Films for Breakfast

This will be a bit of a different review, as its hard to talk about this season as a whole as it is largely an anthology that only mildly culminates at the end of the season. So I will talk about each episode individually and then sum-up why I found myself really let down with this season of What If..?

What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?

First things first… the vibes of this episode are pretty on-point. It has a very distinct, Blade Runner-esque look and feel that I admired from the get-go. Unfortunately, the episode as a whole has a really weak mystery at its core that it treats as if its shocking and ultra-important. There’s some fun to be had when it comes to Nebula recruiting familiar faces and seeing her go down a different life path than joining the Guardians, but largely feels like a missed opportunity.

a light 3/5 for this one.

What If… Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?

Thankfully, this episode was incredibly solid, because it is stemming from one of the most prominent and exciting cliffhangers from the first season. For starters, it is pretty cool to get to see Peter Quill actually manifest and use his Celestial powers here. I also really loved seeing all of these original characters team up like an OG-Avengers. Something about seeing T’Chaka on an Avengers team with a young Hank Pym is what this show should entirely be about to me. Truly fun and exciting scenarios. Thankfully, this one feels like it goes pretty far with its concept and gets a lot of entertainment value out of it. Solid!

4/5

What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?

This one is… also fine? I like Happy Hogan as a character, I love when these shows are Christmas themed, and you have Sam Rockwell returning as Justin Hammer? I should have loved it. It’s entertaining enough, but largely feels a bit lackluster. By the end it does feel a bit pointless but compared to some other episodes this season… it’s fine!

3/5

What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster?

Talk about a massive disappointment. This should’ve easily been a highlight episode, as Tony Stark on Sakaar, stripped of his nanotech and only having his wit and intelligence should be a shoe-in for the best episode of the entire season. Unfortunately, the episode spends more time quipping and exploring pretty uninteresting corners of this scenario rather than delivering something actually interesting. Tony’s dynamic with Gamora could have been truly fascinating, but it feels like stops exploring it pretty quickly. I found this one to be beyond grating and underwhelming.

2/5

What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?

*sigh*

The biggest low last season was the Captain Carter episode. I like Hayley Atwell very much in the role of Peggy Carter and am not opposed to the idea of a Captain Carter, but literally every appearance of the character in the MCU thus far has been a complete flatline. To give credit where its due, this episode at least tries to go in newer directions whereas her episode from the first season seemed to only want to retell the events of The First Avenger but with Peggy instead. There are some small twists and turns here that set it apart enough, but it largely doesn’t justify why Captain Carter has gotten such a push recently. She just does nothing for me and feels like such a nothing-burger of a character – if episodes this boring are the best we can do, why do we even bother?

2.5/5

What If… Kahori Reshaped the World?

Hm.

I’m prone to give this one approval, since my complaint with most episodes I dislike are the fact that they don’t do a whole lot new – so why would I have an issue with an entirely original character going on her own course in the universe? I will say, I didn’t find a lot of the story beats and character moments to be that interesting here.. but it does a solid job at introducing a new concept to the series and exploring the in-universe ramifications of this scenario. It also sets up Kahori well for down the road.

3/5

What If… Hela Found the Ten Rings?

This is another episode that isn’t exactly *great*, but it at least strives for telling a fully-rounded story that goes against the grain of what we already know. One of my biggest irks with MCU projects as of late are the quips, and this is one of the worst offenders. But if you can look past that, it is pretty fun to see Wenwu and Hela join forces and predate a majority of the biggest MCU moments that we know. I’m also always partial to hear Cate Blanchett.

3/5

What If… The Avengers Assembled in 1602?

Oof.

What could have easily been the best episode of the entire series is… another Captain Carter episode.

Again, I have nothing against her in theory. I promise I’m not an angry neckbeard nerd who hates all women in their precious comic book properties. But Captain Carter has continuously tanked every episode she has been apart of, and this is really no exception. How many different avenues could we have gone down with a 1602 episode? What if it was entirely focused on Fury forming an intelligence community during this era? Or how Tony has to work 100x harder with less technology?

The only thing I found particularly interesting was that the episode truly treats Banner/Hulk like Frankenstein’s monster and I found it extremely cool. Otherwise, it feels like a huge sneak for Captain Carter and just completely wastes any potential it could have had. Massively disappointing.

2/5

What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?

WHY?

The Strange Supreme episode last season was easily the highlight of the entire show… so Marvel’s logic is, naturally, to completely undo what was so effective and interesting about that episode and throw it down the toilet. It feels so disingenuous to make that Strange the big baddie of this season, all so we can see Captain Carter save the day with a whole bunch of nothing-characters. It’s a little bit fun to see such a free-for-all brawl at the end, but mostly it just feels like it tainted the best episode of the entire series for no apparent reason.

2/5

Overall:

This season is largely just full of too many misses, and ultimately feels like its at its best when it hones in on one concept and runs with it instead of trying to add in so many quips and pointless side characters. I can’t believe how much this season was fumbled, especially given the seemingly easy and hard-to-mess-up concepts at hand. I’ll still tune in next season but… this one really does not give me much confidence in the mileage of this series.

2.5/5