What If, Season 3, Episode 5: What If... The Emergence Destroyed the Earth?
That said, the concept of this universe and what we got out of it is actually... not bad! It's a rather typical post-apocalyptic universe, and between the 'Age of Ultron' and 'Marvel Zombies' ones we've already gotten, it's not exactly our first rodeo in such a concept. The Earth is shattered and people are living in the physics-defying shattered chunks of the Earth and struggling to survive.
We get a smattering of random minor characters in a world ruled by... by Mysterio, and having a Spider-Man villain be the primary antagonist here is definitely a huge, surprising but extremely welcome aspect of this world. Mysterio has taken over the nanotech technology of Stark Industries, and between his primary enforcer -- White Vision from WandaVision -- and a literal army of technological Ultron-style drones, Mysterio has became the unlikely ruler of this corner of the multiverse.
And our heroine for this episode? Riri "Ironheart" Williams, who has so far only shown up as a supporting character in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I'm not sure why they seem so allergic to calling her by superhero moniker, because I don't think anyone's called her 'Ironheart' at all in this episode at all. But she's just kind of struggling in this world where Mysterio's agents are everywhere. There's some fun Cyberpunk-noir style seuqence in the beginning when Riri meets with Sharon Carter/Power Broker, only for it to be revealed as a Mysterio drone with a hologram.
She survives the ambush and gets recruited into the 'alliance', consisting of a bunch of random characters -- Wong, Valkyrie, and the character that would be her mentor, Ying Nan from Shang-Chi. But Riri is bitter and pessimistic, and while the Alliance does give her the chance to do something against Mysterio's brutal reign, Mysterio sends in his enforcer, White Vision, to take out the alliance. Who, by the way, are based on a giant floating ship, which is just the right kind of comic-book silliness I appreciate.
Admittedly, this smattering of characters aren't the most interesting ones the MCU has to offer. Ying Nan plays the nice guiding mentor quite well, but Valkyrie and Wong really barely do anything. The episode does give the impression that the Watcher's narration is what's important here, as he is a bit more yappier than your average What If episode and we get to see him highlight how in all variations of this particular timeline, Riri Williams always fails.
Around the halfway point of the episode, Ironheart and her allies defeat White Vision, and she's able to reverse-engineer a suit out of the Vision nanotech. Not my favourite design in the show, but it does allow her to see through Mysterio's illusions and lets her fly around in a version of the Iron Man/Ironheart armour. This leads to the Alliance having the advantage and pressing on towards victory... until, of course, it all turns out to be a trap. Mysterio lets Riri hack into his technology only as far as it makes her think she has an advantage over him.
Old Man Mysterio himself is also pretty fun as an antagonist. Driven insane and into a control-freak by being constantly plugged into his nanomachines, this is a character that's driven to the brink compared to his more suave portrayal in Spider-Man: Far From Home. And just like the canon Mysterio, this Mysterio is also willing to gamble with his own life as one big last 'fuck you' to the heroes. Mysterio knows he's about to die soon, that there are limits to his life, but he's going to make sure he fucks over the Alliance before he shuffles off the mortal coil. Later on, though, he realizes that Riri's tinkering with White Vision allows him the ability to perhaps cheat death and transfer his consciousness into the White Vision body after all.
We also get a rather brutal sequence where Ironheart's resistance against Mysterio is revealed to be futile. At one point Mysterio dispels the illusion of his secret underground base, showing that Wong, Valkyrie and Ying Nan have been brutally killed. This breaks Riri enough, and Mysterio begins to drain the Vision nanotech from her body.
And at this point, the Watcher, who has been talking and monologuing to himself and the audience that Riri Williams' fight is hopeless despite her heroism and noble soul... decides to interfere. It's nothing quite as grandiose as cosmic intervention, but he gives some words of encouragement. This gets Ironheart the one Shonen Anime style push to dig her heels in, scream louder and rip off the nanotech away from Mysterio.
...and as the otherwise rather simple 'bad future' plot is wrapped up with the heroine having defeated the villain, Uatu the Watcher smiles in contentment... and we cut away to other Watchers getting pissed off that the Watcher has once again broken his vow. An interesting setup to the season finale, and giving Uatu some character storyline throughout the season as a way to cap off the series is, on paper, a pretty good thing to do.
Overall, I did honestly find both Ironheart and Mysterio in this episode to be quite... flat. They are executed competently, but Riri's very morose and Mysterio's a very hammy card-carrying-villain. That works for the story that they're telling, though, so I can't really complain all that much. I guess I almost wished that they used some more recognizable characters for the resistance, which would hit a bit harder than these C-listers?
Anyway, it's not the most memorable What If episodes, but I can't fault them for it. It's very competently done.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- The Emergence is the final result that the Eternals were trying to prevent, with Tiamut rising and destroying Earth in its wake.
- This episode isn't exactly based on any real comic book storyline, although I'm sure there's been a lot of 'bad future' storylines throughout the various Marvel universes.
- Out of the live-action actors, we've got Dominique Thorne (Ironheart), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie) and Emily VanCamp (Sharon Carter)... and that's it.
- Alenjandro Saab takes over from Jake Gyllenhall as Mysterio; Michelle Wong takes over from Michelle Yeoh as Ying Nan; Kenna Ramsey takes over from Danai Gurira as Okoye; and David Chen takes over from Benedict Wong as Wong. Notable because Gurira and Wong have both returned a lot in previous seasons of What If.
- While not speaking, Bruck Rumlow (Crossbones) has a cameo as a member of the alliance, although this is also the result of them reusing a scene from What If season 2 where Rumlow's crew were preparing to attack the Hydra Stomper.
- The idea of Mysterio using his illusions to manipulate a hero into killing her allies is the plot that kickstarted the bad future of the iconic "Old Man Logan" miniseries. While the episode keeps it ambiguous if it's Riri who kills her allies, or if it's just Mysterio's cannons, the effect of Mysterio making an illusion disappear to show dead bodies is similar.
No comments:
Post a Comment