What If... The Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?

Marvel's "What If...?" series has always been an intriguing platform for exploring the multiverse, where small changes ripple into big "what could have been" scenarios. It's the perfect format for an animated show, offering limitless opportunities to reimagine beloved characters and iconic storylines. While the series has delivered a fair share of surprises, it hasn't quite reached the level of unforgettable storytelling that its boundless potential promises. There have been a few fun changes to the films, and then some questionable decisions made for certain episodes. The Season 3 premiere, "What If... the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?" exemplifies both the show's strengths and its shortcomings.

At first glance, the premise is tailor-made for a rollicking animated adventure: Bruce Banner, in yet another tragic misfire of scientific experimentation, unleashes a destructive force that only a team of colossal mech-suited heroes can combat. Watching robots and monsters pummel each other is undeniably fun. The episode captures the visual thrill of these clashes, with fluid animation that highlights every impact, explosion, and Hulk-sized tantrum. However, the excitement fades as the story leans too heavily on this concept, leaving the action to carry the weight of a plot that feels thin. The exploration of Bruce Banner's perpetual struggle with the Hulk continues to be one of the MCU's most compelling arcs. This episode adds an intriguing twist, framing Banner's dilemma through the lens of self-sacrifice. Would you confront your worst nightmare yet again if it meant saving the world? It's a question rich with emotional weight, and one that lends the episode a fleeting gravitas. Unfortunately, this thread is never fully developed, drowned out by the relentless focus on monster-versus-mech spectacle. On a technical level, the animation deserves praise for its dynamic action sequences and sharp visual style. The fights are kinetic and inventive, showcasing the potential of animated Marvel stories to push boundaries. However, the stakes are so low that the episode ultimately feels like a Saturday morning cartoon rather than a meaningful entry in the MCU multiverse. Without genuine consequences or depth, the novelty of watching giant robots battle monsters wears thin, and the relentless punching and transforming begins to feel monotonous.

"What If... the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?" offers some enjoyable moments, but it ultimately feels like it's doing the bare minimum with its story. In the end, this episode is a mixed bag: a visual treat with fleeting moments of emotional resonance, but one that falls short of delivering on its intriguing premise.

I was excited for What If to start again. Season one was great. Season 2 was lackluster. Episode one of season 3 was very boring. It just lacked anything that caught my interest.

I know some will enjoy it, but for me there was nothing that truly peaked my interest. The episode felt rushed in a bad way. Nothing really caught my attention here. I didn't feel the story was well thought out. The voice acting was okay most of the time, but maybe the dialogue itself could've been done better. I can't truly put my finger on it, this episode just felt very meh to me.

Unfortunately, I feel the writers have just sort of lost there way with the series compared to season one.

Godzilla+Pacific Rim/Transformers+ Power Rangers=What If... The Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?

The latest entry in the MCU's alternate universe exploration arrives with high hopes, particularly for those eager to see Sam Wilson take on the mantle of Captain America. After all, the transition from Steve Rogers to Sam was one of the more powerful moments in the last few phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yet, this pilot episode, intended to reintroduce Sam in his new role, feels like a missed opportunity. The episode remains stilted, disjointed, and underwhelming throughout its short runtime.

From the very beginning, it's apparent that the episode's primary objective is to solidify Sam Wilson's place as the new Captain America. With the "Red Hulk" storyline casting a long shadow, there's a certain urgency to the narrative that, unfortunately, leaves little room for nuance. The storytelling itself is uneven, rushing through key moments without allowing them the narrative to breathe.

There's a sense that the episode relies too heavily on the familiar tropes, with plot points unfolding predictably, almost mechanically. At no point does the episode reach for something truly original.

The real disappointment, however, is in the missed potential of the "What If" format. With so many rich stories to explore within the first three phases of the MCU, it feels strange to spend so much time on characters who have, in many cases, only been given a single film or series to develop. Perhaps the most intriguing alternate realities lie in the earlier days of the MCU, where the scope of possibility felt broader and more profound.

This episode, as the season opener, doesn't quite instill the sense of excitement we've come to expect from Season 3. Unless the show's subsequent episodes offer something interesting, I worry about the direction this season is headed. For now, it's hard not to feel that the series is treading water, rather than diving into new and compelling waters.

Go ahead and look at the ratings for previous season. The lowest rated episode by far has been the "Party Thor" one from Season 1. That's well deserved, the episode was plain dumb. Every complaint you could have about a What If episode (cringe humor/dialog, wasted potential, boring concept, no plot, et c.) is at its worst there. Its rating? 6.4/10. On NO PLANET is this episode worse. There is no valid or logical justification for how this episode can have a lower score. Are the only people reviewing season 3 at this point just tired of the MCU and hate-watching it?

I enjoyed it well enough. It was a fun, action packed episode with our first look at what a post-Endgame Avengers team could look like and character interactions we haven't seen before and the return of Savage Hulk. That's what you'd want in a What If story.

The third and, for reasons I don't really understand, final season of what should be a seemingly ever running stream of ideas, "Marvel's What If.. " begins quite a different style of episode, though one riffing on a familiar science fiction trope.

Trying to rid himself of his Hulking side, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) submits himself to exposure to a massive amount of Gamma Radiation. Far from killing the Hulk it actually generates a huge gamma Kaiju, codenamed "Apex" which is capable of self-propagating an army of smaller monsters. They overwhelm the Avengers and kill off the first wave of heroes, but a secondary team step up and fight them back, with the Apex going into hiding. Ten years later Apex remerges, seeing defeat on their horizon, Captain America (Anthony Mackie) tries to find the reclusive Banner to assist them.

So, it's Kaiju's vs. The Avengers in Mech suits and in traditional "Mighty Morphin" / "Voltron" style the mech can combine to produce a giant robot, to fight the massive monsters. It's not too much more complicated than that, save for Banner's eventual role in proceedings. It uses the same slightly cel shaded look that the show has utilised since it's inception. The vocal performers are pretty much all the actors from the MCU save for Kari Wahlgren, who replaces Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff and Brittany Adebumola who replaces Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia. It's nice to see some of the characters we've not seen represented in the show before, such as Moon Knight appearing here - and voiced by Oscar Isaac.

It's different to many of the previous episodes which have often stemmed from a moment in the MCU going in the opposite way than it did in that Universe - this feels more like a completely new version of everything, which is fine - but again begs the question of why a show with seemingly infinite variety is ending after just 26 episodes.