"What If...?" What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? (TV Episode 2023) Poster

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8/10
Holly Jolly Christmas Chaos
robbysheilds24 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
When I initially heard of an episode called "Happy Hogan Saves Christmas," I was a little worried. Worried that it wouldn't be interesting, or that it'd be like Episode 7 where there's too much hit-and-miss humor crammed into the story. And then I watched it, and I found I was wrong on both accounts.

And no, I'm not saying the story takes itself too seriously. It doesn't, and it's all the better for it. I love how it just keeps escalating in this fun intensity as it goes on. It starts off with Justin Hammer breaking into Avengers Tower looking for Hulk Blood before that blood gets transferred into Happy, leading to him becoming a Hulk.

And then everything after that just ends up having this chaotic energy to it. We got a scene where Happy Hulk ends up wailing on a bunch of Iron Legion robots in a hallway, and it is insane just how intense and gorey it gets with the robots. The momentum then keeps going as he fights Hammer in a Hulkbuster suit, making for a pretty good climax.

Honestly, this episode's a whole lot of fun from start to finish. I like the heist style the first half goes for, and Sam Rockwell sounds like he's having the time of his life playing Justin Hammer. As for the humor, it's good, but half of it involves references to Christmas movies while another 25% of it involves Justin Hammer's holiday wordplay. The rest of the 25% is everything else. And even with half the humor being reference humor, it's not like the story's bogged down by it.

Like I said, the episode's a lot of fun. It's got great action, great escalation of fun intensity, as well as just being energetic in general. It's a great episode to watch as a break from all the serious episodes that might be coming up next, succeeding where S1E7 kinda failed, in my opinion.
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8/10
What If... the Holidays Turned Heroic: A Christmas Adventure
dami300126 December 2023
This Christmas episode of "What If..." truly stands out as a highlight of season 2, offering an engaging plot brimming with very well-crafted action sequences. The narrative unfolds with a festive spirit that keeps viewers hooked from start to finish, making it an exemplary installment in the series. It's a well-balanced mix of humor, action and the classic "What If..." inventiveness. Overall, this episode is a delightful treat for fans and encapsulating all the wonder and joy of Christmas while maintaining the creative standards of storytelling and character development expected from the show.
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6/10
What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?
Prismark1020 January 2024
If the first series of What If... went to the darker aspects of Marvel multiverse.

The second series has been lighter and frothier so far. This Christmas episode is what if Happy Hogan did Die Hard.

As Happy Hogan the head of security for Tony Stark is getting everything ready for the Avengers Christmas party.

Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) breaks into Stark Tower with two goons just as JARVIS is off line for a defrag. It allows Hammer to reprogram the robots.

Hammer wants the Hulk serum. It's Happy Hogan who realises that he is at the wrong place at the wrong time and gets to the serum first.

With Disney purchasing 20th Century Fox, they could poke fun of their acquired properties. This was an entertaining instalment. I liked when the other Avengers show up, they go for the wrong target.
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7/10
Stark the herald angels sing.
southdavid8 February 2024
A second movie parody! In just three episodes! Whilst this third episode didn't exactly stick to the format, it was a lot of fun - therefore I assume has been badly reviewed by the characters on here. I thought it was a decent diversion and that Kat Jennings remains the best thing in any Marvel project she's part of.

It's Christmas time and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is charged with organising the Party at Avengers Tower designed, unfortunately, to take place whilst the heroes are off site and Jarvis is down for scheduled maintenance. The building is attacked by Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) who commandeers the robotic Iron Man suits and uses them to take control. His aim is to steal a vial of Hulk's (Mark Ruffalo) blood. Hogan, with Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Darcy (Kat Dennings) as his only real aid, tries to get to the blood first.

So, it's difficult to say exactly what the "What if" is this time. I guess it's what if, sometime before Age of Ultron, Justin Hammer gets out of Prison and tries to steal Christmas. It's not entirely clear how he gets out, but he does and that leads us into a neat Marvel Die Hard parody, which isn't excused by name checking the film in the script, even though it's done in one of the funny moments. Kat Jennings' Darcy is the MVP again, with a laugh from almost every line she has.

Again, the animation style is good and I liked the "freak" version of Hogan Hulk (Hulk Hogan) that we see in this. The voices are mostly the MCU cast, with the exception of Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson. Shame that Werner Herzog doesn't do "his" voice in this, but Ross Marquand has a decent impression and it's a good punchline for a long meta joke.

It's perhaps not as deep as the first season was thus far, but it's certainly been a lot of fun.
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10/10
Die Hard with Superheroes!
ryanlehman-1266627 December 2023
Best episode of What If yet. Paying homage to one of the greatest action movies of all time with an excellent choice of Happy (Favreau) as the John McClain type character. So many great references, the action is fun and bringing back Sam Rockwell to play Hammer in place of Die Hard's Hans was a master stroke.

Admittedly, I was not a huge fan of the first season of the show. Outside of two episodes I unfortunately found the show to be kind of boring. This second season has been so much better so far. This episode makes me excited for the rest of the season. The first two episodes before this were pretty solid as well. Great job Marvel, we needed a hit.
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5/10
Please Pay Attention to Filler Episodes
olcare25 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I want to clarify that this is not for the entire series but just to give an idea, and I won't make it too long.

