The second season of Marvel’s What If…? is here. The animated series will once again take us through various hypothetical situations that put some of our favorite characters in completely new circumstances. And to kick things off, we get an answer to the question, “What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”
The episode opens with The Watcher introducing a Christmas story. We see a fight scene between some of the Avengers and a mysterious new Hulk before The Watcher decides to back things up. After the title sequence, we see Happy Hogan and Darcy Lewis organizing a Christmas party at Avengers Tower
Darcy gives Happy the codename “Puffin 2,” which upsets him and might just be a reference to the holiday classic Elf, which was of course directed by Favreau. Happy sends Darcy on an errand just to get her out of the building before running into Maria Hill, who is running the security for the party.
As Darcy leaves the building, she passes Justin Hammer and two hired goons as they sneak into the building. The Watcher lets us know that, in this universe, Hammer used his time in prison after the events of Iron Man 2 to plot his revenge against Tony Stark. Hammer and his goons take over the party, threatening guests with guns. He describes his childhood as the exact plot of A Christmas Story, which both the guests and his goons see right through. Hammer steals a tablet to take control of the Iron Legion drones, giving himself an army right there in the tower.
Happy sees Hammer find a vault where Hulk blood is being kept and we learn his plan is to turn himself into the “next superhero.” One of the goons starts trying to break his way into the vault while Hammer heads back in the elevator with Happ on his tail. Happy crawls through air vents, locking this whole episode in as one big Die Hard reference.
Hill gets the drop on Hammer but he remains as cocky as always. Meanwhile, the goons continue to pound their way into the vault while Happy sneaks in through the air vents. The Iron Legion blasts Maria and the air vents crash down into the vault, exposing Happy to the goons. Happy scrambles to find the Hulk blood and comes across a confetti arrow for Hawkeye before finding what he’s looking for. However, rather than securing the Hulk blood, he accidentally injects himself with it and his leg transforms into a purple Hulk leg.
The Iron Legion blasts their way into the vault to chase Happy but he gets away with a little help from his new Hulk leg. Hill lets Happy know via radio that she’s counting on him to save the tower and Christmas. Happy tries to call the Avengers for help and as he scrolls his contacts, we see some familiar names, including Pepper Potts, James Rhodes, Thunderbolt Ross and Sam Wilson. We also, interestingly see “J. Lincoln,” which could be a reference to Janice Lincolln aka the villain-turned-hero known as Beetle. That would make her first appearance in the MCU. Happy tries to call Natasha, Tony and Bruce, but they’re all dealing with their own Christmas crises.
Darcy gets in touch with Happy via radio and Happy fills her in on what’s happening, giving them someone on the outside… or a Reginald VelJohnson. Happy continues to slowly transform into a Hulk but he gets cornered by the goons. To escape, he repels from the window and crashes a few dozens floors below. In the process, Happy becomes a full Hulk.
Darcy tries to get a backup JARVIS back online at the mainframe but instead finds a series of other AIs, including FRIDAY, WADSWORTH and EDITH. While we know the other two, WADSWORTH is a new name. It’s hard to tell exactly what this name is a reference to. There is an art department assistant named Sammy Wadsworth who worked on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but that would be an odd reference. Eventually, Darcy chooses an AI called WERNER before being caught by the Iron Legion. Hammer calls out to Happy over the walkie and tells him to meet him in the penthouse.
The elevator opens and the Iron Legion immediately blasts its trying to take out Happy but instead they find a dummy with the confetti arrow in it. The arrow explodes and Happy crashes up through the floor and begins taking out the Iron Legion. The goons see the chaos and run away, to Hammer’s dismay. The villain scrolls his tablet and finds the location of the Avengers armory before running off himself.
Happy frees Darcy and Hill, who go to reboot the new AI. Meanwhile, Happy finds a few hundred more Iron Legion drones and tears right through them in a surprisingly violent sequence. He works his way to Hammer in the armory just in time for him to summon the Hulkbuster armor. Their fight rages into the penthouse while Darcy and Hill upload WERNER, which turns out to be quite useless. It’s fitting actually, as the most prominent Werner in the MCU was Werner von Strucker, the son of high-ranking Hydra leader Baron Wolfgang von Strucker.
With no help from WERNER, Happy continues to fight the Hulkbuster until the Avengers finally arrive. When they jump into action though, the Avengers assume Happy is the villain and begin fighting him until Darcy clears things up. Tony immediately regain control of the Hulkbuster and Hammer is left vulnerable. Happy roars him out of a broken window and he slow motion falls out of the building in true Hans Gruber fashion. Happy catches Hammer though, bringing a death-free happy ending to this Christmas story. With everything wrapped up, Thor arrives too late for everything as the episode comes to a close. One of the best gags comes with the credits though as the artwork shows empty shelves where Iron Man toys have sold out right next to Hawkeye toys which are now 25% off.
Marvel needs to give us more holiday specific episodes like this. This is a great addition to the holiday season and another great episode of this second season of What If…?. Bringing back Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer was a home run and pitting him against Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan made it that much better.
New episodes of Marvel’s What If…? season 2 will debut daily between now and December 30 on Disney+.