Ticketverse Trades #11: What If...? Series Overview

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Ticketmaster

Another streaming series from Marvel and Disney+ is behind us, and now that there's some breathing room until the next Marvel thing, I thought I'd go back and rate What If...? as a whole. I mean, everyone else is doing it--if they haven't done it already--and I'm not going to lemming myself off a bridge in the process, so I'm doing a series overview, too.

Go get caught up on the series at the link above so I don't spoil anything for you, because it's time to break out some old mechanics from my Critical Quickies and Bring Back the Soundtrack days!

Episode 1: "What If Captain Carter Was the First Avenger?" -- This was a nice, safe way to get people into watching the show. Maybe a little safe in concept with a line or two of awkward delivery, and the animators were clearly finding their footing in some ways, but I didn't hate it. And any way we can get more Peggy Carter is a good way.

B+

Episode 2: "What If T'Challa Became A Star Lord?" -- While more adventurous in concept and better animated, this episode was plagued by idiotic, sometimes racially insensitive writing, too much focus on making T'Challa a Mary T'Sue (which ruined it as a Chadwick Boseman tribute episode for me), and even more awkward line deliveries.

C

Episode 3: "What If the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?" -- What begins as a solid murder mystery take on "Fury's Big Week," and gives us an interesting side of pre-Avengers Loki to consider (his inner conflict between family ties and his trickster nature), goes off the rails in the third act thanks to a left-field reveal of a villain with shaky, incongruous motivations.

D+

Episode 4: "What If Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands?" -- Though she is mostly used here as a fridge-girl, it was interesting seeing what a developed relationship between Christine Palmer and Doctor Strange would look like. There are a few detractors to this episode (most of whom forgot Christine Palmer was even a character in the movie), but Cumberbatch's performance in this episode is captivating, it's a good character study of what Strange would be like as a villain, and the animation is next-level.

A

Episode 5: "What If Zombies?" -- Hank Pym and Quantum Ruin Everything 2: Undead Boogaloo. This could have been good, but most of the dark subject matter was overly softened by distracting, cringeworthy jokes, and a lot of potentially cool moments were either edited down or cut away from before they could reach their full potential. What a quantum waste of brains....

F

Episode 6: "What If Killmonger Saved Tony Stark?" -- Simple premise with canon foundations that has extremely realistic, dark implications for its world. The action scenes were some of the series' best up to that point, and I gained a new appreciation for a villain that I previously did not fully understand. I said this was my second favorite episode before, but now I think it's #1.

A+

Episode 7: "What If Thor Was an Only Child?" -- On the other end of the spectrum, the so-called "Party Thor" episode took a character with positive plot progression (Thor) and maxed out his least likable qualities. Great jokes, references, and action (and let us not forget Frost Giant Loki!), but the cliffhanger ending was out of place and what plot there was felt thin and pedestrian.

C-

Episode 8: "What If Ultron Won?" -- Thanks to a great concept and Ross Marquand's performance, we get an Ultron portrayal done right in the MCU. Yeah, the Thanos death was a little dumb, and Uatu's reaction to Ultron created a continuity error with the Party Thor ending. But between Marquand's performance, the exchanges between Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Zola, and the spectacle of the final action sequence, this was pretty solid.

A-

Episode 9: "What If the Watcher Broke His Oath?" -- It's easy to just grade this as the best episode, considering it's an Assembly of everything that made the series great. The best villains from the series are here, the best heroes are here, and the best action is here. But so is Party Thor. And all manner of logical inconsistencies and plot holes. And behind-the-scenes laziness that led to the inclusion of an underutilized, undeveloped (thanks to a COVID-delayed episode with a TBD air date in Season Two) character who could have been more under different circumstances.

B

Overall Score: B-

Chucky premieres tonight, so Stay Tuned for my thoughts on that sometime this week. Also, because Lawrence Fishburne was in Ant Man & the Wasp and the fam are re-watching The Sopranos, I'm breaking out my collection of old Ticket Stubs to post a review of the Assault On Precinct 13 remake.

Ticketmaster,

Out!