Recap / What If…? S2E2 "What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?"

"What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?"

Alternate take on: The Avengers (2012) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Police Officer: Is that a... kid?
Uatu: [narrating] Not just any kid, but Peter Quill, a son of Earth and the stars whose pain and loss now threatens to destroy the very world he once called home and the entire universe along with it.

— Uatu commenting on a cop's question as part of his Opening Narration

In a universe where Yondu sent Peter to Ego instead of becoming a loving dad to the boy, the young Peter now works together with his father to further his nefarious plans to tear everything in the universe down. When Peter arrives on Earth, Peggy Carter and Howard Stark must quickly assemble a team to counter the threat and save all of humanity, even if they must enlist some very grisly and unwelcome faces to the cause. Meanwhile, everyone discusses the young boy and are confronted with the dilemma of whether to finish off the child.

"What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?" contains examples of:

• The '80s: This episode takes place in 1988, with the story truly leaning into the setting as it collects the heroes of this era to galvanize against Ego. There are several on-the-nose references to the Cold War, MTV, and '80s music and technology, just in case you forgot what year it is.
• Adaptational Badass: Peter Quill in this timeline has far more control over the Celestial powers he inherited from Ego than his Sacred Timeline self did despite being far younger, likely due to the six months of training he got from Ego. Also unlike his Sacred Timeline self, Peter retains his Celestial powers by absorbing the Celestial seedling, noting that it means a piece of Ego will always live inside him.
• Adaptational Diversity: Compared to the Avengers, the team in this universe is far more diverse with characters of different ethnicities and nationalities... and even species.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In this universe, S.H.I.E.L.D. forms an Avengers-type team several years earlier than in the Sacred Timeline, due to the threat of Ego looming over Earth at this time.
• Adaptational Heroism: Bill Foster is more heroic here, if still having beef with Hank Pym.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • In the main timeline Peter has never met Hank and Hope onscreen (bar the Battle of Earth and a group meeting at Tony's funeral), while here they seem set to become his adoptive father and sister.
  • In the regular timeline, Hope and Hank's relationship deteriorated after the loss of Janet van Dyne, especially since Hank shipped Hope off to boarding school because he couldn't deal with his grief. Here, the two seem to have a much healthier father-and-daughter dynamic, with Hank wholly trusting and loving Hope even without Janet keeping them together.
• Adaptational Villainy: As Uatu points out, Yondu never had his change of heart in this universe, willingly giving Peter to Ego to get himself and his crew handsomely paid.
• Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Like T'Chaka, Thor takes a liking to light beer at the end of the episode, describing it as exotic.
• Already Done for You: Thor explains how Ego causes the Expansion, namely through seeds he previously planted on the planets he intends to absorb. Before anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. can suggest looking for the one on Earth, he reveals he already found it, and that's why he was late showing up to the fight with Peter.
• Ambiguous Situation: The fate of Howard Stark in the end. Bucky is now free to find his identity, but what's to say Hydra sets up another soldier to kill him and Maria in the future?
• And the Adventure Continues: At the end, Thor points out that while Ego's physical body has been destroyed, his original form is still out there, and plans to go deal with him. The Avengers decide to come with him.
• Apocalypse How: Ego threatens a Class 6 on Earth, already having devastated countless planets in his wake and condemned them to this fate.
• Armor-Piercing Response: As Howard tries to get to the Winter Soldier, he mutters that Howard doesn't know him. Howard replies that Steve Rogers did, causing Bucky to hesitate.
• Artistic License – Music: Hope is shown unplugging her headset so she can play her music through the speakers for an imprisoned Quill to hear. Walkmans in the 80s didn't have external speakers.
• Battle Theme Music: The Avengers theme plays during the final Team Power Walk shot.
• Big Applesauce: Rather than going directly to his hometown in Missouri, Peter Quill starts his Alien Invasion by crash-landing in New York. Times Square, no less.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the fight on Coney Island, Peter was about to destroy the Avengers, when Thor arrives and knocks him out.
