Man! Marvel has absolutely been killing it this year haven't they?
I might be in the minority here, and that's okay, but I loved everything that has come out so far. WandaVision was such an interesting concept that had me growing to care about two characters that I had no feelings towards originally, set up some amazing things for the future of Marvel and made me feel more emotions than I expected. Falcon and the Winter Soldier did suffer greatly from a very lackluster villain, but still tackled race and other issues quite well. It also featured some of the greatest acting from Sebastian Stan and helped really develop these two side characters, while once again setting up big things for the future. Loki gave us Alligator Loki, some amazing characters and concepts, a bit of a dive into the character of Loki and some amazing things to look forward to. Not to mention Black Widow was great and Shang Chi is looking to be amazing as well.
So far it has really felt like Marvel had been spoiling us. Pretty much one release after another, and I’m here for it! The next project lined up for their Disney+ slate was an animated show called “What If?” I have always been a fan of the “What If?” comics. I think they are a fun way to explore many stories we might not have gotten otherwise. Some more serious than others, while some are completely bonkers. To say the least, I was excited for this show.
Unfortunately, with good must also come bad. As marketing began for this show, it was revealed that unfortunately not all actors would be coming back to voice their iconic roles. It is something that made perfect sense, but still was disheartening. Then the first trailer came out. While I loved the ideas that were being shown, I was not a fan of the art style. Then again, a lot of Disney shows that are animated have disappointed me lately with the choice of art style. At the end of the day though, it didn't matter. The story seemed good enough to get past that. Jeffrey Wright seemed to be doing excellent as Uatu the Watcher. I could deal with some art I didn't like if it meant watching this show. That being said, was it worth it?
As of writing this, only two episodes of Marvel’s What If have been released. I must say, oh boy is it an interesting time.
Starting off, the first episode gives us what I imagine will sadly be one of the weakest entries into the series. This one tells of a scenario in which Peggy Carter is given the super soldier serum rather than Steve Rogers, becoming Captain Carter. Steve, being wounded, eventually gets a tesseract powered armor from Howard Stark and becomes The Hydra Stomper.
There are a lot of great things in this first episode. More Haley Atwell as Peggy Carter is always a plus. She does a great job voicing the role and I have seen that there are talks of maybe having Captain Carter somehow enter the main universe in live action. I am all for that. Peggy has always been a great character, and this version is no exception. Though I don't know the reasoning behind her having the name Captain Carter. It works though I suppose.
Steve as The Hydra Stomper was also pretty good. The suit felt a little like the original Iron Man armor that Tony Stark built in the first movie, and seemed really cool. I do wish we saw a bit more of it. Then again, there are also plenty of other paths I would have loved to see Steve’s character go down, and it seems I am not the only one. I will say, I liked that despite the change in dynamic, with Steve being this skinny kid and Peggy now being bigger and more muscular, the two still lined each other. It really showed the love the two had for one another. I rather appreciated that.
Unfortunately, that covers most of my positives. This first episode had terrible pacing and really flew through the story. Despite the change in what happens, this episode still fought to cover most of the first Captain America movie in a 20-30 minute episode run time. That was a huge mistake on Marvel’s part and thankfully it wasn't something done in episode 2.
One other thing to remember while watching this is that regular acting and voice acting are two very different things. They both require different skills and different approaches when it comes to doing them. That being said, sometimes the voice acting can be a bit rough. I love Sebastian Stan, but some of his line reads just weren't that good. That may improve the next time he is featured in an episode. I don't know though.
Episode 2 really made up for how iffy the first one was. This tells the story of T'challa getting kidnapped by Ravagers and becoming Starlord rather than Peter Quill. Boy, it does not take long to see the effects this has on the universe, with people even knowing who Starlord was right away. It really went out of it’s way to show how terrible Quill is at times and how amazing T'challa can be.
I really, REALLY loved this episode. It felt like this is one that took full advantage of the What If concept rather than just changing a couple small things. The first just seemed to cover the movie almost exactly with some variation, while this episode showed the full scope of things. We get to see not only how T'Challa and the Ravagers are affected by this, but other people in this universe as well, telling an almost completely new story. I hope that this is what the rest of the series is like. It was also nice and a bit sad hearing Chadwick Boseman again. This show was apparently the last project he worked on before his passing, and they do a great job honoring him. He honestly does a great performance as well. It made the whole thing a little bittersweet.
So I will say, after watching both episodes, the animation grew on me a bit. It still isn’t a style I am in love with, but for what it is, it’s rather well done. Obviously, because it is animation, some things are a bit goofier looking as they leaned a bit more into the animated facial expressions. Though strangely enough, at times it almost isn’t animated enough. I think that is because of the actors though. The way they do some of the voice acting will sometimes portray more emotion than the character’s facial expression show. I feel like it might be an issue with the voice acting direction more than anything.
One nice thing about them going about this show in this way, is that we get to see more things being done that just couldn’t necessarily work well with live action. To avoid too many spoilers, one example I can give is just them showing more of Peggy’s strength from the serum. We know Steve is strong in the movies, and we do see that shown quite well, but here we have Peggy picking up trucks and throwing them and pushing back massive enemies. It isn’t major stuff, but things that you wouldn’t necessarily see in the live action series. I appreciate that.
So, is this show any good? So far, yes, though it remains to be seen. At only two episodes in, it could very easily go either way. If I had written this just after episode one, I would be a bit worried, but that second one really put things on the right track. There is a lot to get past though if you want to get into it. The animation, which good and nice to some, may be a bit off-putting, and the voice acting can be a bit off at times. Still, the ideas and stories that are presented in this show so far make it worth it. I have seen spoilers at some of the episodes coming up, and it seems we might be getting more of those episodes like the second one. Which is good, as long as we continue to have variation. I like the “What If this character was now this character” episodes, but with such a great concept that has an infinite number of possibilities, I hope they do a bit more and aren’t afraid to really go out there and go crazy with some of these ideas. Lean into the goofiness or even the darker aspects. I think it could make the show a lot of fun and turn it into something great.
Right now I will say check it out. If you like the first episode, I can guarantee you will like the second one as it is far better. Seemingly from here on out, it will hopefully be continuing the trend and staying excellent, though who knows, I could be wrong. Only time will tell if we look at this and see something great or wonder What If they had done it better?
Comments
Post a Comment