"What If...?" - Season 3 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bruce Banner, blasting himself with gamma rays

In another universe, at the dawn of the Gamma War, Bruce Banner's friendship with Sam Wilson led the former to pursue therapeutic options for managing his rage and his burden, but this burgeoning relationship was what led Banner to enact a new experiment. Blasting himself with gamma rays to counteract the problem he'd already fallen victim to, he created a whole new monster and accidentally set it free.

Unrestrained by Banner's mind, this new creature, Apex, unleashed its rage across the globe, growing in size and spawning evil minions. In response, the Avengers set about creating bigger Hulkbuster mech robots-- one for each of them-- to fight back against Earth's newest foes. But they didn't quite succeed. Instead, a group of surviving heroes succeeded where they fell, forcing most of Apex's creatures to the ends of the Earth and saving humanity. Banner would go into hiding and the enemies would be mostly destroyed, and the planet would be safe...for about ten years.

When Apex returned, Sam reached out to Banner, living alone, and received the Mighty Avenger Protocol, an update drive designed to combine the existing mechs' powers to push back Apex once and for all, and failing this, Banner blasted himself with a bigger Gamma Bomb, creating a much larger Hulk to save the day, destroying Apex and ruling over his spawn out at sea. Crisis, as it seemed, averted.

Answer: Tiamut

In an alternate version of the early-to-mid 20th century, Agatha Harkness was actually in Hollywood, acting on the silver screen with Howard Stark, a film director, behind the camera. It was at this point in another history that she discovered Tiamut, a Celestial buried deep within the Earth, and aimed to harness its power for herself. The only way to do this, however, was by taking the powers of the Eternals, and by this point, she'd already gotten all but one in her grasp, only missing Kingo. She set about convincing Stark to cast him in their film, "Cosmic Queen", and easily, succeeded.

Kingo wasn't fooled by the ruse, but in an attempt to mislead Agatha, he agreed to support her attempt at completing her ritual, drawing the attention of Arishem the Judge. It was a terrifying prospect as Arishem would be responsible for determining if Earth was worth keeping around, and naturally, only Agatha and Kingo would be able to stop this from happening...if they could become strong enough.

When Arishem arrived, Agatha was able to take Kingo's powers in a blockbuster finale sequence filmed at Griffith Observatory and, subsequently, she was able to take Tiamut's as well, as per her original plan, inadvertently transforming her into a Celestial herself and preventing Tiamut's emergence. With these all-encompassing powers, Agatha was able to fight with Arishem, binding the Celestial in a trap and destroying him altogether. Although Agatha planned to lord over the planet, Kingo was able to convince her to rein it in a bit and keep acting instead of leading with fear. At some point, likely, another few Celestials may decide to come along, but Agatha noted they could leave it for the sequel.

Answer: Rook

In New York in late 1991, the Winter Soldier arrived to assassinate the Starks only for something to change drastically. Instead, Alexei Shostakov (as Red Guardian), partnered with a recently-thawed Barnes under General Drekyov's instruction. Shostakov subsequently foiled the plan to kill the Starks and steal the super-soldier serums they were travelling with, following his own ploy to elevate Russia, and it resulted in the pair failing their missions. Drekyov, hearing this failure, informed the team that they would be left on their own to find extraction-- if they could-- due to the compromise.

While Dr. Bill Foster, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Science Division, closed in on the suspects, Shostakov and Barnes would end up heading to Las Vegas in an attempt to evade capture and get back to Russia, intending to contact the mysterious informant 'Rook', revealed to be Obadiah Stane. Stane would prove to be on the Russians' side, intending to kill the two agents, but Barnes would dispatch him first, just in time for Red Room agents to close in on their location.

Ultimately, Barnes would avoid killing Shostakov on Drekyov's secret orders, letting him go free when he destroyed the sole sample of the serum. Barnes would subsequently tell Drekyov that he was killed when, in reality, Shostakov would go into hiding in the U.S. Foster would find him and, on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D., invite him to be part of something bigger. In the future, he would become one of the Avengers at its earliest stage, fighting alongside the others against Loki in the Battle of New York.

