Marvel’s What if…? The Series Proves the Diverse Problem Star Trek Revealed
By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Marvel’s animated series What if…? offers, on paper, the franchise’s most comprehensive examination of the multiverse by showing us stories of very different realities. However, while all three seasons of the show have been very entertaining, it increasingly highlights the various storytelling weaknesses of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As Star Trek: The Lower Decks lately, Marvel has been focusing on giving us “lazy accessible remixes,” and What if…? it could be stronger if its variety had a better connection to existing movies and TV shows.
Now, a fair warning before we go any further: we’re going to touch on major spoilers at the end Lower Decks and the third and final season of What if…?so go ahead and read for yourself.
Star Trek Calls The Multiverse
The last two episodes of Lower Decks involved our Starfleet heroes investigating quantum rifts and eventually creating a stable form of wormhole in other dimensions. Along the way, a different character, Captain Boimler, complained about multiverses as a concept, saying that they keep getting “lazy remixes” of familiar characters rather than anything new. In fact, it’s hard not to see this sentiment directed at Marvel, his various movies and games (incl What if…?) have wasted a lot of energy in telling a story in a variety of ways.
Movies are the same Doctor Strange and Assorted Madness and I mean dear Spider-Man: No Way Home they mostly used diversity as an excuse to bring us new versions of familiar characters (like Dr. Strange and Mr. Fantastic) or cameos from other movies (like Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and other Sony-era Marvel villains). Marvel’s What if…? the show was designed to evolve by creating independent stories set in its own variety. However, as big fans of the original comics, we can’t help but feel that this game could have been stronger if it had a stronger connection to the existing universe.
What are Marvel’s Various Requirements
In case you don’t know, the original What if…? the comic was about exploring what would have happened if Marvel’s main event had gone differently, such as what would have happened if the Hulk had killed Wolverine in one of their early fights. Some episodes of the show reflect this by imagining how the MCU would be different if, say, Ultron beat the Avengers or Odin never accepted Loki. But so many episodes of the show explore completely off-the-wall possibilities, from T’Challa becoming Star-Lord or Agatha Harkness pursuing superpowers by becoming a Hollywood star.
As Marvel fans, we have enjoyed some of these marvels What if…? news, but Star Trek was good: in the end, Disney continues to give us lazy remixes of beloved characters, effectively destroying the idea of diversity. The show was supposed to be more like a comic, taking its stories away from exploring what would have happened if the major events of the MCU had gone down differently. There will still be plenty of opportunities to create exciting variety (which should sell those action figures), but audiences will be more invested in these “new” characters because of their connection to the cinematic universe we all know and love.
Marvel may have already taken this advice to heart: What if…? is ending its third season, and we may see the death (at least, temporarily) of diversity after that. Secret Wars. As fans who really want to see the franchise succeed, however, we’ll always be haunted by one question that comes to mind every time the credits roll. Simply put, what if Marvel did a better job with it What if…? and variety in general?
And if TVA can get us into that reality, please do so soon…we can only watch Deadpool and Wolverine often our preparation is to tell a variety of stories.
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