WHAT IF...? Finally Asks "What If... The Avengers Assembled In 1602?" And Deepens Multiverse Saga's Mysteries

WHAT IF...? Finally Asks "What If... The Avengers Assembled In 1602?" And Deepens Multiverse Saga's Mysteries

Today's episode of What If...? finally takes us to 1602, but Captain Carter finds more than she bargains for in a world that's quite literally being torn apart. You can find our in-depth breakdown here...

By JoshWilding - Dec 29, 2023 03:12 AM EST
Filed Under: What If

"What If... The Avengers Assembled In 1602?" has been one of What If...? season 2's most highly anticipated episodes and it's fair to say it doesn't disappoint. It is, however, just as different from the comics as the first season's take on Marvel Zombies

We begin with Loki performing Shakespeare on stage, only for a rift to open above the performance which pulls Hela into it. While Captain Carter - who was transported to this reality by Wanda Merlin and Sir Fury - saves the God of Mischief, she's unable to rescue Hela and an incensed Thor is named King. 

The Scarlet Witch summoned Peggy Carter there to help stop these rifts, and the hero is forced to go on the run after the God of Thunder blames her for failing to achieve the mission she was tasked with. 

We learn from The Watcher that this timeline is dying and that some worlds are meant to blink out of existence; as he points out, he's seen it happen to millions of them. It's unclear whether this is a result of incursions or the Multiverse instability, but this is a broken world where 1602 and the modern Avengers have been mashed up when their respective realities collided; that sounds like an incursion to us. 

Peggy refuses The Watcher's offer to be taken home and figures out with the help of Tony Stark that there must have been a "forerunner" - a being from a different world - whose presence in 1602 has caused realities to collide and merge. 

The hero later meets Rogers Hood and his Merry Men, Ant-Man and Bucky Barnes. Steve vows to help Peggy steal King Thor's sceptre to power a device Tony is working on, but it's then the shrinking Royal Yellowjackets attack under the orders of Sir Harold "The Happy" Hogan. The Destroyer is unleashed and Captain Carter is imprisoned. 

The Watcher once again comes to her and offers to take her home, but she mocks his many "What If...?" questions and instead frees The Hulk and escapes. The heroes attack Thor's palace and The Hulk squares off with Happy who has now transformed into "The Freak." 

Peggy, meanwhile, takes on Thor and his "All-Father" Vibranium sword but after nabbing the sceptre, we learn Steve Rogers is the forerunner. In his reality, he inadvertently hit Thanos' Time Stone with his shield during Avengers: Infinity War's battle in Wakanda, leaving him stranded in the past. He wipes himself out of existence before a distraught Peggy and the timeline corrects itself and is saved. 

Now stranded, the World War II looks up to find Supreme Strange staring back at her! To be continued...

In terms of familiar voices, this episode of What If...? is star-studded, with Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter, Samuel L. Jackson as Sir Fury, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Merkin, Chris Hemsworth as King Thor Odinson, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk, Jon Favreau as Happy, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange. 

Once again, the only recast roles were Tony Stark (Mick Wingert), Steve Rogers (Josh Keaton), and Black Widow (Lake Bell). 

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ScottPilgrim29
ScottPilgrim29 - 12/29/2023, 4:41 AM
How come every major actor, even Michael Douglas returns to voice their characters in this series but not Brie Larson? I can understand RDJ, Evans and Johansson are taking a break after Endgame, but Brie is still actively playing Captain Marvel.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/29/2023, 4:56 AM
This really goed all in on the multiverse, and not in a good way imo. Think it would've been worked better as part of a Captain Carter show, although that means we wouldn't have gotten Carter mocking Uatu I guess.
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 12/29/2023, 7:22 AM
@bkmeijer1 - Part of my issue with it was being animated as at times found it tough to keep track of who the characters were as not all as easily identifiable then in fight scenes so that and outfits made it tricky to keep track of which side they were all on.

Case in point being Happy but not alone in that regard, I instantly recognise Favreau in person but nothing much sticks out for me when in cartoon form and similarly with the voice of him and others in this.

