What If S02E03 Review: The Fury of the Freak

What If, Season 2, Episode 3: What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?

I don't really have a whole ton to say about this one. I know this episode got a bad rap from some parts of the fandom for being almost entirely a 'jokey' episode in the same vein of the Party Thor episode from the first season, but... I found it okay? It's certainly not the most exciting story in What If's catalogue, and other than the novelty of adapting a part of Happy Hogan's comic-book history that's never going to be adapted in live-action, it really is just kind of a throwaway event... but it's all right as a Christmas episode.

The episode starts off with the Watcher telling us just what kind of an episode this is -- a wacky Christmas special -- before a bunch of Avengers in wacky outfits face off against some kind of a purple monstrosity. It's not Thanos, it's not Hulk, it's not the Abomination... it's something else. And I honestly kind of wished we didn't start in medias res, because actually having a 'proper' superhero plot instead of merely being a Die Hard pastiche is actually enough of a surprise for me. 

But we go back to the beginning of the events, where Happy Hogan, Maria Hill and Darcy Lewis are setting up a Christmas party for the Avengers while the titular Avengers themselves are entertaining kids in the mall. And Black Widow's in a dress fighting some kind of Red Room assassin or something? The Avengers themselves don't really matter, since this is the Happy episode. 

The Avengers Tower is quickly besieged by Iron Man 2's Justin Hammer, who shows up a lot in post-MCU cartoons and projects but basically all but forgotten in the MCU itself after Iron Man 2. Justin Hammer shows up with a bunch of wacky goons, and take over the building while monologuing about his major plan. Hammer apparently has enough technical know-how to hack into the proto-Ultron drones and since JARVIS is down for maintenance, he quickly takes over Avengers Tower. Hammer also has the nonsensical plan of wanting a sample of experimental Hulk blood to make himself a hero. 

The only really competent character in that building, Maria Hill, gets kneecapped and held hostage pretty quickly, forcing bumbling ol' Happy to go from dealing with cheese shopping lists to trying to secure the Hulk blood sample. Happy's no Bruce Willis, though, and instead of securing the vial of Hulk blood, he accidentally injects himself with it, transforming himself into a purple Hulk-lite creature. 

...and yes, I just realized that the whole joke is that a Hulked-up Happy Hogan is basically "Hulk Hogan". Ha. Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. 

Anyway, Happy's attempts to call for help result in crush phones and confused Avengers, though he manages to get the excitable Darcy. Ultimately a lot of this episode just hinges on how much you can tolerate Happy, Hammer and Darcy, because they are in it a lot. We get a bunch of hijinks that I really don't care to list one by one, but Darcy ends up installing a Jarvis backup called 'Werner', who is German and nihilistic; the henchmen get some funny lines; Justin Hammer steals the Hulkbuster armour to fight Hulk Hogan, and we ultimately catch up to the opening act where the Avengers come, mistake Hulk Hogan for the monster attacking the tower, but then very quickly take Justin Hammer out of commission. The party is back on, although Tony does kind of brush away Happy's questions on whether he'll be able to return back to normal. 

And... it's a Christmas special, so I can't really be too hard on it. I'm not in a rush to rewatch this episode, that's for sure, but it's pretty fun for what it is. I do wish they had chosen a different colour other than Thanos purple for Hulk Hogan, but it's a minor complaint. Again, like most What If episodes, I do think this episode ran for a bit longer than it probably deserves, but there are a fair amount of funny gags that goes on. My favourite probably has to be Bruce and Clint fighting over Iron Man dolls, while entire shelves of Hawkeye toys are left untouched by the masses. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• 
  In the comics, Happy Hogan gets transformed into the super-powered mindless brute called The Freak in Tales of Suspense #75 due to an accident with an enervator ray. Happy would transform into the Freak several more times over the course of the older comics.  
• The events of this episode very roughly adapts the Avengers party in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but the presence of the Iron Legion puts this as happening a little earlier than that (but after the events of Winter Soldier).  
• One of the backup AI systems in the server room is labeled 'EDITH', which is the AI that Tony would gift to Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Far From Home after his death. 
• Happy Hogan's list of contacts includes names of real-life people that worked on What If...? (AC Bradley, Matthew Chauncey, Graham Fisher), as well as Stan Lee.
• Returning Live-Action Actors Are: Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan), Kat Dennings (Darcy Lewis), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Sam Rockwell (Justin Hammer), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk).
• Returning from the previous What If season are Mick Wingert, Lake Bell and Josh Keaton, who takes over the roles of Iron Man, Black Widow and Captain America respectively.