What If...? Episode 6: What If...Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark? (Spoiler- Free Review)

What If...? returns with yet another surprising episode that revamp the events of the opening scene of the movie that started it all... Iron Man. In the movie, Tony is driven through the desert of Afghanistan with an escort of US soldiers on their way back to the airport after a weapon's demonstration of Stark's Jericho Missile. On the way there, Tony's unit gets attacked and in an attempt to escape, a bomb of his own explodes in front of him, causing shrapnel to cut through his chest, which will lead him to have the arc reactor built within him to keep him alive until the events of Iron Man 3. 

However in this alternate universe, instead of Tony getting hit by shrapnel, Erik Killmonger, T'Challa's long-lost cousin, had been on an undercover mission to take down the Ten Rings organization and finds himself saving Tony. The two meet and Tony brings him back to Los Angeles. Erik reveals early on that it was Obadiah Stane's plan to kill Tony in Afghanistan and Tony impulsively makes Erik the co-owner of Stark Industries. But of course, like the Killmonger we all know and love from the Black Panther, Erik has a darker agenda up his sleeve. 

Without spoiling anything, this episode considers itself just as brutal as some of the previous episodes were in terms of tone and storyline. And like most of the episodes from the last few weeks, it ends with a unresolved storyline meant to be tackled in the future. It is easy to theorize from now on that these cliffhangers seem to be pattern within these episodes and there is a closure coming sooner in an upcoming episode rather than later in season 2. 

Seeing this iteration of never seeing Tony becoming Iron Man really gets us to wonder how vital his change of heart towards building weapons really was towards main MCU timeline. A lot of problems could be avoided from this said timeline but from watching the episode alone, it's clear there is no branch in the multiverse that is left untouched by corrupt people that has the desire to take over the world let alone a specific throne for that matter for no good reason. Or at least we have yet to see one. 

I would also like to say that this episode was a tad more enjoyable compared to last week's Zombie episode within every aspect that I had a problem with. There are proper character arcs albeit the short runtime. Michael B. Jordan returns to voice Killmonger and reminds us once again why he is one of the best villains ever made for the silver screen that unfortunately was short-lived. Was it the best episode so far? I would say not really. It is a good entry but still does not consider itself as one of the high tier like the episodes that focused on T'Challa's Star Lord or Strange Supreme.