what if...? Episode 1 explained

 

                         

              

                 Hello friends ,I just watched the first episode of Marvel’s What-If, I must tell you, this show looks more promising than anything else on Disney+ right now! Now, hold on a second, I am not saying this episode was the best, but after watching this, I get the idea why Marvel is doing this! They already said this show is officially canon to the most MCU timeline. So whatever we see during this series is essentially happening in another universe, with the choice of crossover to the most timeline whenever necessary! So what Marvel will essentially do here is experiment with characters, then they're going to study the fans reactions then bring them over to live-action movies! This way you will already know what the fans want and let it dictate the future of the MCU, this is just brilliant! Now having said that, let’s begin our breakdown of What If episode 1.

               Now today’s episode opens with a singular intro. But just before that, notice how the usual Marvel intro becomes animated in the last second to incorporate the idea of this series. We get a voice-over by Jeffrey Wright who is playing The Watcher. He explains to us that the MCU timeline isn’t linear. And here we visually get to see what is about to unfold in this series. We see Peggy Carter, Hulk’s eyes, Peter Parker, Killmonger, Red Skull, Proxima Midnight, Yondu, Hydra’s Logo, Loki standing in front of the UN, Thor, Nick Fury, Steve Rogers, T’Challaas Starlord, , T’Challa’s mother, Doctor Strange, Tony Stark as well as the moment Starlord was abducted by Yondu. In the next shot we see Killmonger as Tony Stark, Stephen Strange before he became Doctor Strange, And lastly Loki and a badass looking Collector! No offense, Benicio Del Toro is a tremendous Collector but I just feel this one looks way cooler!

                  Now everything happens precisely the way we’ve seen in Captain America: the primary Avenger until this moment. This is the moment Agent Carter created a nexus event. This one tiny decision had a chain reaction which led to her becoming a Super Soldier instead of Steve Rogers. Now the movie version had Tommy Lee Jones playing a significant character Colonel Phillips. But in this one, he was killed off almost immediately. But notice, we already got a glimpse of him on the proper side of the screen once we were being introduced to Dr. Erskine for the first time. Now just like in the movie, a Hydra agent infiltrates and this entire facility is ambushed. Colonel Phillips gets killed and Agent Flynn immediately takes over, becoming Colonel Flynn. Steve Rogers also gets shot but survives and Howard Stark is more worried about the Super Soldier Program where the machine is losing its power and they must carry out the procedure now or never! So Colonel Flynn commands Steve to get up and get inside the machine but Steve is badly injured. He then suggests Howard Stark to urge onto the machine but Howard says “what you crazy? I push the buttons” So seeing no other options, Peggy Carter decides to put herself forward and gets the super soldier serum injected into her body. We get the same camera angles and visuals just like we’ve seen in the First Avengers. Even the reactions of both Steve and Peggy are similar. Now what I love about this is that Marvel used a different background for these scenes in the trailer to avoid spoilers. It’s fascinating to me that Marvel would go this extra mile to guard plot-lines regardless of whether its a live action trailer or an animated one. Now I cannot ignore just how good the animations are during this series. Notice before becoming a super soldier, Peggy didn’t have these chest lines in her body. But after going through the procedure, with her increased muscle, they made sure to add these lines on her chest to make her muscle more visible. They didn’t animate her body like Hulk, they still kept all the human aesthetics and Peggy looks amazing as she always did! Now Peggy is constantly being humiliated by Colonel Flynn for taking the serum herself. Peggy says she had no other options but to take it, otherwise they would have lost all of Dr. Erskine’s work. Now notice what Colonel Flynn says to Peggy. Peggy gets insulted just hearing the idea that her blood samples might be used in the future to extract the serum and make another Super Soldier. I mean, Flynn didn’t even say he will definitely do it, he just said it might happen. So imagine what Isaiah Bradley must have gone through when the government kept experimenting on his body in order to create another super soldier. I am not down playing Peggy’s struggle here. All I am saying is there will always be some people plotting against you, it doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman.

                  We then get a callback to Steve Rogers destroying this punching bag. They both literally made the same moves. And then the show foreshadows how Peggy Carter are going to be ready to handle the shield. She complains about Colonel Flynn to Steve Rogers but he says it could have gotten muchworse! This is literally what Steve did himself in the main timeline. So Peggy is a minimum of not being forced to act as a puppet.

               Cut to Tonsberg, Norway where Red Skull is introduced in the exact same way as he was in the First Avengers. Tonsberg of course carries a lot of significance in the MCU as Odin first fought the Frost-Giantsright here in Thor 1 and in Ragnarok, he died here as well. Then in Endgame we saw how the Asgardians turned this place into their new home. Anyway, so the Red Skull steals the Tesseract aka Space Stone. Now notice, Red Skull hovers his hand over this symbol where a giant creature is surrounding the Tesseract. This was foreshadowing the ending of this episode where Red Skull uses the Tesseract and an enormous creature from another dimension appears which i feel is Shuma Gorath. Now, Shuma Gorath is an eldritch monster who inspires fear and horror in all who see him. His first proper appearance was in Marvel Premiere #9 as a 70s Doctor Strange antagonist. He is the lord of Chaos and he’s deeply connected to Stephen Strange. And rumour has it that this giant one-eyed, tentacled creature might appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

                 Cut to subsequent scene ; albeit Peggy just said its called the Tesseract, which is kinda true but if you translate these runes, it quite literally says Space Stone; So had Howard and Peggy learned some Norse runes, they would have known years ahead that this hypercube isn’t just a cube, it contains an actual infinity stone. Colonel Flynn then underestimates the Tesseract and says it is just a glorified battery. So Stark and Peggy come up with a replacement plan. They plan to follow the Tesseract themselves without telling anyone else. Now this box that contains Peggy Carter’s suit says Howard’s Designer Clothing on top. And unlike the movie version, this point it's Howard Stark himself who comes up with the shield and provides it to Peggy. Peggy Carter makes a superhero landing just like Steve Rogers did in Captain America:The Winter Soldier.

