NOTE: this is a review to Episode 1 or 'What if… Captain Carter were the First Avenger?' and not the MCU 'What if…?' in entirely, though with this episode, I fear for what the later episodes are going to be like.

Also: SPOILERS!

Okay, let's begin by cutting to the chase of what I feel about this episode…

I don't like it.

Yeah, this wasn't a good episode nor a good 'What If' Scenario. To me, it feels… too forced and rushed.

And allow me to explain

In the original timeline, Steve Rogers got to become Captain America by adapting to his experience, the costume and name was given by the stage performances he did and gotten used to it that he picked his costume and we see him going through it.

As well as proving that he can be a soldier with that rescue mission.

Also, another note is that Steve had a set of options and the shield he chosen wasn't part of the selection as it was just a prototype that Howard didn't though Steve would choose.

In this however, it's 'got the suit, got the shield, use them and fight Hydra.'

There are no origins, there's no development, it's just that Peggy Carter became 'Captain Carter' in her UK suit fighting with a vibranium shield without giving the reason behind the name, suit or shield.

And speaking of Hydra, the thing that bugged me the most is that… the timeline for Hydra is completely wrong.

The first being that when Hydra invaded the church that has the tesseract. Those events occur a year before the super soldier serum. And the reason for the ambush at the serum testing is because Red Skull saw it as something that can counter their technological advances.

Not even that, but that Carter managed to get the hold of the tesseract before Hydra could have technological advances.

Which is a good idea and changes a lot, but it feels that they haven't changed anything.

Without those advances, the Nazi Party would go against Hydra and Hydra wouldn't be powerful enough to stop them, the tesseract and their weapons were the reason Hydra could counter them.

Therefore, the story doesn't match with the timing

The only good thing about this episode is the Hydra Stomper and Steve being a part of that. He was amazing and seeing the two fights together was amazing. And I admit the art style is fantastic.

But the narrative wasn't very great, it feels that the writers only used Captain America: First Avenger as a blueprint rather than figuring out how to alternate events if Carter was the one to get the serum instead of Rogers. And you can certainly see it in the ending when Carter goes into the future, breaking the fact that the Tesseract could only do space and not time.

I can see that this 'what if scenario' wasn't planned enough and it feels like they try to cram it all together and use several references in and not make many changes in the overall story.

If I had the control of this 'What If' Scenario, I would of made this a two or three-partner, the first and/or second episode shows the change, with Peggy and Steve getting into the role of their Captain Carter and Hydra Stomper, with early Carter fighting in soldier gear and later put on the UK persona to give herself a symbol, and Steve getting the Iron Man suit when Stark pity him that he cannot fight in a war and gave him the suit to be a soldier, all while fighting a weaker Hydra and Nazis, then in the last episode, they defeat Red Skull without either of them going to the future and skip to the end of the war, with Peggy and Steve living happily ever after. Causing a timeline where there's no Super Soldier Captain 70 years later that can be left to be interpreted.

Leaving things to interpretation works well in these 'What if' scenario if those events are not supposed to be the key importance towards the scenario. This is also why in my fanfiction I didn't include Midoriya for the most part, only used that part to show that Uraraka wasn't there to take the hero entrance exam. Meaning that Midoriya could of or not passed without Uraraka.

I will not give a full confirmation as it can also be another 'what if' scenario that you can think about.

And while I did follow parts of the camp horror and kept Stain's arrest, the major changes can be outweighed or also left to be interpreted.

I was more focused towards Uraraka and how much she would of changed with Toga's quirk than the MHA story overall.

But back to the What if…?

I am now afraid of what they're going to show, that they are not going to give enough development towards these scenarios, these scenarios are better as different partners so we would have enough time with these characters and see how they change themselves and the events if things went differently.

And sure, these are meant to be 30 minutes long, but I prefer them as parts if that's the case, an episode isn't enough and it seems to look like you are getting in seeing something and getting out without caring. There has to be some form of investment in these scenarios. Especially in a scenario like this episode.

Overall, as much as I love the concept of What If…? the execution wasn't great and I didn't care for Agent Carter or her journey because it doesn't feel like a journey or anything different to Captain America. It's too strict and I would rather see major changes that we didn't see in the films and not just references or similarities.

I hope the next episodes will show these changes but this wasn't a good start.

That is all I have to say on the matter.