One of the great things about superheroes is how many different adventures you can take them on. As poorly defined and overly relied upon as multiverse theory is in modern superhero films and television, I must admit that exploring alternate versions of our favorite iconic heroes and villains allows for some of the most fun and imaginative stories with little to no consequence on the main cinematic continuity. It’s why many comic book fans, like myself, find the one-shots and mini-series so much more accessible than the long-running mainline titles.
Arguably, the only good example of the multiverse within the major superhero fare of Marvel or DC in shows or movies is the Disney+ show What If…?. Now, in its third and final season, the animated series has its hits and misses, but remains focused on the fun and craziness of the superhero genre.
What If…? has always felt like the big-budget version of a kid grabbing random action figures and slamming them together while dreaming of increasingly wild and outlandish scenarios. However, after two seasons exploring some of the biggest concepts like the famous “Marvel Zombies” storyline or a universe-ending Ultron, where could the show possibly go?
Even bigger.
The season quite literally starts with a gigantic opening featuring the Avengers tackling the threat of massive Hulk monsters in colossal mech suits, like something out of Power Rangers or a kaiju-based anime. It’s stupid fun but in the best of ways.
At its best, the third season is just as innovative and wondrous as the series has always been. Some of the best episodes feature characters in alternate time periods. The episode “What If… Agatha Went to Hollywood?” features Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) as Hollywood and Bollywood actors, respectively, in the golden age of entertainment, blending sorcery with movie magic and jumping from intricate dance numbers to cataclysmic conflicts as they attempt to prevent the celestial Tiamut from being born out of the Earth.
In another, Shang Chi (Simu Liu) travels around the Wild West in the year 1872 with Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye (Hailee Steinfeld), searching for the sinister figure known as The Hood who is responsible for the disappearance of his sister and several railroad workers amid a backdrop of anti-Chinese xenophobia.
My favorite episode, “What If…Howard the Duck Got Hitched?” explores the consequences of the intergalactic party Thor threw in the first season in the episode “What If…Thor Were an Only Child?” and follows the expectant parents Howard (Seth Green) and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) as they evade a who’s who of Marvel villains from The Grandmaster to Malekith to Thanos who want to claim their child for nefarious purposes, ranging from an exquisite breakfast omelette to intergalactic domination. It’s pure chaotic fun that blends real history with Marvel history and just the right dose of realism that satisfyingly explores the episodes’ title concepts.
At its worst, season 3 is boring and forgettable. “What If…The Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier” pairs the two title characters as Russian operatives on a buddy comedy road trip after a bungled mission. It’s nondescript and doesn’t feel like it portrays the characters in a new light or opens up a radically unique version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially when we have a much more nuanced and exciting road trip story in the “1872” episode.
I felt the worst episode of the season was “What If…Emergence Destroyed the Earth?,” which pits Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) against Mysterio (Alejandro Saab)and the Iron Legion in the wake of the Tiamut’s emergence destroying the Earth. The weaker of the two Eternals-adjacent episodes, the cataclysmic concept feels wasted in a boring and forgetful story that paints Riri as grating, whiny and unlikable.
This episode features a rag-tag team of the MCU’s secondary heroes and could have been a real moment for them to shine, but instead, it’s a literal snoozefest that took multiple attempts for me to watch because I kept falling asleep. I had to rewatch it again while writing this review so I could remember what it was about. In a final season with only eight episodes and plenty of other more compelling alternate universes across its two other seasons, this story just feels like disappointingly unfulfilled potential. In another episode, The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) mentions a variant of Ultron programmed to sing show tunes. Why couldn’t we have gotten that story instead?
Season 3 also wraps up its overarching story of The Watcher’s increasing involvement with the universes in spite of his oath not to interfere. This part of the series again falls back on Captain Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and a crew of heroines battling cosmic forces to aid The Watcher and save the multiverse.
Though it’s become a bit of a crutch to once again rely on Captain Carter, who is at this point invincible because the plot demands her to be, her crew is refreshingly mixed up this time around with returning characters like Kahhori (Devery Jacobs) and brand new ones including a Storm-Thor variant (Alison Sealy-Smith) and original character Byrdie the Duck (Natasha Lyonne), all grown up after her parents Howard and Darcy fight to save her earlier in the season.
While I wouldn’t quite call the ending “satisfying,” it is at least a definitive end to this chapter of the What If…? series that also leaves room to revisit the characters and multiverse in the future. The story ends on its own terms, which is more than most shows in the streaming age get.
While I have never really been a fan of the uncanny-valley-ish blend of cartoony and semi-photorealistic animation style of the series, I thoroughly enjoyed the design of the backgrounds/environments and the action scenes. The cities and planets feel vibrant in the happier episodes and weathered in the bleaker stories, but either way, they are believable and convincingly lived in. Much like the previous seasons, the fight scenes are thrilling and clean. The lack of a real camera removes the presence of shaky, unfocused shots or reliance on quick, jumpy editing to convey the thrill of the fight, allowing us to focus more on the characters and their powers.
Also similar to previous seasons, the voice cast is a mix of the original actors and new replacements doing their best to capture the same sound and energy as their live-action counterparts. As expected, the original cast is just as good in the voiceover booth as they are on set.
The replacement actors don’t quite hit the mark; the “Emergence Destroyed the Earth” episode is once again the key example of a drop in quality. In this episode, I almost forgot who some of these characters were, and if not for the iconic costumes of Wong and Okoye, I probably would not have recognized them until the credits let me know who these characters were. It’s not a huge gripe, and one that can just be chalked up to “different variants might sound different.”
Though I am sad that What If…? is ending, it’s probably for the better. Given that the series has explored everything from zombies and kaiju, cowboys and Hollywood starlets, evil sorcerers and cosmic androids, there doesn’t seem like there’s much room for the series to grow. Even now, the mech vs. kaiju idea seems like a reach for a universe full of superpowered heroes, Marvel is gearing up to jump the metaphorical shark. Though there are still plenty of creative hypotheticals to explore, the show can at least end on its own terms without tiring out its premise or audience.
Season 3 of Marvel’s What If…? shows that the studio can tell good multiverse stories, even though the rest of its cinematic fare would suggest otherwise. While this season’s scenarios are hit or miss in their execution, most are zany, compelling and enjoyable experiments with the iconic characters. At the end of its third season, What If…? avoids the mistake that befalls so many other great shows and avoids overextending its premise and overstaying its welcome. Where many superhero projects try to ground themselves too much in reality or take themselves too seriously, What If…? reminds us of the joy, wonder and limitless potential of our favorite heroes.
Rating: 7/10