Review: Marvel What If…? “What If… Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In a timeline where Odin exiled Hela instead of sealing her away, the Goddess of Death finds herself stranded on Earth with her powers sealed in her helmet, stuck in the ground (kind of like a certain hammer). She first meets Wenwu, owner of the Ten Rings, who takes a liking to her even after she escapes. With the help of a flying creature named Maurice, Hela next ends up in Ta Lo and is taught by their leader Jiayi to look within herself, realizing her thirst for battle and bloodlust actually come from her desire for freedom. Soon after, Odin arrives to conquer Earth, so Hela unites with Wenwu and his forces to fight him off. To Odin’s shock, he is defeated, but Hela spares his life, regains her powers, and leads a cosmic crusade to free all of the Nine Realms from Odin’s control.

OUR TAKE

Once again, it surprises me what Marvel stuff this show decides to put in its story gumbo. Hela was definitely a highlight of the movie she appeared in, Thor: Ragnarok, and her backstory of working with Odin to conquer and colonize worlds in Asgard’s name was a neat revelation in that movie, but they didn’t really get a chance to reflect on it a whole lot before Asgard was destroyed. Likewise, Wenwu was the main antagonist of Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings, as well as the title character’s dad, but he was actually handled a bit weakly in my opinion. So, hearing that these two elements would be sharing a story seemed kinda random and weird. But in what seems to be a recurring theme this season (besides Asgard being destroyed a lot), the title definitely does not give away how interesting the story may or may not end up being. We’ve seen Loki redeem himself at least a few times in this franchise and Thor’s first movie was about him becoming worthy of his power again, but it never occurred to me to give that kind of plot to Hela. And sure enough, it’s another solid success, giving the Goddess of Death a chance to actually get to know herself better and understand all the good she could do.

It’s no secret that Odin has been a pretty terrible father, having kidnapped Loki as a child, pitting him and Thor against each other for the throne, and sealed Hela while not telling his children of her existence. She was such an entertaining villain in her one main timeline appearance that I failed to consider that she’s just as much of a victim of Odin’s poor parenting as Thor or Loki were. And given the opportunity to have to work with others and space to figure out why she feels the way she feels, it was a real surprise for me to feel proud that she was doing the work to better herself. With some villains, Killmonger for example, it’s more fun and interesting to see them stay bad and do bad things even when they might dabble with being good for their ends. With others like Loki and his foster-sister (who he sadly never shared very many lines with), it’s better to see them learn they may have been good the whole time. Seven down, two to go, see you tomorrow as we head into the home stretch with a trip to the 1600’s and a follow up to where Captain Carter ended up at the end of her episode. For Midgard!