After a couple of truly dark episodes of What If…?, we’ve got one that is… happy? This time around, it’s all about Thor. The God of Thunder makes his arrival on Earth in a re-do of his first film, Thor. This time around, it’s just him, and a bunch of other cosmic heroes and a Frost Giant Loki. So the title of the episode is a bit misleading. “What If…Thor Were An Only Child?” sounds like a lot more dreary and depressing title than this episode is. Thor isn’t really an only child, Loki is still involved, but he’s a Frost Giant and actively helps Thor here.

Instead of Nick Fury leading the proceedings, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) is in charge. She recognizes Thor as a threat and calls in the ultimate weapon that Earth has, Captain Marvel (Alexandra Daniels). Jane Foster and Darcy lead the episode from the human side of things and they’re allowed to stretch out as characters more here.

If the past few episodes weren’t your thing, then this one might reset the formula for you. It doesn’t exactly change up the story of Thor in a meaningful way, but it’s a very fun episode to see Thor and his cosmic friends party it up on Earth.

Dragon Ball Z Meets Marvel

Watching Thor and Captain Marvel go at it during this episode felt very much like a fight from Dragon Ball. The two titans of power in the MCU could probably rip the world apart if Thor had a mean bone in his body. Luckily for this version of Earth, he doesn’t. The vocal performances here were much better than previous episodes, particularly Alexandra Daniels as Captain Marvel. She didn’t exactly knock off Brie Larson, but she didn’t also radically change the character. It was that fine line that some previous voice actors didn’t match for this series.

Outside of that, a good portion of the original cast returned and it was funny to hear Loki sound basically like a party bro version of himself. Having Howard the Duck return for another episode was also a treat, and he was part of the reason the first half of the episode was so damn funny. The plot twist of Jane Foster basically having to tell Thor’s mom on him was also a highlight. It wasn’t all fun and games though, the pacing of the episode stalled a bit in the middle, which was surprising considering they had so much to work with here.

Seeing Thor and Captain Marvel fight was the real main event here though. So if you’re a fan of both those characters, this is a true treat for you.

Not Completely Cheery And Happy Endings

The ending came a bit out of nowhere, especially considering how happy this episode was in tone. It saw Ultron/Vision show up with an army of robots and the infinity stones. So I’m guessing we’ll see this version of Earth with Party Thor once again in Season Two of What If…?. That ending didn’t put a damper on the proceedings of the episode overall and it was actually pretty awesome to hear the Watcher flustered over the arrival of Ultron.

Those moments in the series are looking like they’ll come out as the best ones of the series. In a somewhat formulaic series (not a bad thing), when they break the formula, it seems like they get the best results.

Party on Thor.

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