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

[Bunch of Coconuts]

Marvel zombies was boring.

Making Vision a pseudo-villain because “logical” was…weird too.

[Vworp Vworp]

Not the best. Not the worst. After the last two episodes, when the Zomble's rocked up, I was surprised we were gonna be getting three bleak/downer episodes in a row. From my distant memories of the comic-book, it tended to have more of a balance between the changes being for the better or for the worse.

And speaking of balance, there wasn't a lot of that here. Tonally, it was all over the shop, playing for big gravitas one minute and flippant, dismissive comments about character's deaths a second later. That being said, the humour did make it a tat more entertaining than last week's boring grimfest.

If I was gonna rank the series so far, I'd go with;

1) Peggy Cap
2) ST'chalLord
3) Zombies
4) Falled Avengers
5) Doctor (sent me to) Sleep

Something did occur to me on the back of this episode. In the space of just three weeks, spoilers:

Hope

end of spoilers has now died twice. And with only two properly good episodes under the show's belt so far (and both right at the start), that's beginning to feel like an analogy for the whole series.

[Derek Metaltron]

Vision killing himself in this episode makes me wonder why he didn't do the same thing in Infinity War than force Wanda to do it. If that was an option she could have just taken the Mind Stone and escaped... but clearly they wanted a Hershel in this episode to mirror the Walking Dead.

[Midvillian1322]

Vision killing himself in this episode makes me wonder why he didn't do the same thing in Infinity War than force Wanda to do it. If that was an option she could have just taken the Mind Stone and escaped... but clearly they wanted a Hershel in this episode to mirror the Walking Dead.

There was no escape(Thanos has the Sapce stone) they had to destroy it. Only Wanda could do that. I guess Vision coulda pulled it out himself and then she destroyed it. But they were in a hurry they didn't have much time Thanos was right there with all the stones but the mind stone.

[Blue22]

Whelp....they took the What If I was the most interested in and made it the absolute worst one so far. This show was already not as great as I was hoping it'd be but hooooooooooly shit this one was bad.

[Frontier]

Who knew the Pym family could cause so much grief in the Multiverse? Like Hope dying sets off events that lead to the death of most of the original Avengers and here the quest to save Janet ends up dooming the world to a zombie apocalypse. Is this some kind of karma for Scott helping save the universe in Endgame or something?

This was rather...jokey for a zombie episode considering the content involved. I mean, I'm not saying there couldn't have been humor or I didn't laugh at the jokes, and that's probably why they were able to get this approved to begin with, but it kind of detracted from the severity of what was going on when we had characters still quipping or making jokes, especially when Scott as a head turned up. Like even he realized the jokes were in bad taste and yet he kept making them.

Ironically a zombie apocalypse was able to bring the Avengers together again after Civil War, and gets Black Panther to join them, but it doesn't do any good. But hey, Josh Keaton got, like, two lines as Captain America.

Is it just me or did Bruce Banner look more like Mark Ruffalo in this episode than he did in his last appearance? Maybe it's because this was actually based on actual Mark Ruffallo Bruce Banner content:.

Hudson Thames did an uncanny job imitating Tom Holland's Peter Parker in this one. I actually feel like this was probably a standout rendition of MCU Spider-Man, even compared to the movies. I mean, sure he only wears his mask for the first scene but the episode makes him such a central figure, shows how inspiring and powerful Spider-Man's optimism is, and actually lets him interact with more of the wider MCU than he really has in any of the other movies. They even mentioned Uncle Ben!

About the only thing that felt off was that, facially, he looked a lot older than Tom Holland's actual face, but I wonder if that was because they couldn't use Hollands' likeness without Sony's permission. I read they couldn't use the Homecoming suit design either so the suit in the show is actually based on the Disney Park version of Spidey. Also those web-shooters were huge.

The Cloak of Levitation knows when it likes someone.

I wonder if the only reason Okoye was in this episode, or at least part of it, was because her actress is from The Walking Dead?

I'm sorry to say it, but was anyone really surprised Happy was the first one that got taken out? "Pew Pew" kind of made his zombification more comedic than it should have been though.

It was nice to see a version of Sharon that's still a hero, even if Steve Rogers still kind of ruins her life.

What is it with David Dastmalchan and being on a suicide squad? Poor dude still didn't make it. At least Kurt got to see Scott again...

I don't think Sebastian Stan's acting performance was as stilted as the first episode (in fact his dry delivery when Okoye cleaved Falcon was perfect), but it felt like Bucky should have been way more emotive when fighting Zombie!Steve than he was :shrug:.

Hope finally goes Giant-Woman (which I guess confirms she can do that in the main universe), but...did no one think she was going to end up being a giant zombie after they left her there? Did they just think they were safe because the zombies weren't moving on the camp? Hope should have at least transformed back or taken herself out before it got to that point.