• Bittersweet Ending: Thankfully one leaning more towards the "sweet" this time around. Though Ego managed to destroy much of the Nine Realms and his planetary core is still a viable threat, the Avengers form several years earlier and manage to stop him from destroying Earth, and Peter is adopted into the Pym-van Dyne family. Not to mention that Bucky has left HYDRA in order to reclaim his past, meaning there is little to no chance of Howard and Maria Stark being killed in a few years (at least by him).
• Bonding over Missing Parents: How Hope and Peter become closer, when they both talk about losing their moms.
• Break the Haughty: Heavily implied to be the case with Thor. By 1988, he would still be a Spoiled Brat as he never learns humility until 2010. It's very likely that the destruction of Asgard and most of the other Nine Realms led to him maturing as he lost his entire family and home in the process.
• Bumbling Dad: Hank Pym is introduced adding potato chips to Hope's cereal, considering them a vegetable.
• Call-Forward: Hope is already much more imaginative with Pym particles that her father ever was, foreshadowing her fighting style as the second Wasp.
• Call to Adventure: A literal example. Howard calls Hank in order to recruit him to the team. Hank (initially) declines due to his ongoing beef against S.H.I.E.L.D.
• The Cameo: The credits show that the voice speaking to the Winter Soldier as he's preparing to shoot Quill is none other than Vasily Karpov, the HYDRA soldier that Helmut Zemo drowns in the Sacred Timeline.
• Character Check: Thor has more of his pre-Ragnarok characterization, barring the occasional moment here and there.
• Chekhov's Gun: The celestial seedling Thor that picked up in Missouri when first arriving on Earth. It not only warns the Avengers when Ego is sending his avatar to Earth, but it also gives Peter the power to destroy his father's avatar after he absorbs the seedling.
• Commonality Connection: Hope and Peter bond over losing their moms recently in their lives, and Hank brings up his own problems with moving on from Janet when trying to break through to Peter.
• Diving Save: Goliath performs one for Mar-Vell when her jetpack is fried.
• Doppelgänger Attack: Ego unleashes a massive army of himself (formed from the earth) in the Final Battle against the Avengers.
• Enemy Mine: Peter is a big enough threat that the Soviets (or more likely the Soviet representatives of HYDRA) send the Winter Soldier (a.k.a Bucky Barnes) to aid S.H.I.E.L.D. against him.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: The '80s Avengers all meet in a S.H.I.E.L.D. base in the Mojave desert.
• Exact Words: Played for Laughs. Hope states that there aren't any vegetables in her cereal, only for Hank to state that the potato chips are vegetables.
• Fantastically Indifferent: No one seems fazed at all by the existence of aliens — Peter Quill, Wendy Lawson, or Thor — or the revelation that Wakanda is an Advanced Ancient Acropolis.
• Fighting a Shadow: The only reason Peter and the '88 Avengers can take down this version of Ego comes down to him only being an avatar of the true Ego, whose Celestial body is still out there.
• Five-Man Band: The '80s Avengers have this dynamic in spades: The Leader Hank Pym/Ant-Man, owing to his intelligence, training and years of experience as a superhero and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent giving him the abilities to command the team. The Lancer King T'Chaka as the team's second foremost member, throwing himself into the danger at the first sign. The Big Guy Bill Foster, who has cracked the Pym Particles' ability to grow and become able to grow giant, providing the team muscle. The Smart Guy Wendy Lawson/Mar-Vell, who despite having superhuman abilities as a Kree sticks to acting as team support and providing the team with vital info on Ego. Token Evil Teammate the Winter Soldier, sent by his Soviet handlers to handle the threat with his unique abilities as an assassin and the first one to suggest simply murdering Peter as the solution. And Sixth Ranger Thor, who comes to save the team at New York after Peter proves too much for them to handle. Hank also pulls double duty as The Heart by being the first one to realize that Peter is just a grieving kid being manipulated and gets him to confront his father and prevent him from annihilating humanity.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Howard Stark notes that they don't have anyone on Earth to deal with Peter. Cue Thor, from Asgard, arriving to kick ass at the Coney Island fight.
