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

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.

My entire 3/10 rating is because this episode deserves points for the quality of animation. It's absolutely incredible, unlike the story. This is one of the most unoriginal, bland, and overall boring episodes yet. How, in a show with infinite possibilities, do they choose to base an episode on an entire trope. Nothing in this episode is original and everything was predictable. The dialogue was alright but overall meaningless as like I said, it was all predictable. The entire premise for the episode doesn't make sense and honestly if this storyline was AI generated I wouldn't even be surprised. It seems like they just picked some cliches out of a hat and made an episode based off that.

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.

While I appreciate the very obvious kaiju and anime references, I would much rather watch a true kaiju film or catch some old Voltron, Star Blazers or Battle of the Planets.

I also feel this episode strays too far from the multiverse plotlines we have been seeing which question how the current world/universe would be different if only one or two things in history had changed, as this episode looks to the future and basically just tells us a future story.

I look forward to Season three, episiode two to see where they are planning on going with this, but if they repeat the same kind of story or storyline, I may just have to draw an end to watching 'What if...?"

There really was so much working for this idea. The visuals were pretty amazing, the vast of characters were a grouping we've really never seen together, and we frankly have been starved for content this year, so anything short of a full blown Love & Thunder was going to be a hit.

But this fell flat, and it fell flat on what is arguably Marvel's greatest post-End Game weakness; dialog between characters.

With this much action and a massively compressed storyline, you really only had to wrote about 5 minutes of good, human conversation. Why is that so hard? The one-liners and schmaltz drowned out everything else. I really hope we get back on track with the rest of the season.