There seems to have been a recurring theme of emulating classic films in Season 2. We’ve seen Blade Runner, Die Hard, and Ben Hur get homages at the very least. Episode 8 (“What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?” ended with a nice little Back to the Future “To Be Continued.”
It could also have been a “To Be Concluded,” tying together parts of Seasons 1 and 2 with a big old schmozz of cameos and call backs. Subreality-hopscotching super soldier, Captain Peggy Carter, was convinced by Doctor Strange to help him, revealing himself to Season 1’s Strange Supreme and on a mission to atone for his apocalyptic sins. Peggy has to help him track down a “universe-killer” for him to imprison. Turns out, it’s the newly-introduced Kahhori who tells her that Strange is not just imprisoning villains. Dozens of heroes and other beings of vast power are being captured so they can be fed to The Forge in an attempt to resurrect Strange Supreme’s doomed reality.
The prison break of all prison breaks sees Peg and Kahhori taking on: Hela, Wenwu, Season 1’s Infinity Stone-encrusted Kilmonger, Thanos, dragons, demons, zombies, and a particularly cruel illusion reminiscent of Alan Moore’s “For the Man Who Has Everything.” Somehow, our girls manage to wield Mjolnir, the Ten Rings, the Infinity Stones, Hela’s crown, Odin’s spear, and a dozen more mystic/Vibranium/whatever weapons (And who cares how, neckbeard? It was a cool moment.) It’s enough and we actually see Strange Supreme get as happy an ending as he was ever going to get. With Kahhori returned to her home dimension, Uatu the Watcher contacts Peggy as he’d been doing since 1602 England and offers her a lift home as well. The nouveau Rick and Louis agree to “take the scenic route,” implying that we’ll see more of Captain Carter in Season 3.
‘What If… Strange Supreme Intervened’ works well as a self-contained episode and as a finale. As in the inaugural season, the voice cast (easily the greatest since Andrea Romano put together the DC Animated Universe) has been incredible even with some original Avengers unable to reprise their roles in cel shaded splendor. If anything, the animation has been kicked up with fight sequences (Episode 7’s Hela and Wenwu vs Odin, for example) that easily surpass most of what we have seen in the live action Phase four onward. Jeffrey Wright’s Uatu notwithstanding, Hayley Atwell as various versions of Peggy Carter was the real pathos anchor this season and the possibility of her playing Jiminy Cricket or Dr Watson to Uatu in the next season looks all kinds of intriguing.
What If… Strange Supreme Intervened is now streaming on Disney+
