Marvel’s new series What If…? has gotten a lot of attention since it’s release. Whether that attention is good or bad is still undecided by the fans.

While reviews have been mostly positive, the bad reviews have good reasoning. Some of the episodes have been very questionable like episodes 1, 2, and 5. The most confusing of these is episode 2.

In this episode, a young Prince T’Challa is abducted by the Ravagers instead of Peter Quill. When we see this unique version of Starlord, there are noticeable differences. T’Challa’s reputation is very different from how Peter Quill’s was, even though he was most likely raised in a similar way.

Another questionable thing in the episode is the way certain characters behave. For example, when T’Challa is kidnapped by the Ravagers, he shows no fear and appears to actually be happy about it. This makes no sense seeing as he’s a kid who got kidnapped by this random crew of outlaws in a giant spaceship. I wasn’t the most brave kid, but I think anyone, even most adults, would be terrified from getting kidnapped by an alien crew.

Another issue with the episode is the characters involved in the episode. There were characters that appeared in the episode that made no sense. This left me asking why instead of what if. I feel like if they took the time to go in depth and explain why these characters are here, it would be a different story. What we got were characters just being thrown in and Marvel saying, “This makes sense, just don’t question it.”

Although there were some disappointments in the series, the feedback from fans is mostly positive and there are episodes that tell great stories.

For example, episode 8 shows Ultron succeeding in his quest from Age of Ultron, and eventually obtaining all of the Infinity Stones. His eventual power even scares the Watcher, the narrator of the show. This leads to episode 9 where the Watcher does everything in his power to stop Ultron, even bringing together heroes from different universes to stop him. 

The show had its rough patches but there were some interesting episodes. I personally think  Loki was far better than What If…?, but maybe season 2 will prove me wrong. It has shown that it can tell interesting stories and tie them together very well. I think the topic of the multiverse is still something the fanbase wants to see more of and hopefully Marvel will deliver.