The first episode of Marvel's What If has released on Disney Plus and there is much
to break down, including the arrival of Captain Carter, Uatu The Watcher, the ending and much
more.
In particular, I'm going to be giving you my breakdown of Episode 1 entitled, "What
If...
Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?", in the aim to help you guys understand the events
and discover things you missed.
This video will also contain spoilers from What If Episode 1, so if you do happen to
be someone who hasn't watched the episode, then I would recommend watching this video
after you've seen it.
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But without further ado, let's dive into Marvel's What If episode 1 and all of the multiversal
events.
So Marvel’s latest Disney+ series celebrates the stories they could have told but chose
not to or didn’t have the brain to foresee at the time.
This episode essentially retold the events of Captain America: The First Avenger but
the conclusion still leaves viewers with some questions.
In What If…?
Episode 1, the animated adventure travels back to the franchise‘s early days, when
skinny Steve Rogers refused 4-F rejection and forced his way under Dr Erskine’s needle.
Except this time around, rather than observing from the gallery, Peggy Carter remained in
the room with all the mad science.
And she sprung into action when the Hydra assassin detonated an explosive.
The small choice to stay there ignites a chain reaction, leading to Dr Erskine and Colonel
Phillips’ demise and Steve Rogers getting shot.
Unable to jump inside Erskine’s Super Soldier machine, Rogers dribbles fluids on
the floor as he watches Peggy take his place.
Captain America is no more and Captain Carter has come to the rescue.
However, observing What If…?
Episode 1 alongside us is Uatu, The Watcher voiced by Jeffrey Wright.
He explains these cracked mirror versions of our favourite characters using the same
language we learned during our time with Loki.
Basically, in every choice, infinite possibilities reside.
The timeline you live on exists because of a certain decision you made, so endless versions
of you exist on endless branches, living the consequences of their selections.
In Marvel’s ‘What If…?’
The Watcher, also known as Uatu, is a voice that many will recognise, as the
actor has classic roles in Westworld and The Hunger Games, alongside upcoming titles such
as No Time To Die and The Batman.
Now the star is lending his voice to the Marvel character, The Watcher.
Episode 1 sees The Watcher as the narrator of the episode until right before the credits
roll when the character’s identity is revealed.
As made evident during the final minute, The Watcher simply observers over the universe,
never intervening.
In Marvel history, The Watchers are the oldest species to ever exist and their entire race
has committed themselves to observe everything that occurs in the universe to gain knowledge.
Uatu is one of the most well-known Watchers and is known for revealing himself to The
Fantastic Four after the superhero group got into a huge battle with the Red Ghost and
his Super-Apes on the Moon.
Uatu broke the rule of The Watchers and interfered with the ongoing battle, revealing himself
to the Red Ghost and Fantastic Four’s The Thing.
He then went on to reveal himself for a second time to The Fantastic Four to warn them of
Molecule Man, so going ahead, we will have to wait and see whether the character will
play a much bigger role in the MCU.
But what we learn from this is that the multiverse presents tremendous storytelling potential,
letting Marvel Studios explore past narratives, and correct, or enhance missed opportunities.
Nothing can take the original Captain America away as his story had a huge purpose, but
What If…? gives Marvel a chance to uplift certain supporting characters who maybe deserved
better.
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter was a definite highlight from Captain America: The First
Avenger and her impact on Steve is essential for selling the emotional relief achieved
during Avengers: Endgame.
But we also sensed that Peggy had more to offer than being the former love interest
to Captain America, and that helped produce her own Agent Carter
television series.
Those ABC Marvel shows are tough to position next to the rest of the MCU and while they
were happy to reference the movies, the movies rarely referenced them.
However, Agent Carter is one of the few ABC realities to get a nod cinematically when
Jarvis appears in Endgame as Howard Stark’s driver.
That cameo acts as an acknowledgement of how dynamic Peggy Carter was in The First Avenger,
and it was a clue that we would be getting more of Peggy in the MCU Phase 4.
What If…? is a familiar playground, stemming from Loki‘s variants.
