“Time. Space. Reality. It’s more than a linear path. It’s a prism of endless possibility where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities.”
The third episode of What If…? entitled “What if… The World Lost its Mightiest Heroes” consists of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Mike Wingert as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Stephanie Panisello as Betty Ross, Mike McGill as General Thaddeus Ross, Alexandra Daniels as Captain Marvel, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and Lady Sif as Jaimie Alexander. The series also has Lake Bell as the one who voices Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow.
This episode is just like the first two episodes where a single decision or choice can branch out new realities in different timelines. The episode starts with Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff heading to Randy’s Donuts to talk to Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man to be a part of the Avengers Initiative. However, Tony tells Fury that he doesn’t want to join his “super-secret boyband.” When Natasha approaches Tony, she injects “lithium dioxide” at his neck. The lithium dioxide is only supposed to abate the symptoms of the palladium poisoning of Tony, but he suddenly feels sick and drops dead on the floor.
The next day, Natasha is accused of murdering Tony Stark and is taken away for questioning. Luckily, she got off the truck. On that same day, Nick Fury and Hawkeye are in a tent in New Mexico where the Mjollnir is found. Thor trespasses the area to get his hammer back. As he is about to lift it, Hawkeye is above, aiming for Thor. Hawkeye isn’t going to release his arrow not until Fury says so. Nick wants to see if Thor can lift the hammer. As seconds pass by and lightning strikes from above, Hawkeye unexpectedly releases his arrow. Thor is hit by it, which results in his death. S.H.I.E.L.D. locks and isolates Hawkeye as he is trying to understand how the arrow slipped. He himself knows that he does not misfire. Fury goes inside Hawkeye’s cell, but as he was calling him out, he suddenly falls on the floor from his sitting position. He is later on revealed dead just like Iron Man and Thor.
The next scenes are alternating scenes of Natasha with Bruce Banner a.k.a. The Hulk and the arrival of Loki. When Natasha is about to plan her escape with Bruce and Betty, General Thaddeus Ross arrives with a whole team to hunt Natasha down. As Natasha is telling Ross to stand down because she has Bruce Banner in custody, someone shoots Banner on the shoulder that triggers him to let out the Incredible Hulk. Natasha thinks that it was Ross' team that shoots Banner, but it turns out no one opened fire. Banner is now in his Hulk form, smashing his surroundings for getting shot. On the other side, Nick Fury is dealing with Loki asking him why he came to earth. Loki tells him that vengeance is the reason why he came to Earth because an agent killed his brother, Thor Odinson.
Moments later, Natasha finds out who the culprit is by telling Fury “It's Hope. It's all about Hope”. Fury already has an idea who that is and so the episode ends with him, honoring the Avengers. Fury tells Coulson that they are the affirmation of humanity’s need.
In this episode, it is shown that it was all about the Avengers. We see some parts of the episode that were taken from the movies such as Tony Stark sitting on top of the donut which was taken from the movie Iron Man 2, and Thor getting his Mjollnir which was taken from the first Thor film. The episode did answer the question “What if the world lost its mightiest heroes?” because it showed that if we lost them, there would be no more heroes to defend us. There may be some, but most of them have their own battle to fight with. For the first scenes like the scenes of Tony and Thor dying, viewers already have an idea that the original six of the Avengers will die one by one. What’s so good about this episode is that there were a lot of plot twists that will make the viewers expect something to happen in a particular scene but it turns out, different things will happen instead.
Upon watching the three episodes of “What If…?,” the intro includes the so-called “The Watcher” who is the narrator of the series. In every intro, the Watcher explains that “Time, Space and Reality is more than a linear path and a prism of endless possibility where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities.” It got me thinking that if a single choice can change everything from a certain timeline, then it means that all the episodes of What If…? are connected. In the first episode, Agent Peggy Carter chose to become the super-soldier rather than Steve Rogers. She eventually was addressed as Captain Carter. Then, that means her choice changed everything that was supposed to happen. T’Challa was supposed to be King of Wakanda, but he became a Star-Lord instead. The Avengers were supposed to be Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but it also turned out that they weren’t because they ended up dead. If ever Nick Fury pushes through with the Avengers Initiative, a whole different line-up of heroes would be assembled.
The ending of episode 3 shows Nick Fury in an icy cold crash site looking for Captain America and welcoming back Captain Marvel. In this case, Peggy’s choice didn’t create a new branch reality because Captain Carter wasn’t frozen in ice for 70 years, it was Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America. Episode 3 had a lot of plot twists which made viewers confused. It has a gripping and thought-provoking storyline. The scenes were perfectly made for an animated series. The emotions of the voice actors are very natural. The depiction and personality of each character are very true to their MCU roots even for those that were voiced by different actors. Overall, I would give this episode a 10/10.
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