What If..? Season 1 Episode 2: "What If...T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?"

[Zarex]

The part with the Collector and Hela's headdress potentially has huge implications for Thor: Love & Thunder. Specifically regarding Gorr's origin story and how it could tie up with the asgardians.

So the Collector confirmed that Hela's headdress is basically the necrosword or maybe the source of power which manifests necroswords. In the comics Gorr's power derives from the All-Black the Necrosword.

I speculated on the L&T thread that the headdress would be wielded by Gorr since Hela's powers in Ragnarok so closely matched those of the comic book God Butcher. It seems like this will be the case.

As others have stated, the second episode was a huge improvement. While the premier swapped out Peggy for Steve and added a Hydra Stomper, this one got weird. And while T'Challa could be considered Mary Sue-like with his ability to turn Yondu and reform Thanos, it was delightful to see given Boseman's tragic ending. Thanos could be seen as somewhat nerfed, but he had to take on an army before tackling Proxima and Cull. That couldn't have been easy for the Sweet Titan.

 

[Batmannerism]

Before I start, RIP the great Chadwick Boseman.

Okay, who the **** was the audience for this ? It felt like a Disney cartoon for little kids, if they were they intended viewers, fair enough, it sure as **** didn't feel like anything made for adult MCU fans.

The constant gag that T'Challa makes everything better runs dry pretty quick.

They took away everything from each character which made them who they were and made them interesting - it was awful to watch.

Besides losing all of his complexity and personality Thanos would have easily been strong and tough enough to crush Cull and Proxima.

Worst of all TChalla is a nearly invincible flawless Mary Sue who goes through none of the struggle that made Star Lord who he is, or even the struggle Tchalla went through in Civil War or Black Panther. ( how the **** did he fight a super strong Korath or the Collector hand to hand and not die ? He didn't have the Black Panther powers, or did I miss that bit where he got them as a kid ?).

This Ep had all the tension and drama of a group hug.

Ep 1 at least retained what was essential to both Peggy and Steve's characters. Peggy stayed who she was as a person despite taking on a more active ass kicking role and Steve was able to find an outlet for his courage as an early version of Iron Man.

To me Tchalla in Civil War was the peak, he's obsessed with vengeance but we see him grow in a very believable way into a better person.

Boseman deserved better than this, no disrespect to him at all. The writers of this show should be straight up fired now.

 

[Web-Head]

. And that did not sound like Benecio Del Toro at all. If I didn’t see his name in the credits I wouldn’t have believed it.

The weirdest thing was the Collector. Josh Keaton sounded more like Chris Evans last week than Benico del Toro sounded like himself here.

Agreed. I thought some of the voice acting in the Captain Carter episode was pretty bad and I was glad to see it was a huge improvement here, but del Toro sounded really off.

 

[bubbadoom]

As I feared "What if?" quickly became "So What?" - they need to keep these stories more firmly rooted in actual events in the established MCU to make them relevant - not nearly as good as the Captain Carter episode...

 

[Iceman]

I really liked the last episode, a step up from the first.

 

[Iceman]

Before I start, RIP the great Chadwick Boseman.

Okay, who the **** was the audience for this ? It felt like a Disney cartoon for little kids, if they were they intended viewers, fair enough, it sure as **** didn't feel like anything made for adult MCU fans.

The constant gag that T'Challa makes everything better runs dry pretty quick.

They took away everything from each character which made them who they were and made them interesting - it was awful to watch.

Besides losing all of his complexity and personality Thanos would have easily been strong and tough enough to crush Cull and Proxima.

Worst of all TChalla is a nearly invincible flawless Mary Sue who goes through none of the struggle that made Star Lord who he is, or even the struggle Tchalla went through in Civil War or Black Panther. ( how the **** did he fight a super strong Korath or the Collector hand to hand and not die ? He didn't have the Black Panther powers, or did I miss that bit where he got them as a kid ?).

This Ep had all the tension and drama of a group hug.

Ep 1 at least retained what was essential to both Peggy and Steve's characters. Peggy stayed who she was as a person despite taking on a more active ass kicking role and Steve was able to find an outlet for his courage as an early version of Iron Man.

To me Tchalla in Civil War was the peak, he's obsessed with vengeance but we see him grow in a very believable way into a better person.

Boseman deserved better than this, no disrespect to him at all. The writers of this show should be straight up fired now.

