It’s been a rocky year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While some productions have been excellent, including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Loki season 2, others, like Secret Invasion and The Marvels, have sadly underwhelmed or underperformed. But in the final moments of 2023, Marvel released a secret weapon: What If…? season 2.
A surprisingly compelling second outing, What If…? season 2 takes viewers further into the depths of Marvel’s multiverse, continuing the stories of characters like Captain Carter and Strange Supreme, while other mainstays got brand-new narratives, like Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Nebula. Even more welcome was the addition of the original character Kahhori, a young Mohawk woman whose powers come from the all-important Tesseract. Balancing fun and goofy episodes with more serious storytelling, What If…? season 2 utilizes its core concept much more effectively than the previous season, letting most of these stories work on their own, despite Carter and Strange’s ongoing arcs and Carter’s team-up with Kahhori in the final episode.
To generate hype for the new season before it aired, however, Marvel released every episode title—a strategy which, unfortunately, seemed to backfire. While some of the titles did foster enthusiasm, like “What If… The Avengers Assembled in 1602?,” others, such as “What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?” or “What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?” had people asking that age-old question: Who really asked for this?
In all honesty, I understand the frustration. But I also understand that What If…?‘s main premise makes it impossible to please everyone. People who love this universe will always have their own ideas about what stories they want to see and which choices they want their favorite characters to make. What If…? is essentially a playground, and unless the show were to go on for 20+ seasons, they’d never get around to adapting everyone’s biggest ideas. It’s hard to win.
While it’s understandable that they didn’t want to reveal too much with the episode titles, what has happened instead is that these episode titles don’t accurately convey what the stories are actually about. Generally, they’re underselling the narrative, making What If…?‘s imaginative tales seem less pivotal, compelling, and thought-provoking than they actually are.
“What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper” explores what the world would be like if Steve Rogers became Hydra’s best assassin as opposed to Bucky Barnes. “What If… Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?” is actually “What If… Yondu Delivered Peter Quill To Ego?,” and “What If… Hela Found the Ten Rings?” isn’t about Hela finding another powerful weapon for galactic domination but rather her going on a journey akin to Thor’s in the first Thor movie (and finally acknowledging the brilliant Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).
Even “What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?” is more compelling than it sounds. Not only is the episode a fun homage to Die Hard, but it also brings back Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, a villain who still makes Iron Man 2 worth watching.
Releasing episode titles is a relatively easy way to go about promoting an upcoming show—the reveal of Percy Jackson and the Olympians‘ episode titles, for instance, was met with much enthusiasm, as they matched the chapter titles from the original Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief book. But with a show like What If…?, which encourages audiences to let their imaginations run wild, lackluster episode titles can, and evidently will, dampen enthusiasm for the project.
It’s a shame, because What If…? is one of the few recent Marvel projects that has taken some big swings—introducing an unknown character with major powers provided by the Tesseract, especially a character from an underrepresented background, is exactly the kind of bold choice that Marvel should be making now as superhero fatigue begins to set in. And it worked beautifully. “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?” is the season’s strongest episode, and I sincerely hope Kahhori will also be introduced in the comics and live-action.
What If…? season 3 is already on the way, and I’m hoping there will be more to come. I believe the series should go on for a few more seasons—at least until the Multiverse Saga has officially come to an end, though it’s unclear when that will be—especially now that the show has hit its stride. Hopefully, season 3’s inevitable mysterious and underwhelming episode titles won’t put people off from exploring this fun and compelling animated MCU show (and perhaps we could get a few more stories with Peter Parker, Wanda Maximoff, and the Eternals, too).
(featured image: Disney+)
