Marvel's What If? Ranked Worst to Best

We rank Marvel’s What If? Season 1 episodes from worst to best (Contains spoilers for Marvel’s What If?)

Hot off the heels of Loki, whose season finale opened the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a multiverse of infinite impossibilities, (and most likely introduced us to the MCU’s new big bad Kang the Conqueror) Marvel’s What If animated series has explored some interesting (and some not so interesting) stories via the god’s eye viewpoint of Uatu the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright). As season 1 concludes, we look at each episode and rank them from worst to best.

9) Episode 7 - What If... Thor Were an Only Child?

With unlimited, narrative possibilities at their disposal, What If had the freedom to explore some extremely left-field hypotheticals. Some of them were just crazy enough to work and some of them were just plain crazy (looking at you, Zombies). What if… Thor were an only child? is neither. This episode has zero “ask factor” (a measurement for whether people are really asking “what if” about this?) and it fails even further by not even being all that engaging. I’m sure making Thor an insufferable party bro with a light Elektra complex was particularly fun for Chris Hemsworth to voice, but there seems to be a theme, in the MCU, of making Thor a laughing stock (jokes in Avengers: Endgame at Fat Thor’s expense were groan-worthy and problematic) just because Hemsworth has a knack for comedy. In the end, the episode feels more like a filler that nobody asked for than a compelling What If.

8) Episode 6 - What If... Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?

Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) is another character who seems to not be getting the treatment they deserve. Yes, he’s the villain of Black Panther, but he’s also an intensely complex character study of displaced Africans in the Black Diaspora. He excels in the American military, learns how to destabilise governments and deploys those tactics in a long game to return home. Yes, along the way, he deceives and murders but let’s not pretend that Marvel villains with complex histories and moral compasses are beyond redemption (cough, cough, Loki). Killmonger comes out of this What If more irredeemable than in his film debut which feels a little tone deaf when you consider how much Killmonger resonated with Black people when Black Panther was released. The ask factor of this episode is extremely low and skirts over what could’ve been a much more interesting and thoughtful episode: “What if N’Jadaka was born in Wakanda?”

7) Episode 9 - What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?

This felt like an underwhelming finale, mostly because it felt like the Watcher was playing unnecessary games with the fate of the multiverse. I mean, him and Strange Supreme alone would have easily taken out Ultron (Ross Marquand). But Uatu only interfered enough to complicatedly put together a multiversal Avengers team and throw Killmonger under the bus and into a perpetual cosmic prison to battle a Nazi virus inhabiting the shell of a genocidal cyborg (phew). The finale felt rushed, and in its attempt to try and tie loose ends up, it seemed narratively quite sloppy. I’ll admit though, this episode does a fantastic job of putting some respect on Black Widow’s (Lake Bell) name, but that’s counteracted by a continuation of Killmonger being done dirty.

6) Episode 1 - What If... Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?

This episode is a strong introduction for the series. There’s no over the top pizzazz but also it’s not too slow-burning in its execution. It’s exciting, engaging and manages to allow Steve Rogers to retain all the heroism that made us love Cap (Josh Keaton) but also awards Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) capabilities that seem to exceed the Cap we grew to know and love. It’s not a bad episode, but the whole Hydra-World-War-II-Nazi-and-evil-Russians-Adjacent time period of the MCU are the most boring part of the Cinematic Universe to me. Strong story, just not my cup of tea.

5) Episode 4 - What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?

I will admit, this episode was visually the most striking. There are beautiful, otherworldly backdrops, harrowing and terrifying magical sequences and an engaging experimentation with aesthetic form.

Despite this, the story descends into a convoluted lull towards the end, which further hinders the emotional depth that this episode needs to achieve in order for us to connect with this version of Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). The episode also suffers from a lack of ask factor, especially because the Doctor Strange that we are familiar with never centered Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) romantically. I will say that the episode creates a complex character out of the grief of Doctor Strange–and you don’t know whether to root for him, hate him, feel sorry for him or pity him.

4) Episode 5 - What If... Zombies!?

What the heck happened to Zombie Thanos?!

3) Episode 3 - What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?

Now, I really enjoyed this episode. It has a high ask factor (I personally think about what would’ve happened in the MCU if the Avengers weren’t brought together often) and it brings an almost true-detective hue to the series, as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to figure out who’s killing the folks he’d planned to make a part of his covert team. I definitely didn’t see the twist coming until the very end. It’s a stellar episode, executed well, that takes our nostalgia from phase 1 and warps it.

2) Episode 9 - What If... Ultron Won?

As someone who believes that Avengers: Infinity War is the best Marvel film to date, What If… Ultron Won? is similar in tone–a villain's love letter to destruction. Although I would’ve preferred Ultron to have an objective beyond universal quietness, I can’t help but admire his dedication, his ability to adapt and react (Thanos didn’t even have enough time to whisper “you should’ve gone for the head” in this timeline, he just got sliced into two, perfectly balanced slices) and how the thoroughness of his resolve made him literally elevate perception of reality. He breaks the 4th (3 and a halfth?) wall to attack our narrator Uatu in a battle across the multiverse that is riveting and nail-biting.

Even though Ultron was wonderfully voice acted by James Spader in the MCU’s Avengers sequel, his version seemed to lack all the formidableness of his comic book counterpart (In the 10-part comic book Age of Ultron, Ultron basically kills the Marvel Universe). But this particular What If returns him to his true, menacing status. And I do love a good redemption arc–even if it’s for a villain.

1) Episode 2 - What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?

This was the perfect episode of the series. It asks a question that I, personally, have never thought of and through that, this hypothetical weaves a universe that is just a smidgeon to the left of the MCU that we’re used to. With essentially a 0 ask factor, What if T’Challa became a Star-Lord? was exceptionally funny, from Korath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou) geeking out over Star Lord (I know Peter Quill’s head was spinning somewhere) to the fact T’Challa managed to thwart Thanos’s (Josh Brolin) entire life purpose to genocide half the universe with a mere conversation, this episode manages to take the natural humour of “Star-Lord”, the ravagers and the entire absurdity of The Guardians of the Galaxy’s and blend it with the wise superiority that we’ve come to expect from T’Challa since he cat-landed on our screens in Captain America: Civil War. Although it seems just a tad far fetched for a Wakandan prince to be kidnapped by the ravagers, (Wakanda is the Earth’s leading technological power… they didn’t pick up a big ol’ ravager ship on their sensors?) The episode still manages to capture something special–and it’s no surprise that Marvel had plans to make a spin-off series.

Although this isn’t the last episode of Boseman’s appearance as T’Challa, it felt like the perfect way to send off the man who so thoroughly personifies the spirit of the Black Panther, that he can carry that spirit into a total different multiverse and still retain all that majesty and splendour.

What do you think of this list? And what are your favourite (or worst) What If episodes? Comment below!