New Streaming: What If...Captain Carter Became The First Avenger (Episode 1)

 With a break from Live-Action Shows, Marvel dares to ask What If...?

Will this adaptation of the long-running and classic Comic Book deliver big or be underwhelming?

Let's start with the first Episode (and some general SPOILERS)...

The Premise

Taking place during a key point in Captain America: The First Avenger (the 2nd or 3rd best Cap Film ever), we see what would happen if Peggy Carter stayed on the Lab Floor

The saboteur reacted early and shot Steve, leading to a new subject to be used for the experiment...

Now with a full-time Soldier injected with the Serum instead of a 4H reject (no offense, fictional Steve), we have Captain Carter!

She takes to the formula quite well.

The Execution

Captain Carter runs into similar problems as Captain America- a lack of support from Commanding Officers (this time, it's not Tommy Lee Jones, sadly).

On top of that, she's a woman in 1941, so...you know, that.

Like the other Cap, she still becomes a Hero in full and proves herself on missions against the Red Skull.

She manages to capture the Tesseract, save Bucky and get a new ally in the Hydra Stomper.

This is an impossibly(in the main MCU)-early version of Iron Man made by Tony Stark's Father!

It's Captain- a powerless (but still heroic) Steve Rogers!

The big hook of the Series is doing something crazy and interesting.  Do they do just that?

Is it a big change?

Arguably, the Story is a beat-for-beat version of the events of Captain America: The First Avenger.
After all, they only swapped out the Lead.

That said, we do get the following...

 * No Winter Soldier in the future (with Bucky saved)

 * A massive head-start on Iron Man tech with the Dad making a suit as early as 60+ years ahead of his  son.  What does a 2009 Iron Man look like with that advantage?

 * No Red Skull on Vormir.  Who takes his place then?

* No time-shuffled Steve Rogers and no proper Captain America.  What is the future of, for instance, The Falcon now?

All in all, this is a strong, if somewhat safe pick to begin the Season with.  I've heard the argument that this is just a Rule 43 (gender-swapping) of the lead Avenger.  I can see that argument.  Is there more to it?  For me, it rises a bit above that.  I thought that they did a good job showing how someone different was affected by the formula.  In other Shows/Films, we've seen people corrupted by it (Red Skull), struggling to control it (The Winter Soldier) and those that go full-on murder crazy (US Agent).  On top of that, we got the even less controlled would-be Soldiers in The Winter Soldier.  The only other truly positive example we've gotten is (an older and world-weary) Super Soldier in Isaiah from The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.  Peggy is a true hero (as her time serving in WWII and the original SHIELD has shown), so it is good to see her get her chance.  She shines here!  On top of that, we get more proof that Steve Rogers is a hero without his shield and powers.  He continued to fight in his own way without the Serum here!  It brought more nuance to the character, even without Chris Evans providing the vocals.  That (and no Jones) is a disappointment, but not a deal-breaker.  For me, this is arguably a safe-ish Episode that tests the waters for more intense and daring Episodes to come.  Don't let it hurt you now.

Next time, an animated twisting of 2 Heroes' fates.  On top of that, see how one man can change...a Universe.  See you then...