What If…Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark? review S1 E6

This installment of What If…? was interesting. It had some really standout moments, but still felt frustratingly incomplete. Just when it felt like the episode was reaching its midway point, it was over. If the series revisits episodes from previous seasons, What If…Killmonger rescued Tony Stark? has to take priority.

With Tony Stark saved from the ambush from the Ten Rings, he never matures into becoming a better person let alone the hero that helps save Earth from multiple invasions. Or at least in one case doesn’t cause one — #RIPUltron.

It also leaves open the possibility of Loki and Thanos ultimately arriving and no one to stop it. At least not four obvious Avengers. More on that in a bit.

The Watcher frames this as a villain getting another chance so we know early on, Killmonger’s (Michael B. Jordan) intentions aren’t good. Even as he saves Stark and outs Obadiah as the one that tried to have Stark killed.

Tony (Mick Wingert) is oblivious to this and is enjoying having a new pal around to watch his back. Killmonger starts offering up suggestions about drones that would be useful in battle even working in a fun nod to Jordan’s love of anime.

Both Happy (Jon Favreau) and Pepper Potts (Beth Hoyt) are leery of Killmonger, but Pepper takes it a step further and has Rhodey (Don Cheadle) search for any concerning information on him. But Rhodey doesn’t find anything.

To get the drones fully operational, it’s time for a trip to the coast of Wakanda to grab some vibranium. This brings Killmonger on a collision course with Wakanda’s defender — Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman).

Somehow, Killmonger has a sonic cannon capable of stopping T’Challa and disappointingly kills him and Rhodey. Naturally in Black Panther, Killmonger had no idea of the suit’s vulnerability to sonics.

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Stark actually had the incident recorded and confronts Killmonger with a prototype drone. This doesn’t end well for Stark, who gets killed by a spear to the shoulder? That’s a heck of a vibranium spear. Setting up a war with the U.S. and Wakanda is an impressive display of real world chess and he’s even got General Ross leading the charge. Shouldn’t he be at a college campus stalking Bruce Banner?

Killmonger’s original Black Panther plan comes back to fruition as he kills Klaue and takes him to Wakanda as his entry pass. Offering to stand with ‘unc’ T’Chaka (John Kani) and distrusting cousin Shuri, Killmonger helps repel the Stark drone invaders with Gen. Ramonda ‘Auntie’ (Angela Bassett) and Okoye (Danai Gurira).

Having proven his loyalty, Killmonger gets entrusted to be the new Black Panther in the golden suit Shuri would design a decade (?) later. So for everyone clamoring for Killmonger to be Black Panther, there you go.

In the plains, Killmonger encounters T’Challa, who questions if his path to power was worth it. It kinda seems like it was, T’Challa.

Pepper is back in her office and is greeted by Shuri (?), who has evidence proving Killmonger’s guilt. So what are they going to do about it? We’ll have to find out next time.

Say what? This ending wasn’t it gang. It was a scenario where everything was set up nice for Killmonger taking over Wakanda and invading America now under the protection of the Iron Man-less Avengers. Nick Fury’s Avengers Initiative certainly wouldn’t have any reason to stop in the wake of so much destruction, right?

There were a lot of questions in this one and it required Killmonger outsmarting everyone. That part wasn’t too big of a stretch, but it seemed out of character for Shuri to sidestep her general mother and Okoye to go reach out to Pepper, a woman she never met. This goes against Wakanda nature to deal with issues in house.

As usual, the animation was amazing and the music was great with the traces of Killmonger’s theme coming in. Honestly, if this episode ended with those magical words of To Be Continued, that would worked. This ended made the episode feel incomplete.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

Get the Marvel Legends Killmonger figure from Amazon.