I had a great holiday season, seeing family, getting presents and having a good time. The whole thing was lifted by the second season of Marvel’s What If…?, a cartoon show based on the classic comic book series, tilted now towards the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think it remains a great idea for a cartoon spin-off of the MCU, and the second season did not disappoint.

TV Show Rating: 8/10 – Very Good

I was always a big fan of the What If…? comics and read more than a few in my day. It’s just a fun idea, and it’s just as fun when applied to the MCU. That makes the episodes a little more limiting, since they don’t have access to the full Marvel comics universe. But when there’s only 10 or so episodes a season, they’ve got more than enough material to play around with.

Join me after the jump for my thoughts and full review of the second season of What If…? Expect SOME SPOILERS for the season. And feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments below.

6. Great little show

I had a blast with the second season! I liked it much more than the first. I think the writing was stronger, I think some of the episodes were better, and perhaps I was just more relaxed about the whole thing. But I thought the episodes were a lot of fun with some really neat individual ideas. And I liked the serialized story better, because Captain Carter is a fun character in general, and a perfect protagonist for this series as a whole. I didn’t particularly care for the final episode, but that didn’t bring down the whole series. I had a lot more fun than disappointment, and I would definitely be happy to see more seasons and more episodes in the future.

5. The writing was really strong this season

I thought the writing was really strong and the jokes were pretty funny this season. Not every episode, and I didn’t check who wrote which episodes. I just found some of the jokes to be either clever or really funny. It’s been a week or so since I saw the episodes, so I don’t really remember anything in particular…but I just remember that I really enjoyed the writing and the jokes in a lot of episodes. And that’s what’s going to make a successful season. The Christmas episode had some really funny lines and moments, as did Hela’s episode.

4. The voice acting was great

Speaking of Hela, they got Cate Blanchett back as the goddess of death and she was clearly having fun with her episode. Likewise, Paul Rudd, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillan, Kurt Russell, Seth Green and many more all came back and did a great job. Everybody seemed more comfortable with the voice acting, and it really elevated a lot of the episodes. I was very pleased with it this time around.

3. My favorite episodes were the ’80s Avengers and Hela vs. the 10 Rings

There were a lot of good episodes this time around. Like I said before, the Christmas episode was a real hoot! And the 1602 episode was grand. I loved the original comic, and this episode did a very good MCU version of 1602. I’m glad they went there. But my favorite episodes were the ones where Nick Fury put together a team of Avengers in the 1980s to battle a young Peter Quill, and when Hela had her own version of the first Thor film, crossed with Shang-Chi. They put together a really fun team of heroes out of the characters who would have been around in the 1980s. I especially enjoyed the use of Goliath, so much so that I went out and bought his action figure. I love the idea that this comic book superhero who got a non-costume, non-powered appearance in one movie gets the full costume, full use of his powers in this random episode of What If…?

And then the Hela episode was just so much fun! Like I said before, Cate Blanchett gave it her all in the voice acting, really inhabiting the character. And then I just loved how it was a Hela version of the first Thor movie, complete with Odin enchanting her magic helmet. And then she gets to meet up with the Shang-Chi characters, because the timeline fits — though it does raise the question of whether or not Shang-Chi’s mom and her people were also immortal. I didn’t think they were. But that’s neither here or there. Hela teaming up with Wenwu and the Ten Rings to fight Odin was a super fun concept!

2. I wasn’t sold on Kahhori

So one of the big, prestige episodes this season featured an original MCU character named Kahhori, a Native American from the 15th century who gets powers from the Tesseract. It was a fine episode, and I’m all for diversity and representation. But I wasn’t sold on Kahhori being some great addition to the MCU. Her story takes place in an alternate reality from the MCU, takes places in the past, and then she’s just treated as the new hotness when she shows up in other episodes. Plus she’s automatically speaking English when she meets Captain Carter, despite the effort put into the indigenous language in her episode. I guess I would have preferred if the new Native American character was created in such a way that she could really impact the MCU going forward. I’m all for new, original characters in the MCU and would really like to see them standout instead of being tucked away in the 1400s of an alternate reality.

1. I want more modern characters next season

So that Shang-Chi episode with Hela was fun, but I want to see more of the modern movies or shows turned into What If episodes. I want Shang-Chi himself to appear in an episode, or Katy even. I want the Eternals to get an episode. I want Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk to appear in more shows in general, and now What If…? specifically. Daredevil is now in the mix, so why not Jessica Jones or Luke Cage? Bring them back in animated form! Captain Carter and Strange Supreme are great and all, but the MCU has so many new characters in play these days and What If…? should reflect that. Also, mutants, duh.

———————-