Summary
Marvel’s What If…? Season 3 gets off to a cracking start in Episode 1, which feels like the perfect premise for this kind of animated anthology.
What if… the MCU had a baby with Godzilla and the Power Rangers? I have no idea how that would work genetically speaking, but the offspring would probably look a lot like the Season 3 premiere of Marvel’s What If…?, which questions what might happen if the Hulk fought the Mech Avengers. And it turns out to be a decent question.
The point of this show, if you recall, was originally as an anthology of hypotheticals, fun ways to imagine your favorite Marvel heroes and villains in radically new contexts that didn’t jive with the established canon. Across two seasons it has been able to do that intermittently, but it also couldn’t resist becoming overly serialized, trapped in the web of Marvel’s multimedia continuity like a fly about to be devoured by a spider (named Kevin Feige, or whatever).
It’s too early to tell if Season 3 of Marvel’s What If…? will take the same approach. Episode 1 is totally isolated, or at least feels it, which is a good start. It’s also a big, broad enough twist on the typical MCU formula to feel like it justifies the flexibility of a production like this, where the animation and the storytelling freedom can result in major wins with big enough swings.
The general idea of “What If… the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?” is that Bruce Banner’s endless efforts to cure himself of his gamma-afflicted rage transformation have had wildly unintended consequences, spawning an army of “Gamma Beasts” with Banner’s Hulk as their Apex Predator. Even the Avengers need a bit of a leg-up to deal with radioactive kaiju, so they all fight back in giant mech suits that can all link up Voltron-style into a giant Avenger Megazord. As far as elevator pitches go, this must have been a really easy sell.
A still from Marvel’s What If…? depicting the Mech Avengers | Image via Disney+
What feels new-ish about the whole thing is the Avengers themselves. Long gone is the typical line-up of the early phases, and in its place is a who’s-who of post-Endgame heroes including Sam Wilson, Monica Rambeau, Shang-Chi, Moon Knight, Nakia, the Iron Maiden, and the Red Guardian. Most of the live-action cast reprise their roles here, which is nice since these characters have largely been abandoned in Marvel’s incredibly aimless recent years. It has the appeal of fan fiction with the hint of vocal authenticity afforded by Disney’s bottomless pockets and supposedly arcane contractual practices.
It pleases me to report that What If…? Season 3, Episode 1 feels exactly like an episode of this show should. It prioritizes spectacle and adapting MCU characters and concepts to pay homage to very familiar influences. It could never work in the Earth-616 timeline, but again, that’s the point, and it enjoys that freedom without sacrificing an emotional core – the friendship between Sam and Bruce – that does feel like a payoff to the existing relationships we’re familiar with. It’s a just-right balance that doesn’t need a longer runtime – let alone multiple episodes – to be effective and fun.
I hope that Season 3 continues along these lines, swerving away from overt continuity and instead really leaning into the possibilities afforded by the concept. Do I trust Disney to do that? Not at all. But I can give them the benefit of the doubt for the time being, just so long as they keep giving me Hulk-as-Godzilla fan fiction.
