Marvel’s What if…Episode 3

“There was an idea, to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. So when we needed them they could fight the battles we never could”. 

At least that’s how things played out in 1 universe, but within the alternate of this episode, sadly, the (Original) Avengers in this universe (except for Captain America) all died for having a chance to rise…may they rest in peace (and if you don’t believe me, click to witness Earth’s Mightiest die):

 And for the record, I believe we can say that Hulk had the most “gruesomely Explosive death of them”

And it was all based on the idea that (in Avengers: Endgame) Ant-Man could’ve killed Thanos from the inside

(Click here to witness again Hulk’s death…with a fart sound added)

(“Let it go, Let it go, can’t hold it back anymore, I don’t care what they’re going to smell, let the gas rage on, The farting never bother me anyway”), just a little joke my Piano teacher once told me and I found it hilarious (plus I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened to Pizza Q or Hulk Jimmy)

 

As for the episode as a whole (while I did feel sorry for the death of the Avengers), I also felt sorry for Nick Fury’s vision to unite a team of individuals to fight the battles that not even the US army or SHIELD can (especially when Fury was forced to deal with Loki without any Avengers help), but in the end, he did manage to recruit both Captain America and Captain Marvel (later joined by an alternate Black Widow) to his “placement Avengers”. While this episode seems like a pretty dark/interesting concept (placing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in an “Agtha Christine-styled murder mystery), I felt like this episode missed out on a big opportunity of making both Hawkeye and Black Widow villains, since they started off as Villains in the comics, mainly facing off Iron Man (Picture: Top Right Corner) before later joining Earth Mightiest, plus the reason for the 2 becoming villains is because (in that reality), “What if…Hawkeye and Black Widow were agents of HYDRA”, thus meaning that since HYDRA operated within SHIELD, then it would’ve been HYDRA that foiled Fury’s plans from ever forming the Avengers (perhaps, had this episode taken this root, it could’ve explored “What if..HYDRA Conquered the Present Day”), thus it would’ve been HYDRA you founded Captain America and brainwashed him to becoming “Captain HYDRA” (Picture: Top Left Corner)

However, I felt like the reason they decided to go with Yellowjacket (Hank Pym) (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) was that making HYDRA the villain within this episode was (perhaps) too obvious (and remember, anything’s possible in a Multiverse), plus (in the comics), Hank Pym suffers from “mental Illness and becomes Yellowjacket, even slapping his own wife Janet Van Dyne” (within in this episode, Janet’s long gone, Hope Van Dyne becomes an Agent of Shield (not sure if she assumes the Wasp identity or Wasp is like her SHIELD codename) then dies, thus spirals Hank Pym into destroying everything Fury had ever hoped for), so I guess they wanted to show on what happens to those you suffer mental illness and don’t get the proper treatment, besides many mental illness cases within today’s society have spiraled out of control, thus we have to do more for the Mentally ill before they end up like Yellowjacket.   

(also tell me that this variant of Hank Pym looks a bit like my old band Director (Picture: Top Left Corner)

(This guy like super old, people…and is pretty grumpy, besides #BeardBuddies)

Plus I’ve just picked out his new Halloween costume, so if anybody dresses as Loki, you know what to do):  

(Just watched this clip on how Loki (masquerading as Nick Fury) defeated Yellowjacket) 

Plus (I almost to got say) that I was hoping for an episode like this to be almost an hour long because there were so much more plot holes that needed to be covered like “With Tony Stark dead, does James Rhodes assume the mantle of Iron Man (Picture: Bottom Left Corner), he did steal that Iron Man suit in “Iron Man 2” (I wouldn’t be surprised if SHIELD ends up buying Stark Industries to help aid in their War against Asgard) and where were “Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis and Dr. Eric Selvig” when Thor was shot by Hawkeye, kinda a missed opportunity to introduce a variant version of Jane Foster as Thor (Picture: Bottom Right Corner), the concept of Jane Foster being Thor has been around since What if…Vol 1 #10 (before Jason Aaron's Thor Run expanded that concept).

What if…(Avengers) Scenario-based Stories: The part of the blog where I talk about various other Multiversal possibilities concepts within the animated series (who knows, maybe these tales could either be made into actual comics or episodes for the animated series) and remember…anything is possible in a multiverse (thus allows us to get creative in a twisted way).