Answer: Darcy Lewis

Shortly after meeting at a party hosted by a parallel world's Thor, Howard the Duck and Darcy Lewis fell in love, wed in Vegas, and had their lives changed. After Darcy gave birth to a large egg, the two of them were served two tickets on a galactic cruise hosted by the Grandmaster, a gift with a hidden agenda. As it turns out, their egg was conceived at a notable time in the universe in which the Nine Realms were all in alignment. As such, many intergalactic beings believed their child would be of great importance.

When Yondu Udonta inevitably stole the egg and handed it off to "Doctor Strange" foe Kaecilius, Darcy and Howard got their hands on it again and found themselves in the crosshair of everyone from Zeus to Thanos. At the last moment, the egg hatched, revealing the couples' daughter, Byrdie, who kept the pursuers at bay in a blast of light energy. The family was ultimately protected by Nick Fury and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., who recognized Byrdie's importance early on and had been looking into the situation for a while.

Answer: By drawing all of the nanites into herself

The Watcher recalls another instance in which a world prepared to fall for, what he claimed, was no good reason. In the Iron Federation, at some point in the near future, in this version of the universe where the Emergence still occurred, Riri Williams would be the last best hope to save Earth, but The Watcher knew that in most variations of this scenario, Williams would be doomed to fail. With Stark Industries in the clutches of Quentin Beck, Williams attempts to work in the shadows, and that's what puts her in Vision's path. Fortunately for her, she's saved by a group known as 'The Alliance' and flown away at the last second.

Though Williams is hesitant to aid 'The Alliance', she's brought back to their base and inadvertently thrown into a fight with Vision in which she emerges victorious over the unstoppable creation. It allows her and the others to be convinced to strike back against Beck. The problem is that he's watching her closely.

When Riri manages to get into Beck's labs she comes to determine that she was, to an extent, tricked. Though she defeated Vision, the illusions he created were actually the product of Beck's abilities, a result of the nanite technology he linked to his own mind. Worse, the nanites allowed Beck to draw Riri to him, creating illusions of 'The Alliance' even though he killed them all with Vision earlier on.

The discovery brings Riri to her lowest low, and it's only a result of one thing that she's able to overcome the threat unlike all versions of Riri Williams in the parallel universes around her-- the motivating words of The Watcher, who defies the rules of the multiverse and urges her to fight back. She manages to push through Beck's power, draw the nanites from his body, shut down his program, and kill him, bringing hope to the people left on this destroyed Earth.

Out in the multiverse, The Watcher's small action does not go unnoticed.

Answer: The American West

In America's Old West in another reality at the far edges of the Multiverse, Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop encountered John Walker and his men while on their hunt for The Hood, a new crime lord and villain set on acquiring Chinese immigrants, including his sister, for his nefarious means. Walker's tip as to where to find the villain was sound, but it led the pair to a train crossing the wild frontier, and it's there that they found the missing Chinese immigrants under the mind-control effects of their adversary.

Although Sonny Burch was involved, the true identity of The Hood was proven to be none other than Shang-Chi's own sister, Xialing, who took up the crime lord mantle after defeating the original villain in battle. The heroes were able to save all of the imprisoned workers and, in an act of revenge for her murdered parents, Kate Bishop knocked Burch unconscious and killed Xialing-- an action Shang-Chi was not happy to face, but conceded may have been inevitable.

The catch is that during this event, The Watcher intervenes, saving the life of a young child and indelibly changing the universe. His action can not go without consequence and, as he's already under surveillance for his past intervention, his fellow Watchers step in. In doing so, however, they shatter part of their plane, sending interdimensional shards raining through the Multiverse.

Answer: Interdimensional shards

Peggy Carter arrives on Earth-625 to speak with Nebula, now the leader of Nova Corps, about an entity crossing into their dimension, and with her she brings Kahhori, Byrdie, and common X-Man Storm, who brings with her a version of Mjolnir. The four of them ascend into the sky to go in for the kill against the seemingly unstoppable beast and manage, with good effort, do do so with flair, a particular point because Captain Carter encountered it in her original universe.

When the four of them descend to the planet to reconvene, they're interrupted by the appearance of three shards which fall from the sky, a clear indication that something is amiss in The Watcher's Observational Plane.

