That was a solid first episode for Marvel‘s highly anticipated animated show "What If..."
The concept is ambitious and interesting and with "Loki" opening the Multiverse now, it’s for sure a thrill ride to see different possibilities of what could have been while simultaneously giving the MCU the chance to bring back all sorts of characters.
The animation is pretty neat, especially fight scenes and backgrounds look gorgeous and it is overall very stylized and unique. It could use some work on facial expressions, because the emotions displayed don’t always come through or match the really good voice acting. Except you Bucky, you’re doing great Sweetie.
Now as the story goes, I‘m not the biggest fan of "Captain America" and within the MCU it’s one of the franchises that interests me least, plus ever since Hayley Atwell‘s, well, not so favorable comments and behavior regarding Emily Van Camp and her character of Sharon Carter I don’t give two cents about Peggy and her being constantly pushed forward instead utilizing some more interesting female character the MCU has to offer. But whatever.
The story was fine. It wasn’t a scenario too out of the box (I hope we get more daring alternate takes as the show goes on) and offered some interesting differences between what originally happened with Steve becoming Captain America.
The voice acting was really good. Josh Keaton does a fine Steve Rogers and it was especially nice to have Dominic Cooper‘s menace of Howard Stark back. As a German, the German spoken words and phrases made me laugh out loud. So funny to me.
Highlights of the episode include Bucky surviving this timeline as well as Howard creating the first prototype of an Iron Man suit for Steve Rogers to fight alongside his friends in the war.
I don’t know what Hayley Atwell did to deserve a weird clip show that has the pacing of Rise of Skywalker’s first act, and has mostly terrible performances across the board. I mean, was the voice director not around when Sebastian Stan was recording his lines?? Most of the dialogue was stilted and stiff as well. This whole thing was just really off. The idea of Captain Carter is so fucking exciting, but they really missed the mark for me.
I still have hope and am excited for future episodes, especially since it seems like they won’t be playing 2 hour movies at 4x speed, but this wasn’t the greatest of starts.
It looked really pretty though!
Well, it surprisingly didn't work for me.
Agent Carter was a corny and fun tv series and banter between Peggy and Howard Stark was priceless. It was nice to be reminded of their chemistry together, but overall so little did actually change.
Are you telling me that having a completely different country as an "owner" of Super Soldier only changed the costume and the shield? Nothing more?! Shouldn't UK be at the center of Marvel Universe now? And yet she worked with the same band of people and somehow in the future we would even get Nick Furry and Hawkeye for some odd reason)
She (well, screenwriters) didn't use the power in any new creative way. I mean it's nice that it didn't change dynamic between Steve and Peggy, but that about it. Oh, and when Peggy was putting another good for nothing sexist in his place it actually felt funny, light and enjoyable... in Agent Carter, of course. Here, not so much.
It felt like I'm watching clips of movie scenes with no breathing room between them. Action felt pretty good actually. But artstyle overall especially with limited actual changes from plot points and between characters interactions looked like I'm watching someone else play Telltale game set in MCU. And as with all most of Telltale games I'm dissapointed to find out how little my choices matter in the end.
Yeah, it's alright.
It tries to hit the same beats as "The First Avenger," but it's nowhere near as good. The fast pace is a nice change from the slow burn of the recent MCU series, and the art style is BEAUTIFUL when it's static but a little ugly in motion. The characters seem to be 3D, but the effects are 2D, so it's nice to see that Spider-Verse left an impact on the animation industry. The montage had terrible music and was worse than "The First Avenger," in my opinion—I prefer that one all the way!
Although I will say, I don't buy Peggy and Steve's romance because these characters are different multiverse versions, so the emotional beats don't land. I also didn't feel anything when Steve "died," so that's a bummer. Otherwise, I appreciate the background art during the credits, and I think this show is a nice distraction. Also, there's a scene where Captain Carter saved people—yes!
It's a solid half-hour of entertainment!
SCORE: 6/10
This episode was fantastic! My goodness this single episode was so much more better than any bad batch episodes so far. Im shocked legit shocked DO RECOMMEND!
It was okay, but I wouldn't have started with this episode. It's like watching a cartoon bootleg version of the first avenger with not enough difference. I wanted to see more of where her journey took her, not the same movie she was already in. Not a strong debut episode in my opinion.
Fantastisch new series ! Very fun to watch. Very beautifully made animated visuals. Superb sound effects. I love that a lot of the voices are actually portrayed by the original cast. Little confused how they got a iron man suit in the 1940’s since Stark made one 70 years later in 2009.
8/10
Not sure if it’s just because I’m not a massive captain America’s fan but I found this really boring. So Howard stark could have made an iron man suit that whole time but he just….. didn’t see a need for it?
So, feminist crap for starters ? Hope the trend stops with this chapter
I loved everything about this and desperately need more Captain Carter in every facet of my life, please. Now excuse me while I continuously play the "Giant Woman" song in the background.
I love alt universe stories and this divergence was awesome. Great elements and portrayal of events, especially the parallels. Captain Carter was amazing. Really really enjoyable.