1. What if…The Avengers had formed during WWII (a personal favorite): Inspired by this “What if…Story from the Comics (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) and a sequel to my fan-fiction tale of “What if…Captain America teamed up with Thor during WWII (typed up in my “Marvel’s What if…Episode 1 Post)”, imagine what would’ve happened (after Thor and Captain America teamed up to fight both Loki and the Red Skull), with HYDRA still on the rise (led by Armin Zola) and dealing with non-earthly threats, the US government gets involved by creating a team of superhumans to fight the battles that the US army can’t fight, with Captain America allowing having several of his closest allies to have samples of his super-solider blood injected into them (including the test subject, Isaiah Bradley), to make more super-soldiers, “The Invaders” (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) are born (but in a more MCU-styled). Upon Forming, they band together to Battle “Thanos (Picture: Bottom Center)”, who resembles more of his “Ultimate Universe counterpart from Marvel’s Ultimate comics”, he’s the leader of the alien empire known as the “Endless Resurgence” and seeks the Cosmic Cube (which is used to Power Howard Stark’s Iron Man suit). Although the Invaders defeat Thanos and his forces, at the cost of losing Bucky Barnes (who sacrifices himself) and Captain America (who will end up frozen in time)”, the Invaders still remain together, helping to form SHIELD, stopping “The Emergence” from ever happening, battling other non-earthly threats like the Deviants, The Celestial (Arishem the Judge), Gorr the God Butcher etc.), before the Invaders would later go their separate ways. The formation of the Invaders would later (in the present day) inspire Nick Fury to form the Avengers (thus, makes me wonder how Captain America and Thor will react upon reuniting with each other after so many years apart following their years as members of the Invaders)?

(Known) Invaders Members: Captain America (leader), Agent Peggy Carter, Bucky Barnes, The Howling Commandos, Union Jack (James Montgomery Falsworth), Battlestar (Isaiah Bradley), Jim Hammond/Human Torch (Synthetic Man), Namor, the Sub-Mariner, Thor, Black Panther (Azzuri the Wise), Iron Man (Howard Stark) and Makkari (under the alias Hurricane)   

2. What if…The Avengers battled Nebula: This is set in an alternate MCU universe, where it’s Nebula (not Loki) who leads the Chitauri assault on Earth, this is mainly due to both Thor and Odin preventing Loki from falling into the abyss, thus Loki would never encounter Thanos nor get his hands on the Mind Stone Specter. Because of this, Thanos placed his Children (except Gamora, who was Thanos's favorite daughter) into a gladiator deathmatch to see who will have the honor of leading the Chitauri attack on Earth, in the end, Nebula emerges triumphantly and leads the attack on Earth (with the Avengers preparing to face her). This Alterzante MCU universe is loosely inspired by the “Avengers Storyline: Infinity Union (that ran from Avengers #314-318)”, in which Spider-man joined the Avengers in stopping a cosmic-powered Nebula, thus this alternate MCU universe could play out similar to that Avengers storyline, with a variant version of Spider-Man existing and joining the avengers, adding Sersi and Starfox to the team and adding Captain Marvel and War Machine to replace Vision and Quasar from the original storyline, plus we could see Sersi flirting with Captain America like in the comics (Picture: Bottom Right Corner), makes me wish I knew a girl like Sersi. Plus this alternate universe could explore “What if…Thanos invaded Asgard” (during Nebula’s assault on Earth), we could see Thanos vs Odin, as well as explore “What if…Gamora joined the Avengers”, in which Gamora is present when Thanos invades Asgard, however, ends up betraying him and she kills him and later (alongside Lady Sif and the Warriors 3) aid the overwhelming Avengers against Nebula and her forces, thus Nebula is forced to retreat (alongside with the reaming Chitauri forces of hers), also in the aftermath, Gamora joins the Avengers, feeling like she has no other place to go in the universe (with Spider-Man earning Reserve status), Gamora joins a full-time member   

Avengers Members: Captain America (Leader), Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, War Machine, Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), Starfox, Sersi, Black Knight (Dane Whitman), Spider-Man (Honorary reserve member), and Gamora (new member) 

