What If…?: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 2

The Collector’s Collection

It seems space also abhors a vacuum as much as nature does. One of the unforeseen effects in T’Challa having Thanos turn over a new leaf is that it allowed another would-be tyrant to take his place. That person wound up being Taneleer Tivan, a.k.a. The Collector (Benicio Del Toro). He even has the Black Order under his employ, the better to expand his already large menagerie of alien specimens and artifacts.

Some of his captives are those we’ve already seen before in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) such as Cosmo the Spacedog, one of the Dark Elves from Thor: The Dark World (2013), and, of course, Howard the Duck (Seth Green). But there are now new items in The Collector’s vault. These include:

• The Milano. Peter Quill’s original starship. This makes perfect sense considering how Quill never became Star-Lord in this universe.
• The Asis. The experimental shuttle from Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. piloted by Carol Danvers. As it ended up being destroyed during it’s test flight in Captain Marvel (2016), this suggests the Collector went to Earth and stole it before it ever took off.
• An X-Wing fighter. Which means I guess makes Star Wars a part of the MCU, even though there the Star Wars movies as we know them also existed. But seriously, it’s because Disney owns both Marvel and Lucasfilm.
• A Star Blaster. The attack fighters used by the Nova Corps as seen in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Not exactly hard for the Collector to have gotten his hands on one since we see the Nova Corps is still quite active in this timeline.
• The Commodore. The ship once owned by the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Originally, this was stolen by Thor, Loki, and Valkyrie. In this timeline, it seems the Collector took it from the Grandmaster, who is, in fact, his own brother.
• The Statesman. Another ship that used to belong to the Grandmaster, which also appeared in Thor: Ragnarok. In the original timeline, it was used to shuttle the Asgardian refugees and ended up being destroyed by Thanos at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War.
• The Ship used by Scott Lang, Hank Pym, and Hope van Dyne to rescue Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm. Probably stole this during another trip to Earth, and did so well before the events of both Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018).
• The hand of a “a terribly chatty Kronan.” Or more likely Korg’s hand. That’s right, the Collector apparently murdered Thor’s buddy.
• Captain America’s Shield. And considering how this episode of What If…? takes place during 2008, that means the Collector found it in the Arctic Circle before S.H.I.E.L.D. recovered and thawed out Steve Rogers.
• Mjolnir. Yes, apparently the Collector was able to defeat Thor in this universe, likely with the help of the Black Order.
• The Cosmi-Rod. The oversized two-handed warhammer wielded by Ronan the Accuser. Considering how we learn that, in this universe, Ronan and his Kree forces were defeated by T’Challa when they invaded Kylos – which also meant Drax’s wife and daughter survived – it’s likely the Collector picked this up afterwards.
• Malekith’s Dagger. The weapon used by the main villain from Thor: The Dark World. The only way the Collector might have gotten a hold of this is if he and the Black Order found the spacecraft in which Malekith and his dark elves were hibernating for the last several centuries, and definitely before the Aether woke them up.
• Hela’s helmet. Which, as we see, also gives whoever wears it the ability to use Hela’s “necroswords.” That the Collector and his forces were able to slay the Asgardian Goddess of Death in this timeline suggests that all the Asgardians have been slaughtered.

All of these are indeed some nifty MCU Easter Eggs, and it makes T’Challa’s victory over the Collector even that much more impressive. But it also highlights one rather disturbing aspect about this universe that was masked behind an otherwise comical heist story.