Warning! Contains spoilers for What If...? episode 1.
Marvel’s What If…? has walked back some of the Infinity Stone criticism prevalent in Loki by bringing the celestial artifacts back to the forefront of the story. The new animated Disney+ series looks at a different alternate MCU timeline in each episode, presenting lots of fun opportunities to use past ideas like the Infinity Stones in new ways. What If…? episode 1, “What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?,” does just that.
For the first three phases of the MCU, the Infinity Stones were the ultimate power, frequently being at the center of films like The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, and others. The so-called Infinity Saga culminated with the two-part finale of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which saw half of all life in the universe annihilated and subsequently restored, all through the power of the Infinity Stones. At the start of MCU Phase 4, it was hard to imagine anything more important or powerful in the Marvel universe.
Then, in Loki, that idea was severely challenged. During his first visit to the TVA, Loki saw a drawer full of used-up, powerless Infinity Stones from numerous branching realities, turned to nothing more than glorified paperweights within the confines of the Time Variance Authority. It was a poignant moment for the God of Mischief, and for the MCU as a whole, as it seemed to suggest that going forward, the Infinity Stones would be far from the greatest power in the cosmos.
However, What If…? episode 1 has shifted that narrative a bit by putting the Infinity Stones back at the center of the action. As a retelling of the first Captain America, the episode once again has the Tesseract, which houses the Space Stone, at the core of the story. Through the episode, the Infinity Stone is shown to be just as powerful and dangerous as they all were once thought to be, nearly bringing about the end of the world by summoning a giant, tentacled monster at the end. Captain Carter manages to save the day, but not before the Space Stone reestablishes itself as much more than a paperweight.
Of course, the difference between the Infinity Stones in What If…? and their portrayal in Loki makes sense given the difference in narrative scale. What If…? episode 1, just like all the MCU stories that preceded Loki, takes place within a single reality, which holds a single set of Infinity Stones. But on the larger, cosmic, multiversal level of Loki’s story, the Infinity Stones inherently become less supreme, as greater forces are revealed to be at play. Still, it’s fun to see the Infinity Stones seeing some real action again in Marvel’s What If…?
What If...? releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/3AKH8uN
No comments: