Marvel’s “What If…” Episode Four Review

Story posted September 8, 2021 in Arts & Entertainment by Dylan Leipzig.

Marvel’s “What If…” series has been exceptional. All the episodes have shown if one small detail were different, how big the impact could be.

All of the previous episodes have been pretty lighthearted for the most part, but episode four was much darker, and it was still just as amazing.

In this episode, Dr. Strange, instead of losing his hands, loses his love. A change that still leads him on the path to becoming the Sorcerer Supreme. After some time, Strange is still broken about losing Christine, and realizes he has the power to “fix” the past.

He travels back and repeats the night she died in that reality, but no matter what he does to change it, her life ends on that night, one way or another.

Strange finds out that her death is an absolute point on that timeline, and the Ancient One tries to warn him it cannot be changed without immense power.

He summons various creatures and takes their power. The audience sees Strange in a whole new light, or really, a dark new light.

Cumberbatch did such a fantastic job with the voice acting in this, he gave Strange’s voice so much life and emotion in this animated version. Strange is shown that the Ancient One created two Stranges; one who is content and one who has become a dark vampire of Strange.

The two Strange’s battle was amazing to watch, and the animation was done so well; It really was beautiful to see. The magical special effects for the Strange vs Strange fight made the episode by itself. All of the magical animation dazzled the screen and made this episode really stand out.

The Dark Strange ends up winning the battle, but the cost is now prevalent to him; the world is being destroyed around him, as well as Christine.

It was very eerie to see The Watcher in this episode, he was pretty much not in a lot of the other episodes, but this time, he was involved. Maybe he even has bigger parts to come? Something to think about here is also how bizarre Dr. Strange acted in the “Spider-Man: No Way Home” trailer.

Does this episode of “What If…” have anything to do with that? Marvel is certainly diving into the Multiverse now if that proves to be the case.

This series keeps on getting better and better with each continuing episode. The next few will be exciting to watch and possibly find out if this series has any more meaning behind it.

 

Dylan Leipzig is a fourth-year majoring in telecommunications. To contact him, email at dml5929@psu.edu.

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