What If…?: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 9
By Mike McNulty
What If…The Watcher went back to previous universes?
Like Captain Carter and the lost Tony Stark and Gamora episode, we follow up on the rest of the various universes The Watcher has taken us to over the course of the season. This was the quite the rare occurrence for the original What If…? comic. One such occurrence involved the “Time Plucked Titans” which we’ve already mentioned. Another is Peter Parker’s daughter, Mayday, a.k.a. Spider-Girl, who first appeared in What If…? (Vol. 2) #105, and would go on to have her own popular spin-off comic book series.
Apparently, the creators of Disney+ and Marvel Studios’ What If…? had planned something similar with the T’Challa version of Star-Lord, as there were plans to give the character his own animated spin-off. However, due to Chadwick Boseman’s passing, that spin-off never got past the planning stage. The closest we get in the season one finale is seeing T’Challa Star-Lord teaming up with Peter Quill (voiced by Brain T. Delaney) when Ego (Kurt Russell) attempts to incorporate Earth as part of his “expansion.” Based on the ending montage, it seems both T’Challa and Quill essentially become a buddy action-comedy duo.
As for the other Wakandan, it seems Killmonger’s (Michael B. Jordan) scheme to take over Wakanda in “What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?” ends up being exposed thanks to Pepper Pots and Shuri (voiced by Ozioma Akagha). Given what ends up befalling Killmonger at the end of this episode, it appears war between United States and Wakanda has been averted, with the later potentially sharing their technology with the world far earlier than what happened in the main MCU timeline.
Meanwhile, Party Thor appears to have gotten together with Jane Foster, while Strange Supreme guards a pocket dimension containing Zola and Killmonger along with the Infinity Stones. As for what happens with the Black Widow from “What If… Ultron Won?” it appears she’s taken to the universe from “What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” The clues that it’s that particular universe come from how not only is this a world in which Natasha died, as according to the Watcher, but that the only two superheroes fighting alongside Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) against Loki (Tom Hiddleston) are Captain America and Captain Marvel, the only ones not murdered during that episode. Likewise, despite Loki having the scepter, his forces consist of Asgardians, not the Chitauri like in the first Avengers.
This also means that these various dimensions take another unusual detour that wasn’t often seen in the What If…? comic: nearly everyone gets a happy ending, or at least the ending they deserve. Speaking of endings…