrees to keep an eye on them in their unique prison.

If I'm honest, I felt this was a bit of a copout in terms of how they beat Vision-Ultron as we knew Killmonger was up to something and Zola couldn't be trusted with that much power at his disposal. It merely hammered the point home that the Guardians really weren't needed anyway as Strange Supreme and The Watcher had this plan ready to go - they merely needed more bodies (who could have been anyone really...) to throw at Vision-Ultron to distract him to make it work.