What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?: What Makes a Hero?

Many of the What If…? episodes revolve around a change that occurs at a single moment in time.  In episode six we see what happens if Killmonger rescued Tony Stark and Iron Man was never created.  The torture and turmoil Tony experienced when he was kid knapped, had changed him, made him rethink his life and turned him from a self-centered playboy to a hero.   To complicate matters even more, what if the person that saved him was the villainous Killmonger?  How would both their lives change?  Episode six shows the ramifications to both Wakanda and the United States as both sides are manipulated and deceived.

As I have said before, I have really been enjoying this series.  I was never a fan of the comic book, partially because it had no impact on the over all Marvel Universe.  But in watching this animated series, I have come to appreciate just how wonderful these stories can be.  That being said, this was not my favorite episode.  It was very well written, and the plot and story are all very compelling, full of twists, turns, action, and intrigue. The animation is of the same style and quality.   A couple things brought this down a notch in my opinion.  First, it is a much darker episode.  It is a story of revenge and hate, with the death of many characters.  Second, and probably more of the cause, many of the voice actors did not return, and for the first time in the series, the replacements seemed out of place.

The actors that did return to voice the animated versions of their live action characters did a great job and includes, Happy Hogan ( Jon Favreau), T’Challa / Black Panther  ( Chadwick Boseman), Queen Ramonda  ( Angela Bassett), Okoye  ( Danai Gurira), Ulysses Klaue  ( Andy Serkis), Rhodey  ( Don Cheadle), Jarvis  ( Paul Bettany), Christine Everhart  ( Leslie Bibb), T’Chaka  ( John Kani).  But most of these characters had tiny vocal parts so their contribution to the continuity, although appreciated, was minimal.  The exception to this is Killmonger  ( Michael B. Jordan) who is pretty much the lead in this episode.  Michael did a wonderful job recreating his roll.  You can still feel in his voice the very need to avenge his father’s death and free his people from suppression.

Now for those that didn’t return.  None of the performances were bad, but some of them did not sound or act like the film versions of their characters.  First, Tony Stark played by Mick Wingert, actually did a really good job of sounding like Robert Downey Jr.  He had the same comic delivery and timing and was probably the best of the new performance, but there was just something slightly off, it could be that this particular humor does not work well with animation as there is nuance and subtlety in the facial expressions that cannot be replicated on an animated character. Shuri  ( Ozioma Akagha) was also very good it was hard to tell that this wasn’t a Letitia Wright performance, but her part in the episode was relatively small, but important.  Kiff Vandenheuvel as Obadiah Stane did not have the same vocal pattern or delivery as Jeff Bridges and the same with Pepper Potts ( Beth Hoyt).  These were the two characters that really seemed to take me out of the moment.  Obadiah Stane played a minor roll, but the Pepper character was much more important, and I just heard nothing of Gwyneth Paltrow in the performance.  There is a certain warmth and understanding with a tinge of sarcasm and humor that Gwyneth brought to the character of Pepper, that was missing in this performance.

Normally, I wouldn’t judge something so heavily for replacing or changing actors, but in the case of What If…? there is a continuity that the studio is trying to project.  I understand that work schedules and contractual obligations prevent some of the actors from recreating their rolls, but I do feel that the characters that were in the live action films should, at least, try to be replicated on a certain level.

Even with the issue of the voice actors not being at the same level as the first five episodes, episode six is still really good, and I am sure most people aren’t even going to notice the vocal inequality.  The Story is good, but a bit intense.  The writing is at the same level with the rest of the series and the animation is stylized and beautiful to watch.