It is Wednesday, and that means an all-new episode of What If…? dropped on Disney+. After last week’s zombie-filled madness of an episode, I was looking forward to what the writers had in store for me and wondering if they could top Scott Lang’s head in a jar. Though this week’s offering, “What if…Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?” was much less fantastical than zombified Avengers, it was no less fun.
And warning, the following is full of spoilers for the episode, so if you haven’t watched it yet, I suggest you do so first.
“What If…Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?” takes us back all the way to the beginning of the MCU, right at the beginning of Iron Man. Tony’s convoy gets attacked, but instead of taking shrapnel in the chest and being kidnapped by the Ten Rings, Killmonger shows up and rescues him. This means that Stark was never trapped in a cave, never had to build a mini-arc reactor to keep himself alive, and never created the Mark I, which would never lead to later Iron Man suits.
They get back home, and Killmonger reveals that Obadiah Stane was behind the attack, which earns him Tony’s trust and he becomes the new COO of Stark Industries.
Tony and Killmonger grow closer, and Killmonger tells him about his idea of an unmanned combat drone. Excited at the prospect, and probably bored since the Iron Man project didn’t exist for him, Stark helps Killmonger design the drone. When trying to figure out a power source, Tony plays with the idea of building a mini-arc reactor, but quickly brushes it off. Killmonger suggests Vibranium, and he tells Tony how they can get a supply of it.
Tony sends James Rhodes on a mission to procure the Vibranium from Ulysses Klaue, a mercenary and poacher whom we’ve met in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther. But the meeting is interrupted by the Black Panther, who wants Wakanda’s Vibranium back. However, Killmonger shows up and subdues T’Challa with Stark’s own tech before killing him. He then uses the Black Panther’s claws to kill Rhodey, making it look like an act of aggression by Wakanda.
Stark confronts Killmonger over the deaths and attacks him with the prototype drone. Killmonger subdues the drone and kills Tony with one of the Dora Milaje’s spears. This convinces the military of further Wakandan aggression, and General Ross commandeers Stark Industries and begins full production of the combat drones to use against Wakanda.
Killmonger plans is to infiltrate Wakanda, so Klaue takes him to the edge of the Wakanda border. Killmonger kills Klaue and carries his body inside the protective shield, revealing himself to the Dora Milaje guarding the border that he is a prince. They take him to T’Chaka and Killmonger convinces him that he has Wakanda’s best interests at heart. T’Chaka accepts him, but Shuri is weary of her cousin.
Killmonger convinces T’Chaka to let the drones into Wakanda, and that the electromagnetic energy from the bubble will cut them off from the hive mind link controlling the robots. T’Chaka trusts him, and the plan works. But Killmonger uses a remote to reactivate the drones, forcing the Dora Milaje into battle.
Ramonda leads the Dora into battle, and Killmonger joins the fray too, further earning T’Chaka’s trust. At the end of the battle, T’Chaka gives Killmonger a serum that will give him the powers of the Black Panther, and during Killmonger’s vision quest, he sees T’Challa, who warns Killmonger that the power he stole will get the best of him, either in the real world or the spirit one.
The episode ends with Ross declaring full-on war with Wakanda and Pepper Potts warning him that it’s not a good idea. He brushes her off, naturally. She retreats to Tony’s office, where she finds Shuri waiting for her. Shuri shows her proof that Killmonger killed both Tony and T’Challa and says that they should work together to take him down. This is the cliffhanger the episode ends on, just as the five previous episodes all found themselves dangling a carrot in front of the viewer.
What I loved most about the episode is how it managed to work in events from the first three phases of the MCU. Between Iron Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Black Panther, “What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?” was able to weave a story throughout the existence of the Avengers without having to rely on the Avengers.
The episode also proved just how formidable Killmonger was as an antagonist and how convinced he was of his ideals. His goal in What If…? was the same as it was in Black Panther: to show Wakanda’s hypocrisy with their refusal to involve themselves in world events and the oppression of Black people worldwide. While in Black Panther, Killmonger confronts T’Challa and Wakanda head-on, here he plays a much longer game, using his influence within the military to make a name for himself.
The irony is that, just before getting killed by Killmonger, Rhodey tells him that “you gotta be part of the system to change the system,” which is exactly what Killmonger does. Granted, he does this through less-than-ideal means, by double-crossing everyone who accepts him. He could have had a lucrative career in the military, but his quest for vengeance gets the better of him.
But again, just like in Black Panther, it’s hard to blame him. Though he’s respected as a soldier, his Blackness makes him an outsider in a lot of other ways. The only bad thing is that the episode doesn’t really get into his past, just quickly glossing over the death of his father due to gang violence. All of Killmonger’s motivations are expressed by him, both to Rhodey and to T’Challa in the spirit world, which of course becomes his justification for murder.
When I first saw the title of the latest What If…? episode, I was unsure of how the writers would handle it. And I have to say, they really did it justice. Killmonger is one of the MCU’s most compelling villains, in that it’s hard to argue with his motivations. He has strong convictions and fights for people other than himself, similar to Magneto in the X-Men films, they both fight for marginalized people. But unlike mutants, Black people are real, making Killmonger’s motivations resonate more with the audience. I’m glad we got to see more of him in the MCU as a whole, as his existence in the films was entirely too short-lived.