What If…?

Episode Two

What If…T’Challa Became a Star Lord?

To be honest, I was not interested in this episode based on the title and the little bit of promo I saw before I watched the episode. I like Star Lord and the first Guardians of the Galaxy, for the most part, and I like Black Panther and King T’Challa; but the mash up of these two stories did not grab my interest. But, I was wrong.

After about 5 mins into the episode, my interest was peaked and I was in to it. Watching T’Challa be captured by the Ravagers and then being raised by them in space and then seeing how T’Challa had the change effect on ravagers instead of the Ravagers effecting him for the worst, was a great twist to see.

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The Ravagers, still led by Yondu but heavily influenced by T’Challa are now a Robin Hood type gang where they steal to make a profit and then give to those less fortunate. We get to see Star Lord go to Morag to steal the orb containing the Power Stone in the same manner as in the film, with Korath and his crew catching Star Lord in the act and try to take the orb from Star Lord and again failing to do so. In this story, Korath is a big fan boy of Star Lord and has heard all of his exploits and considers Star Lord a hero. This twist is the funnest of the whole series and helped make the episode stand out even more.

Korath joins the Ravagers, which includes some of the members we saw in the film, Kraglin and Taserface, but the infamous group also includes a well known surprise character, Thanos! Thanos still holds on to the idea of wiping out half the universe to improve things, but has bought into T’Challa’s point of view that they can do good for those around them as a way to resolve inequities. One person missing from the group is Gamorra, but we do see Nebula who is friendly to the Ravagers, but isn’t part of the group.

The plan is to sell the orb to Taneleen Tivan, The Collector, who has filled the void that Thanos had left when he became a member of the Ravagers. In reality this is a diversion to grab another rare artifact in his collection, the Embers of Genesis which will allow the Ravagers to eradicate galactic hunger. The Collector isn’t willing to give this up, hence the diversion.

T’Challa, Nebula, and Yondu enter the Collector’s warehouse on Knowhere, with T’Challa hiding in a cart. T’Challa separates himself from the group to try and locate the Embers. Nebula and Yondu meet up with the Collector and bargain on a price to stall for time. As T’Challa is searching for the Embers he meets up with Howard the Duck and gets him out of the display case. Howard helps him track down the Embers for T’Challa to get, but the Collector’s group figures out what is going on and an alarm is set off.

As T’Challa is trying to find a way out he finds a Wakandan spaceship in the Collectors possession and when T’Challa goes inside he finds a message from his father asking people to search for his son, as he went missing. T’Challa is surprised to see this as Yondu had told him that Wakanda was destroyed, so T’Challa didn’t go back to Earth. T’Challa learns that Wakanda and his family aren’t destroyed. Eventually, the group is betrayed by Nebula and captured. The plan is to kill T’Challa but using his vibranium necklace he escapes. T’Challa and the Collector fight with some weapons we’ve seen before in the MCU, Malekith's dagger and Hela's Necrosword and helmet, which is a great tie in. Also Yondu shows up to help and tries to use his arrow to defeat the Collector. However, the Collector is powerful and is able to grab it mid-flight and snap it in half. During the fight, the Collector’s purple slave, Carina, switches sides and helps put the Collector into a display case.

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In another area of the Collector’s warehouse on Knowhere, Thanos, Nebula, and the other Ravagers are escaping back to their ship but Midnight and Cull Obsidian catch up to them. Thanos turns to hold them off so the other’s can get to the ship. Thanos is eventually overmatched and Nebula comes back to help her father. During the fight, Nebula uses some of the seeds of the Embers and releases a few into Obsidian’s mouth causing huge plants to grow out of him, killing him, and distracting the others of the Black Order so that they can escape.

T’Challa and Yondu escape in the Wakandan ship and they talk about why Yondu didn’t return him to Earth. T’Challa forgives Yondu and looks at the positive things that have come about as a result. All of the Ravagers head to Earth and go to Wakanda. T’Challa meets his family and his people and introduces his Wakandan family to his Ravager family.

At the end we see Peter Quill, who wasn’t abducted by Yondu, working at the local Dairy Queen (what is it with Avengers and Dairy Queens?) when his father, Ego shows up and introduces himself to his son. This leaves us wondering how will Quill and Ego’s relationship will be now? My guess is we will find out in Season 2.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this episode and how well T’Challa humanity and humility were so well written and portrayed here. Due to his benevolence, T’Challa was able to change the most devastating event in the MCU (the Snap) by converting Thanos to his cause of helping other’s less fortunate in the galaxy. He changed the culture of the Ravagers from a gang of thugs, thieves, and murderers to a group of misfits working together to bring about good in the galaxy.

As in all of the What If…? episodes the majority of the film actors reprise their roles as voice actors in these episodes. Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa was no exception and he did not disappoint. He was amazing as always, and this episode, along with Episode 5 of What If…? are his last performances as T’Challa before his tragic death due to cancer. This is definitely an episode to be treasured on many levels.

Overall I give this episode a 4.75 out of 5.