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Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, Review, TV | Tagged: chris hemsworth, hayley atwell, jeffrey wright, jon favreau, lake bell, Marvel's What If, Review, tom hiddleston
What If …? Season 2 Ep. 8 Review: MCU Goes Really, REALLY Old School
Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter lands in a very different "renaissance" in What If ...? S02E08: "What If…The Avengers Assembled in 1602?"
Marvel's What If …? has weaved the boundaries between the serial and non-serial as Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter travels through time to an alternate 17th century Earth in the episode "What If…The Avengers Assembled in 1602?" The events directly pick up after the fifth episode, "What If… Captain Carter Fought the HYDRA Stomper," where a variant of Wanda Maximoff called Wanda Merlin (Elizabeth Olsen) summons the super soldier through time and space to their universe based on the renaissances where Earth's Mightiest Heroes take on different roles completely as they face an uncertain threat.
What If …? Ye Olde Avengers! Assemble!
Along with Wanda, Carter meets with Sir Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the variant of the former head of S.H.I.E.L.D.; Prince Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who's all about performing and looking for inspiration on the stage without the whole "God of Mischief" baggage; King Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth), a far more assertive and stern ruler than his Earth-616 counterpart and becomes a villain of the story, after losing his sister Queen Hela, one of several victims of a vortex that consumes all it can in a vacuum. Most of the Avengers depicted here are the main core with Tony Stark/Iron Man (Mick Wingert), Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers (Josh Keaton), Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Lake Bell), and Doctor Strange Supreme (Benedict Cumberbatch). Each actor plays largely against type, especially since they turned Steve, Scott, and Bucky into a variation of Robin Hood and adopted their variation of the Man in the Iron Mask for Hulk. We also see What If …? mainstay Jeffrey Wright's Watcher far more involved than usual since Carter is one of his champions to help drive the fate of the universe.
While one can get caught up with the novelty of these variants, it feels a little too alien at times, given all the history made with the characters to simply drop their traits and nuance that defined them through previous work. It's hard to wrap my head around Hemsworth's Thor and Favreau's Happy as evil characters. I can believe Favreau as the Sheriff of Nottingham, but not from what he built as Happy. Given the worldly threat entering the season finale, it's a great change of pace from what we're used to seeing. Season two of Marvel's What If …? is available to stream on Disney+.
Marvel's What If...?: Season 2 Episode 7: "What If...the Avengers Assembled in 1602?"
7/10
Who knew that Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter and Jeffrey Wright's Watcher can develop such a chemistry together in Marvel's What If...? episode "What If…The Avengers Assembled in 1602?" that finds many of the characters playing against type with Chris Hemsworth's Thor and Jon Favreau's Happy Hogan as antagonists. Writers A. C. Bradley & Ryan Little deserve the credit for putting this gem together.
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Bryan Andrews
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