                 Now in this entire fight sequence, I caught some amazing attention to detail. notice how accurate the physics are in this scene. For instance, when Peggy flips this truck over, the exact moment she makes physical contact with the truck, it creates a friction which causes heat, therefore fire! Another example could be this scene where Peggy keeps throwing her shield like crazy! Notice how each time the shield hits a Hydra soldier, they either spit or their clothes get destroyed or their facial expression portrays excruciating pain. And this one is my favorite, notice how Peggy slams one Hydra soldier with her shield and the soldier next to him drops his jaw and is like What the hell am I seeing here. Keep in mind, these were all animated. So kudos to all the animators who worked incredibly hard and I am here to say, your work won’t go unnoticed. And I think it’s just better to admit that this version of Peggy Carter is way more brutal than Steve Rogers. Which is sensible though, considering she has been a trained soldier who got enhanced through the super soldier serum. Whereas our Steve Rogers was just a skinny kid from Brooklyn. Peggy then captures Arnim Zola along with the Tesseract and brings it back to Howard Stark.

                    Howard then immediately starts harnessing its power else up his Mark 1 suit. So in this timeline, Howard Stark already built Mark 1, so just imagine what his son Tony Stark will invent in the future. I love how Steve was walking with a cane stick and this is probably why Howard decided to give this suit to him. Captain Carter then proceeds to rescue Bucky. And over here we get another callback to Age of Ultron where Steve Rogers threw his bike. But during this one, Peggy not only throws it, she literally kicks it, which I reckon may require more strength to try to to so. Then we get plenty of references to Captain America: The First Avenger, so without me talking about it, Now inside the Hydra Stomper suit, Steve does have a heads up display like Tony has in our timeline. But because it’s the 1940s, technology has not evolved that much yet, so his display mostly consists of dials and how much power he is got left. But still, there is a display in an Iron Man suit, in the 1940s! Just goes to show how Howard was so much ahead of his time.

                   We then get a montage of Peggy fighting her way into multiple Hydra facilities. At one point, we see Peggy utilizing Steve’s flight ability. Notice Howard Stark actually put a handle on the back of the suit so that Peggy has something to hold on to. So Howard literally made it easier for Peggy to ride Steve! Steve and Peggy then share a drink and Peggy says; which again fits perfectly with The First Avengers where Steve went through the samething. Now Steve in this timeline gets a life lesson from Peggy here. He thinks he is still a skinny kid from Brooklyn, the only difference is now he has a suit. But Peggy makes him realize the suit itself doesn’t do anything, it’s the one controlling it. So if a suit is nothing without the suit, then maybe it’s just a oh my god...

                     Cut to the Train sequence where Bucky almost falls but Peggy saves him. This of course is a reference to the original timeline where he loses his arm, like multiple times! Steve then dies or so we are made to believe because this whole train thing was staged by Red Skull. Back within the compound, Howard argues with Colonel Flynn and says his Hydra Stomper suit is indestructible. Peggy then interrogates Arnim Zola and finds everything she has got to know. She then points to Castle Krake in the map which according to some of you lads is a reference to the sea monster Kraken.

                   We then get a one-shot scene where Peggy punches her way through Red Skull’s fortress and lets everyone else in. I love how Peggy was blocking bullets on point-blank range while preparing to kick the shit out of this guy. Red Skull on the opposite hand is preparing to open a portal using the Tesseract. Now in the next scene, we get a nod to Avengers 1 where Tony Stark and Steve Rogers had this conversation ; but in this timeline, the roles are pretty much reversed. This giant creature starts beginning of this portal and therefore the very first thing it crushes is Red Skull himself. Bucky and the team find Steve Rogers alive and sound. Peggy then realizes the tentacles of this creature are growing by the second, so they must stop it now. She takes Howard closer to the machine. Does that remind you of anything? Like father, like son eh! Howard then pulls this lever to close the portal. What’s interesting here is that it literally says close in German on top of the lever. So the fact that Howard made a joke of not knowing german, isn’t just a filler joke anymore. The fact that the animators added actual german text on the machine, added value to this joke. You going to love this writer-animator combination! Steve then manages to rescue Bucky and therefore the remainder of the team but sadly he couldn’t save Peggy Carter, as she is that the one making the sacrifice this point . But of course she doesn’t die and teleports to the future where Nick Fury and Hawkeye were experimenting with the Tesseract for project Pegasus. Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Renner both return to play their beloved characters and it's as if Peggy Carter teleported to the longer term just days before Loki’s arrival in 2012. So even though she just dealt with Red Skull and a big giant monster, there is another one coming who is essentially more dangerous! Now notice how Nick Fury tells Peggy to place down the sword Now in our timeline, Nick Fury said something similar also Come to consider it, because of Peggy’s nexus event, this timeline now doesn’t have Bucky as the Winter Soldier, meaning Howard Stark and his wife won’t be murdered by Bucky. So Civil War wouldn’t take place in this timeline. This is just amazing! I mean the infinite amount of possibilities is just heaven on earth for writers. They can play around characters however they want and the more unique and weird it is, the better! Now, I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of What If Episode 1.

                    Considering it’s an animated show, i actually feel it's tremendous potential. I can’t wait to see Evil Doctor Strange, Spider-Man Supreme, Zombie versions of Iron Man and Captain America, I mean the possibilities are endless! As for me, I do not, cannot and can not stop finding hidden details in these episodes. So please share this blog and we will meet in next epsode.