Just on the powers stuff, they’re obviously mucking about on purpose there as the MCU collector is a complete joke while this one is some kind of adonis warrior. They’re all What If versions with Thanos joking about his plans and just being another character rather than anyone particularly threatening.

 

[The Caped Knight]

The episode was definitely goes out of its way to be different rather than a copy of Guardians of the Galaxy or Black Panther. I appreciate the changes especially getting to have T'Challa be a successful Star-Lord that improved the Galaxy as a variation of Robin Hood. Now the standout breakout character in this was surprisingly Thanos (Josh Brolin) killed it as The Titan who became Little John of the group

The episode twist at the end with Peter working at the Dairy Queen his father met his Mother definitely was a nice tease for a future story ...

 

[The Caped Knight]

Even better episode than the first one. Korath being a Star-Lord fanboy had me laughing all the time. Truly worthy of Chadwick Boseman's last work.

I laughed a lot about that too

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

RIP Chadwick

Nice that we got one last Black Panther performance out of him even if it was only voice over work

The episode itself felt off. I really have no idea what they were going for. Felt more like a lighthearted comedy aimed specifically for kids.

 

[HammerDown]

I speculated on the L&T thread that the headdress would be wielded by Gorr since Hela's powers in Ragnarok so closely matched those of the comic book God Butcher. It seems like this will be the case.

I think he could be wielding that power but not necessarily the headdress. I feel like the giant headdress is more of a “statement piece”, a construct from the power of the All Black, like the disposable necroswords and everything else Hela came up with. Since it was easily destroyed by Yondu’s Yaka arrow.

I think the headdress was used by Odin and Hela to intimidate their adversaries. The power itself can manifest in all kinds of different weapons, armor or other creations. That would then line up with Gorr’s look from the comics since he would likely skip the headdress and used the power differently.

From all the stuff seen in Ragnarok, I found this imagery of Odin wearing the headdress to be completely terrifying.

 

[Gladius Nova]

I liked this episode way better than the first. I was expecting him to use the necklace to turn into BP but then remembered, he was “kidnapped” as a child and didn’t go through the ritual. I liked his relationship with Yondu, his “adopted” father.

 

[samsnee]

I mean no one should expect a half hour stand-alone episode show to be able to capture the same character developments as a 2 hour movie or 6 episode season. Sure I found the change in Thanos jarring and raises more questions than answers but you just have to try to enjoy it for what it is.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

A lot of the characters in this episode, like Thanos & Yondu for example, seemed more like parodies of their main MCU counterparts

 

[Dr. Evil]

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I enjoyed the episode overall, but hearing Chadwick's voice again is probably what put it over the most for me, because I actually think I prefered the Captain Carter episode to this one.

I actually think what they did with The Collector was my favortie part of the episode eventhough it didn't really sound anything like Benico Del Toro which felt very off to me, but he was still alot of fun to watch.

Good Thanos is still something I can't help but feel mixed on aswell because one hand seeing Brolin used in that capacity is super amusing and got some laughs out of me, but at the same time is just weird seeing Thanos suddenly turn to good knowing all the awful things he has done in the past.

I also wasn't a fan of seeing him getting his ass kicked so easily by The Black Order, but I have no idea what rules from the live action MCU verse are still applicable here.

Beautiful Nebula and Howard the Duck were utilized really well too IMO.

 

[Dark Raven]

As I feared "What if?" quickly became "So What?" - they need to keep these stories more firmly rooted in actual events in the established MCU to make them relevant - not nearly as good as the Captain Carter episode...

It did feel a bit like "so what?" because it felt like just a bunch of stuff that happened. I would've preferred it had a more Twilight Zone feel with something either more tragic or bitter sweet happening at the end.

I preferred the Captain Carter episode in that respect.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

A very big improvment on the premiere...

And yet...


So, T'challa goes to space and becomes the MCU version of Lupin III meets Danny Ocean?

Cool.

The set up is right at the start where we see that unlike Quill, T'challa would being who he is and as smart as he is, be able to do so much more with the people and resources he had available to him than Peter could ever imagine. All that tracks for me. And side effects like a reformed Thanos ect. were nice icings on the cake that made for sure a reality very different than the one we know from the MCU films.

That was all cool and fun.

But... Once more it all felt really rushed. REALLY rushed. To a degree they tailored the story to fit that breezy and fast pace that matched the kind of Ocean's 11 heist movie they were going for but even then, between the breakneck pacing, the quick fire humor and all the Easter eggs, it was overstuffed for a half hour.

