What If…? “What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” Review

Season 1 Episode 3 “What If Loki presented himself to the governments of Earth as king of Asgard using all his diplomacy.”

What I Liked?

1. The Watcher takes us to Iron Man 2 where we see the scene play out similar between Nick Fury, Tony Stark, and Natasha Romanoff, she injects Stark with a syringe which would have helped him in the normal timeline but in this timeline, Stark reacts and drops down dead, SHIELD believes Black Widow killed Stark so she is imprisoned for it.

2. While SHIELD is transporting Black Widow to a more secure facility, she is surrounded by soldiers in the back of a van, she absolutely destroys the SHIELD officers and disappears, going rogue to find out who the killer is which is targeting the Avengers or better yet, soon to be Avengers, we then travel to Thor 1 where the scene plays out as it was in the original timeline but this time, Hawkeye “shoots” Thor, killing him before he could pick up Mjölnir, similar to Black Widow, Hawkeye is framed and put in a containment unit, while he doesn’t talk, he will talk to Fury, Fury enters to find Hawkeye also dead. This is truly amazing seeing all these heroes be killed by seemingly something invisible, such great deaths if I’m honest.

3. Now for a scene I didn’t expect to see but if you remember back in one of the Hulk live-action films when General Ross corners Bruce in a college campus or something similar, we get to see the Hulk destroy a load of tanks, etc, well in this episode, we see Black Widow go meet Betty Ross and Bruce, however, it is the Mark Ruffalo version of the Hulk, Bruce gets shot, turns into the Hulk, rages out for a few minutes before growing bigger and exploding, instantly dying. I absolutely loved seeing this scene.

4. Next we get to see Black Widow hacking into the SHIELD database to find out more information on the person who is killing everyone, she notices someone behind her in a dark library, she tells them “they won’t win”, she gets beaten up badly but manages to ring Fury, but it goes to voicemail, Fury listens to it and hears Widow say “It’s hope, it’s all about Hope”, Fury knows who is the killer, the death of Black Widow was actually really decent if I’m honest, she got absolutely destroyed before being killed.

5. After helping Fury take down the real killer, Loki tells Fury that he might stay on Earth a bit longer, this is where we see Loki conquer Earth before the Avengers form, we see Fury and Coulson speaking at the caskets for the fallen heroes, we see Fury go to find Steve in the ice, we get to see his shield before we hear Fury say “Welcome back, Captain”, this is where we see Captain Marvel standing behind Fury. This part left me curious as to who else would have joined Steve and Captain Marvel as an Avenger.

What I Disliked?

As much as I loved the episode, it was serious, emotional, badass, but yet my only gripe was the way they handled Coulson and Hawkeye, while I get they tend to have humor, but people were being killed, murdered in front of people, how can they make beauty jokes at a time like this? This was my only issue with the episode if I’m truthful.

Favorite Moment

Fury heads to a dark and gritty San Francisco to visit a grave, Hope Van Dyne’s grave. This is where he meets the real killer, Hank Pym, who looks broken, menacing, and evil. He appears in a Yellowjacket suit, he explains why he murdered the Avengers and Thor and it’s all because of Hope dying on a SHIELD mission like her mother. Hank relentlessly attacks Fury who basically messes with Hank before revealing himself as Loki who takes Hank as a prisoner of Asguard.

Standout Character

I think I have to give it to Fury, this episode proved just how prepared he was in case anything went wrong and he needed backup Avengers.

The Verdict

Overall a fun, emotional, thriller episode for What If this week, in a dark timeline where the Avengers are murdered before they could form and save the Earth from Loki was a very interesting story with a lot of surprises and reveals. It also left me with many questions about this timeline.

Rating: 8.8/10

Photo: What If… The Earth lost it’s mightiest heroes.