Marvel's What if...? finale tidies up its own mess
Humorous fights and Doctor Strange flexes fill Episode 9.
The Short Take:
The finale of Marvel’s inaugural season of What if…? demonstrates that even though introducing a multiverse into the MCU invites chaos, it also allows creators to neatly pack away a story and start anew with ease. Doctor Strange attains MVP status, shoring up my theory about his role in upcoming films.
[SPOILERS FROM EVERY UNIVERSE. This is a season finale, after all.]
The Long Take:
They did it! They did it. I say this twice not for emphasis but because I mean that What if…? did actually bring back characters from every previous episode, as I had hoped after last week’s parameter-altering episode. But I also mean it in the sense that they pulled this whole thing off. They actually assembled a new team, named them The Guardians of the Multiverse, and recaptured the unparalleled team-up fun of an early Avengers film. That feeling I get when a set of heroes work together, utilizing their own special skills to try to take down a common foe. There’s nothing quite like it.
I had a blast watching this episode. The sheer confusion on characters’ faces when The Watcher and Dark Doctor Strange (a more apt name than Evil Doctor Strange at this point) pluck them from their own realities. The perfectly matched drinks Dark Doctor Strange conjures for them. Party Thor not paying attention and just charging headfirst into every situation. Everyone constantly commenting on how The Watcher looks like a giant baby. Star Lord T’Challa using the phrase “sticky fingers.” There were so many details that just kept crashing like waves against my funny bone.
The episode, while fun, did not have as much emotional impact, however. Since we’ve only just met these characters in their respective single episodes, I don’t find myself that attached to them. This version of Gamora only showed up this episode. With all of them splitting screen time and with Ultron’s threat against the multiverse not really having affected them yet, the dramatic tension just wasn’t there. All the heroes, within seconds, just simply agree to help The Watcher, as if this is nothing but a lark. Black Widow is the one exception to this; her conversation with The Watcher at the very end of the episode because, as she says, there’s no one left in her universe, is the only down note. She would only return to pain, loneliness, and loss. But this only appears at the end of the episode, and by then it’s too little too late.
I do care a lot more about Doctor Strange as a result of this episode and the season in general. He essentially does all the heavy-lifting throughout the battle against Perfect Ultron; I can confidently say they could not have defeated the universe-binging AI without him. His protection spell, his three-headed dragon, his tentacles, all that dark power he absorbed. It’s on full display here. Will this variant show up in future films? Will our Doctor Strange level up to approach this Strange’s powers and abilities? I hope at least one of those wishes comes true.
Regardless of whether or not Dark Doctor Strange reappears in other MCU properties, What if…?, in making him such a key player alongside The Watcher, anoints our own Doctor Strange — and all his variants that may flood the multiverse — as the leading hero going forward. I’ve posited this before in previous What if…? reviews, so I won’t rehash my wild speculation here, but, for me, this finale solidified the “Doctor Strange is the new Iron Man” theory. The way in which he is co-coordinator with The Watcher here puts him in another league above all the other heroes. Some form of the transitive property is at work in my thinking here: if the multiverse is going to be the centerpiece of Phase 4 and if Doctor Strange is the most proficient non-Celestial, non-Eternal, non-god-like cosmic being hero when it comes to operating in the multiverse, then Doctor Strange must be the centerpiece of Phase 4. Q.E.D. What a time to be Benedict Cumberbatch, is all I can say. With not one but two prestige films to create buzz on the film festival circuit this fall (The Power of the Dog and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain) AND having a huge role in the Spider-man: No Way Home trailer AND starring in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness this spring, he’s quickly becoming one of the most prolific and successful actors of our generation.
Next in line for What if…? characters I most care about, Captain Carter and Black Widow, to my surprise, pulled ahead in the eleventh hour because they had such a life-affirming rapport in this episode. I would watch a whole show with just those two. While they don’t quite pass the Bechdel test most of the time — Natasha hassles Peggy about her dating life in the Captain Carter timeline and the Guardians of the Multiverse versions of them can’t help but talk about Steve and Clint — they do establish that their mutual trust and respect are an absolute in the multiverse. I never would have guessed this, but I actually didn’t cringe when Captain Carter called Black Widow her BFF (probably because it was said with tongue loosely in cheek). Maybe it’s just that my heart was warmed by two female superheroes actually getting along. We need more of that in general.
As I look back on the entire season of What if…?, do I think they took full advantage of the show’s premise? No. But did I have fun with what we got? Yes. They somehow managed to make a series of standalone episodes that are fun detours and create a convergence that relates to the broader context of Phase 4. Michael Ordoña of the LA Times calls the show a “failure” and a “misstep,” and expresses concern about the future of the franchise as a result. While I agree with some of his critiques, like that some episodes leave “emotion out of the equation” and that the creators didn’t take enough risks or go to enough extremes with their hypotheticals, I don’t think that means that we should trash the whole thing. This was a fun, albeit imperfect ride that increased my excitement for more multiversal stories.
Because the beauty of the multiverse is that if you don’t get it quite right, you can pack up a story and go back to the drawing board. If there are any takeaways from the MCU’s first foray into an animated series, it’s that pulling variants or alternate universes off the shelf (or should I say out of the long box?), just to try them out may get a little messy, but it’s just as easy to put them back in and move on. This finale, in its ability to very quickly wrap up not only the Perfect Ultron storyline but handily put all the previous episodes’ alternate heroes back where they belong, shows the narrative flexibility a multiverse offers.