8. What If...? season 2
After a solid first season (which took place as part of Phase Four), What If...? returned for its second season in Christmas 2023. It also decided to change things up, adding the element of a daily drop across the holidays; all because it had a Christmas episode in there. Suffice to say: It worked.
What If...? season 2 saw the show get a bit more adventurous in its standalone episodes while also offering up some much-needed backstory to its overarching storyline involving The Watcher and Captain Carter. Although the finale didn't quite land in the way that it should have, earlier episodes to feature the pair were among the season's best (including "What If... Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?" and "What If... the Avengers Assembled in 1602?", which provided the season with its most original installments). That being said, another standout was the season's most original episode of all.
"What If... Kahhori Reshaped the World?" was a major moment for the MCU as a whole as it introduced wholly original character Kahhori to the franchise. A young Mohawk woman who stands up to invaders, she does whatever it takes to protect her brother and becomes one of the show's most important characters as a result.
7. Echo
To call Echo a pleasant surprise would be an understatement. The series is notable for being Disney Plus / Marvel's first ever binge-drop as all episodes were released at once, meaning we could watch them all in one sitting. It clearly worked, for the show ended up in the Nielsen Top 10 for its week of release - an impressive feat for a character not all that well-known to mainstream audiences.
Echo is a spinoff of Hawkeye and focuses on Maya Lopez. Alaqua Cox returns as the character who was nothing short of a badass in her previous appearance. She's still a badass here, but the show adds some welcome character development along the way, allowing for a more emotional journey. It feels like a five-hour movie and I mean that in the best way possible, for the story doesn't lose sight of its focus and the show balances that story with its action very well.
The show is also Marvel Studios' first ever TV-MA project, which allowed it to take a more hard-hitting and violent approach (opening the door for the return of the characters from the Marvel Netflix shows). Although it didn't take full advantage of that, it offered up scintillating action scenes and brought the MCU into a more mature territory. Seeing Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio back as Daredevil and Kingpin was the icing on the cake.