  • While Peter is on Coney Island, despite destroying the stall where he got a stuffed raccoon, he is mostly enjoying himself and having fun. He only starts creating more destruction after the Avengers start attacking him. This is a sign he really means no harm and it's Ego who's controlling him.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Peter's eyes only glow when he uses his powers, and until the end of the episode, him using his powers means trouble.
• Godzilla Threshold: The threat of Peter decimating Earth is so great that the Soviets (and by extension, HYDRA controlling that branch of it) willingly send the Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes) to aid S.H.I.E.L.D. in stopping him, compromising the Winter Soldier's secret existence in the process. Furthermore, King T'Chaka takes up the Black Panther mantle to assist in the matter despite generally not getting involved with global affairs due to how serious the threat is.
• Goo-Goo-Godlike: Peter has the powers of a Celestial, but he only uses them to have fun at a carnival. It's his father who uses them to destroy worlds.
• Great Offscreen War: Thor says that Ego and Peter destroyed the other worlds of the Nine Realms, including Asgard.
• Hairpin Lockpick: Hope uses one of her bobby pins to undo the lock on the chamber Peter is being held in. It helps that she shrunk the chamber using Pym Particles first.
• Heel Realization: When Hope calls out the Avengers for how they are treating Peter, even though he is just a kid and just wants to go home. She agrees to tell her father where he is going only if he agrees to help, pointing out to Hank that it's what Janet would have wanted. Hearing that, Hank realizes his daughter is right.
• Hero of Another Story: Averted, as the entire point of the episode is acknowledging how there were in fact many heroes or superhumans active at the same time during the 1980s. However, there was never a reason to focus on their adventures in the films and they became this trope. This episode provides a big enough reason for S.H.I.E.L.D. to recruit all of them and have them meet.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Peter absorbs Ego's seed, making him strong enough to blast his old man's avatar and save the day.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: The Space Stone. Known to be capable of generating enormous power. SHIELD has been studying it for years. Could be useful against a Celestial. The heroes have it powering their ship. The only time it affects the plot is when Wendy tells Bucky to keep the ship at a distance because she's worried what will happen if it explodes. Admittedly, turning it into a weapon on short notice would be difficult.
• Ignored Vital News Reports: Howard Stark only calls up Hank because Hank hasn't turned on his TV and noticed the devastation going on in New York. By the time Howard manages to get this through to him, Hope's already turned on the news herself.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Howard hacks the Winter Soldier's comm, appealing to him by calling him his true name and reminding him of his friendship with Steve and saying he knows he wouldn't just shoot a kid like Peter. It ultimately works, and he doesn't take the shot.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Ego still reveals to Peter that he killed his mother in this universe, which still leads to Peter fully turning on him.
  • Thor still joins the Avengers while Asgard is destroyed, just decades earlier.
  • While it happens much earlier and under different circumstances, Bucky Barnes frees himself from the control of HYDRA and goes on the run.
• Internal Reveal: Both Peggy and Howard discover that the Winter Soldier is their old ally Bucky Barnes, having heard rumours that implied the possibility but never fully believing them.
• Ironic Echo: Peter turns Ego's seed into a ball of energy much like Ego did to his mother's Walkman when they first met. Then he absorbs it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Hank, true to Bill Foster's comments about what he used to be like from Ant-Man and the Wasp, is pretty grouchy and difficult towards everyone at first. That said, he still loves his daughter Hope, and immediately suits up when he sees just how dangerous Quill is. When he sees that Peter is just a grieving kid being used by his father to carry out his Expansion, Hank calmly talks to him and encourages him to do the right thing.
  • Howard Stark is still as abrasive as ever in this universe, but he believes that Bucky Barnes still exists within the Winter Soldier, and manages to talk him out of following up on the Soviet Union's orders to kill Peter Quill by reminding him of Steve Rogers and how good he was.
• Journey to Find Oneself: The Winter Soldier appears to be on his way to one at the end of the episode, heading to New York City to discover more about who he was.
• Karma Houdini: Yondu, Kraglin, and Taserface get away with kidnapping Peter and handing him to Ego.
• Kick the Dog: The first thing Ego does when he meets Peter is destroy his mom's Walkman and morph it into a ball of light.
