Review: Marvel What If…? “What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Picking up from the post-credit scene at the end of last season, super soldier Peggy Carter finds the Hydra Stomper, the exosuit her lost love Steve Rogers fought in with her during the war, upgraded and apparently with a major kill count. It is soon revealed that Steve was captured in the 50’s by the Red Room, the organization that made the Black Widows, and used to assassinate targets (not unlike the Winter Soldier in the main timeline). After a failed attempt to take out Bucky, who is now Secretary of State, Peggy and Natasha meet Steve in Russia, where they are cornered by the Black Widows. Steve seemingly takes out the Red Room, but Peggy recommits to searching for him…until she is sucked into a portal, ending up in (presumably) medieval times.

OUR TAKE

As I’ve mentioned a few times over these reviews, there are definitely some of these timelines that I would love to see more of, even if it’s just a text description of how the dominoes fall when certain things are moved around. Of the ones from the first season of What If, it would’ve been neat to see more of T’Challa as Star Lord (though they’d have to recast him, which ain’t happening any time soon), the Avenger-less timeline (now with a battle hardened replacement Black Widow) or my personal choice, the Killmonger kills Tony timeline…which he can’t return to because of how Season 1 ended UNLESS they show a virtually identical timeline where the Watcher didn’t take him BUT I digress. Point is, we did get a follow up and it’s the Captain Carter storyline, this time doing its version of Winter Soldier with Steve in the Bucky spot, Bucky in the Peggy spot, and of course Peggy in the Steve spot. We also get a brief glimpse at what this timeline’s version of the Avengers looks like, which is basically the same aside from having Wasp (Janet? Hope? Unclear.) and no Hulk, though Banner is confirmed to at least exist.

When I thought about how a Captain Carter timeline might go after that first episode, I thought it would basically just feel like abridged versions of the Captain America films just with Peggy. I was kinda right in that it is at least aping the general events of Winter Soldier (though with Peggy having no clear friends besides Nat while Sam and Sharon aren’t even mentioned), but this does make use of some Phase 4 hindsight by incorporating knowledge from the Black Widow movie, including Rachel Weisz’ “Milena Vostokoff” (no Yelena or Alexei, sadly), as the group controlling Steve. So either Hydra is still lurking in SHIELD or they’re actually gone for good in this timeline. I also think I should be thinking at least somewhat about how this is structured about this as a story, but I’m also pretty obsessed with thinking about all the possibilities for this…which I suppose is part of what this show is trying to do. As for Peggy being taken by Ye Olden Wanda, I do notice that an upcoming episode in a couple days mentions 1602, so that’s probably gonna lead us into our big crossover two-parter to end the season. In the meantime, I must yield my shield and I’ll see you for the next review.