Review: Marvel What If…? “What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Strange Supreme shows Captain Carter his work, capturing potential Universe Killers, and tasks her with helping him find another one. When she does, she finds Kahhori, who reveals Strange is actually using those he captures to try and recreate the universe he destroyed in his timeline. This leads to a gigantic battle in his chambers with multiple incarnations of different characters rioting and Peggy and Kahhori taking on their powers to fight him…but even that isn’t enough. It’s only when Strange realizes that his work will cause more harm that he sacrifices himself. His universe is reborn, but he is not born into it, and never will. The Watcher offers Captain Carter the chance to head back to her universe, but she asks to take the scenic route.

OUR TAKE

It’s the final episode of the season…and quite possibly our final review of the year! This batch of episodes have been an insane ride so far, so it only makes that they cap it off with a full blown multiversal prison riot, with cameos and crazy blink and you miss it references galore. And YET it feels like a bit of a let down after a season of good to great episodes, though not for the reasons you may think. I’ve seen reception for this episode go around the social medias all day and, while I do see plenty of weariness about Captain Carter’s involvement and what she pulls to ink out a win, I know that she, this Strange, and Kahhori were made FOR this show, so it’s only natural they pull out all the insane fanfic-y powers and tricks in the show that was literally made to do that! GIVE her Hela’s helmet! Give Kahhori the Ten Rings! Give them the Infinity Armor from last season! What If is just about the only place you can indulge and go all out like this and have it MAKE SENSE!

No, the thorn in my side is the use of Strange Supreme as the Big Bad, at least in the way he is implemented. Let me be clear, I am aware that this specific version of Doctor Strange is meant to be the one who is capable of horrific universe-consuming acts, as we saw in the episode he came from. I also know that, even though he did end up helping with the end of Season 1 as part of the Guardians of the Multiverse, that wouldn’t necessarily make him completely over his destructive tendencies, and it would actually be pretty realistic for someone like him to backslide. But my problem with that is…it just seemed like they needed a bad guy, so they undercut his development to serve that purpose, and not even in a very interesting way, in my opinion. I think I could see a version of this turn I could like, but this isn’t it, especially when we see this Strange pulling the same deceptive tricks in battle that didn’t even work on HIMSELF. Though at least that means we won’t have to deal with all of that again…right? And with that, What If Season 2 concludes, as does our work for the year of 2023. And just like What If, which is already hard at work on its next season, we’ll see you in the New Year.