What if...?

[Greg]

I'll just leave this here.

[Drunk Monk]

I'll just leave this here.

This looks better than what I was expecting. It's the MCU's poach of DC's Elseworlds.

[Greg]

The first animated series from Marvel. Or something. The premise is what if something was different from the Marvel timeline you and love? (Which you do!) In the first episode, Peggy Carter gets the super serum instead of Steve Rodgers. She becomes the super soldier and basically has all the same adventures as Steve did in Captain America: The First Avenger. It's quite fun to see Peggy do all the hero stuff. 

This all ties into the multiverse scenario that has been the focus of MCU at the moment. It was heavily depicted in Loki. It is name checked in the upcoming Dr. Strange movie. Might as well do a cartoon series to drive the point home.

[Drunk Monk]

Ep 1 didn't do that much for me, even with the sword & tentacles. The animation style was nice but it reminded me of what A Scanner Darkly did back in 2006 and I was hoping for something more cutting edge. Mind you, I never watched Agent Carter and barely remember the First Avenger. MCU is such candy that it's like eating jelly beans - I tend to forget what the last flavor bean was about. 

For a fleeting moment, I thought ep 1 could really shake things up by going major hentai because it was so tentacular, but then I remembered this was Disney we're talking about (do NOT search Disney hentai if you know what's good for you, amirite cf?) 

I'll keep watching because I need my weekly dose of animation. It's like dm's lsd methadone (so not true but I thought I'd say it anyway because it sounded funny).

[Greg]

S1Ep2 The episodes are still weird showing familiar characters in unfamiliar situations. There is the bittersweet reality that this Chadwick Boseman's last role. But it is good that exists. They also pull in a powerhouse cast for this retelling of the Guardians of the Galaxy story. There were a lot of fun cameos.

Sounds like genocide to me.

[Greg]

S1Ep3 What if...The World Lost it's mightiest heroes?

Not a great episode. Still nice to see all the big name actors reprising their roles for the animated version. But not all the big names appear. I sort of guessed the big reveal.

[Greg]

S1Ep4 The Dr. Strange episode. Not only does this episode show Dr. Strange have a crisis about a lost love and what he does about it, this episode also starts laying out the rules for what you can do with the timeline, for instance you can't change an absolute point or the universe will crumble. This idea gives me room for thought as I reconsider the trailer for the new Spiderman movie. It's all about Timelines in the MCU.

Plus, tentacles.

[Greg]

S1Ep5 The Zombie episode.What if Earth's mightiest heroes were Zombies. Well, bad things. Really bad things. I'm start to sense a certain sameness to the episodes. They go through the same motions in the episodes. It is still fun to hear the same voice cast doing their characters but I don't feel as engaged by the gimmick as I did in the first episodes. But they are going through the whole roster of the MCU universe. And I did like what they did with Ant Man. I don't know if it was an homage to Futurama or not.

[Drunk Monk]

E2 was great. I loved the animation style and Chadwick. What a class act he brought to T'challa. 

I confess I got a little lost in who was who - I can't keep track of all the MCU characters. All superheroes look alike. But then there was Howard. Best cameo ever. He needs his own movie. 

The genocide jokes were funny <- something I never imagined saying.

[Greg]

S1Ep6 What if....Killmonger saved Tony Stark. It's a blending of the Iron Man story with Black Panther. Again, interesting as an exercise but not involving as a story. Plus, the ending seems off.

[Greg]

Just found out there were two "What if...?" threads. That has been corrected.

[Drunk Monk]

Feckin multiverse will do that...

[Greg]

What if.....Thor was an only child?

Funniest episode yet. Basically, party boy Thor starts a massive rager on earth that might lead to it's destruction. Captain Marvel is called in to stop him. The best part of the show is watching the party scenes on earth and seeing who has shown up. It's a huge cast. Drax and Korg make an appearance. Shield shows up. Howard the Duck is there. I say yes.

[Drunk Monk]

Skipped to E4 because, well... tentacles.

I liked the animation style but this show isn't growing on me. I think it’s because it’s all fiction so pondering ‘what if?’ just doesn’t work for me. Also, while I enjoy the MCU, I don’t pay enough close attention to be engaged by pondering roads not taken. Like Greg said, hearing the voice cast is cool, but here Cumberbatch didn’t sound like himself like Wong or Swinton did.

I’ll probably watch the Thor one because Greg says it’s funny.

[Greg]

Oh, now I see. It was all one long thing. Ep8 and Ep9 brought it all together. Now you have to watch every episode to get a full story. Damn that MCU and their cleverness.

Look, I'm not saying it's a great series, but it became a lot better than what I thought it was with the final episode. Before it was just kind of a thought experiment and it was fun to see which voice actors came back to reprise their roles. But Ep8, "What if Ultron won" changed all that. Ultron becomes powerful, too powerful. Ep 9 deals with The Watcher and brings characters from all the other episodes together.

I liked it. It was a good tie up.