It is clear that the television series of Marvel They have come to Disney + to stay. So far we have been able to see ‘Scarlet Witch and Vision’, ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ and ‘Loki’, all of them with characters already known to fans of the MCU, thus creating little less than the need to see them to keep up to date with this universe of superheroes. However, ‘What if …?’ goes the other way, since it bets on animation to explore alternative scenarios of several stories already told within this multi-million dollar franchise as of this Wednesday August 11.
This is something that Marvel itself has already raised on multiple occasions in the comics since it did it for the first time in 1977, so we cannot speak here of an original bet on the part of the study. That does not mean that it was a very successful decision, since ‘What would happen if …?’ knows how to put an exhilarating twist on past MCU situations to bring us highly condensed adventures in which there is no room for downtime.
With clear ideas
The first thing I would like to clarify after watching three episodes of ‘What if …?’ is that the new Disney + series feels like different within the status quo of the MCU although he does not get carried away by his craziest side. Each episode – at least the three that Disney has made available to the press – starts from a specific idea and develops it into episodes of about 30 minutes.
Of course, the very decision of how much footage the scriptwriting team led by AC Bradley, known so far for her work on ‘Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia’ and will repeat with Disney in ‘Ms. Marvel ‘, already makes it clear that in’ What if …? ‘ a lively rhythm will prevail. Be careful, alive and not run over, because each episode also worries about introduce and pamper the most emotional factor so that everything is something more than a showy curiosity.
Also, ‘What if …?’ it also takes very little to show that everything is possible in the series, offering a very different path to established characters or even allowing to kill characters that are still standing within the MCU. It is true that the impact is not the same as if something like this happened with their flesh and blood versions, but it does help to cement the personality of a project that in no case is he content with the possibility of being seen as a mere extravagance.
In fact, there have even been statements by some of those responsible indicating that all this becomes canon within the MCU. Of course that has its trick now that the multiverse has arrived in this superhero universe after the end of the first season of ‘Loki’, but opens the door to recover some character from this animated series for a live action movie.
With personality beyond the benchmark
From what I have seen so far, I am quite clear who would be the first option beyond the Vigilante played by Jeffrey Wright, who works as an anchor to give unity to all the stories that ‘What would happen if …?’ And is that the series is, to a certain extent, raised in such a way that one comes to mind ‘The Twilight Zone’ and Rod Serling. In fact, its nature as an anthology is also promoted, but the effect is not the same despite looking for a different tone depending on the story, since in the end everything is a review of a pre-existing and interconnected universe.
That doesn’t stop each episode from going developing your own personality, with the first opting more for a role reversal to end up reaching more or less the same conclusion, the second blowing up everything about who’s who and the third playing with a mystery that works better than anyone Marvel has exposed. in any of his movies. It is also fair to say that his superhero films have not stood out precisely for playing with suspense and intrigue at that level.
Also, ‘What if …?’ knows how to be playful without abusing humor, although it is still present to a greater or lesser extent as the story requires, and finding the right keys so that each of the stories has enough individual entity and does not fall into the dangerous territory of the anecdotal.
All this finds good support in a careful animation work, where it is sought at the same time that one remembers what originally happened in the situations that it poses but without being a slave to them. And it is that that would take away its personality in the purely visual, where it is also noted that it is having a wider spot as the episodes go by. It is logical that initially they wanted to play with familiarity as a gateway for skeptics that may be faced with such a proposal, since there will be time to twist everything little by little to make it clear that we are facing a series with its own voice beyond its references.
In short
It will be necessary to see how it evolves in the rest of the episodes -the first season will finally have nine-, but I have been very satisfied with the first three, for how entertaining and direct they are. Maybe an extra bit of madness is what they lacked to be able to reach another level, but they are different enough to be able to enjoy them without seeing them as a simple curiosity.