Marvel’s What If…? Season 3 Review
The multiverse is both a blessing and a curse to storytellers everywhere. In the right hands, it can be used to give old stories an interesting twist. When it’s used lazily, though, it can give both to unthought-out, derivative, cookie-cutter stories. Marvel’s What If…? tends to fall somewhere in the middle, spending the last three season exploring different variants of the MCU. Sadly, this voyage through the multiverse has come to an end with the show’s third and final season. And Marvel’s plan for said final season can be summed up with one question: What If…? Marvel decided to have fun with this?
I’m RJ Writing Ink, and today, we’re reviewing each episode of the final season of Marvel’s What If…? and seeing how it holds up. In addition, we’ll be talking about how deconstructs one of the most memorable, yet enigmatic, races of aliens in Marvel, the Watchers.
“What If… the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?”
In this universe, Bruce Banner’s attempts to rid himself of the Hulk backfired by creating a Kaiju called the Apex. Said Kaiju created an army of monsters that went on to kill most of the Avengers before the survivors fought back using giant mechas. Ten years later, a resurgent Apex forces the Avengers to turn to Banner for help, and the rest has to be seen for yourself.
In a nutshell, this episode is what happens when you combine Voltron, Pacific Rim, and Marvel together. It has its serious moments, as Banner’ mistake has left him estranged from everyone, and his story ends on a bittersweet. For the most part, though, this episode was fun, plain and simple.
“What If… Agatha Went to Hollywood?”
In this universe, Agatha Harkness learned about the Celestial gestating in the Earth’s core decades in advance. Ever eager to gain more power, she plans a ritual to drain Tiamat’s power and disguises it as a blockbuster film directed by Howard Stark. However, when she can’t pull it off on her own, she enlists the reluctant Eternal Kingo’s help since they both dont want Earth being destroyed.
Well, Kingo doesn’t. Agatha, being Agatha, just wants the power.
Its no secret that Eternals was one of the MCU’s least successful films. Some might even forget that it exists at all. But this episode (and another one) managed to redeem it through the outlandish plot. Agatha Harkness is one of the best female characters in the MCU, and putting her in the Golden Age of Hollywood works so well. It appeals to her natural vanity, and Kingo manages to appeal to her more sensitive side. In addition, seeing Howard Stark just eat everything up without a care is pretty funny.
“What If… the Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?”
In the main timeline, Howard and Maria Stark were assassinated by the Winter Soldier on HYDRA’s orders. However, in this timeline, the prescence of Soviet superhero Red Guardian leads to Bucky failing his mission and the two on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Bill Foster. Without an extraction, the two journey to Vegas to find a spy called the Rook in the hopes they can get him home. But first, they gotta make sure they dont kill each other.
This episode boils down to an odd couple, buddies road trip story, and Red Guardian and Winter Soldier are as odd as they get. Red is the optimist who wholeheartedly believes in the Soviet way of life, and Bucky is the cynic who sees the world for how bad it really is. They shouldn’t work as partners, but they do, and bring out the best in each other. To top it all off, their story seemingly ends in a tribute to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid…except it doesn’t. No Bolivian Army ending here, but at least one of them gets a happy ending.
“What If… Howard the Duck Got Hitched?”
In season one, we saw an alternate version of Thor turn Earth into the site for an intergalactic party, marking their introduction to the galaxy. More importantly, that party led to Jane’s friend Darcy Lewis getting married to Howard the Duck. With their first kid due to hatch any day, the family goes on an intergalactic vacation. Things quickly go awry, though, when everyone attempts to steal the egg, thinking their child has some cosmic powers they can use.
This might be my favorite episode of the entire season, if not the entire show. The reason? It’s pedal to the metal levels of hilarirty. We have Darcy and Howard the Duck, two relatively minor characters, out of their depth trying to protect their kid from the most powerful people in the MCU. The Grandmaster, Kaecillcus, the Dark Elves, Nick Fury, even Thanos gets in on the fight for the egg! It’s pure insanity! But then again, that’s what being a parent is like.
“What If… the Emergence Destroyed the Earth?”
While the other episodes were pretty fun and mostly light-hearted, this was as dark as anything in the MCU could get. In this timeline, Tiamut emerged before the Eternals could stop him, destroying most of the Earth and leaving the rest a shattered husk. Worse, Mysterio, of all people, used Stark Industries tech to conquer what remained. A dying world, ruled by a dying ruler, opposed by a dying resistance with no chance of success. And the Watcher would know; every version of this timeline that he’s seen ends with the last heroes dying at Mysterio’s hands. It’s a story so bleak and hopeless that he can barely stomach watching it.
