Review: Marvel’s What If…? “What If… the Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In a timeline where Alexei Shostakov, AKA The Red Guardian, goes rogue and interferes with the Winter Soldier’s mission to kill Howard and Maria Stark, the two end up on a cross country road trip to find the person who put out the hit.

OUR TAKE

We’re on the third day of our What If athon and what better way to bring in Christmas Day than with a story involving the Winter Soldier? As I have no doubt mentioned before, What If is often about embracing the weirdness of the MCU and going in unexpected directions that the main timeline really never could, which usually means going in a more jokey path (yes, even more jokey than the regular MCU). However, What If also has a very specific animation style that tries to capture the likeness of its real life actors, which sometimes lends itself to that comedy, but other times very much doesn’t. This is basically one of those times, as Alexei’s persisting bit about spewing Soviet Russia propaganda makes him feel more like a cartoon character than how he was portrayed in the Black Widow movie he debuted in and also more than the actual literal cartoon character he is here. They try to balance that out with Bucky, as he would be a stoic brainwashed assassin at this time and should naturally be a good foil for that, but then they also make HIM act more goofy and cartoony at times too, which just tips the scale even more.

That said, I do like the idea of this episode ON PAPER. Like with the Agatha and Kingo episode the day before, Bucky and Alexei are two characters who were operating around this time and have the natural established connection of Dreykov and Hydra, so overlapping in this way feels like almost too obvious a premise, and as mentioned, their personalities are different enough that they should bounce off each other well, with Alexei coming to terms with the inherent corruption in his organization despite his best intentions, and Bucky slowly melting his Winter Soldier persona when forced to spend with what is essentially a knock off of his friend Steve. And the twist of Obadiah Stane being the mastermind behind the assassination works great if you remember him from the first Iron Man. But I’m forced to recall the 80’s episode from last season which also involved Bucky AND Bill Foster AKA Goliath, and that had just about everything there that this episode lacks. Still, a good idea done imperfectly is better than what I get from most shows I cover, so I’ll take this Hanukkah gift for what it is. Plus there’s five more nights to hopefully get better.