The sophomore season of “What If…?” was no different than the first. Not better, not worse. Kind of just the same. There were good episodes and bad episodes and few episodes seemed to fully deliver the goods.

The problem with “What If…?” is that, as of this writing, the show adds nothing to the story of the MCU. It is a cool nod to a series of comics which ponder other universes that would exist should events have transpired differently.

In the comics, it works because stories can be more fully fleshed out. Trying to cram an entire character’s storyline into half an hour — when it usually often consists of three movies or a season of TV in to do so in the MCU’s other outings — is what drags it down so much.

Both seasons sagged in the middle, where they felt like they were throwing ideas at a dartboard and the wrong ones were sticking (looking at you, Party Thor).

In addition to the content factor, the show is just missing the mark in several other areas.

Why introduce characters like Black Bolt, Mister Fantastic, and Charles Xavier in your movie centered around the multiverse if you’re not going to let other creators play with these characters for this show? Why have that Beast cameo in “The Marvels?” The rights to the Defenders are now back in your court, why don’t you do something with them? Not even a cameo from Elsa Bloodstone or Blade in the zombie episode? 

The MCU’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” introduced the idea of crossing over Spider-Man variants from other films. Tobey Maguire’s Spidey from the RaimiVerse and Andrew Garfield’s webslinger from the SONYVerse appear in both, while the Insomniac Games iteration of the wallcrawler, “The Spectacular Spider-Man,” and more appear in the latter.

If the “Spider-Verse” franchise is doing so much with this concept, why can the same not be done in the MCU with properties such as “X-Men ’97,” Lou Ferrigno’s portrayal of “The Incredible Hulk,” the 2005 or 2015 Fantastic Four, or any other Marvel property that technically takes place in another universe for that matter? They don’t all need to cameo in “Deadpool 3;” bring Ben Affleck in to be a Daredevil variant in the next season of “What If…?” for example. 

But no, anytime Hulk appears, it’s always Mark Ruffalo doing the voice, and same usually goes for other characters in the show that have appeared in non-MCU films.

It just feels to me as if the MCU is limiting itself. It seems those putting the show together are only sourcing from the main MCU — and nothing from recent upcoming characters either — only ones who have already made multiple appearances. I understand wanting new characters to make a proper debut in live action, but this season, we saw the MCU’s first-ever fully original superhero make her debut in season two, and it went great. There is no reason to hold back these other characters or stories. 

And while I understand there are limitations on how much the show’s animators can do — it’s why the Tony and Gamora episode was pushed back a season — but even doing half as many episodes and doubling the time on them would be so much better for story development in my opinion. Flesh out the characters.

Check back for my full episodic breakdown of season two next week.