Warning: This article contains spoilers for What If...? season 2.
Summary
- Captain Carter's timeline in What If...? features a different Avengers team with Hope Van Dyne's Wasp instead of Bruce Banner's Hulk.
- The absence of the Hulk in Captain Carter's timeline could be in response to the attitudes of the government to a female super-soldier.
- Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Winter Soldier will also be missing from Captain Carter's reality in What If...? season 2.
A major Peggy Carter, a.k.a. the super soldier Captain Carter, who debuted in What If...? season 1. Captain Carter has become the cornerstone of Marvel Studios' What If...?, building a strong relationship with Jeffrey Wright's Watcher, while also crossing timelines and realities to embark on multiple adventures outside of her home universe.
Hayley Atwell has portrayed Steve Rogers' journey as Captain America, and her What If...? timeline has made many changes to the known continuity of the MCU.
An MCU Captain Carter Spinoff Would Undo 4 Marvel Crimes
Captain Carter could have a bright future in the MCU after her appearances as Multiverse variants of Peggy Carter in What If...? and Doctor Strange 2.
Captain Carter’s Avengers Team Includes Hope Van Dyne’s Wasp Instead Of Hulk
What If...? season 2, episode 5, "What If... Captain Carter Fought the HYDRA Stomper?," acted as the direct sequel to Captain Carter's storyline throughout What If...? season 1. After Carter was returned to her original timeline in What If...? season 1's finale, she seemingly went back to her superhero life, with nobody around her being any the wiser as to her adventure as a Guardian of the Multiverse. Shortly before Captain Carter's multiversal escapades, she led her timeline's Avengers into battle against Loki, the God of Mischief, emulating the events of 2012's The Avengers. However, Captain Carter's Avengers team had one significant change from the MCU's main continuity.
In a recent Hope Van Dyne becoming the Wasp much earlier than in the MCU's live-action timeline. While this was a great addition, it leaves the Hulk's fate in this timeline unclear.
Captain Carter's Avengers team in What If...? season 2, episode 5, includes Carter, Tony Stark's Iron Man, Thor, Clint Barton's Hawkeye, Natasha Romanoff's Black Widow and Hope Van Dyne's Wasp, making Bruce Banner's Hulk the only absent member from the original live-action Avengers team.
Why The Hulk Was Never Created In Captain Carter’s What If…? Timeline
While Bruce Banner's whereabouts in What If...? season 2, episode 5, haven't been officially revealed, it's possible that the very same thing that allowed Hope Van Dyne to become a superhero earlier could have stopped Banner from becoming the Hulk altogether. Captain Carter winning WWII may have prompted the feminist movement to accelerate, but this surely wouldn't have played out too well within the United States government of the 1940s. What If...? season 1's premiere episode proved that the government and military weren't best pleased with a woman becoming the world's first super soldier, which suggests they probably wouldn't have been happy about her succeeding in her mission.
Marvel Made The Most Terrifying Hulk Mutation MCU Canon
Marvel's final 2023 release has brought yet another Hulk mutation from the comics to life and made it MCU canon, with a fun, holiday-themed twist.
It's possible that, in Captain Carter's original What If...? timeline, the United States government never tried to recreate the super-soldier serum, perhaps out of fear that more powerful women would emerge. In the live-action MCU continuity, General Ross and Bruce Banner's experiments in The Incredible Hulk were a direct attempt to recreate this serum. This means that, if plans to recreate the super-soldier serum had been postponed or canceled altogether, Banner's original experiment would have never gone ahead. This would perfectly explain why the Hulk was missing from Captain Carter's Avengers team, and why he was replaced by the Wasp.
Why Scarlet Witch And Quicksilver Also Don't Exist In This Timeline
Several other heroes from the MCU's main continuity are also missing from Captain Carter's reality, including Wanda Maximoff's Scarlet Witch, Pietro Maximoff's Quicksilver and Bucky Barnes' Winter Soldier. Barnes became SHIELD's founder in this timeline, and later the Secretary of State, having never become the Winter Soldier. Wanda and Pietro's fates, however, are more dire, as it's possible their powers never would have been awoken. The twins' abilities were enhanced by HYDRA experiments with the Mind Stone, but in this What If...? timeline, HYDRA was eliminated in the 1950s, suggesting they would have simply lived their lives as regular humans, leading to even greater divergences from the MCU's main timeline.
