Recap / What If…? S2E1 "What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?"

"What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?"

Alternate take on: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Captain Marvel

Uatu: All quests for redemption begin in darkness. And Nebula's was no different. In this universe, Ronan the Accuser betrayed Thanos. The Mad Titan's thirst for power had met its match, and in his fall, [Nebula slowly fades into the narration] he took Nebula's sister along with him.
Nebula: I was lost, adrift in the ruins of my past... until someone saw the light in me. With compassion and kindness, Nova Prime gave me a way forward.

— Opening Narration by Uatu with Nebula taking over shortly

In a world where Ronan deposes Thanos, Nebula is left out alone in the emptiness of space when she is recruited to join the Nova Corps. Unfortunately, Xandar is under threat by Ronan aiming to conquer the planet, and it is up to Nebula to try to stop it and escape the shadow of her deceased father, even if she has to face a jaw-dropping conspiracy behind it...

"What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?" contains examples of:

• The Ace: Nebula is better at infiltration than her counterpart in the Sacred Timeline.
• Adaptational Badass: Ronan is able to follow up on his threat of killing Thanos that he made in Guardians of the Galaxy. Furthermore, he seems to have accomplished this without fusing the Power Stone to his hammer, which is something Sacred Timeline Ronan had to do before even considering betraying the Mad Titan.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: In Captain Marvel, Yon-Rogg was a stoic No-Nonsense Nemesis who followed the Kree Empire's will and ruthlessly hunted Skrulls all across the galaxy. In this universe, he's shown to be more of a witty Deadpan Snarker who engages in banter with Nebula, though he's still just as evil here as his main universe counterpart is. Which leads to...
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the Sacred Timeline, Yon-Rogg made it no secret that he disliked Ronan the Accuser, as he was disgusted by his carpet-bombing tactics that he would utilize even if it would put Kree agents in danger. In this episode, he's shown to be fanatically loyal to Ronan, and gleefully betrays Nebula to join his side and help wipe Xandar out.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Because of the situation of Xandar in the past five years, Irani Rael becomes more paranoid and sociopathic, extending to the point where she willingly cooperated with Ronan to betray Xandar.
  • The Nova Corps themselves were merely By the Book Cops in the Sacred Timeline, only being antagonists to the Guardians of the Galaxy because they all had criminal records and were causing a scene in public. Here, many of the Corps are shown to be Dirty Cops who cover up Yondu's death and are more than willing to work for the corrupt Irani Rael, even murdering some of their coworkers to gain access to the planetary shields.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Midway through the episode, Korg, Miek, and Groot are shown playing a game of Rock Paper Scissors together, referencing Korg's joke about the game that he made when meeting Thor in Thor: Ragnarok.
  • Prior to that, Howard is shown playing poker, a game he played during his cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 before Nebula asks him about what was in Yondu's arrow.
  • Groot unleashes a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on a wave of soldiers just like he does in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
• Arc Words: "I took an oath." Nebula repeats this as she holds onto her Nova Corps oath throughout the episode, showing that she still has honor despite her Black Order background.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Howard the Duck refuses to bring out the heavy artillery despite the dangers of Ronan looming and threatening to kill everyone until Nebula points out that Nova Corp will take away his liquor license.
• Ascended Extra: While the show overall has always done this with Howard the Duck, this episode takes it a step further, giving him his biggest role yet.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Irani Rael goes from a Reasonable Authority Figure who strove to keep the citizens of Xandar safe, to a corrupt and desperate dictator who chooses to sacrifice her own people to a genocidal terrorist for the sake of maintaining her power.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Nebula replays a memory of Yondu controlling the Yakka arrow to recall it from wherever it is. When she intends to use it herself, she actually installs the control fin.
• Boxed Crook: Nebula frees Yon-Rogg from his prison for his aid in getting to the data core. Unfortunately, he double-crosses her.