Why there is an Iron Man suit in 1945! I expected something would be different from the original story, but it is almost exactly the same. 6/10
`i love how josh keaton is credited as "skinny steve rogers" lol
A good first episode, felt like some of the older movies, kept the essence.
It was pretty underwhelming. Basically the same story but with a female Captain and also now Iron Man too.
Feels like watching someone play a Telltale game
Why did I expect Disney+ to put out anything that wasn't all about Virtue signaling?!
What a joke. Smh.
Even my girlfriend called this cringe!
Liked this a lot more then I expected I would considering some of the early mixed reception, but this was a blast! What If...? still has some bugs to sort out but as the MCU's first full foray into animation, you could do much worse. A lot of this is helped by some really striking animation that looks fantastic in motion - the action scenes in this are absolutely spectacular and easily rank as some of the MCU's most dynamic and interesting to date. Dialogue scenes are a bit wonkier, but for the most part fit the style and there are some really fantastic tableaus here. The clever mix of 3D and 2D animation as well showcases that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (which still remains the best superhero film of the past, what, 30 years?) really has upped the game for this kind of story.
As for the story itself, it's pretty much a beat-for-beat adaptation of Captain America: The First Avenger, so if you haven't seen that film this will feel like random jargon. But for those who are familiar, this is a treat, and seeing the story through the lens of how one action can affect so much is really fascinating, along with giving us more of one of the MCU's best female characters in Agent Carter, now the wonderful Captain Carter. A really solid, if slightly rushed, start.
For a concept that has so much promise, this first episode of What If felt a little forced. It wasn’t terrible but the 30 minute format meant cramming so much into it and I just kept thinking this feels rushed. I’ll still give the series a chance tho.
Episode 1 of the new What If series revisits Captain America: The First Avenger - with Peggy Carter receiving the Super Soldier serum and a new ally named the Hydra Stomper assisting. What If touches on many of the same beats as The First Avengers. There are moments and plot points that are repeated here, and even when something is changed, it's cocooned around the same setting. Looking at some of the other upcoming episodes, they appear to provide more variation, though whether that will occur is yet to be seen. At times this episode is fast, too fast - and at others it's too slow. I would have appreciated a few more minutes between Peggy Carter and her romantic interest, Steve Rogers as with the role reversal, the love story doesn't feel as applicable.
For those worried about how this would fit into the MCU, I've heard that eventually the big plan regarding this show will come to fruition and that these are not just stand alone, for the sake of stand alone episode. That reassures me. Easily better than the majority of The Bad Batch.
7/10
Good
Well I am a massive massive Captain America super fan and he is by far the best Avenger
and my favourite so I really had to put that aside and remember this is on another earth throughout the Multiverse.
That being said I actually really enjoyed it and found it very interesting to see a different take and I did enjoy the surprises, thought I might have seen Rogers the winter......
But the other still took me by surprise and actually made sense for our side to do something instead.
The animation was totally frickin awesome, loved that, some of the cleanest I've ever seen and the action was amazing.
Loved the presentation,
I wasn't expecting that and the pacing was a blast
(Keep it up).
I very much enjoyed it but no I don't want to see that timeline continued in any capacity, I like the things just the way they are and I definitely don't want my man's Legacy messing with in anyway shape are form.
Nothing can compare to Cap (Steave).
X Final Thought:
A strong first episode and I look very much forward to a different story with another alternate take,
and I am glad my Mans history and sacrifice will not be messed with anymore.
MORE THAN A FAN
#ALWAYSTHATMARVELGUY
a minute slay. I love tfa so this reimagining was so up my alley. i especially love how much they changed while staying true to the themes of the og story. plus the steggy moments were sweet.
A pleasing sharp visual style, really comic like.
Story feels a bit rushed as it is basically covering the whole Captain America first movie in half an hour, but with some significant changes.
Still contains the Steve/Peggy flirting and a similar time freeze sacrifice.
Nothing super original, but it's fun.
I am kinda surprised her first thought in a battle after getting the super soldier serum is to attempt to stop a car... I'd at least do some strength test before doing something crazy like that. After watching Doctor Strange Into the Multiverse of Madness, I am surprised the shield didn't kill more people than it should've... Seeing how it mutilated a version of Captain Carter in that movie.
I love elseworld stories as it provides the creativity to explore and really answer what if x, y and z happen.
When putting other movies into consideration one dialogue hits different in particular. The bar scene when Peggy says Steve is more than the suit is different from when Steve said to Tony, take the suit away and what are you (ofc I am paraphrasing).
I wished the writers explained a bit better as to how Hydra got the tesseract back but I figured it out after a quick Google search.
Another good thing about elseworld stories is crazy things like a giant octopus or whatever that creature is existing. I am assuming the portal is how she gets time displaced into the future? Unless she gets killed by the giant octopus monster thingy... Oh I was right (writing this as I watch it). One sad but also good thing about this story is that Bucky doesn't became the Winter Soldier. A good character but also good that he doesn't get tortured.
I am writing this as I watch it so its a bit messy. Not sure if I am using the spoiler command right.