• Killed Offscreen: Asgard and the Nine Realms (minus Midgard/Earth) suffer this fate thanks to Ego using Peter's body to destroy them. This motivates Thor to join the Avengers to take down Ego and avenge those that were lost.
• Let's You and Him Fight: The Avengers decide the only way to defeat Ego is to convince Peter to fight him.
  T'Chaka: There is an ancient Wakandan proverb from the days before our tribes united: "One only wins a two-front war by getting out of your enemy's way."
• Multinational Team: This iteration of the Avengers has several people of varying ethnicities here, with two black men (one Wakandan, one African-American), a British woman, two Caucasian Americans and two aliens being part of the team.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Thor joining the Avengers in the battle against Ego brings to mind how the two of them are recurring enemies in the comics.
  • Much like his comic counterpart, this version of Hank Pym serves as a founding member of the Avengers, compared to his Sacred Timeline counterpart who was long retired by the time the Avengers formed.
  • The Winter Soldier working on behalf of the Soviet Union is a nod to his comic origins, where he was an agent of the Russian government rather than HYDRA.
  • At Coney Island, Peter acquires a stuffed raccoon toy from an abandoned stall.
  • T'Chaka snarks at Hank Pym and Bill Foster for measuring sizes.
  • Peter is imprisoned in the same type of cell that would be intended for the Hulk.
  • Peter complains that Ego's ship doesn't have a tape deck, unlike the ship Peter builds as an adult.
  • Howard suggests they toss the seedling "down the garbage disposal", the same thing his son Tony suggested they do to the Time Stone.
  • When the Winter Soldier relays to Vasily Karpov that he has Peter in his sights, the latter asks the former if he's "ready to comply".
  • When confronted, Ego once again dismisses Peter's anger at him as "the mortal in you".
  • On meeting Goose, Peter mentions that he's more of a dog person. Cosmo the Space Dog becomes an ally of the Guardians in their third film.
• Near-Villain Victory: Ego almost succeeds at killing the Avengers and reclaiming his seedling, had it not been for Hank arriving at the battle with Peter, who then absorbs the seedling to make himself strong enough to destroy Ego's avatar.
• Nice Girl: Hope is friendly towards an imprisoned Peter, helps him escape, and gives him her mom's Walkman. Notably, she's the first person to actually see Peter as a kid, and not just a dangerous tool of his father.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Peter goes on a rampage across New York state, but once captured, it turns out he isn't the one who's been destroying planets. All he wanted to do was go back to Missouri.
• Oh, Crap!: When Ego breaks out his rock giant form, Thor lets out a horrified "by Odin's beard!"
• Point of Divergence: Yondu handing Peter Quill over to his father, rather than adopting him as his own.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: When Thor first arrives, Peter mistakes him for a member of Van Halen; not being from Earth, Thor doesn't know who Van Halen is.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The original What If? comics featured one issue that explored a world where the Avengers formed in the 1950s, featuring heroes active during that era. While it uses none of the same characters, within the context of the MCU it explores a similar idea of the Avengers being created decades earlier.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Peter to Ego before destroying Ego's Earth seedling:
  Ego: Deep down, I guess I've always known you'd turn out to be a disappointment. You are human after all.
  Peter: Actually, old man, my mom says I'm a Star-Lord!
• Psychic Static: Peter uses Hope's Walkman to block out Ego's attempts to psychically locate him and convince him to come back.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Hank is at first dismayed to see that the group assembled to stop Peter consists of the leader of a technologically-advanced African country who wears a vibranium catsuit (King T'Chaka), an alien scientist/pilot (Wendy/Mar-Vell), a former friend of his and fellow Sizeshifter (Bill Foster), a brainwashed assassin loaned out to S.H.I.E.L.D. by the Soviet Union/HYDRA (the Winter Soldier). They are later joined by the prince of an extraterrestrial civilization that inspired Norse Mythology (Thor).
• The Reveal: King Azzuri, the father of T'Chaka and N'Jobu and grandfather of T'Challa, Shuri, and N'Jadaka, is revealed to be the one who donated the vibranium to Howard Stark that would later be used to make Captain America's shield because Azzuri allied Wakanda to the United States during World War II.
