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what if emergence destroyed the earth review - riri with vision powerrs
Television

What If… The Emergence Destroyed the Earth? review S3 E5

Jeffrey Lyles , , , , , ,

What If… The Emergence Destroyed the Earth? offered something rare in this final season of What If…? Hope that the final stretch of episodes can still be entertaining. 

Consistent with most of this season, The Emergence Destroyed the Earth focused on underdeveloped players from the Multiverse Saga instead of any of the major heavy hitters from The Infinity Saga. That’s proven to be a bad choice since so much of the character development and buy-in has to be done by What If…? It’s not like many characters outside of Wong have shown up on multiple times in this arc. 

what if emergence destroyed the earth review - riri williams

Wong has been the Agent Coulson/Iron Man in terms of appearances showing up in Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Ironically, he does also appear in The Emergence Destroyed the Earth, but more so as a supporting character as per his normal role in this saga. 

The focus is on Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a character slated for a larger spotlight whenever her Ironheart Disney+ show airs.

In perusing the multiverse, The Watcher has seen Riri as a key figure in this particular scenario where worlds are conquered by The Iron Legion. No, not under the command of Tony Stark or even Kang, but Quentin Beck (Alejandro Saab) aka Mysterio. Following the near destruction of the planet when a celestial arrived, Earth is in ruins and it’s Beck who seizes power with his army of Iron Legion and The Vision.

The Emergence Destroyed the Earth screenwriters make good use of Mysterio’s illusion-focused powers. Not all of his army is real. Some are just more of his highly detailed and lifelike holograms, which makes for a bigger threat in determining what’s real and what’s fake. The Vision is very real and very deadly. 

what if emergence destroyed the earth review - wong, okoye, wing nan and valkyrie

Riri has some ideas on how to take Mysterio down, which draws the attention of a makeshift group of heroes — Ying Nan (from Shang Chi voiced by Michelle Wong provided a strong Michelle Yeoh impersonation), Wong (David Chen), Okoye (Kenna Ramsey) and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson actually providing the vocal work for the character she plays in the live-action MCU). Emily VanCamp also reprises her role as Sharon Carter in a cameo playing up her role established in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series.

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Emergence Destroyed the Earth did what too few of the What If…? episodes have done his season in by considering plot lines and characters from The Multiverse Saga. This was the first to act like what’s currently playing out in the MCU is important enough to consider alternate realities of these characters.

Riri had a fun role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever but hasn’t appeared in anything else. That will change following her upcoming Disney+ series, which makes this episode a bit of a refresher as to why Riri is actually a likeable character who has the potential to be a major player in the post-Endgame MCU. After disabling Vision, she uses his tech to create a synthoid suit of armor that allows her to see through Mysterio’s illusions.

what if emergence destroyed the earth review - the watcher

The Watcher bemoans this development as he’s seen too many realities where this choice ultimately marks Riri’s death in those respective timelines. As he watches the battle play out in a similar manner as so many other times, The Watcher decides he’s had enough. Though he’s sworn a vow to not interfere in what plays out across the multiverse this time, he can’t resist and simply tells Riri to fight back. Motivated by The Watcher’s words, Riri doesn’t succumb to the death and despair she’d seen. This time she does overcome Mysterio and sets her world on a path not of destruction, but of hope for a brighter tomorrow.

This action does not go unnoticed by a trio of other Watchers who decide their best course of action for now is to continue observing their fellow Watcher to determine if this was an isolated incident or cause for greater concern.

What If…The Emergence Destroyed the Earth felt more like a Season 1 episode with a bleaker setting, a small force of opposition and enough twists on familiar characters to create a fun, fresh story. Hopefully the back end of the season will feature more episodes of this quality. 

Rating: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

Check out Riri Williams’ MCU debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever now available on 4K on Amazon.

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