What If…? season 2 doesn’t get good until it really lets loose

Although probably the most attention-grabbing factor about Disney Plus’ What If…? collection is the way in which it’s positioned to showcase the expansiveness of Marvel’s multiverse, in its first season, the present felt prefer it was enjoying issues protected by focusing primarily on a handful of barely remixed characters and tales we’d already been launched to on the massive display screen. To a sure extent, the identical goes for What If…?’s newly-released second season, whose 9 episodes have been dropping day by day within the buildup to a December thirtieth finale. However about midway via, What If…? season two actually begins knocking it out of the park by placing the highlight on a brand new Indigenous character and her battle in opposition to settler colonialism.

With most of Marvel’s films and exhibits now specializing in how the multiverse is falling aside, it appeared slightly passé to see the primary few episodes of What If…? season two pondering questions like “what if Nebula (Karen Gillan) joined the Nova Corps” and “what if Completely satisfied Hogan (Jon Favreau) saved Christmas by turning into a Hulk?” Pitting a teenaged Peter Quill (Mace Montgomery Miskel) in opposition to a staff of Avengers from the ’80s made for some intelligent motion sequences, as did Iron Man’s (Mick Wingert) encounter with the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) on Sakaar. These episodes have been action-packed, however every of them felt just like the form of story which may have packed extra of a story punch again when Tony Stark or the unique Thanos (Josh Brolin) have been nonetheless alive.

In these first few episodes, What If…? additionally feels caught within the MCU’s previous, prefer it’s making an attempt to avoid wasting the entire fascinating multiversal experimentation for Marvel’s live-action initiatives. However that every one begins to alter as soon as Captain Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) exhibits up and one of many Infinity Stones finds a brand new dwelling in pre-colonial North America.

Regardless of What If…? being an anthology collection and the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) insisting that he isn’t a fan of sequels, season two does finally shift its focus again to a few figures from season one, like Captain Carter and a warped model of Physician Unusual (Benedict Cumberbatch) in ways in which cement the present as being greater than only a automobile to rehash previous MCU tales.

Although Captain Carter’s leap to the massive display screen in Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity was an early signal of how a lot Marvel Studios’ animated and live-action initiatives might intersect with each other, her loss of life within the movie made it look like Atwell’s cameo might need been a one-time stunt meant to get individuals into theaters. The episode “What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?” doesn’t carry Multiverse of Insanity’ Captain Carter again to life. But it surely does reinforce the concept she — a model of Peggy Carter who turns into a brilliant soldier as a substitute of Steve Rogers (Josh Keaton) — is a personality Marvel desires to exist as an enormous a part of the MCU’s model id.

“What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?” borrows beats from movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Black Widow because it pairs Captain Carter and a Black Widow (Lake Bell) variant collectively to tackle the Crimson Room’s deadliest brainwashed murderer. Fairly than the Winter Soldier, it’s a long-lost, brainwashed Steve Rogers piloting the Hydra Stomper armor despatched on covert missions by the Crimson Room to remove targets like Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Although Peggy’s greater than able to going toe-to-toe with Steve in battle, the episode makes clear that their love retains them from eager to outright kill one another and that there’s extra to those variants’ tales to be explored

However simply when it looks like What If…? has discovered a brand new chapter of Captain Carter’s life value taking extra time to dig into, the collection shifts gears by plucking her out of the “Hydra Stomper” actuality and turning its focus to one among this season’s extra impressed new faces.

Much like the way in which that What If…?’s very first episode instantly bought to the enterprise of reframing Peggy Carter as the hero and face of her story (slightly than a heroic, supporting love curiosity), “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?” establishes a younger Mohawk lady named Kahhori (Devery Jacobs) as one of the vital highly effective individuals in any actuality.

After the Tesseract crash-lands in pre-colonial America and transforms an unusual lake right into a form of portal that’s seen by locals as cursed, Kahhori is among the few individuals in her village courageous and curious sufficient to wander close to the glowing water. When Spanish Conquistadors looking for the Fountain of Youth arrive with weapons and plans to raze the Earth till they discover the famed surprise, Kahhori and her brother Wahta (Kiawentiio) are compelled to run for his or her lives, with the chase culminating in Kahhori being shot and falling into the lake.

Most of What If…?’s episodes have blended main parts from one or two of Marvel’s older initiatives into one thing that solely wound up feeling barely completely different. However the way in which “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?” reworks threads from Black Panther: Wakanda Without end and Thor: Ragnarok and turns them into one thing that feels genuinely distinct is spectacular. “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?” — whose Indigenous characters communicate nearly completely within the Mohawk language — frames Western colonialism as a form of Ragnarok for Kahhori’s individuals.

The episode highlights how Spain’s conquest of North America was underpinned by a racist perception within the inherent inferiority of Indigenous individuals and the way poisoned that ideology is. However Kahhori’s origin story can be a celebration of Iroquois tradition, and it’s very express about how justified Indigenous peoples’ violent resistance to settler colonialism in all of its kinds is. A lot of Marvel’s films have touched on comparable concepts prior to now. However even within the wake of the Black Panther movies, it’s nonetheless considerably shocking to see a Disney-branded narrative be so direct in its condemnation of Western colonialism given how studio head Bob Iger has just lately indicated his need to shift away from “messaging”-focused initiatives.

However probably the most promising factor about Kahhori’s debut is how she, like Captain Carter, appears poised to grow to be one thing of a fixture throughout the MCU, at the least over on the Disney Plus aspect of issues.

The way in which that “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?” particularly options a few of What If…?’s extra impressed set items and ends along with her leaving her dwelling actuality with Physician Unusual are attention-grabbing in and of themselves. However what’s most intriguing about What If…? at this level is the way it appears to be utilizing every season to domesticate central characters well-positioned to exist within the new multiverse that exhibits like Loki have been constructing to. It has been arduous to suss out how Marvel plans to maintain MCU feeling recent, thrilling, and cohesive after the unevenness that’s outlined its pivot to multiversal storytelling, however in characters like Captain Carter and Kahhori, you’ll be able to see a part of a path ahead.

With solely three episodes left, there’s solely a lot extra display screen time Kahhori’s going to get in What If…? this season. However along with her now on the enjoying board, and there being various shocking visitor stars coming again to reprise huge roles, What If…?’s season two finale feels prefer it is likely to be one thing particular and price keeping track of because it attracts nearer.