In Review: Marvel’s What If…? Season 2

Description: Marvel’s What If…? returned for a second season of Elseworld-style adventures and has been running daily over the Christmas period and concluded earlier today with an epic finale. The series, which is narrated by Jeffrey Wright in his role of The Watcher looks at stories from across the Marvel Multiverse and asks What If…? This second series revisited some much-loved heroes and villains but also introduced us to a new Native American Hero in the form of Kahhori.

The Stories

The series gets off to a solid start with What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps? This story sees a grief-stricken Nebula get recruited by the Nova Corps only to eventually uncover a conspiracy. The second story explores what would happen if Peter Quill attacked The Avengers in 1988. This second story involved Ego and had a sweet ending to it. The third story asks What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? This story is a Marvel take on the movie Die Hard but with Happy Hogan in the John McClane role. Only it is John McClane with a Marvel Twist as Happy has some technology from Stark Technologies on his side as he takes on Justin Hammer. 

The final four stories which see Kahhori reshaping the world, Hela Finding the Ten Rings, The Avengers coming together in 1602, and Dr. Strange intervening and trying to reshape the multiverse are all loosely linked. The connection is Captain Peggy Carter and Kahhori who wind up working together to intervene on Dr. Strange’s intervention. The final two episodes are probably the highlight of this series. 

The Acting

As with the previous series. Not all the live-action actors portray the animated versions of their characters. But for the most part, we see a vast majority of them return. The few exceptions are the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans who are not available for Tony Stark and Steve Rogers AKA Iron Man and Captain America. Mick Wingert and Josh Keaton take over the parts as they did in the last series and do an excellent job.

The season finale features stand-out voice performances from Benedict Cumberbatch, Hayley Atwell, and Devery Jacobs as Strange Supreme, Captain Peggy Carter and Kahhori as they fight to preserve the Multiverse in what can only be described as an epic finale. 

Overall

What If…? season Two was a perfect way for Disney Plus to cap off 2023 with perhaps the best Marvel series they have released all year.