What if Review | In a nutshell
What if Review: In Marvel’s newest cartoon series, What If…? This intriguing question poses the question: What if significant events in the MCU timeline had happened differently? If, say, Steve Rogers had never become Captain America, what would have happened?
As Star-Lord, what might happen if T’Challa replaced Peter Quill as Black Panther instead? In the What if Review, there is a sense of playfulness to this way of exploring the multiverses outlined by Loki and even Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a partially full — or is it a partially empty — cup in practice. Here is our What if Review after watching episodes 1 and 2!
Marvel What if Review: The endless possibilities
Both sides of the coin are neatly covered in these two episodes. It is Peggy Carter, not Steve Rogers, who will receive the super-soldier serum. As a result, the film is quite enjoyable, with Peggy taking on Nazi squads on her asses and making any fan of Agent Carter shed a tear. However, the movie also falls flat. Only Captain Marvel and Black Widow have featured female superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Peggy taking Captain America’s place only emphasizes how few female superheroes actually make up the MCU. It only makes things more bittersweet because Peggy’s Captainship is temporary.
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Even as What If…? was released, fans pointed out that it still didn’t answer their question. A white woman playing Steve Rogers in a world where he’s now a black man seems a little regressive, even though the movie shows a woman in his shoes. The point isn’t that Cap ought to be one or the other, but rather that the MCU would have been more inclusive if he were more inclusive rather than forcing any hero who isn’t white to compete for one or two leading roles.
The plot of Episodes 1 & 2
The Star-Lord Could T’Challa Be? As its more outlandish premise makes it feel more like a solitary comic than merely an Episode of a regular series, it does a better job of keeping the premise of the series alive. With these beloved characters, you can do anything that you want with basically no consequences in the second episode.
In this episode, for instance, T’Challa talks Thanos out of his Infinity War plans, which makes him seem like a bit of a curmudgeon. The character of T’Challa is also more fully explored in this movie. T’Challa’s responsibility as the leader of Wakanda has always been tainted by conflict with his desire to discover the rest of the world, as Charles Pulliam-Moore notes. T’Challa is only now starting to reckon with his past, so this manifests in a different way.
Moving deeper into What if Review, It’s also a bittersweet farewell for the character; unless Marvel decides to make a Carrie Fisher/Peter Cushing movie, this is the last time you’ll see (well, hear) Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther. This episode also seems to have a larger impact on at least this version of the MCU, since the villain Ego confronts his now very much normal, very powerless son after he was thwarted by Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord. The return of T’Challa to Wakanda as an adult and his alliance with the ravagers also means that Wakanda’s isolation is gradually being overcome by the rest of the galaxy.
The future of MCU Timelines?
Now the question is if the series will continue telling interesting stories, or if it will bow to the demands of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe by skewing boring in order to better fit in.
The series’ trailers suggest some paths may cross (Captain Carter meets Doctor Strange, for instance), but also some strange encounters, such as a pirate talking to a corpse in a jar and a zombie Captain America. To conclude What if Review, there are several characters.
Conclusion
In the end, what would happen if? The mainline MCU will never include this speculative technology. A multiverse concept is now central to storylines; Doctor Strange’s featured setting will be the Multiverse of Madness, and the upcoming Spider-Man film reportedly will introduce at least one character from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s incarnations of the character. Thus, this was our What if Review.
Consequently, there is a chance that some of these alternate universes will be portrayed in live-action. It remains to be seen whether they will actively contribute anything to the MCU, or whether the ever-powerful “what if?” is ultimately a hollow one?