Even though the most interesting thing about Disney Plus\u2019 What If\u2026?<\/em> series<\/a> is the way it\u2019s positioned to showcase the expansiveness of Marvel\u2019s multiverse, in its first season, the show felt like it was playing things safe by focusing mainly on a handful of slightly remixed characters and stories we\u2019d already been introduced to on the big screen. To a certain extent, the same goes for What If\u2026?<\/em>\u2019s newly-released second season, whose nine episodes have been dropping daily in the buildup to a December 30th finale. But about halfway through, What If\u2026? <\/em>season two really starts knocking it out of the park by putting the spotlight on a new Indigenous character and her fight against settler colonialism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With most of Marvel\u2019s movies and shows now focusing on how the multiverse is falling apart, it seemed a little pass\u00e9 to see the first few episodes of What If\u2026?<\/em> season two <\/em>pondering questions like \u201cwhat if Nebula (Karen Gillan) joined the Nova Corps\u201d and \u201cwhat if Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) saved Christmas by becoming a Hulk?\u201d Pitting a teenaged Peter Quill (Mace Montgomery Miskel) against a team of Avengers from the \u201980s made for some clever action sequences, as did Iron Man\u2019s (Mick Wingert) encounter with the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) on Sakaar<\/a>. Those episodes were action-packed, but each of them felt like the kind of story that might have packed more of a narrative punch back when Tony Stark or the original Thanos (Josh Brolin) were still alive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In those first few episodes, What If\u2026? <\/em>also feels stuck in the MCU\u2019s past, like it\u2019s trying to save all of the fascinating multiversal experimentation for Marvel\u2019s live-action projects. But that all starts to change once Captain Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) shows up and one of the Infinity Stones finds a new home in pre-colonial North America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Despite What If<\/em>\u2026? <\/em>being an anthology series and the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) insisting that he isn\u2019t a fan of sequels, season two does eventually shift its focus back to a couple of figures from season one, like Captain Carter and a warped version of Doctor Strange<\/a> (Benedict Cumberbatch) in ways that cement the show as being more than just a vehicle to rehash old MCU stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Though Captain Carter\u2019s jump to the big screen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness <\/em>was an early sign of how much Marvel Studios\u2019 animated and live-action projects could intersect with one another, her death in the film made it seem like Atwell\u2019s cameo might have been a one-time stunt meant to get people into theaters. The episode \u201cWhat If\u2026 Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?\u201d doesn\u2019t bring Multiverse of Madness<\/em>\u2019 Captain Carter back to life. But it does reinforce the idea that she \u2014 a version of Peggy Carter who becomes a super soldier instead of Steve Rogers (Josh Keaton) \u2014 is a character Marvel wants to exist as a big part of the MCU\u2019s brand identity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhat If\u2026 Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?\u201d borrows beats from films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier <\/em>and Black Widow<\/em> as it pairs Captain Carter and a Black Widow (Lake Bell) variant together to take on the Red Room\u2019s deadliest brainwashed assassin. Rather than the Winter Soldier, it\u2019s a long-lost, brainwashed Steve Rogers piloting the Hydra Stomper armor sent on covert missions by the Red Room to eliminate targets like Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Though Peggy\u2019s more than capable of going toe-to-toe with Steve in battle, the episode makes clear that their love keeps them from wanting to outright kill each other and that there is more to these variants\u2019 stories to be explored<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But just when it seems like What If<\/em>…? <\/em>has found a new chapter of Captain Carter\u2019s life worth taking more time to dig into, the series shifts gears by plucking her out of the \u201cHydra Stomper\u201d reality and turning its focus to one of this season\u2019s more inspired new faces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Similar to the way that What If<\/em>\u2026?<\/em>\u2019s very first episode immediately got to the business of reframing Peggy Carter as the <\/em>hero and face of her story (rather than a heroic, supporting love interest), \u201cWhat If\u2026<\/em> Kahhori Reshaped the World?\u201d establishes a young Mohawk woman named Kahhori (Devery Jacobs) as one of the most powerful people in any reality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After the Tesseract crash-lands in pre-colonial America and transforms an ordinary lake into a kind of portal that\u2019s seen by locals as cursed, Kahhori is one of the few people in her village brave and curious enough to wander near the glowing water. When Spanish Conquistadors searching for the Fountain of Youth arrive with guns and plans to raze the Earth until they find the famed wonder, Kahhori and her brother Wahta (Kiawentiio) are forced to run for their lives, with the chase culminating in Kahhori being shot and falling into the lake.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Most of What If<\/em>\u2026?<\/em>\u2019s episodes have blended major elements from one or two of Marvel\u2019s older projects into something that only wound up feeling slightly different. But the way \u201cWhat If\u2026 Kahhori Reshaped the World?\u201d reworks threads from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever <\/em>and Thor: Ragnarok<\/em> and turns them into something that feels genuinely distinct is impressive. \u201cWhat If\u2026 Kahhori Reshaped the World?\u201d \u2014 whose Indigenous characters speak almost entirely in the Mohawk language \u2014 frames Western colonialism as a kind of Ragnarok for Kahhori\u2019s people. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The episode highlights how Spain\u2019s conquest of North America was underpinned by a racist belief in the inherent inferiority of Indigenous people and how poisoned that ideology is. But Kahhori\u2019s origin story is also a celebration of Iroquois culture, and it\u2019s very explicit about how justified Indigenous peoples\u2019 violent resistance to settler colonialism in all of its forms<\/a> is. A number of Marvel\u2019s movies have touched on similar ideas<\/a> in the past. But even in the wake of the Black Panther <\/em>films, it\u2019s still somewhat surprising to see a Disney-branded narrative be so direct in its condemnation of Western colonialism given how studio head Bob Iger has recently indicated his desire<\/a> to shift away from \u201cmessaging\u201d-focused projects.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the most promising thing about Kahhori\u2019s debut is how she, like Captain Carter, seems poised to become something of a fixture within the MCU, at least over on the Disney Plus side of things.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The way that \u201cWhat If\u2026 Kahhori Reshaped the World?\u201d specifically features some of What If\u2026?<\/em>\u2019s more inspired set pieces and ends with her leaving her home reality with Doctor Strange are interesting in and of themselves. But what\u2019s most intriguing about What If\u2026?<\/em> at this point is how it seems to be using each season to cultivate central characters well-positioned to exist in the new multiverse that shows like Loki<\/em> have been building to<\/a>. It has been hard to suss out how Marvel plans to keep MCU feeling fresh, exciting, and cohesive after the unevenness<\/a> that\u2019s defined its pivot to multiversal storytelling<\/a>, but in characters like Captain Carter and Kahhori, you can see part of a path forward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With only three episodes left, there\u2019s only so much more screen time Kahhori\u2019s going to get in What If\u2026? <\/em>this season. But with her now on the playing board, and there being more than a few surprising guest stars coming back to reprise big roles, What If\u2026?<\/em>\u2019s season two finale feels like it might be something special and worth keeping an eye on as it draws closer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n