WHAT IF...? Unleashes "The Freak" And Brings Back A Familiar Foe In "What If...Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?"

WHAT IF...? Unleashes "The Freak" And Brings Back A Familiar Foe In "What If...Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?"

The latest episode of What If...? celebrates the holidays and sees Happy Hogan take centre stage when Avengers Tower comes under attack from a familiar foe from the past. And who, or what, is "The Freak"?

By JoshWilding - Dec 24, 2023 03:12 AM EST
Filed Under: What If

Today’s episode of What If...? doesn’t take us to a world that’s drastically different from Earth-616, but by asking "What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?" we get to head to a reality where Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are celebrating Christmas likely somewhere between the events of The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Iron Man is hosting the Avengers Holiday Gala and Happy Hogan has been tasked with making sure it all runs smoothly. Darcy Lewis, seeking college credit, is lending a helping hand but it’s not long before Iron Man 2 villain Justin Hammer soon crashes the party!

With J.A.R.V.I.S. undergoing maintenance, Hammer and his goons take control of Avengers Tower and the Iron Legion. Why? Well, he’s out for revenge and has learned Tony Stark has Hulk blood in his laboratory. He wants to use it to become a powerful supervillain, prompting Happy to do a Die Hard and travel through the building’s air vents to get to that before Hammer can. Maria Hill, meanwhile, is shot and incapacitated by the gloating baddie.

Poor, hapless Happy accidentally injects himself with that Hulk serum, causing his leg to “Hulk Out” and turn purple. He slowly continues to transform and ends up leaping out of the tower to confront Hammer and save both Maria and Darcy.

This new Hulk - credited as "The Freak" by Marvel Studios in a nod to a very obscure comic book story where Happy takes on that moniker after being transformed - proceeds to make short work of the Iron Legion in an epic fight sequence. Hammer, realising he’s outgunned, dons the Hulkbuster armour and a fight ensues until The Avengers - dressed for the holiday party - intervene. They initially attack Happy, but when they realise it’s their friend and not a rampaging monster, Tony immediately takes apart Hammer’s suit.

The villain falls from Avengers Tower, but Happy intervenes and saves him - it’s the holidays and he wishes goodwill to all men…even the bad ones! It appears Happy is now stuck in his Hulk form but, much to Tony’s delight, that means he has a very formidable new bodyguard and Happy is the bodyguard he’s always wanted to be. Thor, meanwhile, arrives late to the party.

Make sure to stick through the credits as well because there’s a fun voiceover with Darcy briefly singing a Marvel-themed Christmas carol!

In terms of returning cast members, we have Jon Favreau as Happy "The Freak" Hogan, Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye.

Those MCU vets are joined by Mick Wingert as Iron Man, Lake Bell as Black Widow, and Josh Keaton as Captain America.

What did you think about this holiday-themed episode of the animated series?

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TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 12/24/2023, 3:17 AM
Man , they really pulled from the canon from that…

Happy does become a mutated character called “The Freak” in the comics at one point.



Anyway , fun episode!!.
FinnishDude
FinnishDude - 12/24/2023, 3:32 AM
@TheVisionary25 - One of the fun things of What if? has been them pulling stuff from the comics, which will probably never happen in the "proper" MCU, like this and Zola's "stomach-face" in season 1.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/24/2023, 4:50 AM
I'm mixed on this episode. I like the Die Hard premise and The Freak separately, but I don't like the What If of this episode. Seperately those things are fun, but it didn't need to be a What If imo.
ptick
ptick - 12/24/2023, 6:18 AM
Missed opportunity by not having Happy say "Whatcha gonna do?," considering he became "Hulk" Hogan.

I'll show myself out ...
WhatIfRickJames
WhatIfRickJames - 12/24/2023, 6:44 AM
That Iron Legion scene would be NC-17 if the oil was blood red
marvel72
marvel72 - 12/24/2023, 6:55 AM
Watched Die Hard last night, classic. I thinking about Gremlins tonight.
StSteven
StSteven - 12/24/2023, 3:21 PM
@marvel72 - I have all those Christmas-themed movies stacked up on my Blu-Ray player and ready to go. We've been working our way through the more kiddy-friendly ones (being as I have little kids) and so far have made it through "Elf", "A Christmas Story", and are in the middle of "Home Alone" (we did "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" over Thanksgiving but that kinda counts). Might do "Gremlins" next. And of course I'll have all those old Holiday cartoons running in a loop during the day tomorrow. Gotta love "Rudolph", "Frosty", etc.

That reminds me: I still have one more Christmas tree to put up and some presents to wrap. What the hell am I doing here? 😊
ReverseFlasher
ReverseFlasher - 12/24/2023, 7:18 AM
Is Freak a spoiler? Bc thats two straight days spoiling the what if episode details or characters with your article titles.

Please stop. Like many I am busy right now, and have to watch these in a week.
ReverseFlasher
ReverseFlasher - 12/24/2023, 7:20 AM
@JoshWilding -
@natebest -

^^^
JoshWilding
JoshWilding - 12/24/2023, 8:39 AM
@ReverseFlasher - Nope, not a spoiler in any way, shape or form. Nothing has been revealed in headlines which hasn't already been shown in trailers, TV spots, or official stills.
WhatIfRickJames
WhatIfRickJames - 12/24/2023, 9:21 AM
@ReverseFlasher - yeah bro, that’s a lost cause. No real change happens when you complain. Josh don’t give a shit about spoiling anything.
ReverseFlasher
ReverseFlasher - 12/24/2023, 9:53 AM
@JoshWilding - okay, i dont recall freak or an 80s avengers assembling in the full length trailer I saw, but only watched it once to preserve the surprises lol.
knomad
knomad - 12/24/2023, 8:25 AM
"Purple Hulk".. I think that was the Brute, IIRC
GhostDog
GhostDog - 12/24/2023, 8:52 AM
The Incredible Bulk
DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 12/24/2023, 10:05 AM
@GhostDog -

Slotherin
Slotherin - 12/24/2023, 11:01 AM
I kinda wish this was marked for the spoilers. I didn't realize it was gonna tell the whole episode.
DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 12/24/2023, 11:18 AM
Okay, I just watched it, and the Herzog AI had me cackling! 🤣👌
Vigor
Vigor - 12/24/2023, 1:56 PM
These 3 episodes have had some good writing and callbacks
Spidey91
Spidey91 - 12/24/2023, 2:44 PM
That was very fun, an MCU themed Die Hard homage is not what I expected but I'm glad I got it.

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