Thor becomes a massive party animal all because Odin didn’t kidnap Loki from the Frost Giants in the latest episode of the Disney+ Original Series, “What If…?” While Odin is in the Odinsleep and Friga has gone to her sisters for the solstice, Thor takes Lady Sif and the Warriors 3 to Midgard, or Earth, to have a party without Heimdahl’s watchful eye over his actions. There, he has quite a different first interaction with Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis, parties with Loki; who is his “brother from another mother,” and meets many of Marvel’s greatest characters including Drax, Rocket Raccoon, Howard the Duck, and Nebula.

I love the continuity this episode brings when it connects back to the original “Thor” film. At the beginning of that film, Thor was reckless. In “Thor,” it involved attacking the Frost Giants in their homeworld and is sent to Earth as punishment to learn responsibility. In “What If…?,” he’s sneaking to the lowest of the nine realms to have a party because he never attacked the Frost Giants and was never punished for his irresponsible behavior. It makes complete sense that he would behave irresponsibly when going to Earth, whether it’s throwing a massive party in Las Vegas or flying to Paris for a baguette.

I also love the interaction between Thor and Captain Marvel. They are two of the strongest Avengers and I’m curious to know what would happen if the two of them fought. I hope Marvel makes that happen. Amazingly, at the end, when Thor is trying to hide his misdeeds from his mother, Captain Marvel helps cover for him by bringing him a book while it looks like he’s teaching a class about Earth to other alien beings. It’s reminiscent of their interaction in “Infinity War,” when Thor calls for his hammer and it zooms past Captain Marvel without her flinching. He says “I like her.” You can sense that same respect despite the fact this version of Thor is completely irresponsible.

I really liked the “twist” ending of this one. Even though you can see a twist coming from a mile away in these, I really didn’t know what this twist was going to be. Ultron showing up with the Infinity Stones was not something I was expecting. Plus, when Ultron’s facemask comes off you can see his robotic face with one of the Infinity Stones in his head. That was Vision inside the Ultron armor. I’m curious to know how that happened. I would love a live-action movie covering that story.

With each episode of “What If…?,” I’m hoping more and more for a season two. It’s a great concept that can tell some wild stories. The episodes can be fun like this one. They can be serious like the one where Dr. Strange lost his heart. Or they can be downright weird like the zombies episode. This series has a lot of mileage while keeping the story self-contained if it chooses and I really like that.

Ranking:

Episode: 4.75 stars out of 5 (I really liked this episode.)

Series: 4 out of 5

Jeremy Brown

Jeremy has been a big Disney fan since he was a kid growing up during the Disney Renaissance. One day he hopes to go to every Disney Park in the world.

View all posts