Marvel What If Episode 1 Recap: Captain Carter, Hydra Stomper

For all the there is noise to be made about multiversal implications from Disney + and by marvel what if, the animated series is also an anthology of autonomous stories about the endless number of people actually living in the current industry timelines that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At some point, the larger meaning of it all will become clearer.

But in his first episode, what ifthe rhetorical question of was answered through Peggy Carter’s review (Hayley Atwell) both as an individual and as a character whose decisions had a powerful cascading effect on the story arc. As an observer (Jeffrey wright) welcomes you to its courtyard view of the multiverse, the series establishes how his universes apparently sprang fully formed, all marked by specific moments that led to the events of their respective timelines derived from what we know. Simply by choosing to stay in the room where Steve Rogers (Josh Keaton) was supposed to receive an experimental dose from the super-soldier serum rather than witnessing the procedure remotely in another room, Peggy get on the path to becoming the first avenger of his reality.

Although much of the first episode, titled “What if … Captain Carter was the first avenger?” “-unfolds similarly to the events of Captain America: The First Avenger and other comics where Steve initially becomes Captain America, the story swivels in a number of new directions to make Captain Carter’s origins distinctly feel his own. After doing the split second decision to volunteer for the Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) experiment lest it all ignite, Peggy is left physically transformed into a beefy super soldier that the US government has sought to create. But because Peggy is female, she immediately encountered an almost comical level of overt sexist hostility from Senior Strategic Science Reserve Officer John Flynn (Bradley Whitford) who refuses to acknowledge the invaluable asset that she is against the Nazis and Hydra.

With WWII in full swing and rumors With Hydra developing technologies designed to truly devastate the world, Allied forces need all the help they can get to keep the planet from going to hell. In Flynn’s eyes, however, none of this is enough for him to consider putting Peggy on the ground, though it is becoming increasingly clear that the military may need his overpowered help to confront the enemy. Like her flexes her glorious deltoids and easily throws plate weights into the wall as if they were nothing, the episode falls into the familiar rhythms of a story about a strong female character ™ who rises to eliminate sexism while saving the day. what if isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here, and the show doesn’t exactly have the runtime to do so.

What this episode manages to do, however, is to create the perfect circumstances to bring out the elements of Peggy’s personality that have always made her a compelling character, and to present them in a new context that hammers the idea that she, like the other figures of Marvel, are mythical ideas more than people. Powers aside, Captain Carter is not much different from his original MCU counterpart. Powerful as she may be, Peggy’s talents for espionage and quick wit makes her a strength being treated in combat, and it’s hard not to see her as the ideal soldier.

Among the performances of the episode, Atwell stands out as feeling the most comfortable and familiar in a way that sets Peggy apart from some of the episode’s supporting characters, as Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). what iftake a skinny Steve—who ends up becoming his universe’s answer to one of the first Iron Man—take something from a Steve trevor sort of role in this first episode. While Steve is there to serve as the guinea pig for Howard Stark’s first motorized armor technology, he’s also here to be the things Peggy fights for on the home front. what ifThe callback to Peggy and Steve’s canonical romance feels like the episode’s way of reminding you of where the movie versions of these characters began, but also a bit like Marvel in making sure audiences don’t have a crazy ideas like “What if Peggy teamed up with lesbian Becky Barnes? “

While the episode tries to make it seem like Steve from this universe is also destined to end up locked in ice (or at least presumed dead like Bucky usually is after falling in battle), that fate – or the minus a similar one – ultimately belongs to Peggy. To be more precise, however, this fate seems to be inextricably linked with whoever rises, vibranium shield in hand, to fight Hydra and the Red Skull (Ross Marquand).

As it tends to be the case, the Supernazi’s plan for world domination once again involves the Tesseract, which he intends to use as a key to unlock a portal allowing the “real” Hydra champion to emerge from the sky. ‘another dimension. Like “What if … Captain Carter was the first avenger?” Builds on its final scenes, part of what makes the show promising somehow ends up against the episode’s favor. Once the Tesseract is in play, you’re supposed to realize it’s important, but it has passed between heroes and villains with a speed that telegraphs where the story unfolds long before it gets there. Rather than taking place in a Hydra plane, Captain Carter’s clash against Hydra takes place in a bunker where she and the other heroes are dismayed to see that the Red Skull Champion, a massive monster with several tentacles, is already trying to to go through. through a dimensional portal. As Peggy slices Hydra’s beast – over which they certainly have no control –with his sword and shield, it’s like what if is Set her up to be the centerpiece of a new arc spanning decades until a different group of Avengers are formed in the future.

All the beats of the classic Captain America story are there, until Peggy gets lost in time, though here it’s because she sacrifices herself to push the hydra back into her dimension of origin. Captain Carter’s return to Earth these days also echoes Cape Town’s exit from the ice, but as we’ve seen in the trailers, the world she entered is unlike anything we’ve seen. previously. The title of this episode alone already suggested that this Peggy was simply the first of the Avengers in its timeline in a historical sense, and there will be more we will see more of as what if is progressing. But after debuting with a slightly revamped narrative of an MCU classic, the show now has to prove if he’s bold enough to really think outside the box and offer viewers something both fresh and unexpected to watch.

what if airs Wednesdays on Disney +.

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