What If…? 2×06 “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?” is Marvel at its best. And when I say “best” I want you to understand what I mean. Marvel has never done something like this. They’ve never done something so creative and beautiful that honors the Mohawk nation while working with said communities. And when I say that this is Marvel at its best I mean that this is the best thing that Marvel has ever done when it comes to establishing a new hero, the world that she inhabits, and how her choices reshape the world and history as we know it. Everything in this episode was absolute magic and I wouldn’t mind seeing a whole series about Kahhori or even a live-action version of her sometime in the future.
Kahhori is a breath of fresh air that is needed to keep Marvel going. Because like I’ve mentioned before, it’s hard to get into Marvel these days. There’s just so much history throughout the years and multiple TV shows and movies as well to watch. Kahhori is an opportunity to take Marvel in a new direction and allow different communities to see themselves in this hero. It’s also an opportunity for Marvel to explore including different languages throughout entire episodes and being unapologetic about it. Because I feel like since it’s a Hollywood production, automatically English is seen as the default language. But when we explore different cultures, some of the authenticity is lost when the language isn’t included in more than just a couple of scenes.
If I’m being honest, the only complaint that I have about What If…? 2×06 is that it wasn’t longer. I want to know everything about Kahhori. I want to know about her family and her loved ones. I want to know what she does for fun and what her favorite things are. I want to know about her ancestors and if any of the people that she found in the Sky World were direct family members. I want to know everything. I even want to know more about the real-life history of what the Spaniards (and other colonizers) did. Because I have a general understanding and I am well aware that conquistadors destroyed my people in Latin America. But I don’t know the history behind the people that started this destruction. So this episode has left me curious and engaged me.
We can’t finish this review without mentioning how “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?” made me cry. As a Latina, I have experienced productions from Hollywood where they wave the flag of representation and want to be congratulated but there are no Latine people actually on the cast or in the writer’s room. It feels hollow. And when they do include our people in the cast or the writer’s room, the shift in tone, perspective, and understanding of who we are as Latine people is instantaneous and I feel seen, moved, and eventually brought to tears. (Sorry not sorry, representation still seldom happens and every moment feels game-changing.)
This episode of What If…? didn’t feel hollow. You could tell that there was love and care put into this episode, from the designs on the clothes to the music played. You could tell that Marvel had consultants and brought everyone they could into this, from Kanien’kéha speakers to the Smithsonian. Even the voice actors, Devery Jacobs who is Kanien’kehá:ka and plays Kahhori, were key to making 2×06 a stunning piece of media that honors these communities. And if I could feel this connection and love for this story while understanding the significance of it all, I can only imagine what this means to Kanien’kehá:ka people and the Indigenous America communities.
Basically, Kahhori is the moment. And I will gladly eat up anything Marvel serves with her as the star or any stories that take the time and care that was put into this episode.
New episodes of What If…? will be released daily from December 22nd to December 30th on Disney+.
