‘What If…?’ S3 Episode 3 “What If… The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier?” Review

What If…? so far this season has been a bit of a mixed bag, falling safely on the disappointing side. With some interesting concepts and bad execution, each day I grow more disinterested in the next episode. So after an especially egregious episode two, my hopes were not high for today’s episode. But to my surprise, conceptually this episode (“What If… The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier?”) is probably the best so far in the Marvel Animation series, with a strong cast of MCU characters, some great connectivity in an underwritten time in the MCU’s in-universe history and a stacked list of voice actors attached to the project. 

“What If… The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier?” follows Red Guardian (David Harbour) as he goes AWOL, interfering in one of the MCU’s biggest events: the assassination of Howard & Maria Stark. Red Guardian causes the pair’s lives to be spared, forcing him to team with The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), leading to a whole other issue with characters such as the original character Ranger Morales (America Ferrera), SHIELD Agent Bill Foster / Goliath (Laurence Fishburne), and Obadiah Stane. 

It’s a concept that I really enjoy, playing as a twisted road trip adventure with the humour specifically being focused on the relationship between Bucky and Alexei. It comes across in a really enjoyable Thelma & Louise type of vibe, complete with police shootouts. Where the episode falls short however, is in the writing department.

This episode didn’t require the most sophisticated writing, so it’s not like I set my standards high ahead of release. But sadly the What If…? team struggles to even meet the most basic of tasks, not following the pre-established lore of the universe, even going as far as ignoring the temperament of Bucky under the Winter Soldier program. In the films which this episode is based upon, Bucky snapping out of the Winter Soldier mode is meant to be a big deal, but in the episode Alexei essentially talks him out of it initially. 

While there are a few things that heavily contradict MCU lore as mentioned above, there are a few things that contribute to it, with Obadiah Stane being confirmed as the man who ordered the death of the Starks in order to take over the Stark Industries business empire. This, in addition to confirming Bill Foster as a SHIELD field agent, builds and fleshes out the 90s of the Marvel Cinematic Universe just a little more and makes the world feel more lived in. 

The animation sadly is not good, with character models for Alexei and Bucky looking nothing like their live-action counterparts, largely due to lack of detail. It’s not an issue once you’re immersed in the story, but if the story does fail to grasp you then it’s a much bigger issue. 

“What If… The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier?” is so far the best of What If…?’s final season, but still falls short in many aspects when viewed as a whole.

What If…? season 3 episode 3 stars Jeffrey Wright as Uatu the Watcher, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier, America Ferrera as Ranger Morales, and Laurence Fishburne as Goliath. The show’s fourth episode, “What If… Howard the Duck Got Hitched?”, hits Disney+ tomorrow at 12AM PST with episodes following daily at the same time, through December 29th. 

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