The MCU's first animated series was mostly a success, as I enjoyed most of the installments. The animation style is a little bland, but certainly executed well. The stories are often much darker than I expected, and it was nice not knowing where anything was going from week to week. This is very much a show aimed at the fans, however, because it assumes a lot of knowledge of the MCU. Casual watchers may get lost.
I think the best way to talk about this series, as with any anthology, is to tackle every episode on its own merits. Hence, a "Rank 'Em" post. So here they are, from best to least. Many, many spoilers ahead.
1. "Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?" - This is the darkest episode of the series, but also the one where I felt the show really justified being told with animation. We see Strange's life and his whole world literally collapse because he can't let go of Christine. And while I'd ordinarily be unhappy with the dead girlfriend trope, Strange being unable to accept the death is the whole point of the story. And honestly, Christine is put to better use here than she was in the "Doctor Strange" movie.
2. "The Watcher Broke His Oath?" - It is super satisfying to see all the callbacks to all the different stories as everyone teams up for the final showdown. The big battle is a lot of fun, with its multiple twists, and the ending feels earned. However, what really makes this episode so memorable is the use of characters like Killmonger, Doctor Strange, and Black Widow. I was surprised how invested I was in their stories. I even like frat boy Thor in this as comic relief, much more than I liked him in his own episode.
3. "Ultron Won?" - And here's the penultimate episode where The Watcher finds a threat too big to ignore, and has to get involved. For the first half of the episode, Ultron's victory over the Avengers is appropriately chilling, even if his easy takedown of Thanos is sort of hilarious. Ultron gaining enough power to start breaking through the barriers of the different universes, however, really gives the story an extra punch in the third act. The cliffhanger with Doctor Strange is the icing on the cake.
4. "Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?" - Killmonger is one of the best MCU villains, because he has an interesting backstory and stance on how the world should work, and I was excited to see him get more screen time. Pairing him up with Tony Stark was a great choice, giving Killmonger a chance to show off his brainier side, and Michael B. Jordan's performance is excellent. I also like the way this one resolves, leaving multiple characters at a crossroads and making good use of the Chadwick Boseman cameo.
5. "Zombies?!" - The twists and turns in this one are great, and I appreciate that we get a different mix of featured characters than the norm - Wasp, Spider-man, Bucky, Ant-man's roommate, and Doctor Strange's cloak? It ends exactly when it should, leaving room for more adventures in this very morbid reality. I like that so many of the "What If…?" installments offer a good look at how each new universe operates, but doesn't resolve neatly. It lets some of the stories go to some very un-MCU places.
6. "T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?" - It's one running joke throughout, but it's a good one. T'Challa doesn't just become a Star-Lord, but evidently the greatest guy in the universe who is able to win over everyone he meets - including Thanos! Really, I don't know if this one would have worked without the charisma of Chadwick Boseman. There are some awkward bits, like these specific versions of Nebula and the Collector, but otherwise this is a lot of fun to watch, especially if you're a "Guardians of the Galaxy" fan.
7. "Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?" - The premiere episode is devoted to easing viewers into the series with a fairly straightforward, one-to-one substitution of Sharon Carter for Steve Rogers. And it's got some nice action sequences and one-liners, but it's all pretty predictable and obvious. I like Captain Carter as a character, but I just wish that she got more interesting things to do here. Fortunately, the finale gives her a much better capper to her story than her actual episode.
8. "Thor Were an Only Child?" - The silliest installment of the lot, that keeps compounding the visual gags and the cameos and the jokes as Thor goes on an epic party bender, wrecks Earth, and is finally forced to shape up by Captain Marvel and his mother. I like Jane Foster in this quite a bit, since it shows her getting giddy and flustered from her encounters with Thor, but I don't think I've ever liked Thor less. Even if he's supposed to be ridiculous, frat boy Thor's goofiness is way out of proportion in this one.
9. "The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?" - I was onboard for the morbid whodunit premise, but I didn't like the way that the story panned out, or the ultimate villain of the piece. It also feels like this was added to the series at the last minute, as it's the only episode that isn't directly referenced in the finale.
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