What If…? – Season 2, Episode 3: What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? (2023) – Review

After a couple of rapid fire episodes that resolved the majority of its issues by throwing a team together, the third episode of Marvel’s What If…? mercifully sees the show take a different route to celebrate that most holy of holidays, Christmas.
Marvel is no stranger the celebrating the yule time period with both Hawkeye and the Guardians Of The Galaxy Christmas Special positively reveling in all things festive and even Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 setting itself at that time of year despite being released in April. Well this year it’s the turn of the Watcher to carry the Xmas batton as What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas essentially reworks Die Hard into the MCU as Tony Stark’s hapless (fore)head of security finds himself fending off domestic terrorists as they storm Avengers tower.
Yippie-kai-yay Marvel fandom…

In an alternate 2014, a few months before the Age of Ultron, we find a typically stressed Happy Hogan desperately trying to organise a holiday celebration in the midst of perpetual chaos. The world’s mightiest heroes may be out doing various Xmas duties, but job-hopping intern Darcy Lewis is proving to be nore of an annoyance than a help. However, matters are about to get even more out of hand when Tony Stark’s old rival, Justin Hammer, arrives with a couple of Russian thugs in tow and manages to compromise the entirety of Avengers Tower. Hammer’s plan is simple; break into the Avenger’s stronghold while A.I J.A.R.V.I.S. is receiving some much needed down time and hack the mainframe in order to get his hands on a sample of Bruce Banner’s blood.
The reason for all this effort is oddly simple, Hammer wants to reverse his fortunes by rebranding himself a superhero and sticking himself with a syringe full of Hulk juice will seemingly achieve that in no time flat. However, after taking control of the Iron Legion and nullifying S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill, Hammer and his goons find themselves with an unlikely hero standing in their way.
Going full John McClane by scampering through air ducts and receiving sketchy intel over the radio by an overexcited Darcy, Happy tries to make sure Hammer doesn’t bulk up to Hulk-sized proportions, but after accidentally jabbing himself in the leg with Banner’s volatile DNA, he finds himself gradually Hulking out a limb at a time.
So now the fight is on with a purple, veiny Hogan squaring of with a Justin Hammer who has full access to Tony Stark’s toys, but even if Happy can fend off an attack from a Hulkbuster, are the Avengers going to recognize him as a friend in this monstrous new form?

What If…? has found itself on some fairly unstable ground in the past whenever it attempts a fully comedic episode as the influx of throwaway jokes tend to smother a plot devoid of real threat. For proof of this, the memorably loose “Party Thor” episode of season one was not much more that half an hour of fan service strung together with endless frat boy jokes and the sight of Surtur hitting on the Statue of Liberty. However, “Happy Hogan Saved Christmas” manages to be a more rewarding experience by wielding the double threat of shamelessly referencing Die Hard and utilising its Christmas theme to the hilt.
Firstly, it’s still nice in the current MCU climate to see the franchise still have space for Jon Favreau who not only portrayed Hogan in the flesh multiple times, but also birthed the franchise as we know it into existence thanks to the original Iron Man way back in 2008. Since then, the put upon Happy Hogan has been the straight-man of both his iron-clad boss and a rare, surviving surrogate father figure to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, so its weirdly heart-warming to see him fully play the hero.
However, even more of a surprise is that joining a rapidly growing list of “forgotten” Marvel villains who are making a comeback, Iron Man 2’s Sam Rockwell makes his first return to the world of Norse Gods and Infinity Stones for the first time since scoring a cameo at the end of the Marvel One-Shot, Hail To The King. As the self-obsessed Hans Gruber to Hogan’s schlubby Maclean, its genuinely sweet to see him again and not only does the episode let him play with a few of Stark’s toys (if you can call the Hulkbuster a toy), but episode even gifts Rockwell’s animated form with some of his trademark dancing too, not to mention some excruciating, in-character puns. Some may see calling a gamma infused Happy “Hulk Hogan” a shameless cheap shot, but be honest, could you resist a joke so painfully obvious.

Elsewhere the throwaway gags are legion and while many while no doubt whizz over the head of those not deeply steeped in MCU lore, some such as the debate as to why Hawkeye has a confetti arrow or the introduction of a backup J.A.R.V.I.S. programme called WERNER that sees Ross Marquard doing his best Werner Herzog impression may actually be the single biggest laugh of the entire show to date. Some may complain that the episode may ultimately be as frothy as over stirred eggnog, but isn’t that kind of the point with a Christmas episode, to have fun? In that respect, it fulfills the brief nicely as it zips along with a gag hit rate that rivals Hawkeye’s unwavering aim. The actions pretty on point with a highlight being Hogan’s Hulked up assault on the Iron Legion that’s portrayed as being ungodly levels of violent as oil sprays up the walls and robot bodies a virtually shredded like something out of Terrifier.
However, if I’m being picky, I’m not sure that this episode of What If…? technically counts as a What If…? episode as it doesn’t really make it clear what the change point in this universe actually is. Everything seems to be following the actual timeline quite closely as the pre-Age Of Ultron setting feels pretty spot on even with Justin Hammer shooting for the moon. Surely the shift couldn’t have been J.A.R.V.I.S. taking a break or even Hammer belatedly growing a set of balls?

Anyway, even though the episode carries about as much weight as one of Justin Hammer’s quips, it wins through by focusing fully on a single character and just going with the flow of the seasonal setting. Besides, surely you can’t hate an episode that references Die Hard so much, that the episode’s villain even gets a homage to that Alan Rickman shot as he falls from the building.
Ho Ho Hogan.

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