Thursday, February 22, 2024

What If... Marvel Made the Second Season Even More Engaging!?


The new season of What If? was loads of fun. It embraced the wild and free sense of the best of the original comics, more than the dark, downer endings that many of the modern runs have taken. 

It's amazing how many performers came back to voice their characters, in starring roles and brief cameos alike. I think only Tony, Steve, and Natasha from the heroic leads and Odin, Nova Prime and Wen-Wu from others aren't performed by their original actors. Clearly, fun was had.  Jeffrey Wright continues to be perfectly outstanding as The Watcher.

I probably would have watched it much sooner if they gave the episodes different, and more accurate names. Here then, are a few of my suggestions. 
(Possibly acting as mini reviews, 
or possibly not. 
They were all a hoot, that's all that's really needed to be stated).

Aside-  It is 100% true that there should have been more seasons of Agent Carter and Hayley Atwell is positive of this. Her devotion to any possible universe's version of this character may even surpass Harrison Ford's bond with Indiana Jones.


"What If... Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?"
What if we made a space Private Eye noir story?
What if Karen Gillian wanted to play Nebula as a good aligned lead, but just as tough and hard as she was in the early Guardians films?
What if Marvel knew about Captain Marvelthat takes place before Guardians, when they made that movie?


"What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?"
What if all the older actors who played former MCU heroes wanted to play them in their prime?
What if the MCU started in the Eighties with all the same actors?
What if Kurt Russell wasn't finished having over the top fun playing Ego?


"What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?"
What if the MCU gang wanted to make a Die Hard parody?
What if the actors who played the goofiest non-leading Marvel characters wanted to have some fun together?
What if the joyous whimsy of a Doctor Who Christmas Special infected the MCU?


"What If... Iron Man Crashed Into the Grandmaster?"
What if Marvel did a hybrid of Mad Max and the Wacky Races?
What if Jeff Goldblum wanted to spend more time at his Jeff Golblummiest?
What if Iron Man didn't make it back out of the portal in Avengers?
(Aside- Why didn't they call it that? Seriously, this one was a no brainer.)


"What If... Captain Carter Fought the HYDRA Stomper?"
What if Hydra was stopped during WWII, and the Black Widow villains took over?
What if Hayley Atwell was determined to tell as many Peggy stories in any universe as possible? (This could be for half the episodes in both seasons. 
Having said that...)
What if What If chose a main character?


"What If... Kahhori Reshaped the World?"
What if Marvel wanted to tell an original story but couldn't stop tying everything to Infinity Stones?
What if writers focused so much on accurate history, mythology and culture of the Mohawk tribe, they ignored large chunks of other history and geography, and still got the point across?
What if Native Americans had top tier super powers and handed the colonialists' butts to them on a platter?  


"What If... Hela Found the Ten Rings?"
What if Cate Blanchette had so much fun as Hela she wanted to play her as a protagonist?
What if Hela followed Thor's first movie redemptive story arc?
What if any other part of the MCU acknowledged the existence of Shang Chi?


"What If... The Avengers Assembled in 1602?"
What if the MCU used the name of an awesome Neil Gaiman story and ignored the rest?
What if John Favreau and Mark Ruffalo wanted to try to out hammy each other with faux Shakespearian dialogue?
What if the Avengers were Robin Hood and his Merry Men?
("Rogers Hood?!?!" I blew half my dinner out my nose.)


"What If... Strange Supreme Intervened?"
What if the MCU was incapable of making an anthology without trying to tie it all together?
What if Benedict Cumberbatch had WAY too much fun playing a villain and wanted to do it again?
What if they wanted to show the insane crazy powerful levels of every MCU artifact item combined?


These were way more fun than the first season. Those were good, but I did not find myself bugging my family, 
"Hey WHAT IF? you decided you DID want to watch these episodes and I saw them again with you?"

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