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Disney+'s WHAT IF ...? ANIMATED SERIES (2021)
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Started by Bosco685,

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Bosco685

Bosco685

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It really was that good!

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It seems that Scott Derrickson left Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness because he wanted to take the movie in a different direction than Kevin Feige and Marvel wanted. Given his history as a horror writer and director and the fact that he left to work on a horror movie where he wouldn’t have to compromise his plans, it seems likely that his vision for the second movie was a full-on horror film. What If…? episode 4 gave viewers a glimpse of what that would have looked like, as Strange is pitted against an evil Doctor Strange in a futile battle across timelines to try to save a portion of the multiverse. The episode encompassed plenty of horror aspects including Doctor Strange being stuck in a loop of watching the woman he loves die, his meddling with dark forces that lead to his spiritual and physical corruption by beings from other dimensions, and evil Strange’s triumph over the good Strange. The final horror element comes in the episodes ending with Doctor Strange realizing what he has done as he is trapped in a tiny reality and Doctor Strange is abandoned by the Watcher, the only being who might be able to save him.

 

This bleak downer of an episode would have been seemed unthinkable in the early days of the MCU. During Phase 1, the heroes reliably won and long-term casualties were rare. As time went on, the Marvel Cinematic Universe allowed itself to occasionally veer into some darker territory as it began to reckon with the consequences of the Avengers’ actions in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. This culminated in Marvel committing to major characters being permanently written out of the future of the timeline, as with the deaths of Yondu, Tony Stark, and Natasha Romanoff. What If…? episode 4 highlights this change, but it is neither the beginning nor the end of this transition.

 

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Bosco685

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On 9/5/2021 at 10:00 AM, bpc3qh said:

The last couple episodes have definitely been improvements; the voice acting and animation have always been strong, but the writing has been much better--less juvenile and more subtle. Glad to see the show trending upwards.

Well Episode 4 especially was a story unto itself without as much fallback on the original movie other than the car crash scene. And I can only imagine how intense this would have been as a 2 to 2.5 hour movie.

Dark. Intense. Emotional throughout. :applause:

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Artboy99

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On 9/5/2021 at 1:10 PM, Bosco685 said:

Well Episode 4 especially was a story unto itself without as much fallback on the original movie other than the car crash scene. And I can only imagine how intense this would have been as a 2 to 2.5 hour movie.

Dark. Intense. Emotional throughout. :applause:

I would really like to see it as a movie.

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Bosco685

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While Spider-Ham is going to be a father, Spider-Man's beloved father figure is finally confirmed to exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the first time since Captain America: Civil War rebooted the character's movie continuity, (a version of) Spider-Man said the words "Uncle Ben" in today's episode of What If...?. Obviously, this isn't the Tom Holland Spider-Man -- the character was actually voiced by Mad Men and The Secret Life of the American Teenager actor Hudson Thames -- but this exists explicitly within the shared multiverse of the Marvel movies, and features a version of Peter Parker who has the same lived experiences, and relationship with the other Marvel heroes, as Peter.

 

The episode also sees this version of Peter turning down an offer to join The Avengers. That's something that tracks more with the Peter of the comics (who wasn't a regular member of the team for the first fifty or so years of his existence) than the movies.

 

After the Sam Raimi film franchise, the Amazing Spider-Man movies, and a number of animated iterations, it seemed as though Marvel and Sony had decided that it was better to introduce Spider-Man as a fully-realized superhero in Captain America: Civil War than to rehash his origin again. Unfortunately, that meant that the death of Uncle Ben had to go...and as a result, so did the character almost completely, being alluded to in the movies, but never mentioned by name until now.

 

Tom Holland's Spider-Man has already appeared in Captain America: Civil War, two Avengers movies, and two Spider-Man movies (with a third on the way), and since the beginning, fans have been wondering when this key piece of his backstory would be addressed.

 

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valiantman

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Decided 15 years ago that I really don't like zombies.  I expecially really don't like Marvel zombies, the obvious jump-on-the-Walking-Dead-bandwagon (at least we got Kirkman) comics from 15 years ago. 

Glad that I experienced the What If episode to solidify that reaction for the next few decades as well.

:foryou:

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valiantman

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On 9/9/2021 at 1:58 PM, MattTheDuck said:

Given the depressing/negative nature of most of the episodes thus far, I'm not too anxious for new episodes.

Hmmm, that's a good point. 

I wonder if there will be a What If episode where everything goes right for every hero and we get a "best of all possibilities" Marvel universe that contrasts the actual MCU with dead Vision, dead Tony, dead Natasha, etc.

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MattTheDuck

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On 9/9/2021 at 12:01 PM, valiantman said:

Hmmm, that's a good point. 

I wonder if there will be a What If episode where everything goes right for every hero and we get a "best of all possibilities" Marvel universe that contrasts the actual MCU with dead Vision, dead Tony, dead Natasha, etc.

Hard to dial it up from "destroyed the universe."  

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valiantman

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On 9/9/2021 at 2:03 PM, MattTheDuck said:

Hard to dial it up from "destroyed the universe."  

Kinda.  "destroyed a universe" is all that actually happened, and since there are infinite universe possibilities, destroyed one universe, left infinite other universes isn't really all that impactful.

They're quickly going to reach the same "no real consequences" ceiling that Superman writers hit by the 1950s.  General audiences will be done when that happens (streaming/movies/whatever).

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fantastic_four

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On 9/9/2021 at 1:39 PM, valiantman said:

Decided 15 years ago that I really don't like zombies.  I expecially really don't like Marvel zombies, the obvious jump-on-the-Walking-Dead-bandwagon (at least we got Kirkman) comics from 15 years ago. 

Glad that I experienced the What If episode to solidify that reaction for the next few decades as well.

:foryou:

I enjoy several of the Romero zombie movies and enjoy how Kirkman revived the zombie genre, but yea, I mostly agree that I don't need zombie versions of other stuff I already like.  Wasn't looking forward to the episode, and while it held my attention it's my least favorite episode so far.

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TupennyConan

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The terrific animation in this series seemed even better in the zombie episode. All the comedy from Spidey & Ant-Man helped. I'm not a zombie fan, never read the MZ books. I hope this episode gave the folks what they want. 

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