My Review of "What If: Season One"

What If: Season One has just finished up in 2021. It started airing right after the Loki: Season One. This wasn't done by accident. Everything all somehow eventually makes sense in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) at the end. What If is no exception. It's very different but that's what's great about it.

This season starts off the question what if Peggy Carter had become Captain America instead of Steve Rogers. Well first of all Peggy is British so there are a few changes. Although a lot has changed it's not that different. The episode is almost the same story as in the original Captain America: The First Avenger movie. It's actually quite impressive.

They were able to pack in a two hour movie into a half hour television episode. All of the things that had happened in that movie instead happen to Captain Carter instead of Captain America. Even though they go at a frantic pace to cram all of it into thirty minutes it's still comprehensive.

The next few episodes will continue to do this with what if scenarios. They introduce us to new "variant" characters, like if T'challa became Star Lord or if Killmonger became the Black Panther. I mention variant because this series comes straight after the Loki series. The timing couldn't be better. It allowed us, as the audience, to understand the concept of multiverses and variant versions of the superheroes we have come to know and love from the MCU.

Still it's a little weird how they started it off because they all seemed to be self contained episodes unlike the other shows that aired like Loki or WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It didn't seem like we had to really invest ourselves into each episode in sequence to understand what was going on. Then the last few episodes aired and it all started to make sense.

All of the episodes in fact are quite important to recall to understand what's going on in the later episodes. Don't worry there aren't a ton of episodes. There's only 8 in total so it's actually an easy binge watch if you still haven't seen it yet.

The animation of each episode are at times breathtaking. You can see that they took their time and made some quality action sequences. I also loved the art direction of this cartoon series. It's a very clean and sharp look that is still faithful to the greater MCU.

To add to the enjoyment of this series most of the original actors lent their voices to the characters. It was especially lovely to hear Chadwick Boseman play T'challa one last time. I know there will be a lot of fans out there that will be touched to hear him again.

I do have one big gripe of the show. I just found it weird that the Watcher can see and go everywhere except for the time realm in which the Loki series was based in. Maybe only Kang could go to this place? I don't know. It puts a pretty big plot hole for me close to the end of the season. When you see it you'll know what I mean.

Overall, I was still able to enjoy this series even though there are a lot of weird holes in the characters and situations. I had to remember that it's based on a comic book so not everything has to make sense. It did still bother me. Other than that everything was pretty top notch. I have to give this season an 8 out of 10. I would definitely recommend this to my friends but afterwards I would have some conversations with them about some of the holes that I saw.