S02.E02: What If… Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

When Ego and a young Peter Quill threaten Earth in 1988, Howard Stark and Peggy Carter form a team.

Dropping Saturday, December 23, 2023.

[Spartan Girl]

Well that was a weird team up. An evil brainwashed child Peter Quill was interesting, as was Thor meeting him that way. But why shoehorn Bucky into this? And 🙄 that they fixed his brainwashing so fast. 

[arc]

lol at the pretty unnecessary exposition explaining how Cap's shield isn't made of stolen vibranium.

That quadjet (?) had more than enough room inside for front-facing seats. Lemme tell you as a bus rider, side-facing seats aren't great even for the kinds of acceleration and deceleration a public bus has.

This goes back to the Avengers movie, but I've never been clear on how that glass circular cell is able to hold a Thor, much less a Celestial.

ROFL at Marvel engineering their own sorta "save Martha" moment in What If.

I'm no military tactician, but it seems bad to put tanks behind the superheroes, and who'll have to fire through em.

One big (no pun intended) problem with Goliath's powers is it makes him a much bigger target or vulnerable to friendly fire.

C'mon, there's no way an ant flies faster than Celestial energy tentacles.

The 1980s version of the Avengers is pretty good but as far as victory meals go, I'm sad shawarma was harder to come by back then.

[thuganomics85]

I do like that in apparently most/every universe, Ego apparently tells Peter the truth about how he killed his mother and acts like it's no biggie, all for it to blow up on his face.  Classic Ego!

An 80s version of The Avengers teaming up to take on an Ego-infected Peter Quill was fun enough idea.  Not surprised about seeing the likes of Hank, Peggy, Howard (although as much I as I like John Slattery, Dominic Cooper is still who I always associate with Howard), and T'Chaka, but I was surprised that they remembered that Foster was a character (and that Laurence Fishburne was willing to reprise the role), and even brought back Wendy Lawson as well (although I guess Annette Bening wasn't available or didn't want to do it.)  The Winter Solider did feel risky and kind of shoe-horned in, but I liked Howard and Peggy's reaction to him, and how it all played out.  Steve really did stick with everyone involved during that time.

Great seeing Thor and Chris Hemsworth continues to be one of the surprisingly stronger performers here.  Voice acting can be tricky, but he's actually more natural than I thought he would be.

[tkc]

I think it’s so cool that they can get so many of the key voice actors to return: everyone from Sebastian Stan to Atandwa Kani (who played young T’Chaka in Black Panther, and is the son of John Kani, who played the older T’Chaka).

We even got a not-quite reprise of Aaron Sorkin’s The American President, which starred Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. Could Hank and Mar-Vell be a thing? Just asking. 😄

[benteen]

I've been hoping we'd get a Avwngers 1988 story since the Ant-Man flashbacks and was thrilled to get one. I wish it had been feature length but a real credit to to everyone involved to have packed all this into a 28-minute episode. Strong use of the existing characters at the time and I enjoyed seeing Hank and Hope interact with a young Hope. Peggy and Howard in charge of SHIELD is great to see and Bucky breaking his programming means that Howard and Maria will still be alive.

[Megras]

I guess they needed a Soviet hero to show the world cooperating aspect and the Winter Soldier is the best known.

[arc]

1 hour ago, Megras said:

I guess they needed a Soviet hero to show the world cooperating aspect and the Winter Soldier is the best known.

Best known to the real world audience, but in the MCU all of their superhumans were pretty secret. Red Guardian would have been their most famous one. Per Black Widow, he even inspired toys made in the USSR. The Black Widows and Winter Soldier were black ops super-spies more than soldiers, much less superheroes. But arguably the Winter Soldier would have been more capable than Red Guardian.

Though even a kid with the kind of powers Celestial Peter Quill displayed would seem to greatly outclass a Winter Soldier armed with a sniper rifle. So really, the USSR coulda sent anyone for all the good it would do.

[Captain Carrot]

On 12/24/2023 at 2:50 AM, thuganomics85 said:

I was surprised that they remembered that Foster was a character (and that Laurence Fishburne was willing to reprise the role), and even brought back Wendy Lawson as well (although I guess Annette Bening wasn't available or didn't want to do it.) 

Given that a lot of famous VAs can literally do their lines from home, I'm thinking that we can use What If to see how willing people are to come back in live action MCU. So, Fishburne might show up again, but we probably won't see another appearance from Benning.

[tennisgurl]

I feel like this could have easily been its own movie, I have been wanting an 80s Avengers team up every since we got those flashbacks to Hank's time as Ant Man. Having them assemble because of an Ego influenced young Peter is a really cool idea, it feels like one of the better "What If" scenarios the show has come up with. Little Hope and Peter were adorable, and while its too bad that he presumably wont be with the Guardians its fun to think about a world where Peter is raised by Hank. Does he pass his costume along to Peter one day in this universe? 

I expected Hank, Peggy, Howard and T'Chaka, but was pleasantly surprised to see Bill Foster, Wendy Lawson, and even Bucky. It feels like the Soviets sending over their super secret brainwashed super weapon to some of the only people who was recognize him from his previous life, but I liked Peggy and Howards reactions to him and how Howard got through to him. I guess in this universe he never kills Howard and Maria, which would certainly change a lot about Tony's story. 

Ego just never knows when to shut up does he?

[arc]

3 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Ego just never knows when to shut up does he?

He has an ego the size of a planet!