Don't you think filler episodes are being taken a bit lightly? I mean, the idea of turning Happy into Hulk is funny and interesting, but when it's executed so poorly, watching it feels equivalent to staring at my home's wall for 30 minutes.

I'm not saying every episode involving the Avengers should be super serious, but those who say 'wow, that was good' after watching this episode really can't imagine how much below the potential of this series it falls.

A season filled with references to the cinematic universe, delving into characters and events that could lead to an abundance of unexplored material - the series should do more than turning Happy into Hulk and turning enemies into clowns.

This is not a rock-bottom level, but please, do more than this.
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1/10
The dumbest plot
giselealveslopes26 December 2023
The way the villain easily hacks the systems, how the supposedly heros aren't talking the situation seriously, I mean for a "filler" it should at least be fun. But it's only really really dumb.

So I'd just advise you guys to save your precious time and skip this one. But also if you are from the US (which I'm obviously not) you may find it ok since the whole plot is about Christmas and such.

Since I don't feel Happy has charisma, I usually don't like his stories.

Ok at this point I'm just trying to reach the minimum required characters.

But that's what there is to it, a Christmas plot with no appealing whatsoever.
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5/10
Another Day Saved by the Avengers
evisonpacheco25 December 2023
Imagine having all the infinite universes, with literally infinite possibilities (because that's what the multiverse is all about) and throwing all those possibilities away to show more of the same. That's exactly what this episode did.

Even with the possibilities of the infinite multiverse, the episode boils down to the Avengers saving the day once again.

Almost nothing in this new universe is really new, apart from one or two characters who wouldn't be there in the original universe - but who are still so poorly developed that they're not even captivating.

This episode, like so many other Marvel shows, was just more of the exhausting "more of the same"
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3/10
This was awful, should have used the Hulk instead
capricorn4029 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Basically this was a "Die Hard" remake with Happy Hogan as the main protagonist.

By accident, he gets injected with Hulk blood and now he his to go alone against Justin Hammer and his goons that want to rob Stark Enterprise while slowly turning into a "Hulk" It's a Christmas episode, sure, but is has all the MARVEL cringe-worthy jokes.

Maria Hill is just foil for more jokes. Same as Darcy.

Justin Hammer is displayed as comic relief which is a missed opportunity, because in the comics he is a lot more like the main bad guy in "Die Hard" so he could have been more tweaked as such.

What would have been awesome is if it were Bruce Banner instead of Happy and we would have gotten another rematch with the Hulk and V. E. R. O. N. I. C. A.

Very disappointing.
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1/10
For kids?
therealjaysmoke26 December 2023
Do they actually expect adults to watch these episodes and be invested? I've seen the first three and they are all nothing to write home about. The first season was way better and matured than what I've seen thus far from season 2.

I hope the rest of the season actually gets it right and stop heading down this comical direction. We want some real action, real stories, real consequences.

Do they actually expect adults to watch these episodes and be invested? I've seen the first three and they are all nothing to write home about. The first season was way better and matured than what I've seen thus far from season 2.

I hope the rest of the season actually gets it right and stop heading down this comical direction. We want some real action, real stories, real consequences.
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5/10
Meh
gabrielmikhno25 December 2023
This episode is my least favorite, it was sort of fun, but worthless mostly. It's like they made this episode just to fit Christmas. No stakes, no character development. What they should've done is make a more solid what if...? At the Avengers tower, with Christmas more as a back drop. Like, if this was a 22 episode season, why not. But this only has 9 episodes, 8 if you don't count the finale as a real what if...?. So using this episode just to make Happy Hogan something else. Not worth it.

The word count is so much, so I'm just going to keep typing on and on. So yeah, you defiantly got my review.
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1/10
How exactly did he save Christmas?
nmcoloradoguy13 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
So how does Happy save Christmas?

He gets all of the hostages killed, comprimises the Hulk blood destroys the tower lets the thugs go and when the Avengers return to the party, no one acknowledges any of the carnage.

It had a lot of funny lines and references but the whole murdering the christmas party staff thing just made it a bad story.

Especially since they are saying early in the story how this party is needed for morale.

They could have thrown in a line or shot showing the hostages being in a room somewhere or something, but no, they made it pretty clear with Darcy singing christmas carols over the carnage behind her.

Then at the end Tony actually makes an insurance joke about the death and destruction, and to top it off, the Avengers throw their own party in the same room all his employees were just killed in.

It just was dark.too dark for a Chirstmas story.
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3/10
Another weak one
GregTheStopSign9526 December 2023
After such a great start in episode 1, What If...? Season 2 has gone very quickly downhill. Episode 2 was weak and rushed, this one was just weak. Even with such an interesting premise as "what if Die Hard was made by Marvel for the greater MCU?" it fails pretty hard.

There's some funny dialogue - maybe one or two lines of it - and VERY little changed from the mainline MCU - the established characters are all mostly the same as the ones we know from Earth-616/The Sacred Timeline - which makes for a quicker way to get into the story, but the story itself is NOT good. In ANY way.

Though we do get another, new-to-the-MCU, character that could prove interesting down the track. Maybe. But not likely, if I'm honest.
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