What If Marvel's What If Series...

Marvel Fan's Outspoken Cultural Dynamic

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an objectively entertaining franchise that has kept a generation happily enraptured for the last decade, beginning in 2008 with their first Iron Man movie starring Robert Downey Jr. Dubbed The Infinity Saga, the story-telling success thrived long after Iron Man all the way to 2019's finale movie: Endgame.

The movies each have their specific identities that make them great and they can be criticized on their minute flaws just as equally. Every Marvel fan creates a unique opinion on each movie and the characters in them, coming to a general consensus about the greatness of some characters/movies and the meh-ness of others, with some fans just loving every aspect of the franchise without any critical analysis what-so-ever. This creates a fun, wholesome culture where memes can be shared, videos created, and games played by fans across the world interacting with one another and expressing their opinions about the franchise.

For many, the end of the of Infinity Saga marked the end of the Marvel movie appeal. I know it did for me, even though I will still go and watch movies like Sha'ang Chi and the Ten Rings and Eternals, despite not really caring to see them the way I used to during The Infinity Saga. However, in April of 2019, Disney announced a new series they intended to release on their Disney+ platform sometime after Endgame. The series has been steaming to watch now for awhile and by the time of my writing this, has just released their latest, and most interesting episode: S1: Ep:8 What If... Ultron Won.

*Spoiler Alert: I'll be discussing some series spoilers ahead so click off now if you've read this far and would like to enjoy the series and form your own personal opinion first before reading mine, although I greatly appreciate you reading. Feel free to bookmark this, watch the series, and come back to finish reading if you like. If spoilers aren't your concern, please continue.*

Mixed Feelings

I was very excited for the series. I liked the trailer, appreciated the animation they were using, and the storylines implied in the trailer promised to be very interesting, especially the one with Peggy Carter taking the super soldier serum as opposed to Steve Rodgers.

When I watched the Peggy Carter/Captain Carter episode though, being the first episode and all, I found myself unsatisfied with their take on how things would play out in that universe and it did not have to do with Peggy, Steve, or Bucky at all.

My quarrel was with Red Skull's portrayal. He seemed far less intelligent than he was in Captain America: The First Avenger and it saddened me, on top of not making any sense. How does a brilliant villain, after retrieving the stolen Tessaract, suddenly shift his plan and resources to summoning a giant tentacle beast in the hopes of it fighting on his side instead of using Dr. Zola's weapon plans like his original plot called for?

And even in the case where Dr. Zola's capture by Peggy Carter meant all of his weapon designs were captured too, I still fail to see why Red Skull would summon a beast with no guarantee of it being controllable. He could easily commission new scientists, build his own weapon designs (even if they were cruder than Zola's), or just keep searching for other powerful artifacts of legend that may or not be real in the Marvel universe. It just felt out of character and very weak on the script's part.

Marvel's Seemingly New Trend and Problem

Red Skull's denigrating portrayal is but one example from the What If series where characters are made to be less capable than their original debuts. The theme of cheapening or mocking mainstay Marvel characters has become much more common in other episodes of What If and even other Marvel TV shows and new movies.

Thor completely gets toasted in Episode 7. An episode that walks us through what the writers think Thor would be like if he was an only child, instead of being raised with Loki, and never learned to be a good hero. The episode goes on to make Thor out to be a complete joke of a character and a bratty teenager at that.

When his mother, Frigga, goes on a journey, Thor and his friends decide to host a party on Earth, inviting a bunch of other entities to attend as well. The party ends up really wrecking Earth's landmarks and Captain Marvel is called to deal with Thor, which she is able to accomplish by turning Thor over to his mother who deals with him as a teenager is usually dealt with.

The issues I find in this episode lie in Thor's evident childishness. Even in his original movie, Thor grew to be a highly competent warrior and leader without any affect from Loki. His weakness was his recklessness, not his childishness, which is what his father condemned and Loki manipulated.

The episode pictures Captain Marvel as being superior to Thor in hand to hand combat when Thor has outlived Captain Marvel by over a thousand years and probably defended the nine realms alongside his father, Odin, before the Odinsleep sent him into sedation. One can argue her cosmic powers outmatch his own, but I think Mjollnir (Thor's hammer), if wielded properly, would overpower her cosmic blasts.

As you can see by this scene from Thor's first movie, which is supposed to be when this episode picks up to explore the alternate timeline, he is quite the expert at wielding the hammer.

