Season 1 / Episode 8: What If… Ultron Won?

Yeah, that would be a cool range.

 

It was Ultron who bit the galaxy.

 

Whaaaat? I don't know why I thought it was actually Galactus. I have to go back and watch that scene again lol.

 

Just came to say, that Watcher/Ultron fight was f*ing bonkers

probably one of my fave 1on1 fights in the whole MCU

and that shot of Hawkeye falling toward the drones was gorgeous, I want it as a painting for my wall

 

I thought that was a homage to Galactus but not actually Galactus. It was Ultron.

 

That was another of the many non-important questions I've had while watching this show. Carol was away from Earth when T2 came out but did she know of its existence or even see it? The "no sequels" comment was probably just a sly joke from the writers about how basically every entry in that franchise since T2 hasn't been good.

I assume that anyone who survived the nukes was hunted down by Ultron drones. As for Wanda and Pietro, Ultron probably killed them once their usefulness in his plan had run its course. I was wondering what happened to the rest of the Avengers also. As strong as Cap is, he'd obviously be no match for this Ultron. But you would think that Hulk and Thor would be more likely survivors in this scenario than Nat and Clint, especially Thor. But I guess Thor was conveniently excluded here due to Party Thor being one of the Guardians of the Multiverse in the finale.

 

Didn't we see a defeated Thor in the scene between Stark and Ultron? I thought we had.

As for Hulk (and Thor) Ultron has the stones, he's just opted not to click his fingers (maybe he doesn't even know about that, else he could've wiped out existence there and then - Nat & Clint included).

 

Was Thor there? I'd have to watch it again. But I think Thanos showed up after life on Earth was mostly wiped out, so I don't think the stones factored into the defeat of the Avengers.

It would be awesome to see Ultron use the Time Stone on Thor without realizing that age only makes him more powerful and he goes into Odinforce beast mode.

 

Ah, you've got me there. Evidently he was somehow able to overcome the Avengers once he merged his cybernetic body with that of the biological host.

I do wonder just what happened between his creation and his merging though; the twins factored a lot into that, and so I wonder whether there's an untold element here that could come into play somehow? Granted Wanda (assuming she even exists in this multiverse) would have only just become acquainted with her powers, but she should've been able to hold her own.

I'm thinking, quite simply, that the twins don't exist in this multiverse. Either Strykers experiments killed them, they were never born, or that Stark rocket went off on Sokovia when they were younger.

 

But wasn't Ultron only able to steal the vibranium used in the creation of Vision because of the twins' help in distracting the Avengers when they were in Africa in AOU? Either way, you may be right since there were some other weird discrepancies from AOU. For example, when Uatu was narrating about the events of AOU before going into the alternate reality of Ultron's victory, there is a still shot of the Avengers standing around the regeneration cradle before Vision is born. The twins aren't there even though they were in AOU and Natasha is there even though she should have been in that Sokovian prison where Ultron was keeping her captive.

 

Thor was lying dead next to Mjolnir, Cap's broken shield, and Hulk, just before Ultron killed Iron Man.

 

All the more reason for me to watch it again, I completely missed them.

 

Yeah, that’s how I saw it.

 

I was thinking more Eternity.

 

I missed the Xavier thing.

 

This was a great fun romp of cosmic Marvel badassery.

Outside of run time as usual, there was nothing too particular for me to grouse about. This was the show firmly running on all cylinders. Making the most of the premise and the format it is being told in.

While I have found the post Ifinity Saga MCU to be... a coin flip at this point in terms of my enjoyment of each new product that's come since AEG (The 50/50 on my take on quality is SO much more amplified with everything, yes, even after Shang Chi...) I have to give it this, which is the whole shebang has the feel of the funky years of Marvel Comics from the mid to late 1970's and the various running storylines and oddball creations and arcs that came about in those years. Indeed it is this period where the seeds where sown for elements like Thanos and the Infinity Gems something that would become ripe for adaptation in live action, culminating in the 1990's Infinity Gauntlet crossover series.

The films and varying D plus shows are a grab bag of some offf the wall and out there concepts with the creators often taking some conceptual risks in telling their stories and truly trying to at least give the appearance of some real change and forward momentum in the overall story of the MCU.

We seem to be in the middle of some kind of behind the scenes build up with Contessa Val gathering characters from all over even making a film post credit sequence linking Yelena to Clint and his series. So that is an intriguing question hanging out there that is bubbling under the surface. Along that we have to see by now that we are being taken on some kind of grand Multiverse Arc, the limits so far we have yet to see.

As an element the Multiverse concept has feature heavily from the plot of Endgame, Loki, currently What If...? and soon both Spider-Man and Strange's upcoming sequels. I am getting nostalgic for when these types of things were common in comic books. Whatever else I am enjoying this aspect of the MCU now.


As for the episode itself? The highlights were the tension, Uatu being roped in as a protagonist, the unstoppable nature of Ultron and the Watcher and his fight through the Multiverse. I would say this episode took the most advantage of its format as an animated serialized product. I have been meh to decent on the show in terms of animation but this episode was a cut above.

 

Jesus that was terrifying.

 

A relentless and seemingly overwhelming force makes for a great super villain and Infinite Ultron was the way Kyle Reese described the Terminator:

"He can't be bargained with... He can't be reasoned with... He doesn't feel pity, or remorse or fear... And he absolutely will not stop ever... Until you are dead."

Only for Infinite Ultron its crushing all life in the universe and beyond.


I do have a question, since Ultron originally planned his gambit in Sokovia for his stated purpose of pushing HUMANITY forward.

Not to kill all life on Earth but to provoke a crisis that would force humanity to its limits and thus evolve the species forward.

Infinite Ultron just went on a total universe wide rampage that was just slaughtering everything alive, or did I miss something that explained this?

 

In addition to the endless quipping and not so impressive offensive and defensive capabilities, a key weakness of Whedon's robot was his continually changing goal. He started out wanting to eliminate the Avengers, moved on to dropping a rock and jump starting evolution to ending on "Everything in this world will be metal". To this day I have no idea what he wanted to do or why he wanted to do it.

I much prefer this purer non quipping version, primarily for the clarity of his vision - the multiverse will be save when these pesky living creatures are eliminated! - though it would have been nice for Spader to reprise his role in this superior Ultron.

 

I wonder if they even approached Spader to reprise the role. I assume they did and he declined, although I'm not sure why since literally the only other thing he's had going on since AOU has been The Blacklist.

 

John Campea went on a rant about this when asked about the episode. Said that he enjoyed the episode until the last minute of it and then bashed Marvel Studios for forcing this to make this MCU canon saying that Marvel has to shoehorn in everything into one collected universe and said that WB did a great job separating their TV and movies in two separate universes.

 

One of the shows producers said that contacted everyone who originated the role to ask if they would appear on the show. You figure he would have showed up, but maybe he feels animation is beneath him.

DIdn't WB just connect all of their universes in last season's Arroverse Crisis? Anyhoo, WB isn't keeping their universes separate due to creativity. They did it because of film and TV corporate infighting and sometimes laziness, the same reason Marvel kept the Netflix Avengers, their YA shows and AOS shows separate from the MCU. I am glad they are rectifying that now.