What If…? season 1, episode 3 review: What if… the World Lost its Mightiest Heroes?

“Then honor her. Honor her!” Spoilers for What If…? season 1, episode 3 follow.

What if the Avengers never formed? What could cause that and what would happen in the aftermath of their lack of formation?

Who, in just one week, could destroy Earth’s foremost defenders in such a complete and devastating way?

What If…?’s darkest timeline

Arguably the most interesting thing about this third episode of What If…? is not the fact that, after 13 years, we are finally getting another reference to The Incredible Hulk. No, the most interesting thing is how dark this episode is compared to the Disney Plus show’s first two. The first two installments very much shared the general tone of most Marvel Cinematic Universe films and shows, which honestly feels appropriate. This is a Marvel series, it’s going to go for that general Marvel tone, at least at first, in order to not alienate viewers, especially in regards to an anthology series.

However, this episode is much, much darker in tone than the first two which really works to its advantage in a lot of ways. It throws you off guard when Tony Stark dies within the first couple minutes, in a scene that basically played out the same way as it did in Iron Man 2. And, as the episode goes on, seeing scenes from Thor and The Incredible Hulk play out in much deadlier and brutal ways, especially Hulk’s death, makes for quite an unsettling experience.

In a lot ways, this episode really plays out like something that DC has been doing in their comics lately called Tales of the Dark Multiverse, which are basically “What Ifs” that ended in the most villainous, deadly, and often sad ways possible. That’s what this episode felt like at the end of the day and some will get more mileage out of that than others.

Hope dies

What makes this darker tale (mostly) work is the fact that, unlike the first two episodes, we don’t see the inciting incident for this “What If” scenario. Sure, we think we do when Tony dies, but the real inciting incident, in this version of the story, happened long before that. It was Fury’s recruitment of Hope Van Dyne into S.H.I.E.L.D. and her subsequent death. That was the inciting incident which makes the reveal of the Avengers’ murderer, Hank Pym, feel like something that makes sense within this universe.

Sure, it’s not the most surprising twist in the world (although the least surprising thing would’ve been if Loki had done it), but it works well, especially given the extra emotional weight to Hank’s character here. Hank, even in the main MCU, always feels like someone on the verge of snapping at any second so, it makes sense to actually see it occur here with the death of both his wife and daughter.

Pacing issues

The biggest problem with every episode of What If…? so far though is the pacing. Pacing for one-shots like these is hard to do, but they’ve all been so poor for the most part. The first two episodes had a breakneck pace that never really allowed you to breathe at all. Because of that, certain character interactions didn’t feel like they had an exceptional impact like they should have.

Here though, the pace of the episode is considerably slower…until a big plot point has to occur. Most important plot points feel as though they’re almost being skipped over just so that we can get to seeing the next Avenger die. After the first couple of times this happens, it just lessens the impact of subsequent Avengers dying, especially Natasha, who we don’t even see actually die. We just have to assume so and then see her casket at the end.

What If…? has it’s darkest episode yet and, while enjoyable, it will more than likely also alienate many viewers.

What If…? releases new episodes on Disney+ each Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. PT and 3:01 a.m. ET.

What did you think of What If…? season 1, episode 3? Let us know in the comments below!