What If…Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper? review S2 E5
Combining one of the MCU’s best films with one that arrived far too late to be meaningful is a hurdle What If…Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper? ultimately can’t conquer.
It feels like the sweet spot of What If…? episodes is when a small tweak from one MCU film leads a character to another scenario. Swapping Steve Rogers and Bucky with Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers for this take 0n Captain America: The Winter Soldier would probably have been enough. Tossing in plot points and characters from Black Widow doesn’t add enough to justify their inclusion.
A fun twist in this episode reimagines the Battle of New York with a few different Avengers. Like Winter Soldier, Captain Carter is shocked to learn that her closest WWII ally Steve Rogers (Josh Keaton) is still alive while teaming with her tight modern-day ally, Black Widow (Lake Bell). This was teased in last year’s season finale.
Nick Fury doesn’t believe Steve can be saved based on the Hydra Stomper’s actions over the last few decades. It would have been nice to have more of this tension play out with Peggy and Nick since this would be different from Winter Soldier.
Peggy and Natasha battle Steve in his enhanced Hydra Stomper armor in a series of encounters. The action sequences are very well staged even if the Hydra Stomper’s weapon supply never seems to get exhausted.
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A major component of Winter Soldier that made it one of the MCU’s best films was the spy intrigue element and paranoia over Hydra. Little of that is present here with Captain Carter and Black Widow just going from one action showpiece to the next.
In lieu of a big Hydra reveal, the main twist here is a link to Black Widow. It’s felt like Marvel Studios has tried to make Black Widow’s solo adventure more meaningful.
Maybe that would have been possible if Natasha wasn’t already killed off in the Sacred Timeline by the time the film arrived? Now it feels like cramming in all of this “extremely important” backstory and characters to a certain level of prominence after the point that would have had some impact.
There’s a “post-credit” scene that leads into a future episode this season. That seems promising, but as always it will depend how it’s executed.
What If…Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper? has some interesting ideas at play, but it lacks the emotional pull of Winter Soldier and the Black Widow connections fail to land.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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