So What If…? is back with season 2, the animated series that does offshoot stories of the MCU in a computer-animated Disney-styled look. Inspired by the first two volumes of the comics series from Marvel during the late seventies through the late nineties, the show is more in line with the re-emergence of the title from the mid-two thousands that focused on alternate endings of big crossover events. For me, that takes a large amount of the fun of the original concept of the title, a series that felt more like The Twilight Zone of Marvel Comics, to this need to have one-and-done stories lead to some grand ending with different characters coming together to fight off some big bad. I didn’t finish the first season until I watched my review screeners for this new season. I was uninterested. I didn’t want to see Captain Carter team with Bad Dr. Strange, Goofball Thor, and more. While I know, and I get why they made the show, this was for the newer MCU-focused fans first (along with a large number of comic fans as well) who want something close to what they know from the MCU versus actual experimentation, which leaves this series lacking for me.
With a daily release schedule during the 2023 holiday season, this season starts with some blatant movie homages like Blade Runner and Die Hard. There are a bulk of episodes that are very much alternate versions of the earlier phase movies with different characters that have the same arc for the most part as those movies. And three that I feel get kind of close to what, for me, is the core conceit of What If is about. Episode 6 is legitimately interesting as it’s not directly tied to any MCU movie; it does something unexpected and new. Seeing them make new characters felt like the creators got to stretch their wings, but then it was back into the box of the MCU. It bums me out that they don’t even use other Marvel Characters that aren’t the MCU or even ones they haven’t used yet or even a lot of. I was very much wondering how come there’s no Daredevil in any of these? No She-Hulk, No Sam Wilson (as Cap or Falcon), No Moon Knight, No Werewolf by Night, Not one Eternal, Not one Young Avenger that’s been teased, or even no Ms. Marvel. I was perplexed to see that in the second season, it is still very much a continuation of the stories from the first one and primarily focuses on the characters from Phases 1 and 2. That left me pretty bored.
I was surprised by how many of the actual actors return to voice their characters in these episodes, and that’s cool, but it’s still a pretty limited show in something that they can do even more than they can in the movies and shows. The animation is good, and I think some of the pacing and action set pieces were fun to watch overall. The show does well with using attractive angles and shot compositions to make things feel familiar but stretch where they can. So I don’t want to say this show is bad because it’s far from it, yet it is very much lacking in what it can do. I do wish some of the MCU fans take some time and go and find the older What If comic books to really see how this concept and push things further. I do believe the audience would go for that format more, especially with the success of the Black Mirror on Netflix. What If…? Season 2 is more of the same as the last one, but if it doesn’t change in the next season, it won’t last past season 3.
Score: C
RIOTUS 