• Series Continuity Error: It's heavily implied in The Avengers that the cage used to hold Peter was built to contain the Hulk. But MCU Bruce Banner would only be a child in 1988.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Hank's first reaction to Howard calling him? Hang up.
• Sixth Ranger: Thor joins the Avengers after the initial team is already established, at the end of their first encounter with Peter.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The entire plot happens because Yondu follows through on handing Peter over to Ego, and Yondu himself disappears from the episode immediately after doing so.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Hope bonding with Peter, along with convincing the other Avengers to help him, is what causes Peter to turn against Ego. Better yet, Hank bringing his daughter to work (because he couldn't find a babysitter in time) also counts, since she gets to be part of the action.
  • Howard Stark convincing Bucky to stand down by mentioning Steve Rogers allows him to break free of Hydra's control, thus saving him and his wife from being killed by him three years later.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Due to Bucky freeing himself from HYDRA's control a few years early, Howard and Maria Stark are no longer in any danger of being killed at his hands in 1991.
  • Amusingly, this trope actually applies to Ego himself. Though Peter manages to destroy his human form, Thor points out that his planet form is still out there and poses a threat to the universe, unlike what happened to his counterpart in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Although the end of the episode makes it clear the team intend to avert his survival at their earliest convenience.
  • Since she's heading off-world with plenty of backup instead of staying put, Mar-Vell has a much better chance of averting her canon death.
  • With Bucky free and the infiltration at a much earlier stage, the episode leaves open at least the possibility that the HYDRA infestation in S.H.I.E.L.D. might be discovered and dealt with before the organisation has to be destroyed this time.
• Steal the Surroundings: Hope helps bust Peter out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cell by shrinking the cell and carrying it away.
• Sticky Fingers: Hope steals her dad's security pass and a sample of Pym Particles without him ever noticing.
• Suddenly Speaking: The Winter Soldier starts speaking once the Avengers begin talking about what they need to do with Peter after he escapes, saying they have to kill him.
• Suddenly Voiced: Madeline McGraw previously appeared as young Hope in a flashback during Ant-Man and the Wasp, but didn't say anything. Here, she gets to actually voice her.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: S.H.I.E.L.D. security is so 'tight' that a teenage girl can swipe her father's access card and just dance through the facility and make off with a high-tech cell without anyone noticing until she's already done it.
• Tactical Withdrawal: Once the '80s Avengers see how powerful Peter is, Hank recommends that they retreat.
• Team Power Walk: The episode ends with a shot of the full '80s Avengers team doing this.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When Foster notices how Ego makes a colossal version of himself, Foster (who is at 21 feet) mutters how he "needs to be bigger".
• Time-Shifted Actor: Due to only being young children here, both Peter Quill and Hope van Dyne have different voice actors here, Mace Montgomery Miskel and Madeline McGraw^note who previously played young Hope in a flashback during Ant-Man and the Wasp respectively.
• Token Evil Teammate: The Winter Soldier, who helps little during the '80s Avengers' first fight with Peter and later recommends killing him. After Hank promises Hope that he won't hurt Peter, Bucky goes rogue and almost snipes Peter, but Howard is able to break through to the old Bucky.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Ego somehow makes it to Earth in less than a few minutes after noticing that Peter didn't do the job he was sent to do, so either his avatar was really close to Earth to begin with or his ship was very fast.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Hope is the one that first realizes Peter really wants to go home and doesn’t mean harm, which why she sets him free. Then she tells the Avengers how they need to do the right thing, such as helping Peter, and realize that Ego is the real threat.
• Would Hurt a Child: Thor initially wants justice for Asgard and was willing to punish Peter severely before he backs down. Bucky almost plays this straight when he has Peter in his sights at the graveyard, but Howard hacks into his coms and convinces him to stand down.
• You Can Talk?: Bucky's teammates' reaction when he advocates for killing Peter.

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Hank: Perhaps you forgot, Goldilocks, that we have sort of a team thing going on here.
Thor: Then I suggest you suit up, team.