Marvel Studios' WHAT IF...? (2021)

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

[Derek Metaltron]

Since it's impossible to know how Iron Man 2 would have turned out, I now want to see that in this universe Justin Hammer ends up creating his own version of the "Dark Avengers" with Whiplash (maybe they ended up getting along once Vanko was no longer motivated by revenge against Tony, who knows?) Blonski (Abomination or not) and Pym! (y'know, once the whole Asgardian invasion thing is dealt with)

I could see all of them and Darren Cross joining either HYDRA or Adrian Killian's AIM. Mind you it's possible without the initial fight against Hulk that Blomsky might just be balanced enough to be viable to join the Avengers, at least for a period until the desire for more power causes him to transform into Abomination. I doubt Pym is likely to escape Asgard unless he has help from Malekith or Hela and to help them. Darren Cross is likely to take all of Pym's tech for himself and sell it to the highest bidder (HYDRA or AIM).

Some other players to consider in this universe - the Red Room, the real Mandarin, Malekith and Hela, Quentin Beck and Adrian Toomes, Kaecilius. Killmonger, Ava Starr and of course ultimately Thanos. Beck, Toomes and Starr in particular could be very different with the death of Tony and the changes to Hank.

[AdamFTF]

Oh, good lord! Hank Pym's gone crazy again!

[Vic Vega]

Since it's impossible to know how Iron Man 2 would have turned out, I now want to see that in this universe Justin Hammer ends up creating his own version of the "Dark Avengers" with Whiplash (maybe they ended up getting along once Vanko was no longer motivated by revenge against Tony, who knows?) Blonski (Abomination or not) and Pym! (y'know, once the whole Asgardian invasion thing is dealt with)

Vanko is the only other guy who can create a working chest reactor. Maybe Shield recruits him and Hammer out of expediency. Hammer was already (albeit ineptly) assisting the Air Force in upgrading War Machine. Without Stark, both of them are motivated by gain.

Keep that weapon making payola flowing thier way and they are fine.

They probably let Blonski out of wherever they put him and pardoned him 5 minutes after Hulk died.

But I can see why the show didn't want to go there. Too dark. Fury's recruiting the surviving faces to save Earth.

No heels or semi heels allowed.

[Styles]

Season 2 starts tomorrow. A new episode everyday for 9 days.

[Captain Craig]

Someone posted that about Reacher S2, a new episode a day, but that turned out to be wrong.
I'll burn through these when they all drop, as I do any streaming show which is why I was bummed about the Reacher S2 comment being wrong. But, a few more weeks isn't the end of everything. Plenty to watch.

[j9ac9k]

It's always great to get more Karen Gillan as Nebula! The hard-boiled detective story was a fun angle. I know this is all for fun, so I don't really judge these too harshly for their plot, (I mean, after five years of living in fear, turns out they could've destroyed the Dark Aster pretty easily) but it was just dumb luck that Korg recognized the schematic.

I actually wonder if they included the characters they did just so they could make the "rock, paper, scissors" joke.

[Frontier]

The MCU takes on dark, gritty, sci-fi noir! This may as well have been a Bladerunner tribute.

Wow, it was that easy for Ronan to take out Thanos and take over? Not that they really do much with it. Did he have the Power Stone? Did he just use careful strategy? It's just hard for me to believe it happened and they don't really dwell on the how.

Also I love how they just show Thanos' helmet because they probably still haven't made a CG model of him in his armor.

This episode kind of relies on how little we really know about Nova Prime as a character. Is it believable that she would go out of her way to take in a stray like Nebula and give her a chance in the Nova Corps.? She did end up honoring the Guardians but it felt like Rhonann Dey (who was not in this) was more open to redemption and believing in people than she was. Then again she was also the villain, so....

So all these characters just happened to be in Xandar when the shield came down? I guess most of them were probably locked up by the Nova Corps to begin with. All the same, clever way of creating a dark sci-fi detective setting.

It was weird to see Groot without Rocket. I mean, we had Miek following Korg, so what gives? Was Groot on Xandar without him? Or did they just think there's no way Rocket would work with Howard.

Howard is basically becoming the "What If" guest appearance king because he always ends up doing something in most of these.

