What If...?: What If... 1872?
December 27, 2024 11:30 AM - Season 3, Episode 6 - Subscribe

Yee, and I say this with some authority, haw.

After yesterday's episode, I thought to myself, self, surely they can't mess up a Western episode, could they? And while it's certainly possible, they did not mess up the Western episode, and in fact it was much fun. They started out with putting Shang-Chi in the Kwai Chang Caine role--only, you know, played by an actual Asian actor--and had Kate Bishop (and doesn't that sound like a name meant for a Western character?) as a sidekick, with Hailee Steinfeld, who first came to prominence in the Coen Bros.' True Grit remake. The kid character is named Jun-Fan, which was Bruce Lee's birth name. (Near the end, someone comments that the kid will grow up to have "iron fists.") One of the villains is Sonny Burch, originally from the second Ant-Man movie, and that's a very westernish name; he's played by Walton Goggins, who was in Justified, not technically a Western but also very westernish. (I think it was someone on Twitter who said that Walton Goggins always plays characters who look like they should be named Walton Goggins.) Even the relatively briefly appearing John Walker is played by Wyatt Russell--I mean, come on. Marvel used to publish a bunch of Western comics--the Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, the Two-Gun Kid, and so on--and this is a nice modernization of such with MCU characters.

Anyway, it perks along quite nicely; there are also some spots, such as when they're scanning the horizon for the Ghost Train, where the pacing gives the story some room to breathe before the next big fight. Speaking of the Ghost Train, there's also some super-science to make it more of a weird Western, a la The Wild Wild West. And, of course, wrapping it all up by having Uatu getting busted. I'm guessing that his trial is tomorrow. So, we'll get to watch the Watcher's end of watch.
posted by Halloween Jack (5 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Yesterday I said that every What If episode has to be like the best half hour extracted from a full movie, and this was exactly and perfectly that. (Well, the first 5 minutes of a movie and the last 25 minutes, because that intro was amazing.) And Uatu's disclaimer at the beginning—"at the edges of the Multiverse, things get cray cray, so don't worry about it"—primed us to just enjoy the show without asking too many questions (unlike yesterday's episode). Watching this third act, it was easy to extrapolate the hour that would have preceded it in a full movie, so that hour wasn't missed.

Though at the same time, this episode set up intriguing questions I would love to have answered in the future. Was "the Hood" actually Dr. Strange's Cloak of Levitation?* Why was it corrupting people, but in a fashion that seems to just corrupt them into doing what they already want to do (just evilly)? Why did Sonny Burch enjoy killing Kate's parent's so much? And why is Shang Chi's nickname "The Ten Rings" when he doesn't actually have the Ten Rings? I understand that this is What If's last season, but I would have liked another episode in this Earth.

*If it is, I hope this doesn't mean we're going to see Strange Supreme from seasons 1 and 2 again… enough of that guy.
posted by ejs at 1:02 PM on December 27, 2024 [1 favorite]


In the comics, The Hood is a hoodlum who got powers from a couple of mystic artifacts, originally, including the red cloak which is not Strange's cloak. (In true comics fashion, he's undergone so many retcons and power-ups and depowerings and repowerings that who knows what the latest version can and can't do, unless they keep up with all the Marvel comics, which I haven't tried to do for some time.) The character is going to be in the upcoming Ironheart series, although it could be somewhat or completely different from the comics version. And I figured that Sonny liked killing Kate's parents because he's just that kind of varmint, the sort who can't not twist the knife when he has a chance.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:05 PM on December 27, 2024 [1 favorite]


why is Shang Chi's nickname "The Ten Rings" when he doesn't actually have the Ten Rings?
You ring the church bell exactly ten times to let him know your town is being menaced by nefarious forces.
posted by Karmakaze at 5:01 PM on December 27, 2024


Well yeah, I got that! But the Bat-signal is named after Batman and not the other way around, know what I mean?
posted by ejs at 6:49 PM on December 27, 2024


I'd guess that Wenwu and Ying Li, Shang-Chi and Xialing's parents, met earlier? And Shang has a better relationship with his father? Yeah, things get weird out at the edges. Ultron Sings!
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:55 PM on December 27, 2024


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