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Jeffrey Wright's voice is so distinctive that it sounded like someone from the Star Wars saga was roped in for the Watcher's narration in the Marvel Studios What If... Series. The Watchers are more than cosmic peeping toms - they're an advanced, immortal alien race that monitors the universe.
Eons before, disastrous consequences resulted from them contacting a less advanced race and gifting them nuclear technology. Since then they have decided to just observe and record all events, across every reality in the multiverse, for whoever will remain at the end of creation.
Uatu is the Watcher who is assigned to Earth (and possibly a larger chunk of space along with it). He is the one who tells us of all the realities that play out in the Marvel multiverse based on roads not taken in the current Marvel continuity.
Since the twists are everything in this series, I will keep this review virtual spoiler-free for all you Marvelites out there!
Marvel Studios' What If...Plot Synopses (Spoiler-Free)
The entire premise of this series is alternate realities, like if you would have quit carbs earlier or if you left later for your flight! So what you will eventually realize is that the characters remain true to their selves and react as they would but to different outcomes/situations or life choices. Now, this life choice can be their own or a combination of a few.
What If...Captain Carter were the first Avenger in the first episode of this series. As the name suggests, through a tiny twist of fate Captain Carter dons the mantle of Captain America. Steve remains the asthmatic liability that everybody has pegged him to be.
The resulting lineup of superhero alternates is amusing, to say the least. (which seems to be the point of What If - pique the viewer's curiosity). Lots of action, a few jokes, and plenty of entertainment here.
The second episode What If...T'Challa became Star Lord deals with the Black Panther (RIP Chadwick Boseman) going the way of Peter Quill. A micro-choice by T'Challa leads to him being abducted by the Ravagers to be delivered to Ego. It is here that you see the royal blood of T'Challa kick in, even though he is raised for a larger part of his life by a scavenger.
It is interesting to see the nature/nurture debate play out here and how things differ in the storyline because of the same. Lot more surprises here than the first episode and the expected amount of action.
What If...the World Lost its Mightiest Heroes sees every Marvel hero dying within a short period due to a series of unfortunate coincidences. This episode has more mystery to it than the last two episodes combined and quite a bit of action as well. This is possibly the best of the three.
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Marvel Studios' What If... Animation Chops
Marvel has never slacked when it comes to innovation, and it shows here in this series. The animation style in this Marvel TV series utilizes a technique called cel-shading which makes 3D animation appear as if it was hand-drawn by using flat colors and shades.
This is so on-brand for a company that started its logo as an AV of a colorful comic book being flipped. (That was way more classy and cool than the horrible 3D lettering that shows video)
Anyway, the animation is amazing and feels like it's part of the storytelling if not the story itself! The effects in this animation format are really good and make watching this series really fun.
Should You Watch Marvel Studios' What If... - Yes!
This is a really entertaining series with animation that isn't commonplace. You can watch this one episode at a time so that you don't get saturated with Marvel realities all at once.
