What if…The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier? review S3 E3

What if…The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier? operates on a very flawed concept. That most Marvel fans find the buffoonish take on The Red Guardian hilarious and can’t wait to see more of his unique slapstick superhero hijinks.

The idea for Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier isn’t a bad one. It’s all about the execution. This episode starts with Bucky (Sebastian Stan) getting his assignment to kill Howard and Maria Stark. Unlike the events that played out in Civil War, Bucky isn’t successful as Alexi Shostakov aka The Red Guardian (David Harbour) successfully stops him after Bucky secures one of the Super Soldier serum packets.

Civil War is one of the roughest periods for the Avengers as Bucky’s actions and Captain America’s actions in trying to keep that from Iron Man split the team. What if…Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier takes that concept and instead opts for a comedic superhero gender swapped Thelma and Louise.

Bucky and Alexi are on the run as SHIELD agent Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) is on their trail. If there’s been any positive to the last two seasons of What If… it’s that through the series, we got a chance to see Foster’s Goliath in action before the old, retired guy we saw in Ant Man and The Wasp (still available on 4K at my affiliate Amazon). Bill teams with park ranger Morales (America Ferrera, Barbie) to bring them in.

Ironically, the Bill/Morales duo is more naturally engaging and fun than the title characters. And the way this season of What if…has played out so far, it wouldn’t be shocking to see them return in their own featured episode. Kidding…I think.

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It does feel like Marvel Studios is rushing to make Red Guardian and Yelena (Black Widow II) significant players in the MCU despite missing the optimum window — at any point while Natasha was alive to slowly introduce them and gradually make them important. Instead, it’s been this forced loose retcon to push them into relevancy.

There’s a decent chase scene where Bucky and Alexi escape a SHIELD roadblock. Seeing as this episode is titled What if…The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier? it’s probably best to play along with how easily Bucky and Alexi continually beat Goliath while he’s chasing after them. Granted, Goliath wouldn’t be used to much resistance, but Bucky and Alexi aren’t a well-oiled machine of teamwork and he should have been able to get some wins before they ultimately get away.

While most of Alexi’s scenes are hokey jokey, playful Russian tropes, there is a nice moment with him and Bucky as he attempts to help the Winter Soldier remember his past. It won’t matter since his mind will be wiped as soon as he returns from his mission.

Bucky and Alexi’s mission sends them to Las Vegas to meet their contact, who turns out to be Obadiah Stane (Kiff VandenHeuvel who pulls off a very impressive Jeff Bridges impersonation). Stane insists he’s no Russian spy so much as he was doing a little tit for tat with them. They get the serum and The Winter Soldier was supposed to kill the Starks so Stane could seize power at Stark International. That’s actually a cool additional layer that really could have worked to further paint Obadiah as a scumbag in the live action MCU.

Stane tries to kill the super soldiers, but Bucky sends him out the window, killing him. The real question that What if…The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier doesn’t answer is how the Starks surviving the assassination attempt impact Iron Man. Presumably, Tony wouldn’t be in the fray selling weapons and wouldn’t have ever had a need to become Iron Man. These are the kinds of missed butterfly effects that What If should explore even if it’s in a static image with The Watcher explaining.

Instead, Bill finds Red Guardian teaching at a school and offers him a chance to do something more. Cut to the Chitauri Invasion and the Red Guardian front and center with the other six original Avengers. Bucky meanwhile is back getting his mind wiped awaiting his next mission.

What if…The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier actually had a strong premise with some intriguing impactful MCU avenues to explore, but the creative team settled on a more simplistic approach that would largely just appeal to fans of the cartoonish Red Guardian.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

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