I think this was the episode that showcased how different and creative this show can get with the MCU. I wouldn't say that these stories really get to reach their potential or are generally served well by the run time though.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

This was an improvement on the first. I'm still a little meh on this series, but this one actually kept my interest and I gave a damn about the characters. They gave them a lot more to work with script wise.

But its really the difference between like... 5/10 and 7/10. The show still exists firmly in the idgaf territory.

 

[Zarex]

A very big improvment on the premiere...

And yet...


So, T'challa goes to space and becomes the MCU version of Lupin III meets Danny Ocean?

Cool.

The set up is right at the start where we see that unlike Quill, T'challa would being who he is and as smart as he is, be able to do so much more with the people and resources he had available to him than Peter could ever imagine. All that tracks for me. And side effects like a reformed Thanos ect. were nice icings on the cake that made for sure a reality very different than the one we know from the MCU films.

That was all cool and fun.

But... Once more it all felt really rushed. REALLY rushed. To a degree they tailored the story to fit that breezy and fast pace that matched the kind of Ocean's 11 heist movie they were going for but even then, between the breakneck pacing, the quick fire humor and all the Easter eggs, it was overstuffed for a half hour.

I think this was the episode that showcased how different and creative this show can get with the MCU. I wouldn't say that these stories really get to reach their potential or are generally served well by the run time though.

The over stuffing may just be a requirement of this form of storytelling, though, as it was in the original comic book series. Those 70s stories would often cover a decades worth of comics in just over twenty pages.

I originally wanted a Captain Carter two parter given how much of TFA it tried to cover. But after watching the second episode I am glad they kept it to a half hour and moved on to the next one.

One possible solution to the over stuffing could be having Jeffrey Wright provide additional set up before jumping into the main story. You could have him briefly describe Peggy getting Vita Rayed and T'Challa getting snatched over still frames and go right into the good stuff. More of Wright's mellifluous narration wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

[P Supreme]

is as if they don;t know they have the x-men back i;m out after 2 episodes time for new blood in MCU no time for rehash of there old stuff glad to hear Boseman and Brolin again but seeing a sidekick Thanos NO THANKS

 

[psylockolussus]

As I feared "What if?" quickly became "So What?" - they need to keep these stories more firmly rooted in actual events in the established MCU to make them relevant - not nearly as good as the Captain Carter episode...

I didn't eXpect this to be relevant as the live-action shows. Its what If? anyway. What If in the comiXs aren't really essential reading. They rarely matter in the 616 stories. So this isn't something the MCU films will look back on for reference/story purposes. This is just something eXtra to watch for D+ subscribers. Its animated for a reason.

For me, I liked this episode more than the 1st as well.

 

[Dark Raven]

I'm hoping the Kilmonger episode proves to be particularly tragic and Twilight Zone-ish. If Stark was never injured by the explosion of the shrapnel and held in captivity, that means he never became Iron Man. And maybe he doesn't mean Yinsen and doesn't stop manufacturing weapons as a result but ends up building them for some enemy (maybe even Kilmonger, who then uses it to take over Wakanda?) And since Stark isn't present in the forming of the Avengers he ultimately is unable to stop Thanos in the end all because he wasted his life since he was never in captivity or had the injury that changed his life.

That would be more typically What If than what we had in this episode.

That might be expecting too much though.

 

[Drizzle]

I didn't eXpect this to be relevant as the live-action shows. Its what If? anyway. What If in the comiXs aren't really essential reading. They rarely matter in the 616 stories. So this isn't something the MCU films will look back on for reference/story purposes. This is just something eXtra to watch for D+ subscribers. Its animated for a reason.

For me, I liked this episode more than the 1st as well.

This, 100%. There'll be some references to this show in the greater MCU so it's not entirely irrelevant but as for the rest of it, some folks in this thread are really missing the point of this concept.

is as if they don;t know they have the x-men back i;m out after 2 episodes time for new blood in MCU no time for rehash of there old stuff glad to hear Boseman and Brolin again but seeing a sidekick Thanos NO THANKS

I'm pretty sure the scripts for this were written before the Fox deal was finalized. Besides, why would they introduce the X-Men or any other significant new character in the MCU in an animated show?

 

[Detective Conan]

 

[Pennywise]