• Brick Joke: Nebula manages to secure Howard's help by claiming that if Nova Prime wins, she'll take away his liquor license. Once all is said and done, she dryly tells the duck that his liquor license is safe.
• The Cameo: Drax the Destroyer appears as a casino goer, where he roughs up a slot machine and some patrons for losing a chance to win.
• Character Narrator: In this episode, Nebula takes the Watcher’s place and serves as the narrator for most of the episode.
• The Chessmaster: Nebula was not only able to figure out Irani Rael‘s corruption and intention to betray Xandar to Ronan, but she also set up a trap to kill Ronan and stop the invasion by having the shield close right after it opens, destroying the Dark Aster with it.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • Howard the Duck seems to be nothing more than a sleazy casino owner in a dirty part of town, but he's shown to have a huge collection of guns hidden in his bar, and he helps fight the Nova Corps in the climax.
  • Korg may be as ditzy as ever in this timeline, but he also is no slouch in the fighting department, manhandling Yon-Rogg and Garthan Saal at the same time with nary an issue, outside of complaining about having not stretched beforehand.
• Cue the Sun: With the shields destroyed and Irani Rael dead, the shot ends with Nebula staring at the sun for the first time in years.
• Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: In keeping with the general style of the episode, the weather on the shielded Xandar is shown as dark, cloudy and dreary at best. In both the opening scene where Nebula finds Yondu's body and the scene where she breaks Yon-Rogg out of the Kiln, it's pouring down rain.
• Dead Hat Shot: We don't see Ronan kill Thanos, only a shot of Thanos' helmet after the act.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • When last being seen in the Sacred Timeline, Yon-Rogg was spared by Captain Marvel and sent back to the Kree with a warning that she was coming to them. Here, he was slammed to death along with Saal by Korg.
  • Irani Rael survived Ronan's invasion of Xandar in the Sacred Timeline. Shae was fallen to her death in this timeline after failing to kill Nebula.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • In the Sacred Timeline, Yondu performed a Heroic Sacrifice to save Peter Quill from dying in space. Here, he's murdered by the Nova Corps after discovering their plans.
  • In this universe, Thanos and the Black Order (along with Gamora) met their end at Ronan's hands rather than being defeated by the Avengers.
  • Garthan Saal dies protecting Xandar from Ronan in the Sacred Timeline. He was instead slammed to death along with Yon-Rogg by Korg in this timeline.
  • Ronan is killed as the Shield of Xandar closes when his ship is passing by, rather than killed by the Power Stone held by Star-Lord.
• Dirty Cop: Most of the Nova Corps, including Irani Rael and Garthan Saal, have become this due to the situation on Xandar driving them to it.
• Dirty Coward: When Korg confronts them, Yon-Rogg and Saal are desperately trying to sneak away, and when they're caught, Yon-Rogg insists that he's not a "big-time baddie", but that Saal is. It doesn't save either of them from taking a beating.
• Disney Villain Death: How Irani Rael dies at the end.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Nebula destroys Ronan, the shield protecting Xandar is open once more, and Irani Rael is dead, with Nebula smiling after seeing the sun before heading off.
• Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion: Ronan's first attempt at invading Xandar is stopped when Irani uses the planet shield to keep him at bay, then his second attempt is stopped when Nebula sabotages the code to open the shield so it opens for a little bit then closes on the Dark Aster.
• Evil Is Petty: When her plans are ruined, Nova Prime prefers to try and kill Nebula than accept her help to save her own life. She not only fails, but she plummets to her death for the effort.
• Face–Heel Turn: Due to Xandar being in dark times for the past five years living under the shield, Irani Rael chooses to cooperate with Ronan and allow him to invade the planet, in exchange for letting her keep her position as leader.
• Film Noir: This episode is very much a cosmic detective story, with Nebula in the role of a brooding cop who investigates the mysterious death of Yondu Udonta. She even does her own narration.
• Fingore: After being badly beaten by Saal and his fellow dirty cops, Nebula is shown to have lost a finger as she stumbles to Howard's bar. The entire arm is gone by the time she arrives.