Vision feeding live humans to Wanda after she zombified because he couldn't think of anything else to do to her was...something. And then he can't bring himself to end her so the only thing he can think of to atone is to kill himself. How many times can Vision die at this point?

It was kind of interesting see how sentient the zombies are when they can utilize their hosts skills and powers so effectively, and Zombie!Wanda still seemed to regard Vision.

I liked Scott being in grief over losing Hank. I wasn't sure if they would tell him about Hope but then he sees zombie Hope when they're flying out of there. He lost everything.

People disappointed at the lack of Hulk in Infinity War and Endgame will be happy to see Bruce finally Hulk Out near the end, although will also probably be a little disappointed that they cut away before they really got into Hulk vs. Scarlet Witch. And did I hear a little of Fred Tatasciore in Hulk's grunts? It sounded like him.

And just when you think our heroes have a chance to save the world and forget Thanos was still supposed to invade...we cut to zombie!Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet. These Earths are getting more and more depressing.

[Tofali]

I find Spider-Man grating both in live action and animation.

Vision killing himself in this episode makes me wonder why he didn't do the same thing in Infinity War than force Wanda to do it. If that was an option she could have just taken the Mind Stone and escaped... but clearly they wanted a Hershel in this episode to mirror the Walking Dead.

He didn't destroy the mind stone in the What If episode he gave it away while in Infinity War it needed to be destroyed. Nobody FORCED Wanda.

Something did occur to me on the back of this episode. In the space of just three weeks, spoilers:

Hope

end of spoilers has now died twice. And with only two properly good episodes under the show's belt so far (and both right at the start), that's beginning to feel like an analogy for the whole series.

Something else I realized about What If Is Wanda and Strange are going to be or have the capacity to be reckless and destroy the universe.

[Vic Vega]

I kinda feel bad for Hope fans.

This is twice she's died in three weeks.

On the other hand nobody other than Vision and possibly Hulk made it out alive after this one. At least she got a lot of big hero moments including her sacrifice.

Regarding the comedy, I'm pretty sure after the first mini series that may have played them straight, every appearance of the Marvel Zombies anywhere after that as near as I can remember was comedic in tone as they had dialogue about "more brainsss" and jokes about barbecue if anybody got blown up.

This is the only time I've been able to tolerate them.

This show is beginning to near it's 70's comic inspiration for tragic endings. Classic What If's were 90% bad endings with just a couple of notable exceptions.

What If Rick Jones became the Hulk? Everyone got a happy ending there. And what if the Avengers existed in the 1950's ( the pilot concept/ original premise for Agents of Atlas which used the same members), that also had a happy ending or at least they didnt get a "everyone dies" or "the world ends" or both ending.

I am watching this show without expecting it to build to anything, I think they just want to do what the 70's book did and just show us wild stuff without having to make it mean anything.

But if we DO end up getting a Multiversal Avengers at the end of Season 1, feel free to point and laugh.

[j9ac9k]

I'm not going to nitpick this one - it was fun enough even though I don't like zombie movies, and there were a few surprises, including the interesting mix of survivors.

One thing though - The Wasp's ants tore apart those first three zombies pretty easily, despite their powers. Why wouldn't she keep them around all the time? I feel they would have been useful throughout the ep.

[anyajenkins]

Good question, I also think Vision could have ‘atoned’ better if he just went with them (since he could keep the zombie back with the minestrone.) and making the marvel cartoons darker than the movies was definitely a choice… they have large fan base of actual kids, did they need three episodes of all the hero’s die horribly three weeks in a row?

[LordMikel]

Question about the end. As I wasn't 100% sure. Was Thanos inside the dome or outside? I'm thinking inside, but wanted other thoughts.

[Conn Seanery]

He had the city behind him in that last shot, so it seemed like he was inside to me.

[CosmiComic]

Good question, I also think Vision could have ‘atoned’ better if he just went with them (since he could keep the zombie back with the minestrone.) and making the marvel cartoons darker than the movies was definitely a choice… they have large fan base of actual kids, did they need three episodes of all the hero’s die horribly three weeks in a row?

Funny you point that out, considering just a few weeks ago, many were wondering why there's no blood.

[Frontier]

Good question, I also think Vision could have ‘atoned’ better if he just went with them (since he could keep the zombie back with the minestrone.) and making the marvel cartoons darker than the movies was definitely a choice… they have large fan base of actual kids, did they need three episodes of all the hero’s die horribly three weeks in a row?

But at least they quip about it!

[inisideguy]

I am liking these. But My Wife has checked out. For her the last three have been to depressing.