What If…? 2×03 “What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?” is perhaps the most predictable episode of What If…? so far, which makes it the least enjoyable yet. It follows Die Hard beat for beat, just in the MCU, and as fun as watching what is basically Die Hard fanfic with Marvel characters on Christmas Eve sounds – the truth is, we might as well just watch Die Hard.
There are some fun beats in the episode, of course – Darcy is particularly delightful, and every second of Kat Dennings in this, just as every second of Dennings on WandaVision is a reminder that the actress just did not get enough to do in the MCU. Balancing so many heroes is hard, but when it comes time to take stock of the storytelling that the MCU has given us, it seems glaring that the biggest missed opportunities and mistakes have come in storylines involving women.
But not even Darcy or her momentary team-up with Maria Hill – another character who, in the MCU timeline we know, deserved so much better, see … a trend – can save an episode that never really surprises anyone. Half of the fun of What If…? is to see characters we never really expected team up, or at least to watch something that makes you go “I truly have no idea where this could be going next, but okay, I’m in.” This episode is …not that.
Even as just a fun Avengers interlude, though …it’s not even that fun. We have to suspend disbelief a lot to even get to the point where Happy could be saving Christmas. Sure, let’s take JARVIS offline on a day when no one’s around – and quite a busy day at that, too. And Justin Hammer just took over the tower in 0.2 seconds. Not to mention he entered the building like nothing! Security? What’s that? Tony Stark, of all people, has apparently never heard of it.
Plus, like always, when something has to go wrong for storytelling purposes in the Iron Man world, you just make sure Pepper Potts is not around. Let’s just make sure to send her away. Make her break up with Tony, even if they were doing just fine 0.3 seconds ago. Because we all know Pepper Potts would have fixed everything.
What If…? can be better than “What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?” and I hope it gets to be during the rest of Season 2. But this is, so far, the weakest episode of the bunch and one that doesn’t merit a rewatch, holiday theme or not.
Things I think I think:
- Mick Wingert does a nice Tony Stark voice, okay? I dig it.
- Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer is as annoying in animation as he is in real life, so that’s a thing.
- Honestly, the only good thing about this episode is that Happy gets to win one, by himself.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of What If…? 2×03 “What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”? Share with us in the comments below!
New episodes of What If…? will be released daily from December 22nd to December 30th on Disney+.