Marvel’s ‘What If’ goes completely bonkers and it’s great
Share this post:
NOTE: Spoilers ahead for the Marvel Cinematic Universe through the Sept. 30 episode of “What If…”
I thought zombies is what we were all waiting for. I was wrong.
The “What If… Zombies?” episode was great, no question. But it pales in comparison to this week’s banger, which poses the question, “What If… Ultron Won?”
For my money, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is the weakest of the Avengers films. And it’s not a bad film. So it was pretty awesome to see not just Ultron, but a Vision/Ultron combo rocking all the Infinity Stones, strutting out to presumably smack Party-Thor last week.
At the time, though, we weren’t sure if that was a story we’d see more of, or if it was just another “whoa, uh, that got pretty dark pretty quick” ending that we’ve gotten used to the past few weeks.
But for comic book fans disappointed that Ultron’s true diabolical potential wasn’t released in the film, he gets redeemed in a major way here. By succeeding in both creating and embodying Vision, Ultron is easily able to complete his mission of wiping out human life.
And we can debate what it means that Vision/Ultron was able to simply slice Thanos in half in order to gain the rest of the Infinity Stones, if we must. Or we could bicker over how Vision/Ultron was able to use one universe’s Infinity Stones in a different universe, when MCU canon tells us otherwise.
Or… we could just ponder The Watcher’s series-title question and not worry too much about it. I choose the latter. Let’s just hang out in The Watcher’s hall of super-psychedelic mirrors, spectating as universe after universe just falls apart.
Speaking of The Watcher, though, now he’s no longer a spectator. He can’t afford to be.
It was one thing for Diabolical Dr. Strange to hear him a couple episodes ago. The Watcher didn’t seem too concerned when that happened. But his abject fear when Vision/Ultron (Visitron? Probably not) becomes aware of his existence was great.
However, nothing was greater than seeing The Watcher get pushed to his limit and forced to intervene. When he dons his armor and mutters, “You can’t compute the power of my will,” I got legit goosebumps. Plus it was an appropriate pun-related burn on Ultron. Got ‘em.
I can’t imagine being the team of animators that was handed the duty of creating the Watcher-versus-Ultron right. It’s got to be a special effects dream to show superheroes punching each other through one universe after another.
I also find it very cool that the animators are incorporating a good deal of “Kirby dots,” made famous in the comics by Jack Kirby, as more and more events involve the multiverse. We’ve seen it before, in Sony’s “Into the Spiderverse,” and I really like that it’s coming back as the multi-verse creeps into “What If…”
We saw it when Diabolical Dr. Strange was fighting his twin earlier this season, and the Watcher-versus-Ultron fight is truly a cosmic-level battle with dots-a-flyin’, including a round where Ultron blows himself to Galactus-like proportions and attempts to chomp The Watcher and the entire galaxy he’s in.
And as powerful as he is, The Watcher can’t stop Ultron.
Well, not on his own. When he retreats, we see the only other recurring character aside from Ultron’s appearance last week. The Watcher takes refuge in Diabolical Dr. Strange’s protective cocoon, and the episode ends with The Watcher finally breaking his oath and asking for Strange’s help.
It’s team-up time. Multiverse Avengers, baby.
But who’s going to be on the squad? We’ve yet to see the trailer shot of a circle of “Avengers” that includes Star Lord T’Challa and Gamorra (who hasn’t been in any episodes yet) outfitted in Thanos’ armor. The Hulk is potentially still out there somewhere fighting Zombie Scarlet Witch. Captain Carter is with Nick Fury and Hawkeye, and….
Oh yeah, I haven’t even gotten to the other main storyline, which is Black Widow and a version of Hawkeye who has a mechanical, Winter-Soldier-style arm, trying to stop Ultron. Their plan is to infect Ultron’s programming code with the Arnim Zola software they find in a hidden Hydra base — at which point I’d like to shout out Hawkeye having a USB arrow, because of course he does. Also, props to Black Widow for blasting the legs off the Zola-infected Ultron bot. That’s just good planning.
Ultimately, Hawkeye ends up sacrificing himself in a reverse-“Endgame” scenario, taking out a horde of pursuing Ultron bots so that Black Widow can finally survive an episode of “What If…”
I hope The Watcher has something up his sleeve besides just rounding up people we’ve seen this season. Because that doesn’t seem like enough to take on this Ultron.
Will Kang show up in the final episode? I was under the impression that “What If…” wasn’t introducing any truly brand-new characters, only remixing ones we’ve already seen.
Then again, we did see a version of Kang, “He Who Remains,” at the end of the “Loki” show.
This show is bonkers, and I love it. I can’t wait to see how (or if) they resolve everything on next week’s finale.
“What If…” episodes air Wednesdays on Disney+.