We’re at the midpoint of the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe series on Disney+, What If…?, and so far, I’ve been loving this show. As a fan of alternate reality stories and the What If…? comic series itself, I’ve been having a blast seeing some of the MCU moments be turned on their heads. While the last two episodes focused on changing the origin stories of some key characters, namely Peggy Carter becoming a Captain America surrogate and T’Challa taking the role of Star-Lord, the latest episode, titled “What If…The World Lost Its Mightiest Avengers?” takes a different track. In this universe, the Avengers never get the chance to exist.
When I first saw the title, I assumed that it would focus on Thor. After all, his first movie was titled Thor: The Mighty Avenger (at least in terms of the tie-in toy line it was). So, I was slightly taken aback when it opened on the scene from Iron Man 2 when Nick Fury and Black Widow approach Tony in the donut shop. I was even more taken aback when Tony Stark dropped dead after getting the injection from Widow to help alleviate his blood poisoning.
The episode then goes on to New Mexico when Agent Coulson (thankfully reprised by the fantastic Clark Gregg) finds Thor’s hammer. Just like in the movie, Thor infiltrates the complex surrounding the hammer to get it back. Also just like in the movie, Hawkeye is watching the whole thing unfold with an arrow ready to loose. However, when Fury tells him to stand down, he lets the arrow fly and kills Thor.
Hawkeye is immediately taken into custody by SHIELD, but when Fury approaches him to find out what happened, he finds Barton dead in his secure cell.
Black Widow, on the run for suspicion of Stark’s death, seeks out Betty Ross to examine the contents of the syringe she injected into Stark. Betty tells her that the compound looks clean, but it seems like something else was ejected through the needle. Before Widow can get more answers, General Ross shows up with a platoon of soldiers looking for Bruce Banner, just like in The Incredible Hulk.
As Widow tries to usher Banner (who is voiced by Mark Ruffalo despite the film starring Edward Norton) off the campus, Loki arrives on Earth, along with an army and the Destroyer. He demands justice for the death of Thor and gives Fury twelve hours to hand his killer over to the Asgardians.
Back in Virginia, Banner is shot and turns into the Hulk, fighting against Ross and his troops. Unlike in The Incredible Hulk, however, the Hulk suddenly deforms, his muscles growing oddly before he explodes in a rain of green goo.
This leaves Black Widow to investigate, and she discovers that someone who’d been dead for two years had recently accessed the SHIELD files on the Avengers Initiative. Just as she calls Fury to tell him, she’s attacked, and curiously by an invisible foe. The call goes to voicemail, and Widow manages to tell him, “It’s all about hope,” before she’s taken away and, we later discover, killed.
At this point, Fury has everything he needs to realize who the killer is and decides to set a trap for them. I honestly won’t even give it away because I feel that it’s too good to have spoiled in some article on the internet (though I’m positive not many others feel the way I do and will gladly say who the killer is). But I can honestly say that I was blindsided by the revelation right up until Widow’s warning to Fury.
This episode could have been titled “What If The Avengers were written by Agatha Christie” because in between all of the high-octane action sequences is a tight murder mystery that leaves the viewer guessing all along. I have been really enjoying all of What If…? so far but this one is my outright favorite by a mile. As a fan of both superheroes and hard-boiled mysteries, the writers managed to get my two favorite things into a single 33-minute episode.
One of my favorite elements of the episode, though, is seeing The Watcher looming in the background of the establishing shots. One aspect of The Watcher is that, when a moment or an event has great universal importance, The Watcher will be there keeping a close eye on things as they unfold. And it felt strange to me that he didn’t show up in the background of things in the previous two episodes. This leads me to believe that what happened in this episode will have rippling effects through the MCU. After all, now that the multiverse exists, it’s likely that the death of these Avengers and the subjugation of Earth at the hands of Loki will impact the multiverse as a whole, and some future movie or show will have to deal with those ramifications.
Another great part of the episode is how many of the Avengers returned to voice their characters. I already mentioned Clark Gregg as Coulson, but Samuel L. Jackson returned as Nick Fury, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Even Frank Grillo and Jaimie Alexander returned to their respective roles as Brock Rumlow and Lady Sif even though they both had small roles in the episode. The only characters who weren’t played by their original actors were Black Widow (voiced by Lake Bell here) and Tony Stark (voiced by Mick Wingert).
Despite the What If…? comic delving into some pretty outrageous universe, this latest episode of the series was one that I never expected. The Avengers are the main crutch of the MCU; getting the superhero team together was the driving force behind creating a shared universe of films. So to see them tear it all down before it even got started was definitely a bold move. On top of that, they managed to integrate characters from a much later phase and make it work almost seamlessly. The only bit that disappoints me now is that, since we know plot points of the next few episodes, I won’t be able to relive the surprise I felt from watching this episode, having no expectations of what was to come.