• Godzilla Threshold: Activating Xandar's planetary shield is this for Irani Rael, since it cuts the planet off from all interstellar contact for fifty years with no way to reverse the decision once it is triggered. The plot of the episode is driven by Rael's attempt to open the shield early after making a deal with Rhonan that will allow her to retain her power over Xandar.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The threat of invasion from Ronan causes the Nova Corps to buckle under the pressure and go dirty. However, despite the threat Ronan poses, Nova Prime is treated as the Big Bad due to her conspiracy to sell Xandar out to Ronan instigating the whole story. Tellingly, Ronan gets disposed of quickly while Nova Prime gets the climactic final battle.
• Hardboiled Detective: Nebula takes on the role of a Film Noir detective and narrates and speaks like a Dashiell Hammett protagonist.
• Heel–Face Turn: Nebula’s redemption came earlier in this timeline than in the Sacred Timeline, due to Gamora and Thanos being killed by Ronan and her being found and given a new lease on life by the Nova Corps.
• Hellhole Prison: The prison holding Yon-Rogg is not much better than the Kiln in the Sacred Timeline. It is so downtrodden that Nebula has to verbally waive all rights and liability to get in.
• Hypocrite: At Yondu's murder scene, Saal gives Nebula grief for being "Black Order trash" despite being part of a conspiracy to sell out Xandar to someone worse than the Black Order.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: When Nebula returns to Howard's casino, she says she needs a drink. And a gun. And an arm.
• Instant Expert: Nebula can wield Yondu's Yakka arrow almost as well as he can with no prior training. Then again, all that was needed was a good whistle.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: When Howard sees the schematics from Yondu's arrow, he says no one knows what they are... just before Korg reveals that he does.
• Ironic Echo: When Yon-Rogg sarcastically asks Nebula if causing a prison breakout in the Kiln was her plan, she goes "Give me some credit". Later, Nebula asks if melting the core was Yon-Rogg's plan, to which he goes "Give me some credit".
• Just a Machine: Irani Rael contemptuously dismisses Nebula as this when the latter angrily accuses her of using her.
• Kansas City Shuffle: Nebula quickly figures out that she is being set up and hatches her own plan. However, she has to first convince the conspirators that they won and it is safe to open up the shield. She is successful but almost dies in the attempt. Once Yon-Rogg is sure that Nebula is dead and the surrender genuine, he convinces Ronan that the Kree have won and it is safe to take over the planet. Ronan thus walks right into the trap set by Nebula.
• Kitchen Sink Included: Korg notes that the codes found in Yondu's arrow might actually have a kitchen sink.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: Howard and the Rock-Paper-Scissors do one when Nebula recruits their help, ending with Korg doing a Lampshade Hanging on their dramatic posing.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Par for the course for Nebula, who treats being so badly damaged that her internal circuitry is exposed, she's missing an arm, and she can barely stand, like a minor inconvenience best mended by booze.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Korg bashes Saal and Yon-Rogg into the ground and each other, before complaining that he should have stretched first.
• Mythology Gag: The use of Garthan Saal as the primary dirty Corpsman and his despising Nebula is possibly a twisted nod to his comic book counterpart, who was also a villain... because he was driven mad with grief after Nebula destroyed Xandar.
• The Narrator: Nebula takes over narrating duties from the Watcher to reinforce this episode's noir inspiration.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After Garthan's group believes they took care of Nebula, they cull most of the remaining Corpsman down to those loyal to Nova Prime and Ronan. Unfortunately for them, this makes Nebula's group's job of raiding Nova HQ much easier.
• Noir Episode: The episode has a dark cyberpunk noir feel right out of Blade Runner.
• No One Could Survive That!: Saal and his fellow cops figure Nebula couldn't have survived falling over a waterfall after they'd already subjected her to a brutal beatdown, and don't bother checking, giving her the chance to crawl back to Howard's.
• Noodle Incident: Nebula apparently arrested and imprisoned Yon-Rogg at some point in this universe, and now has to break him out to make use of his services.
• Oh, Crap!: Ronan remains generally stoic as the shield closes on the Dark Aster, until the last second when he finally has a look of terror.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Ronan's turning on Thanos and single-handedly wiping out him and the entire Black Order.