The show bridges this concept while also guiding the MCU audience from the shallow end to the
deep end of the alternate realities approach where Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of
Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home could threaten to provide the consequences.
What If…?
Episode 1’s Captain Carter offers a different kind of energy than Captain America.
He was a solemn soldier who carried his sacrifice-obsessed family on his shoulders at all times.
Captain Carter is not bogged down by such solemn duty and on the field, she takes out
Nazi and Hydra goons through a bellowing laugh.
Her mission is a joyous one, an opportunity she’s hungered for since she joined the
service.
With the Super Soldier serum in her veins, all barricades crumble before her and collapse
is done well for the most part.
What If…?
Episode 1 reveals how Captain Carter achieves victory on fast forward when compared to her
Captain America counterpart.
Peggy Carter becomes Captain Carter and faces additional challenges, however,
she manages to overcome this and proves herself a capable soldier, securing the Tesseract.
This Tesseract powers the Hydra Stomper armour which is then worn by Steve
Rogers in this episode.
Really the chemistry between Peggy and Steve is the one thing that kept me interested the
whole way through and I think it was a perfect focus for the
introduction of this new Marvel show.
The re-enactment of the train sequence from the first avenger is one of the examples and
it's great to see Peggy, Buggy and Steve all working
together and displaying their connections.
It's here that Steve is also presumed to have died, in a cool reference to bucky
from the original film, but developments soon create a rift in the storyline.
But securing the tesseract also forces a returning Red Skull to plunge deeper into Hydra’s
supernatural science, in which he obtains it and unleashes a new monstrosity.
After Red Skull is crushed by this Hydra monster, Captain Carter battles it with a sword in
the episodes closing moments.
She struggles at first, but Steve is able to distract the beast for a moment before
his Hydra Stomper suit runs out of power.
Carter has to ultimately sacrifice herself by pushing the monster back through the portal.
She is then trapped within the Tesseract until it is opened by Nick Fury 70 years later,
reappearing where Loki originally did in 2012’s The Avengers.
Once rescued from the Tesseract, Captain Carter doesn’t know just
how much time has passed.
She believes the war is still going but Nick Fury and Hawkeye explain the reality of her
situation.
The episode then ends, but we can assume that Captain Carter then goes on to replace Captain
America in other scenarios and when Loki attacks Earth, Carter presumably teams up with the
other Avengers to defend New York City.
This could also mean that she battles Iron Man while defending Bucky, fights against
Ultron, and eventually saves the world from Thanos.
Of course, this is a whole different timeline, so who knows how Captain Carter replacing
Captain America impacted the rest of the universe.
The question beyond What If…? is whether or not these multiversal heroes will find
their way to our previously established MCU characters and will this animation have a
more lasting influence than those rarely acknowledged ABC Marvel shows?
We'll have to see, but I'm intrigued to see where the studio goes from here with all the
opening possibilities.
But that was my brief breakdown video on Marvel's What If Episode 1.
Overall, What If?
Episode 1 succeeds in introducing Marvel fans to a world of different possibilities,
where Captain America never existed and was replaced by someone else entirely.
As an introduction to the concept of different timelines, What If?
episode 1 does a decent job.
It’s a relatively subtle change, with Peggy switching in for Steve, and we’ll surely
see crazier timeline deviations in the future, but it’s not overwhelming.
As a debut episode, it’s a solid start that I hope ramps up quickly in upcoming episodes
and for diehard MCU fans, the change from live-action to animated may be jarring at
first.
However, the animation allows for some great action sequences, including an aerial fight
where Carter moves from enemy plane to enemy plane.
The breakneck pace of the episode could be disrupting to those who haven’t seen the
MCU movies, as there is a lot of moments crammed into this 30-minute pilot.
This series is clearly made for existing fans and if you somehow haven’t watched the MCU
movies, I’d recommend watching them before starting What If?
But I'm giving episode 1 of Marvel's What If a 7.5 out of 10.
I hope you guys enjoyed my breakdown, and overall,
I'm interested to see what happens next week in the new Marvel show, which I will be covering
here on the channel.
I'm also intrigued to hear all of your thoughts on episode 1, so let me know down below in
the comments section.
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