'What If... T'Challa became Star Lord?'


After being a little bit disappointed by 'Loki' (sorry but I was...), all it took was one episode of 'What If?' to have me fall in love with the MCU all over again. Which is really ironic given that the events of 'Loki' set the scene for all these 'What Ifs' to play out across this suddenly expanding multiverse. Basically, it really doesn't take a lot to get me back on side; I'm easily swayed ;o)

All of a sudden then, this week's 'What If...?' was suddenly a 'must see' thing and that was pretty much the first thing I did when I got back after a day's book-shopping and museum visiting (which was lovely, by the way, but that's another post entirely).

As always, the big spoiler is in the title but that's given me a little to throw spoilers around in the post itself. I mean, if you already know what the episode is going to be about... Just so you know though, you might want to go away and watch 'What If... T'Challa became Star Lord' first ;o For everyone else, lets go.

Before we even get onto the story itself, lets just take a minute and sit with what it meant to have Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa one more time. It's been a long time since I watched 'Black Panther' (which I may have to do something about now...) but just hearing his voice makes you realise all over again just why T'Challa won't be recast in 2022's 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'. Chadwick Boseman is T'Challa and that's that. It was good to have him back, just one more time.

The story itself is a fairly simple one on the outside. Starlord and the Ravagers are doing a heist, with all that entails. Loads of spaceships and double crosses and aliens throwing down, all with T'Challa/Starlord in the middle. It's a lot of fun but there's so much more to it, you're missing the point if you think that's all there is to it.

The clue is in the title and the answer is a real in depth look at how one man can make a real difference to a whole galaxy if it's T'Challa. And he does, he really does. Right from the start, we see that things are totally different now and by the time you see Thanos as a member of the Ravagers, it's a cool moment but I was just like 'of course this would happen, it's T'Challa; the guy was born to rule and be a good king, of course he is going to be able to talk Thanos round.'It's not just this though, we also get to see how these little moments push other characters down new paths (I'm looking at you, 'Black Order') as well a little reminder that the more thing change, the more Howard the Duck stays the same ;o) You too Drax.

At the heart of it all is a neat little continuation of the concept of 'Family vs Found Family' that originally played out in the 'Guardians' movies. This theme almost gets lost in all the other stuff but it's there and it's important.

This week's 'What If...?' left me feeling all warm and fuzzy for loads of reasons and the show as a whole continues to get off to a flying start. More of the same please but I wouldn't mind seeing the show take a few risks as well. Not every ending is a happy one after all... Hopefully we'll see some of that in the 'Marvel Zombies' episode... 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Mad God' (2021)

Image
It's that time again where Youtube throws me a 'Shudder' advert and I think to myself, 'I'm paying five quid a month for this, I really should watch something, lets give it a go...'   This time round, 'It' was the film 'Mad God' and the trailer was this mad batshit crazy shot of stop-motion horror that was over before I'd had a chance to get my head round it; leaving me pretty unsettled but with no clear idea just why that was... That's all I need sometimes, I was in... It's almost an hour later and, damn, that was grim, bleak and... What the hell just happened? A corroded diving bell descends amidst a ruined city and the Assassin emerges from it to explore a labyrinth of bizarre landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens. That is about all I can tell you about 'Mad God' and that's only because I had a quick look on IMDB and that was all IMDB could tell me... 'Mad God' is any number of things but it's not
Read more

‘The Long and Hungry Road’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Black Library)

Image
After not finishing ‘Witchbringer’ (not the book’s fault, I still think it could be worth your time), I thought I’d change pace a little and go for a short, sharp burst of something instead. Something that would blow a few cobwebs away and wake me up a bit :o) Now in my experience, there’s nothing shorter and sharper than a Warhammer short story so that was the direction of my reading taken care of. And as far as the focus went… I’ve read a few Warhammer tales, in my time, but I’ve never read a tale that looks at the events of the 41st Millennium through the eyes of the rapacious Tyranids. So when I saw ‘The Long and Hungry Road’ on Amazon, it pretty much chose itself. To face a Tyranid invasion is a waking nightmare. The skies darken with spores, your mind echoes with alien screeches, and countless weapon-organisms descend upon you with razor teeth and claws. How much greater would your horror be, to realise that the hive ship above thinks nothing of your fate – that it crushes you
Read more

‘Worms of the Earth’ – Robert E. Howard.

Image
Page Count: 27 Pages I have a copy of this on my shelf and the plan was to pick it up for a read on the way into work this morning. Well, that was the plan but I was half asleep, leaving the house, and totally forgot… No matter though, that’s what the Kindle app is for (although if I’d been a little more awake, I’d have read it off Project Gutenberg instead, you can find ‘Worms of the Earth’ Here ). 99p later and my ‘commute reading’ was secured 😉 I always seem to fall into the trap of just reading ‘Conan’ stuff whenever I fancy reading a little Howard. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just that there’s a lot of his other stories out there that are more than worth your time when you come across them. ‘Worms of the Earth’ is very much one of those tales but you knew that already, didn’t you? You didn’t? You should do something about that, take it from me… After witnessing one of his subjects die at the hands of Roman governor Titus Sulla, Bran Mak Morn vows vengeance on Sulla but at w
Read more