Marvel’s “What If…?” animated series has provided looks into alternate realities where one small thing made an amazing difference. I’ve enjoyed all the stories, but I’ve also noticed the overall trend is they seem to be getting darker as they go.
Now, the wait is over, and Shang-Chi gets his turn to shine in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”
The one we see this week, well… again, the title is a clue, “What if The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” This one has a lot of twists and turns and I don’t see a way to do this otherwise, so there will be spoilers .
The second episode changes things on a more cosmic level, with a lot of fascinating repercussions. As with last week, the title gives you basic concept: “What If T’Challa Became A Star-Lord?” This is, it’s worth noting, the last performance of any kind from Chadwick Boseman.
What If?… explores alternate worlds, things that could have happened if something had been just a bit different. The first episode, “What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?” has a fairly self-explanatory concept.
After many delays, Black Widow has finally come out, and it’s a great addition to the MCU.
Taking its name from the comic where Thor (and later Loki himself) first appeared in Marvel Comics back in the 60’s, Loki goes into the Void to learn a lot more about what’s really going on in “Journey Into Mystery.”
Past the halfway point now, Loki continues to deliver surprises and twists. What would you expect from something where the main character is the god of mischief, or lies, depending on which version you’re going by? I like to think I’m pretty good at working out where stories might go, and I saw none of what happened this episode coming.
When your main character is a god of mischief and you’ve already introduced time travel and unlimited teleportation, you never know what’s coming next. Add in other chaos factors like a different version of your main character and some kind of allegedly all powerful group behind the scenes, and the sky’s the limit. Or even that isn’t really a limit.
With the premier episode, Loki’s new reality was established.