3.  What if…The Avengers police the entire world: Inspired by the “Justice Lords” that appeared in the Animated Justice League Series (Picture: Bottom Center), imagine if a similar approach happen to the Avengers following their victory over Loki and his Chitauri forces. In this alternate MCU Universe, Loki (not only kills agent Phil Coulson), but also Nick Fury, Black Widow, and even Jane Foster, thus (following their victory in the Battle of New York), the Avengers decided to “rule the world with an Iron Fist”

Tony Stark (still operating as Iron Man) has his company (Stark Industries) merge with SHIELD, thus becoming the new director of SHIELD (with Pepper Potts overseeing both organizations), Stark also launches the “Man-Droid program” with War Machine leading the program. Captain America is elected as President of the United States (with Sam Wilson as Vice President and Sharon Carter as the secretary of State), Thor (who had killed Loki after he had killed Jane Foster) returns to Asgard, only to be harshly yelled by Odin for disobeying his orders to bring Loki back to Asgard to stand trail, leads to the duo clashing, with Thor winning and later establishing an Asgardian base in Broxton, Oklahoma (to aid SHIELD in protecting Midgard), Bruce Banner left to deal with the lost of black Widow, during that time, he transformed into “The Grey Hulk (Joe Fixit)”, where he comes a local crime-boss in Las Vegas (with Wilson Fisk/Kingpin being his biggest rival), thus hires “White Widow (Yelena Belova) and Ronin (Clint Barton)” working as his top enforcers, revealed to be working secretly for Tony Stark, to better control the criminal activities of Bruce Banner’s new Hulk Persona. This Alternate reality could explore “What if…Captain Marvel took control of the Nova Corps” (taking orders from Tony Stark, to help “police the galaxy”)

4. What if…The Avengers all died in their 1st battle: Inspired by his particular What If…Story from the Comics (Picture: Bottom Left Corner), In this alternate MCU Universe, The (Original) Avengers all died during the battle of New York (with the nuclear missile hitting manhattan, ending up nuking half of New York and even destroying the Tesseract, which created a black hole and Thor was the one who sacrificed himself in shutting it off from the Inside side, but lost his hammer in the process). Following this, it could lead to “What if…Captain Marvel battled the Dark Elves”, where she (alongside Mantis, Valkyrie, and Star-Lord) aided the Asgardians against the Dark Elves (also a variant version of Jane Foster becomes the new Thor). Also (without Cap and Widow’s help), Fury becomes helpless in stopping HYDRA’s Project insight that he (alongside Sharon Carter, Maria Hill, and Captain Marvel) manage to escape to a Skrull space station (along with other earthly heroes who managed to survive Project insight and HYDRA’s forces), thus The New Avengers are formed, this alternate MCU universe could explore “Betty Ross becoming She-Hulk (Picture: bottom right corner, form Ultimate Marvel), Bucky Barnes as Captain America (who was under Fury’s care, not Alexander Pierce’s) and HYDRA creating the robot Thor (Ragnarok) from the civil war comic 

 

New Avengers Members: Captain America (Bucky Barnes), Iron Man (James Rhodes), Thor (Jane Foster), She-Hulk (Betty Ross), Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Daredevil, Valkyrie, Falcon, Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Sharon Carter, Black Widow (Yelena Belova), Ronin (Alexi Shostakov), Captain Marvel, Mantis and Wong 

5. What if…The Avengers all had the same abilities: Inspired by this  What if…Story from the Comics (Picture: Bottom Center), impinge what would’ve happened if the Original 6 Avengers (from the 2012 Film) all had the “same abilities”, here are some perfect examples:

.All the Avengers don Iron Man-like Armor (Hulk dons more of a Nano-tech-like armor)

.All the Avengers were injected with Samples of Cap’s Blood, thus becoming super-soldiers 

(With Iron Man donning the “Iron Patriot” Armor and Thor wearing a patriotic cape like Homelander)

.All the Avengers wield Mjölnir-like Weapons (with Iron man donning armor made from Uru Metal and Cap getting a new Shield made from Uru-metal while wielding his own Mjölnir-like Weapon

.The Avengers get affected with Gamma radiation and become Rampaging Hulks 

.The Avengers become an elite team of Spies following some elite training from the Red Room

.The Avengers become Masters in Archery (for that to work, Tony Stark never becomes Iron Man, Brue Banner never becomes the Hulk and Thor would’ve been a mortal for all eternity)

(What sort of difficulties would the Avengers face if they all had the same ability)

 

