Marvel is facing a slew of criticism over the quality of What if…? season 3, its animated multiversal series on Disney Plus. However, those critiques are coming from more than just the usual suspects. Former Marvel writers and critics who have been incredibly supportive of Marvel in the past have come out to publicly blast this latest Disney Plus offering.
Kahhori in Marvel Studios‘ WHAT IF…?, Season 2 exclusively on Disney+. ©: From Innovators to Imitators: Disneyland Caught Canceling Creativity Through Cost-Cutting Controversy in Haunted Mansion Gift Shop
As Marvel Studios wraps up the animated anthology series What If…? with its third and final season, not all fans and critics are celebrating its conclusion. Among the notable voices expressing disappointment are Beau DeMayo, the former showrunner of X-Men ’97, and Grace Randolph, a well-known film critic and host of “Beyond the Trailer” who has a history of being very generous to Marvel and Disney.
Beau DeMayo, who previously helmed X-Men ’97 before being fired by Marvel Studios after producing its first season, has been openly critical of What If…? Season 3. Ahead of the series finale’s debut, DeMayo took to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction with the season, posting:
“#whatif season 3 yikes just yikes.”
I’d watch more to give notes on how it could’ve easily been done better but I have some water to watch boil
— Beau DeMayo (@BeauDemayo) December 27, 2024
“I’d watch more to give notes on how it could’ve easily been done better but I have some water to watch boil,” he said in a follow up tweet.
When an X-user asked if it was really that bad, Demayo responded with, “Yup. The worst kind. Mediocre.”
To put this season in perspective, an entire episode focuses on Darcy from the Thor movies, once more played by Kat Dennings, falling in love with, marrying, and eventually conceiving a child with Howard The Duck, who is…well…a duck.
Darcy and Howard the Duck after the…birth of their child…in Marvel’s What If…? Season 3 – Disney Plus
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Maybe Marvel assumed because Lucasfilm got away with having Leah Thompson bed the talking aquatic fowl in the 1986 film Howard The Duck that this would be well received by the audience as some kind of nostalgia?
Either way, it wasn’t.
DeMayo’s public remarks come amid ongoing tensions following his departure from X-Men ’97. Allegations surfaced online suggesting that DeMayo was involved in sending inappropriate photos of himself to male staff members, which he has denied.
[caption id="attachment_29291" align="alignnone" width="1201"]
(L-R): Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann), Jubilee (voiced by Holly Chou), Jean Grey (voiced by Jennifer Hale), Cyclops (voiced by Ray Chase), Roberto Da Costa (voiced by Gui Agustini), Nightcrawler (voiced by Adrian Hough), Storm (voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith), and Morph (voiced by JP Karliak) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97. Photo courtesy of Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL.Since then, DeMayo has been vocal in his critiques of Marvel Studios in various media outlets.
Grace Randolph, a prominent film critic and the host of “Beyond the Trailer,” is typically seen as a supporter of Marvel Studios, especially regarding post-Endgame projects and “girl power” narratives. However, she also weighed in on the final season of What If…? through her social media channels.
In a post on X, Randolph expressed her disappointment.
#Marvel has so many great characters…
Why create a bad #HarleyQuinn ripoff? 😬
And her origin story?! YIKES #WhatIf #MCU pic.twitter.com/9QFeuzUVTQ
— Grace Randolph (@GraceRandolph) December 29, 2024
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“#Marvel has so many great characters… Why create a bad #HarleyQuinn ripoff? 😬 And her origin story?! YIKES”
The “bad Harley Quinn ripoff” in question is Birdie, the aforementioned offspring of woman and duck from earlier in the season.
When asked if she would rank the Marvel What If…? Season 3 episodes, Randolph responded: “No, I haven’t had time to watch it and nobody seems to be watching this season.”
Birdie in Marvel What If…? Season 3 – Disney Plus
The third season of What If…? has garnered a more polarized response compared to its predecessors.
On Rotten Tomatoes, The final season holds a Tomatometer score of 75%, a noticeable drop from the first two seasons, which scored 89% and 90%, respectively.
Additionally, the audience score stands at 54%, the lowest among the three. While there are still positive reviews, some critics and fans have labeled the final season as underwhelming and even disturbing (you know, cause of the duck thing…).
Captain Carter and her team of multiversal super women in Marvel What If…? Season 3 – Disney Plus
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Marvel Studios has indicated that the MCU continues to expand, with a Marvel Zombies spinoff miniseries currently in development.
Marvel Studios TV executive Brad Winderbaum explained to Entertainment Weekly:
“There are bigger universe reasons to culminate it now. If you’re a fan of the overall MCU, you’ll notice that the first season premiered after Loki Season 1, when the Sacred Timeline blossomed into a multiverse and all of a sudden all these new stories emerged. That was when we started telling those stories in What If…? And at the end of Season 2, when the Watcher takes Peggy to look out at the multiverse, it’s taken the form of the tree of stories that Loki sits in the middle of at the end of Loki Season 2. So the culmination of Season 3 and of the series itself does fit into the overall MCU tapestry in that way. That being said, there’s infinite stories to tell with What If…?, and time will tell whether we make more. But for now, it is, I think, a beautiful way to end this era and to culminate the story of the Watcher.”
For this third season, Marvel chose to utilize characters from deeply unpopular or failed projects like Agatha All Along, The Eternals, Echo, Hawkeye, Iron Heart, and more.
Storm wielding Thor’s Hammer in Marvel What If…? Season 3 – Disney Plus
Some interesting concepts were introduced, like a version of Storm wielding Thor’s hammer. However, we never got a full episode to explain that character, despite having the time to dedicate a whole episode to a woman reproducing with a duck.
Did you watch Marvel What If…? Season 3? What did you think of the creative choices? Do you agree with Beau Demayo and Grace Randolph? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
-Abundant X-chromosomes and various different melanin levels on display,
-Distinct lack of Y-chromosomes anywhere,
-Beastiality is at best made into a joke, while at worst is being made light of in a children’s show…
That be modern Disney/Marvel for you.
DeMayo is a groomer weirdo who pushed woke propaganda to ruin one of the best animated series ever created. Randolph is an SJW shill and I guess her Disney money didn’t arrive this month. Either way, it’s great to see some woke infighting.
Howard the Duck was peak Eighties cheese. Anyone with any common sense knew it would fail miserably as anything else. But this is Disney we’re talking about; they never had much before Iger and his woke cronies took over and they made it their mission to drive out what little did exist.