What If…Strange Supreme Intervened? review S2 E9

Was the Guardians of the Multiverse such a bad concept that the Season 2 finale of What If…Stephen Strange Intervened? could so thoroughly squander so much of the series’ goodwill?

After helping the 1602 quasi-Avengers save the day, Captain Carter gets visited by an old friend — Strange Supreme. He’s insistent on Peggy helping in a way that’s more coercing her to help than asking a pal for a favor. He needs her to track down a powerful force that Peggy will know once she arrives. Peggy would rather return home, but Strange’s pleading finally wears her down.

On this new world, Peggy encounters Kahhori, who she assumes was sent by Strange to take her out. While Peggy had no idea, it was a trap and Peggy sprung it so Strange could get Kahhori and her wonderful, magical powers.

A big problem with Kahhori is despite having a focused introduction episode, there was no tangible explanation of her powers. She’s just better at everything compared to the people who had similar abilities for twice as long.

Bizarrely, Strange has turned fully evil again in the hopes of restoring his world and his lover, Christine. It’s clear Peggy is a favorite character of the writers as she’s not the ideal hero for Strange to recruit to lure Kahhori in. Maybe Ravager T’Challa? Gamora? Or even Killmonger? Going for the most virtuous hero is remedial level villain planning.

Not even remotely shocking, Peggy isn’t on board with Strange Supreme stealing Kahhori’s powers and the two escape to various parts of his Sanctum.

MORE:

• MAFEX Batman: Hush Nightwing review
• G.I. Joe Classified Series Courtney ‘Cover Girl’ Krieger review (No. 59)
• DC Comics reviews 1/2/24 – Batman #141, Shazam #7
• Barbie review

From there, What If Strange Supreme Intervened quickly devolves into a super spammed-out Captain Carter and created just for the show Kahhori shrugging off Strange’s powers for 10- to 15-minutes.

Yes, there’s some distracting elements like unleashing the various multiverse heroes and villains Supreme Strange has captured along the way. It’s weird that Strange would have Thanos, Ultron Prime, Loki and multiple Thors in his possession, but absolutely HAS to have Kahhori to channel enough power to restore his world.

No matter what potentially challenging obstacle they face, Capt. Carter and Kahhori make short work of it. Thanos? Gone in a snap. Killmonger with the Infinity Stones and Ultron Prime armor? Barely worth a wave of Kahhori’s hands.

This season has too many episodes reinforcing how special Captain Carter is when Peggy should just be the What If universe’s version of Captain America. With Strange Supreme Intervening, Peggy gets essentially all the cool parts Captain America, Iron Man and Thor collectively would have in one character. Again, the threat of Strange Supreme should be enough to warrant Peggy and Kahhori recruiting some new allies — Nova Corps Nebula, Valkyrie & Gamora, 1602 Scarlett Witch and Hela — instead of taking him on themselves.

Instead, Strange Supreme throws magic spells after CC, who uses the Infinity Stones to create clones of herself that easily take out Strange’s duplicates. The fight should be more intense and suspenseful, but it’s clear that Strange has no shot. Especially when his other prisoners start tossing their helmets, hammers, knives, 10 rings and swords to help boost an already ridiculously overpowered Captain Carter and Kahhori.

Issues with the lack of drama aside, at least the episode looked good. The gorgeous animation looked just as polished and dazzling as the other installments.

Captain Carter has been a fun addition to the MCU, but Strange Supreme Intervened did more damage than good to her character. How engaging is a souped-up hero incapable of being defeated? Captain Carter can even hold the Infinity Stones, which crippled Hulk for using and killed Iron Man, with no struggle. And Kahhori felt like a cheat code since her weaknesses have never been discussed.

Strange Supreme Intervened was a disappointing conclusion to a second season of What If…that started off so promising and quickly started losing steam.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

Grab the Marvel Legends Supreme Strange from Amazon.

As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.