What If

Marvel’s series, What If has released its second season and we got more world exploration. As we see the multiverse build in the main MCU continuity, What If fills a void. The show allows the audience to see some of what goes on in other universes and timelines. Now as with any self isolated series some episodes are better than others. But it remains one of the MCU’s best shows.

The important thing to remember when watching this show is that there is nothing that is wrong. This entire series is just “what if things were different” and then showing us what would happen if it were. That also means that there are endless ideas. I also love the idea of this series because it reinforces the presence of comic books in the MCU. What If was in fact a comic book series first. One that contains some of my favorite one shot stories.

I love that the animation looks like a comic book. It really ties it to its origins and honestly it just looks better then other animation styles would. Comic book media should look and feel like a comic book. It's always more visually pleasing that way. That said, that’s about the best thing I can say about the show as a whole.

There were 9 episodes in season 1 and I think the best way to assess the quality is by asking if the amount of good episodes outweighed the amount of bad episodes (or less compelling episodes) and to that I think that the answer is yes. Season 1 did a slightly better job of indulging in the whole What If concept. There were more stories that did more than just swap out characters in stories that we already knew. Based on the quality of episodes and the ratio of bad to good season 1 is definitely better than season 2 but the show as a whole is not great. It could be really good in the future; the MCU just needs to hire people with better ideas. And those people need to know who Marvel has access to and then come up with stories that haven't been told yet.

Season 2 had 9 episodes and we will be judging the overall season in the same way. Are there more good episodes than bad episodes? And the answer to that is no. Season 2 didn’t do much that was interesting, creative, new, or inventive at all. They had one really great creative story and when they brought her character back at the end of the season it was so bad. Kahhori was a really great native character that all of a sudden spoke english and was fighting Doctor Strange. In yet another repetitive story of Strange going mad. It's just not interesting.

What If SHOULD be a chance for the MCU to explore things that they can’t necessarily do in the live action parts of the MCU. They could do literally anything yet we seem to be focused, for the most part, on the same few characters. Where are the X-Men? Where are the Fantastic Four? Young Avengers? West Coast Avengers? Even better, where are all the characters that Marvel comics owns but we haven’t seen appear in comics for a while, why don’t we bring those characters back? There is so much opportunity in this show that is just being wasted and that really goes to show not just a lack of creativity in the Marvel production team but a lack of knowledge in their own product. They don’t know their own characters and it is a problem.