Last time on What If…? we saw what
would have happened if Yandu had trusted two idiots with the important job of
kidnapping Peter Quill. The result, they kidnapped T’Challa of Wakanda instead.
Turns out, this might have been a very good thing, as this Star-Lord actively
tried to make the universe a better place, having saved Drax’s family from
death, convinced Thanos to not genocide the universe, and been famous enough to
make Korath geek out at meeting him. He is recruited by Nebula, who isn’t as
screwed up in the main timeline, to get the Embers of Genesis from the
Collector’s collection. His Ravagers face off against the Collector and the
Black Order, everyone getting captured when it’s revealed that Nebula double
crossed them. In the capture, T’Challa also learned Wakanda still exists, even
though Yandu told him it was destroyed. Yandu tells him it was for hi own good,
to keep him traveling the universe, but T’Challa isn’t buying it. They all
escape from the Collector, Nebula actually triple crossing the Collector and
working with T’Challa the whole time. They get the Embers, destroy a part of
Knowhere and T’Challa even goes home to see his family again. This universe
would be sitting pretty… if the final scene wasn’t Ego tracking down and
meeting Peter himself. Crap. But enough recap, let’s get to it.
Episode 3: What If Earth Lost Its
Mightiest Heroes
Well, crap.
After the Watcher’s usual speech
about the prism of time, we start with Nick Fury and Natasha Romanov riding up
to the Big Donut during the events of Iron Man 2 when Tony was in a hate
spiral. They disagree on whether Tony will be worth if for the Avenger’s
Initiative, but Nick is in charge so he get’s his way. Nick and Tony have the
chat in the Donut shot, Natasha giving him the shot that is supposed to give
him enough time to design the new element to save him from Palladium poisoning.
But, instead, he has an allergic reaction and dies. Damn, way too soon to kill
Tony.
The Watcher gives us the short
summary of the events of Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor, which all
happened in the same week. I didn’t realize it was that tight of a timeline. He
talks about how this led to the Avengers in one universe, but not in this one.
This has to be like the 50th time this has happened
to Nat.
Nick is dealing with the death of
Tony Stark while Thor’s hammer crash landed. He tells Coulson to set up a
perimeter and wait for him. Natasha is being brought in for questioning. Nick
pulls her aside to interview her. He tasks her with escaping custody and
finding out what happened. Considering this is Natasha Romanoff, she’s getting
free in no time. Which she does, picking her cuffs in under a minute and
beating the hell out of all the guards in back and escaping.
In New Mexico, Fury and Hawkeye are
looking at Thor’s hammer as Odinson is breaking into the facility to get it.
Fury is hoping that the persosn coming to get this mega-ultra-hammer is an
ally. They detect Thor taking them all out. Hawkeye prepares to shoot but is
told to hold. Thor goes for the hammer, but in a lightning flash, Hawkeye’s
arrow launches and hits him in the chest. Oh my god, They’ve killed Thor. You
Bastards! Sorry, been watching a lot of South Park lately. Hawkeye is arrested
and put into holding.
Hawkeye is trying to figure out
what could have possibly happened, as he doesn’t miss or misfire. Coulson notes
to Fury how weird it is that Stark and the man with 1000-year-old alien DNA
died within 24 hours of each other. Fury goes in to talk to him, only to find
Hawkeye is also dead. Fury thinks it was murder, as Clint Barton does have a
wife and kids, so he wouldn’t go out like this willingly. He was under
observation and in a super advanced cell, but as Fury points out, he’s got a
dead Thor behind him, so weirder things have happened.
On Wednesday, Natasha meets up with
Betty Ross. Betty tries to blow her off, but when Nat mentions that Tony Stark
was murdered, she’s willing to listen. She’s an expert on the “tactical
applications of biology,” whatever that means, but it’s mostly because Betty
has skill in staying off SHIELD’s radar. They examine the needle, no poison was
in it, the antidote didn’t leave it either, the tip of the needle looks broken
off like a bullet was fired through it. Natasha prepares to leave but gets the
call from Fury that Hawkeye was killed. She then asks, “Who do I kill.” They’ve
realized that the killer is targeting SHIELD Avenger’s candidates. The list has
currently been whittled down to just Natasha and Bruce Banner. Guess they
haven’t found the Cap-cicle yet. She notes Betty glancing at a closet and
realizes that Banner is inside. Sidenote, super weird to see current Mark
Ruffalo Banner in Edward Norton Banner’s story. Natasha hears the copters
coming in to grab Banner, so they run.
Hail to the king, I guess.
