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

[Arsenal]

I think it makes sense that there would be a lot of overlap for Captain Carter considering Peggy was always there. We’ll see how much things deviate when they throw somebody completely different into the story (T’challa as Star Lord, Sorcerer Supreme Parker, etc). As long as those are significantly different I don’t mind it being a one off for Peggy (especially if Peggy ends up being a recurring character whose story deviates the further away she moves from the events of TFA).

[Castle]

I just finished watching it right now. the first episode. it was okay meets average. Marvel still has a lot of work to do to best DC in animation. Now let me get down to some details and try not to spoil much.

The MCU signature quipping and fast paced dialogue looks far less kid-friendly themed than the actual movies and I feel that is better, because its a cartoon, so it is more tolerable here than seeing actual real life people do it in movies.

The Peggy Character who becomes the super soldier, many people will like her. she has charm, is likeable and looks to have a fun honest personality doing the job. I swear, how mcu failed to not get this about carol in the captain marvel film still boggles me.

Peggy in this series, is actually a good female character battling sexism, without needing it to be woke and the love/friendship story with Steve is on point. When she becomes the super solider, Steve did not just become a worthless character. this series is a good lesson in showing you don't need to be woke to have good female leads.

The one big issue so far I seem to notice is that the story is still kind basic, it does not have much complex narrative and the action is a lot. which is again is the MCU formula in place even in their cartoons. basic story plot and lots of action.

Additionally one thing the series should have done is actually put blood in the cartoon, I feel this is one the weakest parts so far, all the fights and action and there was hardly any trace of blood. (again, I put this on Disney wanting things to stay too kid friendly), what I like about the dc cartoons is that they have blood in it.

And about the animation style, I am surprised Disney went for this kind. it reminds me of that Astonishing x-men motion comic Marvel did like 17 years back mixed with the Batman: The Telltale Series. I feel Disney should have just gone more for a high quality classic traditional 2D animation instead. In what if, the characters mouths seems to be talking slower than the actual voice acting and that is because with this type of animation, the animation movement are generally a lot slow.

Overall though, I did not expect anything much or to be blown away and I got just that. but it is good marvel has animation again that they want fans to care about a little more than the crap on disney XD.

[Castle]

Spoilers about Howard Stark

spoilers:

Interesting, about pushing the envelope. in the scene , where Steve is shot, the next option was that Howard Stark should have gone into the machine and become the super solider, but Howard said, he only pushed buttons and no way he was going in. Wonder if there should have been a what if about howard becoming a super solider? no doubt that will have set an entire discussion about Howard as a hero compared to to Steve and Tony. However I am surprised Howard allowed Peggy to become the super solider, In the movies , He comes of as the typical traditional 50s male, that don't allow women to do anything but take care of the kids. this series, portrays him quite different, Howard had Peggy's back through out , calling people who doubted her morons and even gave her the Captain America SHIELD

end of spoilers


Unless of course, I don't remember much about Howard Stark in the movies, but this series portrays him well for a 1940-1950s male.

[Immortal Weapon]

Howard portrayal in this episode is very similar to his characterization in the Agent Carter TV series. He was one of the few male characters in it that believed in Peggy.

[Derek Metaltron]

So apparently the remaining episodes plots order have leaked online, so if true the remaining episodes are:

spoilers:

Episode 2: T’Challa as Star-Lord Episode 3: Fury’s Big Week Murder Mystery Episode 4: Dark Doctor Strange Episode 5: Party Thor Episode 6: King Killmonger vs Stark Industries Episode 7: Marvel Zombies Episode 8: Iron Man on Sakaar vs Empress Gamora Episode 9: Ultron-Vision vs Guardians of the Multiverse

end of spoilers

[inisideguy]

Dude just gave an example of how a 22 min cartoon episode accomplished what he was looking for. So it can be done without needing to be an 18 episode show centered on the same characters.

Its just one cartoon show. They covered a lot of that ground on Agent Carter.

[Malachi]

It was just too much Meh. The changes we got wheren't big enough. Peggy was fine but it was like they stopped on step 2 of a 5 step plan. It was animation but still the thinking seemed restricted. A good What IF story can be done in several ways. Focusing on changes that might seem immense or just plain not workable and deliver a strong heartfelt character driven story from that(for instance the what if story where Peter keeps his six arms). Or just go big with the concept. Change characters. Change countries. Change planets.

Here we mostly got Peggy punching random nazis and Steve being suprisingly adept at picking up a whole new concept. Nothing generating any big scenes with big twists. The end threat is very faceless. I think I would have preferred if the change would have drivne any of the characters down a very different path. Now we just got the same flavors but repacked. Perhaps Steve being the new Red Skull or something like that would have worked better.

