‘What If…?’ gave us squad goals
Marvel is hit or miss when it comes to female characters teaming up. But Marvel’s What If…? showed how you can have a random group of female heroes join together and make it work in a superhero setting. And it ruled!
In the final two episodes of season 3 of What If…?, we saw as Kahhori (Devery Jacobs), Byrdie (Natasha Lyonne), and Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) joined Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in a fight against Eminence (Jason Isaacs) as he and his team turned on The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright). We don’t know why they’ve joined together but it works. Byrdie is their tech person, Storm and Captain Carter are their strength, and Kahhori uses her ancestral power exactly when the team needs it. It is perfect.
Maybe it is the lack of knowledge about why these characters are together that works to its advantage but it is a team that I want to see more of. They all balance each other out and use their powers to their advantage. They need each other to succeed and that is what works about it, unlike other pairings that Marvel has tried for its female characters in the past.
One of my biggest gripes with the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that they refuse to look at the strength of their female characters. It is why, in Avengers: Endgame, the female team-up failed. But this episode of What If…? changed that. It made sense why these four would work together and why they’d need one another.
Byrdie was their tech, the rest are not tech based. Both Kahhori and Storm can use their powers to help them fly and Captain Carter’s strength and shield have their own special powers. Not to mention that this was WORTHY Storm wielding the Mjolnir. Avengers: Endgame was…decidedly not this.
This is what I wanted out of Avengers: Endgame!
In Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel takes the gauntlet from Peter Parker and he asks how she’s going to win with it. The team of women behind her say that she has help and it really was one of those moments where I thought to myself “she doesn’t need help.” And she doesn’t! It’s Captain Marvel!
Wanda needed help in Infinity War after Proxima attacks her and Okoye and Natasha coming to her aid is beautiful. What happened in Endgame was shoehorned in and didn’t account for any of the abilities of the women in question. Yes, Wanda could have taken Proxima on her own on a NORMAL day but the battle in Wakanda was not that and she needed Nat and Okoye.
In What If…?, this team uses their powers to their advantage and everyone is able to help the entire team out when needed. That is special and makes this a great team-up for the show. I wouldn’t mind seeing them all in live-action together but I do think that this was a perfect group to end the season with. Just four badass ladies taking on Jason Isaacs.
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