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Television

What If…The Avengers Assembled in 1602? review S2 E8

Jeffrey Lyles , , , , , , , , , ,

It didn’t take long to realize that What If…The Avengers Assembled in 1602 was an important episode this season.

With the series’ featured character, Captain Carter, being joined by all the Avengers and a special cameo from Loki, this was clearly going to be eventful.

Once again, the writers play fast and loose with the original premise of What If…? Venturing further away from slight alterations to the Sacred Timeline established in the films, The Avengers Assembled in 1602 takes Captain Carter to a world where the Avengers she knows are in a medieval time run by Queen Hela, Thor and Loki.

Wanda Maximoff brought Peggy to help their world to help track down the source of a power that randomly appears and takes people from a portal in the sky. With Hela the latest victim, Thor has to rule and with little progress, he orders his guard, led by Happy Hogan, to bring in Captain Carter. Nick Fury and Wanda still think Peggy can help them find the disruptive element in their world.

The writers clearly love Peggy, who doesn’t make much sense as the hero pulled from another world to help deal with a magical threat. What about another reality’s Baron Mordo? The Ancient One? Or Agatha Harkness? It’s helpful that Peggy is such a likable character as some of these plot conveniences would be a bit much with other characters.

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Now on the run, Peggy enlists Tony Stark (Mick Wingert) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to help her. They can assist, but Peggy needs a device stolen so she’s got to reach out to this world’s greatest thief, Steve Rogers (Josh Keaton) and his merry men, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). Naturally, there’s some immediate tension with Peggy meets this Steve Rogers free of Black Widow brainwashing.  The one constant on any world is Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter.

There’s no explanation why some characters have physical abilities and others are powerless. Wanda can easily be explained away as a witch, but how is Scott Lang shrinking?

The action wasn’t as wild as some other superhero brawls based on the timeframe, but the battle sequences were very well done. We get a mini Civil War style brawl that highlights the smooth action.

It did feel somewhat weird for the show to self-reference itself with Happy turning into the same quasi-Hulk he did back in What If…Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?

Despite the lack of subject familiarity and some slightly wacky character choices, The Avengers Assembled in 1602 gives the latest chapter for Captain Carter’s adventures a very entertaining ride as What If…? Season 2 nears its conclusion.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney 

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