Party On Thor! After some pretty dark turns in the last handful of episodes of Marvel’s What If…? We finally got something a bit more fun this week, featuring a different take on Thor. Here is a quick refresher, if you haven’t been watching the series on Disney Plus or reading our weekly episode recaps. What If takes a look at how things might change if key Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) characters made different choices or things simply went a different way and then shows us an alternate universe where these different circumstances led to very different stories and characters.
Previous Episodes
Episode 1 - Peggy Carter becomes Captain Carter and Steve Rodgers becomes a 1940s Iron Man.
Episode 2 - T’Challa becomes Star-Lord.
Episode 3 - The Avengers never assemble, as they are all assassinated.
Episode 4, - Dr. Strange succumbs to dark magic and basically destroys his universe.
Episode 5 - Zombies apocalypse with superheroes!
Episode 6 - Killmonger becomes Black Panther and Tony Stark never becomes Iron Man.
So, let’s check out a much less intense alternate reality this week. In episode 7, the difference is that Odin decided not to raise Loki as his own son, instead of returning him to the frost giants. So, Thor grows up an only child. How do you think that goes?
We remember that especially in the first Thor movie, he is a bit carefree and self-centered. Well, in this universe you can take that up a few notches since he didn’t have Loki as a balance. Thor is still a mighty warrior and wielder of the hammer (Mjolnir), but he is also pretty clearly a frat boy at heart. When not fighting monsters for sport, he drops in on different realms to party when his parents aren’t looking.
With Odin sleeping to revive himself (as he did in the Thor movies) and Frigga off visiting friends in another realm, Thor is supposed to stay home and study. But, like a typical college student, he decided to party instead.
This leads Thor to bring his band of warriors to earth to throw an epic, worldwide party. This quickly catches the attention of SHIELD, along with scientist Jane Foster, who notes the anomalies when gateways are opened to earth.
When Thor throws a party, he does not mess around. We get cameos from a bunch of MCU characters including Korg, Nebula, Lady Sif, Surtur, Topaz, Howard the Duck, Drax, The Grandmaster, and eventually a giant version of Loki. They all were invited to the party and are friends of Thor. Loki has grown to leadership among the frost giants, but he and Thor seem to be best buddies.
As with many college raves, the party gets a bit out of hand, causing a lot of damage to the planet, various historical monuments, etc. Jane Foster initially confronts Thor about his partying ways but ends up joining the party crew and hooking up with Thor. Some things don’t change.
SHIELD is more than a bit alarmed and Nick Fury swings by to break up the party but is put into the hospital by some of the party-goers. Maria Hill takes over and decides it’s time to bring in the big guns. She pulls out Fury’s pager and calls in Captain Marvel.
We then get to see a fun fight between Thor and Captain Marvel, which is played as much for laughs as for anything serious. But, I think we do learn that Captain Marvel could probably give Thor a beatdown, as long as collateral damage to the surrounding area isn’t an issue.
Just as their confrontation is about to get serious, Jane Foster steps in to basically call Thor’s mom to earth. She arrives quickly, giving Thor just enough time to clean up most of the obvious mess. Even Captain Marvel pitches in, corroborating Thor’s story that this was a study trip to earth and not a party at all.
We get a nice wrap-up, where a chastened Thor asks Jane Foster out on a date… just before Ultron/Vission shows up seeming to have all the Infinity Stones, ready to cause trouble. But the episode ends before we get that story. So, we’ll stick with the fact that this one is more fun than apocalyptic.
Of the episodes to date, this is one of my favorites. Let’s see what happens next week!
