All according to plan
This episode of What If...? had three of my favourite things - Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell and Nebula. And a redemption story.
This cyberpunk film noir story was perfect for Nebula.
I loved the story but it's the visuals was what really got me. I think I was supposed to be excited about the cameos and forgotten Marvel characters getting new spin but all I could think was the visual references.
The flying cars over illuminated cityscape in perpetual darkness and rain. The neon signs and crowded streets. This whole thing is Blade Runner and Nebula's coat is as much a tribute to Deckard as it is to Yondu. But, of course, here there is no question about her bing artificial and just like with K the people who use her turn on her.
The woman turned into machine connecting to mainframe. The cyberpunk part of the story. Replicants were organic and could not do this but Nebula is all cyborg like a certain protagonist of Ghost in the Shell. GotS and Blade Runner have always been thematically and visually connected and having this together was such a perfect moment. Nebula was made for this.
And I loved how in the end we got the reference to her Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 ending but reversed. This time she is the hero extending the hand to the other woman but just like then it is rejected.
But as always I loved the most that she is the big, damn hero of this story. She took the redemption thing seriously and to the end just like she did in the main MCU. But she also survivor of way too many bad people to not see this betrayal coming. She came with a plan and she save Zandar and avenged her sister. And it was beautiful.
Even this series reminds me why Guardians is still the best of MCU.