• Out-Gambitted: Nebula manages to not only foil Nova Prime's plans but kill Ronan and end his siege of Xandar by anticipating Yon-Rogg's double cross and leaving a "surprise" embedded in the code Yon-Rogg stole from her, which starts reclosing the shield just in time to fatally crush the Dark Aster.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Nebula reveals she knew from the start that Irani Rael was planning to betray her when she asked Nebula to follow her instincts and expose the truth by any means necessary. Nebula knows for a fact that the Nova Corps normally act as By The Book Cops, so Rael asking her to go against their philosophy only makes sense if she's forsaken it.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Yondu Udonta dies early in the episode, and kicks off Nebula's investigation into what's going on.
• Point of Divergence: In this timeline, Ronan manages to follow through with his threat and wipe out Thanos, starting Nebula's path to redemption in the Nova Corps, though it begins with her getting left for dead in space.
• The Pollyanna: Despite Xandar and its people having degraded heavily under the Nova Corps' shadow rule, Korg is still his happy go-lucky self.
• Private Eye Monologue: Nebula’s thoughts serve as the narration for this episode, with the Watcher’s introduction to the episode’s universe giving way to her own explanation of her backstory.
• Properly Paranoid: Nebula suspected she was being led into a trap, so she tampered with the shield codes so the shield would open just far enough to allow Ronan through, then immediately slam shut on him before he could completely cross the barrier, crushing the Dark Aster like an egg.
• The Quisling: After five years of planetary isolation, Nova Prime has become so corrupt that she's willing to sell out her planet to Ronan if it means she gets to keep her old position once he's decimated the planet. Garthan Saal and several other Nova Corps officers are shown to be complicit in her plans.
• Reformed Criminal: In this universe, Nebula has gone from Thanos’ sadistic henchwoman to a noble member of the Nova Corps.
• Rule of Symbolism: The end has Nebula seeing the sun for the first time in five years, sending a ray of hope that things will get better.
• Save the Villain: Nebula tries to save Nova Prime at the end of the episode despite Rael's villainy and the fact that, mere seconds prior, she tried to drop Nebula to her death when their positions were reversed. Nova Prime repays this kindness by trying to shoot Nebula in the face, only to lose her grip and fall to her death.
• Shout-Out:
  • The whole premise of the episode is similar to RoboCop, with Nebula rebelling against her superiors when she finds out they want the planetary shields down so Ronan can finish what he was going to do after killing Thanos, the Black Order, and Gamora. To top it off, she even paraphrases the title protagonist's "Serve the public trust / Protect the innocent / Uphold the law" motto with that of the Nova Corps' creed.
  • With flying cars, collosal buildings hidden by fog, and rainy nights, Xandar evokes Los Angeles as depicted in Blade Runner.
  • Although it's unknown whether or not it was intentional, World of Warcraft players might be reminded of the story of Suramar.
  • During the climax, Nebula urges Irani to take her hand, only for Irani to reject it in favor of shooting her, causing her to fall to her death.
• Skewed Priorities: Howard is at first unwilling to help Nebula stop Ronan's invasion of Xandar until she tells Howard that Irani will take away his liquor license.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Groot I hasn't sacrificed himself to stop Ronan in this timeline, and has found work at Howard the Duck's bar.
• Start X to Stop X: Nebula ultimately ends up foiling the invasion by seemingly letting it happen, only to crush the Dark Aster by closing the shield on top of him.
• Take My Hand!: Nebula joined the Nova Corps after Irani asks for Nebula to take her hand. In the end, Nebula asks for Irani to take her hand, but she refuses.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: According to Nebula, after Xandar used an impenetrable force field around the whole planet to hold off Ronan for five years, it ended up bringing out the worst in the once prosperous planet, now shown to be reduced to a cyberpunk place with a dark atmosphere and even a raunchy casino.
• The Voiceless: Despite playing a major role in its events, Ronan doesn't utter a word in this episode.
• We Can Rule Together: When the shield opens and the Dark Aster is about to enter Xandar's atmosphere, Irani tells Nebula that it is not too late to join her. Naturally, she refuses.
• Wretched Hive: Xandar has isolated itself so Ronan can't infiltrate its defenses. Unfortunately, it has devolved into chaos and corruption after five years of being under the shield.

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"Most quests for redemption begin in darkness, but with a little grit, a little faith in yourself, if you keep the path, you can find your way to the light."