So, the Watcher decides to change the story.
This episode marks the second time that the Watcher breaks his oath of non-interference, giving Riri Williams the push she needs to triumph over Mysterio. It also marks a turning point as the series enters its endgame as it begins to point out the flaws in the way the Watcher’s people see things. But that will wait until the next episode.
“What If… 1872?”
In this episode, the Watcher observes a universe where the heroes and villains of the Multiverse start emerging in the American Wild West. When a villain called the Hood starts threatening Chinese immigrants, Shang-Chi’s sister tries to track them down , only to go missing herself. Thus, Shang-Chi teams up with Kate Bishop, who’s got her own score with the Hood, and a young Chinese boy with an iron fist to bring the outlaw to justice.
There’s always this appeal behind the myth of the Old West, giving rise to stories of famous outlaws and gunslingers which have become immortalized in pop culture. This episode lives and breathes on the Spaghetti Western, and while it may seem like a stretch to have Shang-Chi in it, it really isn’t. Don’t forget, plenty of people emigrated from Asia to the US to get jobs as laborers!
What makes this episode important, though, is that here we see the Watcher openly interfere with what’s happening to save the life of Kwai Jun-Fan. As a result, he goes on to ensure the good guys win the final battle. That leads to him finally getting in trouble with his superiors, setting up the conflict of the series finale.
“What If… the Watcher Disappeared?”
At the end of the last episode, the Watcher was taken prisoner by his superiors in his order. Like in the comics, the other Watchers are not happy that our Watcher keeps interfering in the events of lower life forms. However, their reasoning differs in the MCU from the comics. In the comics, the first time they intervened, the race they helped wiped themselves out. Here, it’s because they see everyone not on their plane of existence as beneath them. They are arrogant, plain and simple.
The funny thing is that humanity has a way of making those who look down on them regret it. Case in point, a quartet of heroines traveling the multiverse takes notice of the Watcher’s absence. Consisting of Captain Carter, Kahhori, Byrdie (Darcy and Howard’s daughter) and a version of Storm raised on Asgard, they set out to rescue the Watcher before it’s too late.
This episode marks the beginning of the end for the series, and it manages to set it up so well. Bringing back characters that we have seen several times throughout the show as well further setting up the X-Men’s place in the MCU. The one problem I had is that we never get an episode devoted entirely to this variant of Storm. To be fair, that might not entirely be Marvel’s fault, as they might have made this episode while working on how to bring the X-Men and other Fox IPs over. It would have made a great episode, though.
“What If… What If?”
At last, we arrive at the end of the road as the Watcher and Captain Carter fight their toughest battle ever. This time, they’re not fighting for the fate of reality. They’re simply fighting for the right to exist. The right to show everyone that their actions aren’t a mistake.
I will be blunt: I don’t have that high an opinion of the Watchers in the comics. While they have a point about staying out of events they could make worse, there’s a difference between pacifism and cowardice. And choosing not to intervene even when doing so would prevent the destruction of all reality constitutes being a coward. And while the MCU Watchers vow of non-interference stems from arrogance, the point remains. They think themselves better than everyone else, yet time and again, the beings they think inferior have proven capable of doing surprising things.
In this case, Captain Carter and her friends managed to give the Watchers a run for their money.
The Watchers Need to Know When to Get Involved
What I really like about Marvel’s What If…? is that it deconstructs the entire concept of simply watching and observing events around oneself instead of becoming involved. While getting involved in anything carries the risk of things getting worse, not getting involved in the world around you amounts to not living at all. Uatu, our Watcher, has come to realize that by watching the heroes and villains of the multiverse live and fight. And, through the sacrifice of one hero, they manage to show Uatu’s superiors just how wrong they are.
In the end, Uatu returns to his role as the observer of the multiverse, but he’s not alone. The remaining heroes of Carter’s group take their place by his side. And while there are undoubtedly many more stories that the series could tell, Marvel knows it’s best not to push its luck. The public is already getting tired of multiverses as it is, and they need to keep it together for the next few years. Despite this, the final season of What If…? remains pretty satisfying, if a little bit goofier than the ones that came before it. Then again, if you know you’re going to go out, go out with a bang!
