Summary
Marvel takes on Blade Runner with Nebula as the focus. This premiere is a fun grim-dark noir that feels welcomely different from the usual fare.
For Season 2 of the speculative animated anthology series What If…?, Marvel elected for an unusual, Christmassy distribution strategy. Every day, viewers can stream a new episode like opening the door of an advent calendar. It makes sense for the holidays, even if Episode 1, “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”, isn’t especially festive.
I still don’t trust this series, by the way. The hook of the original season was that none of it mattered; it was far-out, experimental storytelling featuring characters you knew – voiced by the live-action talent – in multiversal one-offs divorced from the big-screen continuity. And then the movies, particularly Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, started burning What If…? for fuel. With the MCU currently at its lowest ebb in turns of critical reception, box office success, and fan interest, who knows how much – if any – of these stories and ideas might come to matter down the line?
What If...? Season 2 Episode 1 Recap
As ever, The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) lays out the context. In this universe, Ronan the Accuser turned on Thanos before he could assemble the Infinity Stones, positioning himself as the galactic Big Bad and leaving Nebula without a father, sister, or purpose. Adrift in the galaxy, she was picked up by Nova Prime (Julianne Grossman) and enlisted in the Nova Corps.
Ronan’s conquest eventually threatened Xandar, and in response, Nova Prime decided to encircle the planet in an impenetrable shield. Safe from outside threats, Xandar nonetheless deteriorated from within, the isolation driving the planet’s citizens into a lawless frenzy. Hey, does anyone remember the Covid-19 pandemic?
Yondu is dead — again
Anyway, Episode 1 kicks off with Nebula (Karen Gillan) discovering that Yondu (Michael Rooker) has been brutally murdered, though the Nova Corps – the unflinching bureaucratic side of which is represented primarily through Garthan Saal (Peter Serafinowicz) – are willing to write the death off as good riddance to bad rubbish. Nebby knows better and begins conducting her own off-the-books investigation, starting with seeing what Yondu’s signature Yaka arrow has been up to.
The arrow reveals a ginormous hologram of mysterious schematics that Nebby doesn’t understand but Nova Prime implies – on a secure line, so you know it’s serious – might be intimately connected to whatever dark forces are on the cusp of obliterating Xandar before the night is up. This adds a useful ticking clock device to the investigation and a little clue for who the villain is, which is obvious anyway since Nebula’s character arc is about her having lost everything and found a surrogate family and home, and the only way to put her through the wringer emotionally is to challenge that ideal.
Nevertheless, Nebula goes through the motions, visiting an underground casino owned by Howard the Duck (Seth Green) and bartended by Korg (Taika Waititi at his most tolerable), who recognizes the hologram as a city-wide mainframe core that conveniently contains the source code for Xandar’s planetary shield. In other words, someone wants to deactivate the shields and open Xandar up to an invasion.
He’s the guy from Captain Marvel
Breaking into the mainframe and deleting the source code requires someone well-versed in bypassing Xandarian security, which turns out to be Yon-Rogg (Jude Law). Nebby breaks him out of prison by inciting a riot, breaks into the mainframe by flooding it, and then connects her robot brain to the data core to delete the relevant data.
Naturally, the character exclusively known for being a one-note villain turns out to be a one-note villain, betraying Nebula and leaving her to the mercy of the flooded mainframe and superheated, exploding data core, which she’s able to narrowly escape. When she splutters to safety above ground, she discovers that Yon-Rogg is working with Nova Prime, who has set the whole thing up to gift Xandar to Ronan in exchange for a senior leadership position. Of course, she already has a senior leadership position, but don’t worry about that.
Nebula is a step ahead
Nebby is able to escape and get back to the casino, where she teams up with Howard, Korg, and Groot to take down Nova Corps before they can let Ronan through the shield. With Yondu’s fin and Yaka arrow, she leads her ragtag little team in taking down the traitors and stopping Ronan’s invasion by closing the shield right on his fleet, something made possible by the fact that Nebula had already figured out what Nova Prime was up to and amended the codes Yon-Rogg stole.
This is still a tough pill for Nebula to swallow, though, since she had come to love her adoptive mother and mentor, and it turns out she was vehemently anti-cyborg all along. Still, it’s pretty in keeping with the holiday season to find out that someone you thought you knew is a bigot. Perhaps she’d had a few drinks beforehand.
How does What If…? Season 2 Episode 1 end?
In the end, Nebula manages to find a family anyway. Sure, it comprises a duck, a rock monster, and a tree, but it’s better than nothing.
Where things might go from here is anyone’s guess. Does Nebula take over? Are there honest members of the Nova Corps who can step into the power vacuum and preserve law and order? Luckily, the point of a show like this is that you don’t need to bother thinking about it, since none of this will ever come up again.
Or will it? I suppose you never quite know with Marvel, but either way, the Blade Runner-esque cyberpunk noir vibe of this premiere was an enjoyable diversion from the usual MCU fare.
What did you think of What If…? Season 2 Episode 1? Let us know in the comments.
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