6. What if…The Avengers battled Loki without their special abilities: Inspired by this What if…Story from the comics (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) and the “Powerless Episode” from the Avengers: EMH cartoon (Picture:  Bottom Left Corner), Imagine what would’ve happened if (before the Battle of New York), Loki uses a spell that manages to de-power 4 of the 6 original Avengers (Captain America no longer has the Super-Solider serum inside his body, Tony Stark is donning his Mark 1, but isn’t a genius, Thor is a mortal and Bruce Banner has been separated from the Hulk, with Hulk now rampaging wildly free), with only Hawkeye and Black Widow not affected. Fury later calls in War Machine, Captain Marvel, and Sharon Carter for help, but both War Machine and Captain Marvel become affected by Loki, with War Machine donning a Mark 1-styled Armor and has little understanding of how to control it & Captain Marvel loses her Cosmic abilities. Despite not being a genuis, with help from SHIELD and bruce, Tony managed to create various Iron Man-like battle suits for those affected by Loki’s spell, as they prepare for battle, meanwhile the Hulk has an encounter with the Anicent One, and after learning of what has happened, the Ancient One (alongide Wong and several members of the Mystic Arts) arriv eot aid the overwhelming Avengers, very briefly, the Anicent one grants the de-powered Avengers back their special abilities, which leads to Loki challenging the Anicnet One and then killing her, thus breaking the Anicnet One’s spell and the Depwoered are back to normal, but in the end, they’ve managed to win, but at the cost of both Black Widow and Hawkeye, also the Avengers still depowered from Loki’s Spell (with Loki escaping from the battlefield) and the Anicent One dead, Wong vows to find a way to revert Loki’s enchantment, but the Avengers question their status, with them repping mostly on Iron Man-styled armor as their new mission is to find the Hulk (who’s again separated from Bruce)

(Click here to watch the clip from Avengers: EMH)

7. What if…Nick Fury launch the Avengers Initiative in the 1990s: Taking Inspiration from this What if…Story from the Comics (Picture: Bottom Left Center), in this Alterante MCU Universe, The events of 2019s Captain Marvel happen in early 1990 (instead of 1995), as Earth would find it’s itself in conflicted with the ongoing Kree–Skrull War, after helping Carol Danvers regain her memories, Nick Fury (with help from Phil Coulson and Captain Marvel) decide to form the Avengers, as Earth is still caught in the middle of the Kree-Skrull War, thus several of the Avengers origins are reimagined to have happened in the 1990s (including Captain America being thawed out in the 1990s), mantis joins after being rescued by Captain Marvel from the Skrulls, Black Panther (T’Chaka) joins after learning that several of the War Dogs had been replaced with Skrulls and this Alterante Universe could explored, “What if…Bill Foster adapted HopeVan Dyne”, in which both Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym shrunk down to sub-atomic level during a Shield mission, thus resulted in Bill Foster in adopting a young Hope Van Dyne and later the 2 would work for SHIELD and take on their superhero personas (form the comics). This Alternate MCU reality could adopt a more “Faithful comic-accurate adaption” of the Kree-Skrull War from the comics (Picture: Bottom Center), with several changes, like Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)  playing the role of Captain Mar-vell and a preteen-Monica-Rambeau-playing the role of Rick Jones (who gets powers and becomes Photon). All of the fightings happens in space (later on, the Inhuman Royal family gets involved). By the late 1990s, The Avengers, Inhumans, and SHIELD manage to drive off both the Kree and Skrulls forces away from Earth, however (sometime in the early 2000s), The Avengers reassemble to aid Captain Marvel in her fight against Thanos (loosely inspired by Jim Starlin’s Thanos War Storyline from his Captain Marvel Run) (Picture: Bottom Right Corner)

1990s Avengers Members: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Mantis, Sersi, Starfox, Gilgamesh,  War Machine, Falcon, Hulk, Wasp (Hope Van Dyne), Goliath (Bill Foster), Black Panther (T’Chaka),  Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), Black Knight (Dane Whitman) and Photon (Monica Rambeau)

So who else wants to share there What if…Scenario-based Stories (Based around the Avengers)

Until then…Ethan Stranger says Excelsior…and always count on the Avengers to Assemble…

 

P.S. this episode taught me a new word “Malarkey”, which I thought was like some sort of sub-species of Mackerel (but Malarkey really means “meaningless talk”)