In the space between the Multiverse, a tribunal watches over The Watcher in an effort to bring him to justice for not only pondering the question 'What if...', but making choices that led to intentional and deviant consequence. Case in point, The Watcher imbued Captain Carter with powers that led her to do his bidding to a degree, saving universes from expected fates and changing the flow of time and space. The Eminence, the Incarnate, and the Executioner determine that what he has done is a betrayal. The Watcher notes that they can not intervene, but the Eminence notes that they did swear an oath to protect their order, and that supersedes intervention. The Watcher must answer for their herecy.

Answer: Life

Captain Carter acknowledges that the shards they found were, definitively, part of the Fifth Dimension itself, and last time something like this happened, Infinity Ultron nearly destroyed all of existence, blasting a hole into the Observational Plane. Her team attempts to use the fragments to repair the broken plane, but the efforts fail twice, wasting those shards.

Before they fail the third and final time, they realize that their only solution to reaching the Observational Plane may involve leveraging a multiversal variant of Infinity Ultron. Carter doesn't makes it there for long though; she's picked up by the Eminence and imprisoned with The Watcher in the Fifth Dimension.

Kahhori, Byrdie, and Storm all find Infinity Ultron together in their search for the missing Peggy despite the obvious risk, and they come to determine that he was present for her capture. It's a clear sign that Peggy was on the right track since a Watcher intervened to keep her from getting involved. Infinity Ultron ultimately gives them a philosophical answer to a question he has long pondered, however, determining that peace, in his mind, was once the absence of conflict. He has instead come to decide that peace can't be achieved without life. An empty world can not be peaceful without life, and there is no life without conflict, so he must fight for it.

With this, Ultron agrees to help fix the situation, taking the final shard himself and deciding to bring the heroes to the Fifth Dimension. They will need the shard's power for the battle yet to come as, with it, he can see everything.

Answer: No one

When Uatu was little more than a disciple to the Order of the Watchers, he started his training under the Eminence. In his early days, his devotion was unmatched; he was seen as one who would sacrifice anything for the cause in protecting the Multiverse. Uatu wondered the question 'what if you're wrong about me?', but the Eminence called that question irrelevant. All he needed to do was observe the natural order. To watch over everyone, he would become no one. With this oath, he was a Watcher.

With his ability to observe, another 'what if' emerged-- 'what is the point of just watching?' The Eminence said it would take time for him to understand the full gravity of this, and with that, he vowed to never fail the cause.

Of course, he would. He exposed the secrets of the Observational Plane to others, an act of heresy to his kind. The Watcher believes that a garden must be cultivated, but these causes he's taken up have proven dangerous. It's why the Watcher must die.

Before he can be executed, Infinity Ultron, empowered by the shard, is able to break into the Fifth Dimension with Carter's crew following close behind. He's able to free both the Watcher and Peggy to grant them the opportunity to escape, and in doing so, gives his life to the cause.

Answer: Captain Carter

The Watcher fears there's nothing they can do-- the Order of the Watchers can see all moments of every life-- but Peggy reasons there has to be a way. They set course for Strange Supreme's universe as he can reshape that universe at his whim, potentially restricting the Order's powers. The Order catches them before they can reach their destination, destroying their ship, but allowing them to survive. It leads to a fight on a distant planet in another universe, and one that seems unwinnable.

The Watcher has only one solution to save the others-- the oath. He recites the words and has all of them repeat after him and, with that, they are granted powers equivalent to their foes. It allows them to get enough of an upper hand to stave off the trio from the Order, but realizing they still need a way to get to Strange Supreme's universe, Peggy breaks the stalemate and prevents everyone's erasure from the Multiverse by willingly rematerializing herself and striking back.

When Uatu and the others awaken in the wake of the sacrifice, they discover that Peggy's attack managed to transport everyone to Strange Supreme's living universe and, as a result, the Order of the Watcher's powers were suppressed. Instead of killing the Order, he states that he learned lessons from watching the Multiverse; the Order can remain in Strange's universe to glean that lesson themselves. They must not simply watch; they must see.

In the wake of the battle, Uatu and the others release Peggy's shield into the Observational Plane and believe that she may very well be watching over all of them. Perhaps, they note, there's another realm beyond their own where she may still be. As Uatu says, there are still mysteries out there in the Multiverse. It's up to them to ponder 'what if...?'.