[useridgoeshere]

I never did like the old school way of What If. The original story being the best result always rubbed me the wrong way.

Some of them definitely felt like validation for the existing narrative (see, it was for the best that Jean died) but What If? was the first places where I saw that kind of story without any kind of positive closure. Now, of course, it's not as novel or daring.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I thought it was fun but a bit safe. But it's only 22 minutes and Peggy's already in the film so it's ok.

I'm hoping they give us a CapWolf episode but that's unlikely.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...ematicUniverse

There's alot of cool what could have been for the MCU. It would be cool if they use some of them.

[Castle]

I thought it was fun but a bit safe. But it's only 22 minutes and Peggy's already in the film so it's ok.
.

fun and safe is what marvel is all about, I expected a cartoon to reconfirm this style twice as more.

There's alot of cool what could have been for the MCU. It would be cool if they use some of them.

Yes I kind of am agreeing with this, so hence me about a what if Howard Stark had (see my spoilers)

[AdamFTF]

Upon further reflection, I'm a little more disappointed with this episode -- it seems to play it too safe, with Howard Stark creating a proto Iron Man suit (there wasn't anything to stop him in the main timeline of he could do it all this time, after all).

Sure there was something stopping him. He didn't have a power source. In the What If? story, Captain Carter manages to secure the Tesseract earlier and then Stark uses the Tesseract to power the Hydra Stomper. They refer to the Tesseract as a "battery" a couple times in the show and then after they get it, the brass hands it over to Stark saying "I trust you know what to do with this" and then he immediately goes and builds the Hydra Stomper. It kind of makes sense considering arc reactors weren't a thing yet and they didn't know that the Tesseract secretly contained an Infinity Stone.

[Castle]

It was just too much Meh. The changes we got wheren't big enough. Peggy was fine but it was like they stopped on step 2 of a 5 step plan. It was animation but still the thinking seemed restricted. A good What IF story can be done in several ways. Focusing on changes that might seem immense or just plain not workable and deliver a strong heartfelt character driven story from that(for instance the what if story where Peter keeps his six arms). Or just go big with the concept. Change characters. Change countries. Change planets.
r.

There's alot of cool what could have been for the MCU. It would be cool if they use some of them.

The original comics of What If that used to run in the 80s and 90s that I read offered more of a less safe and even darker story arc than what I have seen so far from the show, because back then the whole purpose of what if was to highlight a theme that many times, happy ever stories was not a guaranteed promise and sometimes when things can turn out differently , it is still not necessary for the long term best.

I remember many what if comics, that I had as a kid, from What if the age of apocalypse universe had not ended or what if sinister found the greatest secrets of the marvel universe and what if Gambit was sentenced to death

Maybe I am just using only xmen what if stories because those were the ones I mostly read but those stories were far less safe than this cartoon and they took risk, I uniquely remember The comic What if#100 (Sinister found the greatest secrets of the marvel universe) as still one of the most bonkers craziest Marvel stories you will very read. This cartoon did not give me that surprise feel.

Again this is another reminder how much Marvel is now so watered down under Disney, even some MCU very loyal fans are saying this was too safe on the other forums and this episode could have taken more risk in the story telling. Hopefully things will improve.

[basbash99]

*shrugs* I kind of wonder if some of the posters here have actually read any "what if" comics. They often had pacing issues due to being single-issue stories that had a lot of ground to cover, and were quite selective in choosing to explore certain implications of continuity changes without bothering to explore others. In a 30 minute show, the writers have to pick and choose what they want to cover. based on this show, i'm not sure the broader public was even aware that Cap Carter existed, let alone serving to inspire debate on women's rights/status in society.

Also, many "what if" issues were not particularly dark but often showed how "character x still becomes a hero, even with change y to his powers or background". For example, What If 36 "what if the FF had not gained super powers" - guess what, the quartet still comes together and manages to defeat mole man, just as more traditional pulp adventurers rather than as superheroes. True, people do tend to remember the ones that went down darker paths more, but plenty of the stories were in line with what we saw in the 1st ep of the animated series.

[inisideguy]

One thing I have noticed and I think this was talked about before is basically in these shows now if you get the super soldier serum you have Spiderman like strength. That bothered me at first but I kind of got over it.

[Derek Metaltron]

I think it would be awesome if Marvel considers revisiting the best What If episodes in the future as full on prose novels where they can show off the concepts in longer and more measured ways. Haley Atwell reading a Captain Carter novel would be fantastic.