What If…? “Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?” Review

Season 2 Episode 5 – Captain Carter’s mission to save Steve Rogers sets her on a collision course with new enemies.

Please note, our reviews are based on likes and dislikes. These contain significant spoilers. If you haven’t already watched the episode, we recommend that you click off the article and come back once you have watched the episode. Enjoy!

What I Liked

1. The beginning of this somewhat reminds me of Captain Hydra. Steve survived the season 1’s episode of Steve in the Hydra Stomper and it appears he has had the same treatment as Bucky Barnes. He immediately attacks Peggy and Natasha after they find him on a cargo chip. I do like where this is going.

2. Steve Rogers is a bit feisty in that suit, isn’t he? He’s tearing S.H.I.E.L.D. down like they’re nothing. Bucky is the Secretary and even he is overwhelmed with what Steve is doing with that suit. Even when Bucky attempts to reason with Steve, he still goes for the kill. Brilliant.

3. Those robots in the Red Room location are beyond creepy. Imagine going to a new place for help and it’s filled with those robots that have access to widow bites? Yeah, nah.

4. It’s now Natasha and Captain Carter vs the Widows plus the Hydra Stomper and this entire scene was fantastic. Peggy and Steve fight whilst Natasha focuses on the Widows and it’s all done very well. You can see from this point how far gone Steve is; even if Peggy saves him, he isn’t coming back from everything he’s done as this feels like it’s worse than Bucky.

5. Peggy does reason with Steve but not fully, in an attempt at redemption Steve flies straight through the flying Red Room shooting through the generators and blowing the entire thing up. I suppose that’s one way to get a tiny bit of redemption although I did want a moment where Steve talked to Peggy before doing that. The Watcher was right; “not exactly a happy ending”.

What I Disliked

I know this is one of those dislikes that may rattle people but I can’t stand it when the voice actors are different. It’s even more so when it’s scenes from the Avengers film but with Carter in place of Rogers and Widow’s voice did not match what we saw. It immediately took me out of the immersion and it will continue to do so. I get it – the costs are probably too high to get them in but at least get someone who sounds somewhat similar to Scarlett Johansson.

Favorite Moment

We appear to treading into the overall story now similar to the way last season was structured. We have all of these individual episodes but they tend to tie in to a bigger story. As the episode ends, Peggy is pulled through the floor and she’s greeted by an older Nick Fury and Wanda. She calls for the Watcher so she knows.

Standout Character

I think the theme with this show is that the star character will always be a standout because this show does each one so well. So, this week, it’s Peggy. She was brilliant and always stands out as Captain Carter and never disappoints. This is the exact same as this episode and I’m glad we got to see her again despite it being animated.

Verdict

It’s great to see Captain Carter back on our screens. This episode acts like a sequel to the episode in the first season where she becomes Captain America over Steve Rogers. I still struggle with the voice actors not being their live-action versions but once I got out of that, the experience became an entertaining and immersive one.

Rating 9.3/10

Knuckles is now streaming exclusively on Paramount+. Try it FREE!