Quantum Leap Gets Daring
...also the second season of What If...
Episode Review: Quantum Leap 2.9 Off the Cuff
Finally back from winter hiatus, with a bang. Ben finds himself in the body of a bounty hunter hired to bring in a guy named Kevin for embezzlement and such.
Kevin is a piece of…you know what…constantly trying to bribe Ben to let him go. Hiding diamonds in his nephew’s toys.
He’s narcissitic, arrogant, and thoroughly obnoxious. So much so that Ben wonders why he’s supposed to save him when he normally helps good people.
Well, it’s time for Ben to help somebody become good.
Except for the twist. Ben gets hurt and they’re being chased by bad guys. So they go to Kevin’s brother’s home. Foster brother, it turns out.
Who’s married to Hannah!
Poor Ben. He just lost her, or did he?
“Can you love more than one person?” Right before they almost kiss.
Ben protests that she’s married, but that’s her response. That she loves Ben and Josh.
On.
Network.
It didn’t feel like polybaiting. It felt like testing the waters. It felt like saying that you know, at the very least, loving more than one person is okay.
On network. Can we dare to hope that there might be more where that came from? Unlikely, but one never knows!
Episode Review: What If…2.1 “…Nebula Joined the Nova Corps”
I preferred the season one intro.
Thanos gets his butt handed to him. Nebula…joins the Nova Corps, and saves Xantar (sp) from a treacherous Nova Prime.
More Nebula is always a good thing and the voice actor is spot on here. I also loved the scene where she insists she’s fine…when she isn’t. And Howard the Duck running a casino…he’s not willing to fight for the world, but threaten his liquor license…
Tracks.
Definitely a more interesting one than some of the first season, but it’s still kind of more of the same.
Episode Review: What If…2.2 “…Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”
What would have happened if Ego had got hold of his half human son and raised him to be…well…like him?
Thankfully for all of us Peter isn’t. I’m noticing a theme here. Nebula, Peter, Bucky…we’re big into the redemption arcs this season.
I’m always there for a good redemption arc, although Nebula’s meant a bit more than Bucky’s for some reason. Maybe because the focus was on her. Peter doesn’t count, he’s just an abused kid.
Episode Review: What If…2.3 “…Happy Hogan Saved Christmas.”
A really silly Christmas special that seems to serve the sole purpose of turning Happy into a Hulk so they can make wrestler puns while he beats up Justin Hammer.
Eh. It is a cartoon.
Episode Review: What If…2.4 “…Iron Man Crashed Into the Grandmaster”
This one is an excuse to do some fun wacky racing while Tony convinces Gamora to be less evil. I’m always up for Gamora becoming less evil, she has to be one of my favorite characters…and I always feel sorry for her.
Her daddy issues are, after all, pretty bad.
(The arc of this being gathering multiversal “avengers” continues, but apparently they’re the Guardians of the Multiverse).
Episode Review: What If…2.5 “…Captain Carter Fights the Hydra Stomper”
A sequel to the Captain Carter episode. My favorite part? The Black Widows killing a gazebo. It’s 2024 and somebody threw in a kill the gazebo reference. I am always there for murdering gazebos.
Least favorite part? The queer baiting…it’s implied Peggy and Nat are together, but then they’re just gal pals. It’s 2024, and I’m not there for this BS anymore, okay?
(It’s an intriguing ship, too).
Episode Review: What If…2.6 “…Kahhori Reshaped the World”
Some very satisfying colonizer punching in this one. Very satisfying indeed. Kahhori is a great character and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of her.
But two problems:
1. Noble savaging/pedestaling. In some ways I’ll give that more of a pass in comics, but it was definitely there.
2. The Fountain of Youth the conquistadors were seeking was generally believed to be located in Seminole territory in Florida. So where did that mountain come from?
Enjoyable, though, just to watch lots, and lots, of conquistador punching. That’s almost as good as punching a Nazi.
Episode Review: What If…2.7 “…Hela Found the Ten Rings”
Not as in Hela gets the Ten Rings. I’ve always had a weird relationship with this character because in actual lore, Hel is not a villain. She’s chthonic, not evil. Yet she’s a really cool villain.
This episode purports that instead of imprisoning her, Odin gives Hela the same treatment he canonically gives Thor…separates her from her power and exiles her to Midgaard to learn a lesson.
She learns it rather too well. And the Ten Rings help. It’s cute, but it also gives me a Marvel Hela I can actually live with. Can we keep this one?
Episode Review: What If…2.8 “…the Avengers Assembled in 1602”
Somebody just wanted to draw Loki doing Shakespeare. Loki in Hamlet was perfect.
The conceit is that something collapsed time so the Avengers are now in 1602. Hela is queen of Asgard…and at least part of Midgard. But the world is falling in on itself.
The Scarlet Witch summons Peggy to save it. But she has to save it by…
…oh, and Robin Hood is not in 1602, no, far earlier, but what I thought was a mistake turns out to be very likely intentional.
First part of a two-parter continued in 2.9…
Episode Review: What If…2.9 “…Supreme Strange Intervened”
And the capstone is Stephen Strange on a murderous rampage to restore his universe and Christine. Peggy teams up with Kahhori to stop him.
Lots of fight action, lots of attempts to talk the man down. And in the end…well…he kinda does. Kinda doesn’t.
I feel sorry for Evil!Strange even if he did meet a deserved fate.
Oh, and are Peggy and the Watcher now, dare I say it, friends?
Set up for a season three. Whoever wrote this is a huge Peggy Carter fan, just saying.