by Jeffery J. Rahming, Contributing Writer
Out of the thousands of available bits of source material that Marvel has in their library, I never would’ve guessed that What If would be a comic the MCU would adapt. Initially running from 1977 to 1984, What If became one of Marvel’s most enduring comic book series that gave the writers the freedom to write Marvel stories any way they wanted without being concerned for continuity. Since the comic series’ initial cancellation in ’84, it’s been rebooted 12 times. This time, Marvel has brought that concept over to their film franchise.
The MCU making this series is a testament to what a juggernaut this franchise has become. They’ve gotten so big that they can essentially write fanfiction about their properties and use it as content. This show had every risk of simply being a cheap, throwaway series that mined off the MCU’s popularity. To be honest, even with Disney’s track record of delivering quality TV shows on Disney Plus, I wasn’t expecting much out of it. But to my surprise, Marvel ended up delivering a series that still captures all the heart, humor, and action of any other product of the MCU brand.
The best part of the show is how beautifully animated it was. Cel-shaded animation has never been my favorite style, but the way What If uses it provides the perfect blend between animation and realism, allowing the show to stick closely to the aesthetic of the movies, while still having a style of its own. From the backgrounds to the dynamic movie-quality lighting, you can see the meticulous detail the animators went through to make this show look as cinematic as possible. It also helps that Disney most likely put a lot more budget into one episode than most animated series get for a whole season.
The action sequences were another highlight of the show. They took full advantage of the animation medium by doing action sequences that would be incredibly difficult to do in live-action.
Each episode does a good job of packing the excitement and character development of a Marvel movie into a 30 to 40 minute episode. Similair to the original comic book series, the fun of What If? is that the writers are free to essentially make whatever they want. The episodes take influence from multiple popular genres, from zombie movies, to murder mysteries, to college party movies and, of course, the more traditional superhero route they went for in the finale. It goes to show just how much talent Marvel has at their disposal that even the one-off stories feel so well crafted.
My favorite storyline was “What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?”. Even if the voice acting in that episode was a little subpar, I think seeing that plot unfold and exploring Killmonger’s full potential as a villain made for some of the most entertaining moments of the series.
Speaking of the voice acting, that was an aspect of the show that was a mixed bag. Voice acting is a skill that is very similar, but not the same as acting, and some MCU actors clearly have more experience in it than others. Some of the performances, like Benedict Cumberbatch in the Dr. Strange episode and Chris Hemsworth in the Thor episode, were incredible, while others felt like they came into the booth for an hour and phoned it in. Also, while it’s impressive that they were able to get so many actors back to reprise their roles, that only goes to make the replacements for some of the ones they couldn’t get back somewhat jarring. For example, I’m sure Mick Wingert is a great voice actor, but nobody can do MCU Tony Stark like Robert Downey Jr., and Wingert’s performance in the Killmonger episode felt a bit off because of that.
I enjoyed all the episodes in the series, but there was a noticeable drop in the writing quality in the last two episodes. I don’t want to give away too much about the finale of the series for anyone who has yet to watch it, but I felt it strayed too far away from the anthologized nature of the series in an attempt to suddenly become an epic story that it had no time to tell. The last two episodes could’ve been an entire Marvel movie in itself. An hour was nowhere near enough time to give us all the potential that the storyline could’ve provided. It was utterly overcrowded with ideas, characters, and concepts. It was a fun watch, and I can’t say I wasn’t entertained, but in a series with so much intelligent writing, the finale was the one time where they sacrificed that quality for flashy action and a convoluted plot. It’s clear that they wanted to use the finale to tie all the episodes in the season together, but is that really necessary in an anthology show? It would’ve been better to just stick to the premise throughout all of the show.
Overall, though, I think this show works as a fun romp throughout the multiverse. It’s smartly written, beautifully animated, and has some great action. Even if you don’t like all the episodes, there’s enough variety in the series that almost anybody could have a good time with it. I’d consider this a must-see for any fan of the Marvel universe.
Score: B+
You can follow Jeffery J. Rahming on Twitter
Beautifully said