Captain Carter and Hellboy got involved in a very similar fight

What If…?’s premiere episode revealed that Captain Carter’s rise shared some surprising similarities with Hellboy.

The recent debut of Disney Plus‘ What If…? introduced fans to Captain Carter. This alternate reality version of everyone’s favorite SSR agent became a Super Soldier and took the fight to the Red Skull alongside her version of Steve Rogers and the Howling Commandos.

But her final battle against the Red Skull looked extremely familiar. Specifically, it was incredibly reminiscent of Hellboy when the titular protagonist took on a similar villain to close out the first live-action movie. And those similarities ran quite deeply.

Captain Carter makes her grand entrance

The essential premise of What If…? is taking a look at what would have happened in a familiar story if one detail changed. In the case of Episode 1, that meant Peggy Carter hung around the Super Soldier experiment instead of heading to the gallery.

That one small change had big repercussions. Peggy ended up being infused with the Super Soldier Serum and becoming Captain Carter. Howard Stark made a suit of armor for Steve Rogers and he became the Hydra Stomper. And Bucky never suffered the accident that led to him becoming Winter Soldier.

One thing that didn’t change was Red Skull trying to use the Tesseract for nefarious purposes. In this reality, the founder of Hydra opened a gate to let in an evil multi-dimensional being that would either help him rule the world or destroy it.

In the end, Captain Carter sacrificed herself, beating the monster back into the gateway with her sword and shield. It was no surprise to see Peggy make the sacrifice play to get the job done. She has and always will be one of the MCU’s most stalwart heroes.

Hellboy fights a similar battle

Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy was the first time the popular character became a live-action film. It did quite well in theaters and is generally considered to be a classic in the entire comic book movie genre. But the ending of the film may have been an inspiration for Captain Carter’s climactic battle.

Towards the end of World War II, the Nazis and a Russian mystic named Rasputin attempted to open a portal to unleash the Ogdru Jahad. Foiled by the Allies, a baby demon dubbed Hellboy was found and raised to fight for the good guys.

By the end of the film, Rasputin had returned from the dead and was trying to fulfill his mission alongside a group of Nazi remnants. Hellboy’s own Right Hand of Doom was the key that would unleash the Ogdru Jahad.

Rasputin tried to manipulate him but Hellboy rebelled. He sealed the gate and fought Rasputin who was now in a new, tentacle monster form. Ultimately, Hellboy won the fight and saved the world from the ancient evil lurking in the darkness.

Captain Carter and Hellboy should team up

While there are some big differences between 2004’s Hellboy and the 2021 premiere episode of What If…?, it’s hard to ignore the similarities. And that is quite apparent to anyone who has seen both in those final battles.

Both Captain Carter and Hellboy were facing off against secret societies related to Nazis who were trying to unleash evil interdimensional monsters on the world. And they both ended up basically fist-fighting massive eldritch monsters with tentacles.

Hellboy managed to defeat his while Captain Carter got dragged into another dimension, only to be released 70 years later by Nick Fury. But rumors are already building that she was facing Shuma-Gorath and will get a second-round against him in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

No one is suggesting that What If…? intentionally ripped off Hellboy. At the same time, there are some exceedingly similar beats in their respective final battles. While this is borderline impossible, it would actually be kind of awesome to see Captain Carter and Hellboy work together in such a battle.