All this did was prove steve rogers' captain america is lame.
Felt too rushed and the emotional beats didn't hit because of it, but it's a fun first episode overall!
This was a good, fun, direct, and unassuming change of pace for Marvel series.
Great execution, terrible concept
Stop messing with the old and gold Marvel stuff and try to invent something new for a change
The animation was superb, but I would have liked to see another story, more of Carter’s development. For the first episode, it’s good, though! Excited to see more!
I liked it. I'd watch an Avengers version with Carter. However, I do hope that the next episodes slow down a bit cuz this pacing... oof; it's way too fast.
Also, not taking up the chance to create a future antagonistic force in Steve Rogers was such a waste of potential. Like, imagine 2 episodes exploring a Winter Soldier and Civil War version with Carter and Steve Rogers. It sounds amazing to me.
On a side note, I love Carter' suit design. Much better than Captain America's.
Fun stuff. I really dig the animation; the style is fun and so is the action. However, the story feels far too rushed. I'm kind of surprised it was only 30 minutes long instead of the typical 45 minute length of the other MCU shows. If it had had that extra 15 minutes, not only would there be more breathing room, but the cool twist on the plot of The First Avenger could be more fully realized. Instead it's simply a fun action romp (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but it's hardly anything more than that.
I loved the art, and also loved her character, I hope they make a series about her.
Breezy and fun enough (always a good time to see Peggy take central stage), and I liked that they take advantage of animation's freedom for its action scenes, but I hope future episodes are less film arc remakes with a few element/character switches.
Lovely style, quick and zippy, What If is what Marvel should have been doing from the start. Original without feeling bound by the MCU, What If is setting itself up to be a great spin off.
The animation was pretty cool, but so much of this just didn't feel like it was a multiverse branched off from the MCU. Peggy's action scenes where she was jumping from planes in the air just felt so off, even if it did look cool. Steve couldn't do that, neither could any other Super Soldier we've seen. Why could Peggy?
Some of the dialogue was a little rough, but overall not a bad first episode at all. Just don't expect the same feeling we all got with Loki and WandaVision
The ludicrously fast pace delivers as many great moments as it does completely naff ones. While the pace is definitely a positive, it does slip into feeling rushed more often than not. The episode could of done with an extra 5 minutes to give key points a bit more room to breathe. But none the less an entertaining 30 minutes, but if this is the style of the whole series it may get old very fast.
It was a nice watch. Very cool spinoff on shell-shaded animations. But something in the story was a bit cheesy. 6.8/10.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-08-11T15:36:51Z
[7.7/10] I was so pleasantly surprised by this! I didn’t really know what to expect, with this being Marvel Studios’ first foray into animation and the high concept premise of the show. But I really enjoyed what we got.
For a while, I expected that this was really just going to be the plot of Captain America: The First Avenger except with Peggy slotted in rather than Steve. And that would still have been perfectly fun! Watching this show hit the same beats of that film, except with small but significant difference thanks to Captain Carter being in the role rather than Steve Rogers would have been worthwhile on its own.
For one thing, I like how this episode, as Agent Carter did, focuses on how even with her accomplsuhments, Peggy faces discrimination because of her gender. Of all the people for the MCU to bring back, it’s funny that it’s Bradley Whitford’s returning from the all-but forgotten Agent Carter one-shot. But he makes sense as someone who always thought too little of Peggy, stepping into a leadership role after Col. Phillips is shot, and creating an internal impediment.
To the same end, I like how the episode flips the dynamic with Peggy and Steve, but tshowing how they still understood one another and would bond with one another, even if their situations were changed. The two still falling in love, only to have Peggy making the heroic civilization-saving sacrifice play instead, is still heart-rending, and a nice sign that even as major things change, some things stay the same.
But I also liked the places where this episode goes off the reservation! Howard Stark building a proto-Iron Man suit for Steve Rogers called “The Hydra Stomper”? Yes please! Captain Carter saving Bucky, thereby avoiding the Winter Soldier situation (at least with him)? Hell yes. Her finding the tesseract and bringing it back to the good guys on an early mission? Awesome!
The further along the plot of First Avenger that this episode gets, the more it diverges and makes its own rules and own story, and I really appreciated that. Her team’s attack on Red Skull’s stronghold made for a rolokcing conclusion. I don’t know who Red Skull’s “champion” was. (Hive? A Chithuri?) But watching Peggy fight a giant squid monster while the Howling Commandos rescue Steve made for a killer conclusion.
I was especially impressed by the fight sequences here. I have to admit that I had some reticence about the cell-shaded graphics. In truth, the vocal tracks didn’t always sink perfectly. But the action was surprisingly fluid and well-staged. The show uses the freedom of animation to add greater flow to Captain Carter’s badassery, and some of the combat has a more impressionsitic style that makes it top tier MCU fisticuffs. Even the use of lighting and color in these fights stand out. Going into What If...? my biggest concern was the visuals, but they came through like gangbusters.
Overall, this was an exciting start to this new show and raised my expectations for What If...? to be more than a shiny lark, and instead be a meaningful exploration of what these changes in the path might look like.