What If – What If… Didn’t Suck?

Astonishing concept I know, but it finally happened. It took three episodes to get one that was, I can’t believe I’m saying this, good.

The contrivance for this episode was, what if the Avengers were killed before they became the Avengers. And they actually ran with it. They recreated famous scenes from various movies and at end of the scene the Avenger in question was pushing up roses.

***SPOILERS*** FROM HERE ON OUT.

When Black Widow gives Tony the injection to help with his palladium problem in Ironman 2, instead of getting better he starts having grand mal seizures and dies. Since it was Black Widow that did the injecting she is now under suspicion of murder. When Thor is trying to retrieve his hammer in the first Thor movie and Hawkeye is aimed in on him, his string slips and kills Thor. Hawkeye shortly dies in a holding cell.

All of the names on Nick Fury’s Avengers initiative are dying, but shockingly he has bigger problems than that. You see, being jealous of his brother was one thing but someone murdering Thor was another thing entirely. Loki shows up with the army of Asgard behind him and he wants an answer to the question, “who did it?”

The Hulk explodes in Fist of the Northstar fashion. And finally Black Widow herself is assassinated but not before uncovering the identity of the real killer.

The identity of the murderer is resolved to Loki’s satisfaction. However, he decides that as long as he is already here with the army of Asgard, he may as well conquer the planet. Which he does in a couple of days.

It ends with Nick Fury beginning to put together a new team of Avengers featuring Captains Marvel and America.

In retrospect, it wasn’t the best animated TV show I’ve ever seen. Or even the best superhero animated show. DC used to routinely top What If… in terms of quality without trying back in the 1990s. But I will say it’s the best Marvel Phase IV TV episode so far. And that is kind of sad.

The bar is now set so low that walking over it without tripping is now an achievement.

Oh, and Coulson is gay now.

What did you expect?