Whenever you need typical MCU humor, just add Korg! And he does all the typical Korg lines. And gets to imitate the Hulk, which is funny because he probably would never have seen him in this timeline.

I'm amazed they managed to get Jude Law back as Yon-Rogg. Then again, did this need to be Yon-Rogg? He came off more like your typical professional criminal rather than an elite and seasoned Kree military official. I mean, it all kind of came together because he'd obviously be on the side of a Kree extremist like Ronan (not that they really expand on that much), but still. I guess it just stands out that this was also the first time he's appeared since Captain Marvel and they didn't even bother to mention him in The Marvels.

I guess some things are the same though like him betraying a woman he works with or getting taken out like a chump.

So would the main Nova Prime have gone along with this? Are we meant to just assume being trapped in the shield corrupted her morals or was there always potential for her to sell out if given the right opportunity. Guess we'll never know because she's dead in either timeline.

I almost feel bad for Ronan that he once again gets taken out before he can really do anything...and in a way that makes you wonder why they never though to do that before.

Nebula looks like a gender-flip of Yondu in that getup. Not sure if that's complimentary either.

[Frontier]

"What If Yondu actually delivered Peter to Ego?" is such an obvious MCU What If that no surprise they finally did an episode based around that and a new spin on The Avengers.

As much as I love seeing struggling single dad Hank Pym, I really wish they had found some way to do a "retro Avengers" team with him and Janet. What do I have to do to get some animated Janet Van Dyne or to see her on an Avengers team?

Y'know, if Hank brought Hope to work more they probably would have avoided the entire plot of Ant-Man.

Oh yeah, MTV was a thing back then.

They kind of breezed through a lot of the recruitment of the team. I know the threat of a cosmic empowered kid is a lot, but would that be enough for T'Chaka to throw in with the American government? For them to expose the Winter Soldier? Wasn't Bucky just serving Hydra and not the Russian government? Also did Mar-Vell reveal herself because of this situation or did SHIELD always know she was Kree?

But hey, Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster, finally getting to be Black Goliath (called Goliath in the credits)! They even gave him his own suit in his comic colors!

Is that the first time they've confirmed in MCU canon that T'Chaka's father (and T'Challa's grandfather) gave them the Vibranium they needed to make Captain American's shield?

It's funny how much this retro team ended up evoking/mimicking a classic Avengers team or even the MCU legacies. Hank is as snarky as Stark (and Janet) and is finally Ant-Man on an Avengers team, T'Chaka is basically serving the same role T'Challa does on an Avengers team, Winter Soldier is basically Black Widow, Mar-Vell comes off like Carol without powers, and Bill serves as the team Giant-Man. And of course you have to have a Thor.

I like how Peter got a racoon plushie.

I also thought it was amusing how Howard and Peggy immediately recognized Bucky but had to dismiss it because they needed to focus on the plot...until they needed to talk Bucky down. This was definitely abbreviated from when Steve did it in his movie, but of course playing the Steve Rogers card is what worked.

It was surreal seeing Hemsworth play a more serious version of Thor again. I guess the Nine Realms are basically planets so it makes sense they'd get hit by Ego eventually. And just like in the original Avengers movie we have the team debating what to do about the prisoner in their midst.

While cute, I found Hope stealing her dads' stuff and freeing their prisoner a bit silly. That could have ended very badly. Though this was all about supporting the kids, so I guess it worked out the way it was intended.

"You don't have a kid, do you Wendy?" - Well, no, Hank they still won't confirm Hulking exists yet.

"By Odin's Beard!" - Wait, is that the first time Hemsworth's Thor has actually said that iconic Thor line?

EMH Hank would be so proud of this Hank for talking Peter into helping them and relating to him like a father would to a child and practically adopting him.

New timeline but same old Ego exposing the fact that he killed Peter's mom to him and basically giving Peter more than enough motivation to Spirit Gun him away. Also, it was kind of fun having Michael Douglas and Kurt Russel in the same scene together.

And like with any Avengers movie we need the scene of the whole team hanging out after a mission won...and then planning to take down Ego in planet form. Although are they really taking Hope with them?