What If…? (Season 2) Review: There were two similar comic book imprints within the lineup of the two biggest comic book publishers, “Elseworlds” and “What If,” from DC and Marvel Comics, respectively. While Elsweorlds’ entire conceit would be starting a new universe from scratch, with existing characters in the DC Universe landscape remixed with new attributes, “What If” took one plot thread from an existing storyline and just changed it slightly and let the imagination of the writer run wild.
The “What If…” comics were mostly single-issue tales, with the omnipresent Watcher overseeing the timeline of the universe and in charge of exploring that particular thread. Because a single issue mostly comprises 25 to 30 pages, a lot of the panels in the first two pages would be devoted to the Watcher recapping events from that separate strand, which leads to an expansion into a different universe, before finally zeroing in on the part of the story the comic book is interested in depicting and developing.
From that concept alone, “What If…? (Season 2)” first episode is both markedly different and yet significantly similar. On the one hand, the event being depicted as a different inciting incident is Ronan managing to defeat Thanos, but not specifically referring to “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014). It is shaped with enough vagueness that the universe already feels different. Thus, the first episode, titled “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?” has unique wrinkles already.
Nebula, after being left for dead, is rescued by Nova Prime, the leader of the Nova Corps, and recruited into the Corps. Meanwhile, Ronan, now presumably in possession of the power-ring-imbued staff (we aren’t shown that), is on his way to attack Xandar, the home of the Nova Corps. The resultant attack leaves the corps overwhelmed, and they are forced to cover up Xandar with a planetary shield to keep Ronan’s forces at bay. However, that leaves the planet in perpetual darkness and isolation for over five years, which is where the episode begins.
The long-widened backstory being narrated by the Watcher and then taken over midway by Nebula is where the similarity with the comics is very striking. But what makes this episode surprisingly decent and fun to watch is the animation. The entire premise was designed to make Xandar look like Marvel’s version of the world of “Blade Runner,” and Nebula, with her own narrative intonation, doubles up perfectly as the investigator in a film noir, or more specifically, like Deckard in “Blade Runner.” The inspirations are pretty noticeable, but this is a remix that works very well due to the voice of the characters remaining exact with their live-action counterparts and the animation, which looks to have been given a significant upgrade from past seasons.
It remains to be seen whether the animation maintains this level of quality throughout this season. Another thing that would be of interest is whether the story maintains a similar form of consistency. It is not the best-written story by any stretch, but it has enough of the Marvel humor and the noir elements that it becomes a worthwhile watch. There is a strange buddy-cop dynamic between Nebula and Yonn-Rog, a character even diehard MCU fans would have trouble recalling for a minute, though the voice of Jude Law would be a dead giveaway. There is also a shady dive bar with a fascinating choice of proprietors. And unlike noirs, it doesn’t end bleakly because it’s a Disney production. Some expectations do need to be managed.
The MCU has now become a dense enough universe that it needs its own “What If” imprint, but the start of this season at least shows the potential to have some interesting plot twists. Here’s hoping that the entire show remains a conglomerate of individual episodes rather than suddenly connecting to a form of crossover like the last two episodes of the previous season. It had been a pretty unique wrinkle and featured the best appearance of Ultron throughout the MCU, but that completely defeats the purpose of such an imprint. Also, after the failure of Marvel to maintain a cohesive universe, it might behoove them to produce some standalone stories with callbacks to the earlier critically acclaimed movies as an olive branch to get their audience and mojo back.
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