Back in the Desert, Coulson is
returning from a coffee run. As he tries to reenter the facility, the Bifrost
bridge opens and the armies of Asgard led by Loki have arrived. Guess he’s
pissed someone else axed his bro. Loki introduces himself, over Fury’s cell
going off. Meanwhile, the Army is about to make a grab for Banner. Fury finally
answers, telling her to handle it and go to ground. Loki says that he’s there
to avenge his brother. At the same time, someone shoots Bruce, not one of
Ross’s men, and it forces him to transform. Hulk begins to rampage, and Loki
uses the Casket off Ancient Winters to start freezing the planet. Damn. Betty
tries to run to her dad to make him stop, but Nat pulls her back, telling her
that the general didn’t start it. The Hulk starts expanding until he finally
explodes in goo. Betty sobs for him. Fury tries to Loki to stop, reasoning
declaring war on Earth won’t bring Thor back. Sif stops Loki and tells him that
Odin would listen. Fury reveals that the same person killed two of his people,
so it’s a common enemy thing. Fury promises to bring Loki his pound of flesh when
he finds the killer, but Loki demands the whole corpse. Loki give Fury until
sunrise in New Mexico to find him.
That night, Natasha convinces
Coulson to give her his password to access the Avengers Initiative. While she
works in the dark, something seems to be sneaking up on her. She goes through
files and notes that a woman that died two years ago accessed the database
yesterday. She calls up Fury when she realizes she’s under attack. Something
whips her around the room, throwing her around with relative ease, but totally
invisible to the naked eye. She get’s Fury’s voice mail and tells him “It’s all
about Hope.”
In New Mexico, Fury replays the
message, not getting Natasha’s words. Coulson points out that the last person
tied to the Avenger’s Initiative is him, but he says there’s one more. He goes
to call in Captain Marvel, but then seems to get what Natasha meant. He throws
Carol’s pager back into the glove box and drives off to make a deal with a god
or deal with a devil. He drives up to Loki’s new ice fortress. He goes inside
to see Loki past the Destroyer Armor.
The next day, Fury goes to San
Francisco and visit’s Hope van Dyne’s grave. Hank Pym, in his Yellowjacket
suit, comes to attack him. Fury tries to either stop Hank with reason, pointing
out Hope died while on a mission as a SHIELD agent, or to piss him off. It
seems to do the latter. We then see the reveal that Hank used himself as a
bullet on each of the recruits, killing Tony in the injection, flying in to
knock Clint’s arrow loose, and then giving him an aneurism, getting into
Bruce’s body to rig his heart to explode, and beating Natasha to death. He
kills Thor as a preemptive measure. Fury and Pym fight, Nick showing off
incredible speed and agility to outmaneuver and flip right over Pym’s head.
Fury punches a minimized Pym into a headstone. When Pym regrows, he accuses
Fury of never caring about Hope, to which Fury says he never cared about any of
them, and then let out a weirdly uncharacteristic cackle. He keeps egging Pym
on, showing off supernatural powers as he does. Yeah, this is Loki in disguise.
Pym tries to fly away but is caught in an ice pillar and crashes. He takes
Pym’s particles and has the Asgardian’s take Pym away. Loki admits he’s thought
about extending his stay on Midgard. The next day, Loki has taken over the
world. Dude works fast when Thor doesn’t slow him down.
Hope not lost, but SEVERELY reduced.
Fury and Coulson have a meeting
with the Avenger’s caskets. Coulson says the Avenger’s fell before they could
rise, and may they rest in peace. Fury claims the Avengers were more than a
team, they were an ideal, a belief that in humanities darkest hour, we would
find our heroes. He walks out, to do that. Later, we’re shown him finding
Captain America’s resting place and being joined by Captain Marvel. She asks
where the fight is and the credits roll.
So, while the exact What If…? for
this universe wasn’t stated in episode, I think we can guess that it’s What If
Hope van Dyne died. Combining the plots of Iron Man 2, Hulk and Thor with a
murder mystery plot was an interesting choice. It was a bigger idea than just
tweaking Captain America: The First Avenger, but not as big as T’Challa as
Star-Lord. It’s in interesting middle ground. All the Avenger’s deaths were
clever too. Tony’s cure being turned into poison, making Hawkeye kill Thor and
then taking him out too, and attacking Bruce’s heart directly were inspired
deaths. Sure, beating Natasha to death was very simple compared to the others,
but they can’t all be amazing. Fury going to Loki and knowing it’s a deal with
the devil situation was both clever and a bit heartbreaking. Obviously, Loki’s
magic can overcome just about anything, and the Trickster God just has a ball
overwhelming Hank Pym. I give props to the voice cast, from returning actors
like Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Michael Douglas, and Mark Ruffalo to
the Mick Wingert (Tony Stark), Lake Bell (Natasha), and Mike McGill as Ross.
I’m glad that it looks like Sebastian Stan’s Voice Acting was an aberration. The
only weird thing was seeing Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner in place of Edward
Norton’s version of the character. I know Ruffalo has done it longer, has done
it better that Norton did, but it’s still odd. Ya know? So yeah, I enjoyed this
episode. Have a Happy New Year, everyone!
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