Strip away iconic costumes of others too and the episode became a bit of a confusing overly busy mess trying to follow (esp as some of our heros were the antagonists too). Had to start again and simply not worry about who all the character were and doing so became more enjoyable but also kinda removed part of the point of being all the MCU characters and maybe would have worked better if they had used less of them.

This could all be a me problem however and/or not in the best place regarding frame of mind, mood and mental clarity at time of watching.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/29/2023, 8:43 AM
@Apophis71 - I get what you're saying. Felt the same way with the Zombies episide last season
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 12/29/2023, 5:10 AM
I can't wait for this one. Even though I know they're gonna [frick] it up. There's no way they can adapt it properly, since the main bad guy is Doom and it heavily features the X-Men.

I mean, it's not like they don't own all these characters and it is an alternate universe, why not just use established voices like Patrick Stewart, etc? I dunno. Maybe I should wait unti I've actually seen the episode before complaining, lol.
TheOtherOn
TheOtherOn - 12/29/2023, 6:48 AM
Year 1602 they mean?

Well...

Black Widow and Hawkeye would be the real heroes since there wouldn't be any tech existed for Iron Man to become a thing! We can argue the same about Captain America since he was created in a Lab experiment and those advanced labs also wouldn't exist in 1602.
Mrnorth1921
Mrnorth1921 - 12/29/2023, 6:58 AM
They are basically implying that Steve is causing an incursion. By breaking the time stone, he caused an explosion that sent him to the medieval universe. His presence there was causing an incursion. Much like what the Illuminati of earth 838 was afraid of when Strange showed there.

There are safe ways to transverse the universe. I suspect the Watcher, Strange Supreme, some Wanda’s, America Chavez, and the TVA can access.
FinnishDude
FinnishDude - 12/29/2023, 7:01 AM
I understand that with 20 minutes runtime you kinda have to pick your battles in regards to wich minor details to explain/explore in your story, but it kinda bugged me how Ant-Man still had his powers/tech, but Tony Stark was more limited by the tech level one would "realistically" have access to in 1602 or how some characters (Scarlet Witch, Hulk) just straight-up had their powers, while some (Asgardians) were turned into normal people.
Mrnorth1921
Mrnorth1921 - 12/29/2023, 7:03 AM
@FinnishDude - I imagine most of this Asgard/midgard world was mostly human. Everyone was toned down. I mean, did Loki even have powers?
mountainman
mountainman - 12/29/2023, 8:55 AM
The downfall of this show is the limited roster of heroes that have only appeared in the MCU that can show up in it. Many of these stories are suffering from the same couple dozen heroes appearing and having the mutants,FF, mostly no Spiderman, mostly no Hulk, no DD, no Ghost Rider, etc etc, makes the multiverse feel super small.
IronMan616
IronMan616 - 12/29/2023, 10:13 AM
Great, another Captain Carter episode. This should be retitled What If Captain Carter was in all these episodes.
LiteraryJoe
LiteraryJoe - 12/29/2023, 11:58 AM
@IronMan616 - Truly. I so tire of this version of Peggy. And I like Peg.
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 12/29/2023, 2:16 PM
@LiteraryJoe - Feel they should have just gone there and done a spinoff series for Cpt Carter, love her and would have been more up for that than the Zombies spinoff (not a fan of zombies ever) or indeed more What if's.
LiteraryJoe
LiteraryJoe - 12/29/2023, 2:28 PM
@Apophis71 -
LiteraryJoe
LiteraryJoe - 12/29/2023, 2:29 PM
@Apophis71 - They probably didn’t want to push that while they were planning the Tchalla and the Ravagers spin-off so let her and Strange Supreme be the familiar faces of the series.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 12/29/2023, 2:54 PM
I always wanted to see a Robin Hood Avengers spin off 🤡
Himura
Himura - 12/29/2023, 3:45 PM
This was a pretty damn good episode.

I want a "What If...Marvel gave Red Skull more than 5 minutes of screentime"
Himura
Himura - 12/29/2023, 3:46 PM
@Himura - I also need more of Thor with a vibranium sword

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