Thor without Loki?
That’s hard to picture, but this week’s episode shows how Earth would have a different thunder god.
He turns Las Vegas into one big rave.
Strangely enough, it involves another MCU hero who works very hard taming Thor, or trying to.
Fans of this show may not mind, considering how dark the show can get.
The good news is that the voice cast is very impressive.
Besides, there’s always the dark twist at the end.
SPOILERS BELOW
This time, the Watcher shows what would happen if Odin didn’t adopt a baby Frost Giant as his own son. That child, of course, eventually became Loki. In the true MCU his belief that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) was the favorite would make him the trickster god, but it would also make Thor the hero we know.
It doesn’t happen here, and Thor becomes the Norse God of Frat Parties.
He lands in Las Vegas with his friends and turns Earth into his Planet 54, with the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) as his DJ.
Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Darcy (Kat Dennings) show up and see Thor and even Howard the Duck (Seth Green). They’re also joined by Nebula (Karen Gillan) shooting craps, and Korg (Taiki Waititi) knocking out Nick Fury for a while. Darcy even marries Howard, with Elvis as the minister. Now THAT is Las Vegas
This does sound like a sitcom or Animal House, with Thor deciding to have some fun while his dad Odin is asleep and Frigga out of town.
The “babysitter”, Heimdall, is supposed to keep things in line but Thor sneaks away.
Thus, we have a party that Earth may not be able to survive.
Hey, it’s less depressing than the past few episodes.
However, acting SHIELD boss Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) has a plan to toss Thor out…a beeper.
Yes, THAT beeper.
It’s not long before Captain Marvel (Alexandra Daniels) politely tells “Whitesnake” (aka Thor) to leave. He won’t, and that leads to an impressive battle between the two. A Norse god against a girl with Tesseract energy is very impressive. It’s too bad Thor’s buddies call her a party pooper, as if they were rude Twitter trolls. That was deliberate in the script, but there’s also a sign people will respect her soon.
What’s weird is that Darcy doesn’t seem to be impressed by Captain Marvel, either. Still, this isn’t the real MCU.
Jane still defends Thor as if she was his girlfriend, and in this case, she is.
By the way, where’s Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in all this?
Well, this is him as a Frost Giant. Thor calls him a “Popscicle stick”, but they’re friends. Loki even suggests to Jane a double date.
Well, it’s time to close this party down, and Jane figures out how. She just tells Heimdall and Frigga, and it’s not long before Thor and his friends clean up the Earth (and repair a few statues, canyons and mountains…and Stonehenge) before she gets back.
It winds up as every morning after a rave at some kid’s house.
So, it looks like this multi-verse is in great shape, and the Watcher is relieved.
Not so fast. Look who is coming…
It’s Ultron, with the Infinity Stones…and Vision’s face.
Did he just appear out of thin air, as if he jumped a multi-verse?
This episode may have been very wacky, but a nice antidote to the dark stories (until the end). Hemsworth was great voicing Thor, as was much of the cast. It may have been the first time for Portman and Dennings, but they did fine as well. Alexandra Daniels is back voicing Marvel. While some are disappointed Brie Larson wasn’t available. Daniels is pretty good at this.
Next week’s episode looks at Gamora, and how a change in her fate sent her on a different path.
What If airs new episodes every Wednesday on Disney Plus.
