Marvel's What If…? season 2 review: A fun, familiar return
The Watcher, Captain Carter, and the multiverse make a comfortable return in Disney+'s animated "anthology"
Season one of Disney+’s What If…? was a somewhat rare bit of general joy from Marvel Studios—not much more than good times and Easter eggs for MCU fans who like the idea of seeing familiar characters and storylines remixed into something fresh. So it’s fitting the show’s second season is airing around the holidays (premiering on December 22, new episodes drop through December 30). It features a Die Hard-inspired Christmas episode in which Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan turns into a Hulk, and yes, they do call him Hulk Hogan, because this series remains a nice little gift for the Marvel zombies out there…though the actual Marvel Zombies from season one only get a little cameo this time.
There is a little sticking point, though, and it’s one that was also present in What If…?’s debut run: This animated “anthology” of one-off Marvel stories, about what would’ve happened if things had worked out differently, is still not proper. Near the end of season one, a version of Ultron managed to collect the Infinity Stones and tried to take over the entire multiverse, forcing various alternate-universe heroes from previous installments to team up and defeat him as The Guardians Of The Multiverse (even though they were clearly modeled after The Avengers, with a Thor, a Black Widow, a Doctor Strange, and a Captain America, but we’ll get to her later).
The same sort of thing happens this year, but it’s a little more character-based and not as obvious as “a new villain shows up.” It’s still not necessarily a bad thing, but it does stick in your teeth. It’s a cool idea on paper, and consistent with the ongoing structure of the MCU (individual stories eventually meshing for a team-up story), but it’s hard not to wonder if it would be more fun without that constraint. On the other hand, some stories and characters you can’t let go of, as acknowledged by Jeffrey Wright’s The Watcher in episode one. The all-seeing observer of the multiverse narrates he “doesn’t like sequels,” but he simply has no choice but to make an exception for one woman: Season one GOAT and secret all-time great MCU character Captain Peggy Carter.
Hayley Atwell’s Captain Carter was introduced in in an episode that took on Captain America: The First Avenger, asking “What if…?” the super-soldier serum had been given to Peggy instead of Steve Rogers. The episode, naturally, ended with her being transported from World War II to the present day, and, also naturally, this season’s sequel outing offers a new take on Captain America: The Winter Soldier that is a lot of fun for people who believe that to be the MCU’s high point (also, Peggy and Black Widow kind of flirt a lot, so…).