I don’t know about you, but after last weeks episode – which was the latest (and grimmest) example of What If…? revelling in the fact that it doesn’t have to play by the rules – I feel that the MCU’s first animated series could probably do with lightening up a little. After back to back episodes of magical apocalypses, murder mysteries, flesh eating zombies and villains emerging victorious, you’d probably agree it was time for something a little happier to come down the pipe and so along comes What If… Thor Was An Only Child?, an episode that takes Chris Hemsworth’s desire to take the God of Thunder into more comedic areas and turns in a comedy romp that might even be broader than Thor: Love And Thunder.
However, has What If…? maybe compensated a bit too much after all that death and destruction?
As the Watcher sets the scene, we are invited to ponder on what the MCU would have been like if one of it’s most enduring rivalries had never existed. After the great war between Asgard and the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, Odin never adopted Loki as his own and hands the baby back to his rightful father, Laufey, meaning that a young Thor never had to deal with his adopted sibling’s penchant for callous mischief. As a result, the callow, brash Thor we were introduced to in his debut movie no longer exists and only a feckless, responsibility-phobic, entitled party animal remains and, with his Asgardian compardres in tow, he lands on earth to throw the biggest shindig the universe has ever seen. Caught up in these ale-drenched festivities is astrophysicist, Jane Foster and her intern Darcy who know that a par-tay of such magnitude could cause unlimited damage to the planet the longer it goes on for. However, at the same time, Foster simply can’t stop look at Thor’s magnificent hair….
As more cosmic revellers arrive to get down and get with it, S.H.I.E.L.D. acting director Maria Hill decides to take action after an accident with a canonballing Korg leaves Nick Fury in a coma and as a result, calls on that infamous keeper to summon Captain Marvel to break things up before more things get broken.
However, as amiable a lug as Party Thor is, one thing he can not abide is a party pooper, and so, with almost the entirety of the cosmic-based cast of the MCU watching, a vicious, super-powered brawl breaks out that rages across the globe. Knowing that this will no doubt cause way more damage than an inebriated Surtur hitting on the Statue of Liberty, Hill plans to dump a metaphorical bucket of water on them in the form of a nuke, but Jane realises that there is only one thing that can stop a party cold. Parents.
Less a fully functional episode and more like a half hour procession of gags, easter eggs and a farcical Asgardian version of Ferris Bueller’s Day.Off, What If… Thor Was An Only Child may be a welcome dose of fun after the weaponized trauma of watching Killmonger kill Tony Stark, James Rhodes and T’Challa in a single episode and totally get away with it, the episode goes so far in the opposite direction it’s tough to take it remotely seriously at all. Obviously, that’s director Bryan Andrew’s intention, but while the MCU has always been a haven of endless wise cracks and colourful visual puns, when it goes too far the result usually ends up feeling a little shallow. In fact, in some ways, with hindsight, this episode feels now like a warning against the frazzled tone Taika Waititi upended Thor: Love And Thunder with, but to look on the bright side: this episode could hardly be described as dull.
Taking the expansive amount of easter eggs deployed in the Star Lord and Zombie episodes and leaving them in the dust, this episode seems to be breaking some sort of record as familiar faces and voices assault you at such a rate, a single viewing simply won’t get them all. With Ravagers, Guardians, Asgardians and even the occasional resident of Sakaar crammed into every frame, it’s easy to overlook that this story barely has any story at all aside from playing on the tropes of a 80s frat party comedy on a cosmic scale.
Be it Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster DJing an immense rave (“Release the foam.”) to Darcy drunkenly marrying Howard the Duck in a Vegas wedding, it’s by far the most, unabashed fun the show has been in weeks. However, as a result, it’s also about as shallow as this version of Thor and I predict that your enjoyment of this episode will probably hinge on how much you appreciate Chris Hemsworth’s vocal performance.
While every actor who has reprised a role for this animated series has remained fundamentally respectful to their original character, Hemsworth (the only one of the Avengers’ “big three” to not be subbed by a sound-alike) attacks this Thor like he’s auditioning for a DreamWorks cartoon as he dials up the silliness way past eleven. Does it work in the context of the episode? Yes, and it also gives us a legitimately amusing look at what his relationship with Loki, now a giant Joten prince, is like as the two banter like old brochachos. However, those wanting the MCU variants to hew close to their cinematic counterpart may just find the episode trite, stupid and a waste of time.
However, if just taken as the MCU letting its golden, tumbling, luxurious hair down, then there’s a lot here to enjoy. More Jeff Goldbum and Seth Green’s Howard can only be a good thing and we also get to see Party Thor and Captain Marvel beat merry Hel out of each other in that way that heroes often seem to do in comics which will no doubt add more fuel to the debate of who truly is the strongest hero of them all. Most of all, we not only get further steps in the Marvel rehabilitation of Kat Denning’s Darcy after her role in WandaVision, but we also see a pro-Love And Thunder return of Natalie Portman too too offset that the voice actress stepping in for Brie Larson sounds a bit off.
With the next episode apparently seeing a triumphant Ultron throwing his weight around, I can genuinely see why this episode is so overtly throwaway and comedic (another episode where everyone is dead? Jesus, Marvel, do you need to talk to someone?), but in its relentless attempts to score big laughs, this shallower version of Thor and the similarly hedonistic circles in which he travels in lacks so much depth it could garner a perfect reading on a spirit level.
Fun? Certainly, but just like that friend who takes partying just a little bit too far, it’s more fun in smaller doses.
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