The Peculiar Focus on the Altruism of Wakanda and T'challa

Wakanda is a relatively new introduction for many of the MCU's viewers that were not up-to-date on the Marvel Comics themselves. I am one of those viewers. I thought Black Panther and the nation he came from was very interesting when I first watched Captain America: Civil War. Yet, when I watched Black Panther, the concept of Wakanda did not appeal to me that much. It felt overpowered without reason and the character's stories did not seem to grip me as much as I had expected. Even Killmonger fell flat as a villain for me, despite going into the movie thinking the villain would be the most interesting element of the film.

Ultimately, the issue is more that the nation is introduced to us very late in the Infinity Saga, which means we have had less of a time to emotionally care about Wakanda and the characters that reside there as much as we have about the Avengers themselves. To the non-comic-book-following viewer, it feels like Wakanda suddenly possesses better technological knowhow than even the likes of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner (even though the only reason for this is their unlimited access to Vibranium) and that the Wakandans are superior in almost every respect.

For example, in Infinity War, there's a brief exchange between Bruce and Shuri that practically makes fun of Bruce for not knowing what Wakandans know about technology, disrespecting an established character we care about for a cheap laugh.

Yeah, why didn't you just reprogram the synapsis to work connectively, Bruce? You stupid genius.

Where this phenomenon arises in the What If series starts in Episode 2. The episode explores a world where T'challa is abducted as a child by Ravagers, growing up to become the legendary Starlord. However, for some reason, everyone has heard of this Starlord, unlike the original one we know, and this version of Starlord even convinced Thanos to not be Thanos, basically. The only reason the script gives for this is: because he's T'challa. *shrug*

I had two problems with this portrayal. 1) How did T'challa grow up in the same environment as Peter Quill (original Starlord) and turn out to be so impactful on the universe to the point of practically solving thousands of issues in the galaxy? And 2) The episode really steals the threat behind Thanos since we now witness how effortless Thanos's defeation could have been. Why didn't Dr. Strange use whatever argument this T'challa version of Starlord made with Thanos to convince him in the MCU? Would that not have been a solution? Why didn't our universe's T'challa think of this reasonable argument to pose to Thanos and convince him differently?

I don't think the script writers want us to think too hard into this, but it's difficult not to when it messes with established characters you already enjoy and fails to explain how things played out differently from the original versions aside from just being character-swapped.

The Maddening Portrayal of the Mad Titan

Thanos has been the Infinity Saga's biggest, baddest threat for the past decade all the way up to his ultimate defeat in Endgame. He shocked the entire fanbase by winning with his Snap in Infinity War, successfully eviscerating fifty percent of life in the universe.

However, the What If series has consistently demeaned Thanos's potency. First with his debut in the series in Episode 2 as a fluffy version of Thanos, having been convinced otherwise of his genocidal plan by T'challa's Starlord. His second appearance in Episode 8 does him even worse.

Ultron succeeds with his plans on earth, successfully defeating all but two of the Avengers and merging his consciousness with the omnipotent body of Vision that he created. So when Thanos arrives for the Mindstone in Ultron's forehead, Ultron simply splits him with a Mindstone beam.

This causes added frustration and confusion once the viewer overcomes the initial shock of the simplicity of Thanos's defeat. How did Dr. Strange in Infinity War not foresee this outcome and advise the Vision back on earth to use his beam instead of trying to just destroy the Mind Stone? Why did he say there was only one universe where Thanos was defeated?

It makes the entire struggle to destroy Vision's Mind Stone all the more idiotic when you watch Infinity War, knowing Thanos could easily be taken care of with a single laser from Vision.

Is The Series Any Good At All?

Short answer: Yes, it's entertaining and very well-made.

Is it well-written? After our brief analysis, I do not think we can say that it is. The animation is stunning, the voice-acting is on-point (especially with it being Chadwick Boseman's last time playing Black Panther), and the Watcher is proving to be a very interesting character.

I am excited to see how the finale plays out and do like the series overall. These are just the simple flaws I noted in the series and increasingly common trend in newer Marvel productions.

Marvel, please treat our beloved heroes and characters with the respect they deserve. They have earned it. Let new characters earn their place in the Marvel Universe as well, before they start superseding the originals with cheap quips.

Thanks for reading! If you found it entertaining, leave a like and/or tip.

I am in no way affiliated with Marvel or Disney and am simply commentating my thoughts on their latest What If series. I hope you enjoyed the read.

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For another story by me, follow this link to my NI6HTMARE article, a fiction story about a woman whose dreams strangely begin to reflect her reality.