Review: Marvel What If…? “What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”

What, You Egg? [He Stabs Him]

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Captain Carter, now in a world where modern heroes are in the 17th century, has fallen in with the guard of Queen Hela while she investigates why dimensional rifts have begun appearing and sucking people in. When one seemingly kills Hela, Thor takes over and blames Carter, making her go on the run. Later, she meets with The Watcher, who tells her that there is another person out of their universe here that is causing the rifts, but tells Carter she should leave. She refuses and begins her search and, with the help of some familiar looking Merry Men, eventually discovers that Steve Rogers is actually from a timeline where he fought Thanos at the end of Infinity War but became displaced when hitting the Time Stone on the gauntlet. Peggy tearfully lets him return to his time, seemingly undoing all of the damage from the two mishmashed universes. Seemingly stuck there, Peggy runs into Strange Supreme, who has a story to tell her.

OUR TAKE

We’ve hit the beginning of the end of the season…which only started a little over a week ago, that’s strange to think about. And New Year’s is tomorrow! Anyway, much like the end of season conflict of last season, this one involves mashing things from multiple universes together in one place, as well as involving Captain Carter and, later, Strange Supreme. It really seems like Carter has emerged as the second protagonist of this show, which is honestly fine with me since she can be a pretty versatile character, and she’s used sparingly enough that I don’t get sick of her! This is also a pretty fun mash up setting. It takes loose, and I mean LOOSE, inspiration from the critically lauded “Marvel: 1602” comic…by which I mean it just uses the name and nothing else, much like their version of Age of Ultron. But that’s fine, because this version of 1602 does what it can to make cool use of the characters it has. Thor is a king in a Shakespearan drama, Loki seems to be a playwright, and Steve, Bucky, and Scott Lang are apparently their own version of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, which gives us a chance to see Peggy and Steve fight together while both having super serum.

It also seems like it’s tying the other stories of the season together in a roundabout way. There’s a Bucky like in the second episode, a Happy that can turn purple like in the Christmas episode, a Tony from the unfinished Season 1 episode, Captain Carter obviously, Hela’s briefly there, and…well, I guess you can count Strange since he was in the Kahhori episode, and they do mention Nebula and Ego briefly. I honestly like this better than plucking people from each story to make an Avengers, as much as I get why they did that last time. I haven’t seen the finale at the time of this writing (I plan to write after I submit this), but I’ve heard rumors that there’s some stuff up with Strange, which would be kinda be weird given he seemed to turn things around…but also consistent considering where he started. Regardless, I’ve been having a pretty great time watching this season, so hopefully the good reception I’m seeing will encourage at least one more of these. Now to go watch the finale and close the book on MCU stuff for the year!…and then immediately reopen that book when that Hawkeye spin-off, Echo! Also, I am once more reminded the year is ending, so I will now have an existential crisis! Enjoy your day!