Marvel's 'What If...?' Finally Acknowledged a Major Missing Piece of the MCU
“Hearst Magazines and Verizon Media may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.”
Marvel's What If...? episode 5 spoilers follow.
As Marvel's What If…? continues to explore the stranger corners of the MCU's multiverse, rarely seen and long-forgotten characters occasionally pop up, including key figures like Agent Coulson along with oddities such as Howard the Duck. But in the latest episode of Marvel's new Disney+ show, What If…? finally acknowledges a pivotal Spider-Man character who has remained mysteriously absent until now.
Episode five begins with Bruce Banner's fall to earth which first took place in Avengers: Infinity War. But before he can warn our heroes about Thanos, everyone's favorite professor is attacked by undead versions of Cap, Iron Man and Doctor Strange. Cue a surprisingly faithful adaptation of Marvel Zombies, which imagines a world where a virus has all but wiped out the MCU save for a few last heroes.
Following Doctor Strange's tragic story last week, episode five continues to deliver the goods with another killer episode that alternates between sad, funny and gruesome in the blink of an eye. But among all of the Ant-Man jokes and Bucky shower scenes, there's one particularly poignant moment that finally confirms the existence of Uncle Ben in the MCU.
Related video: Everything to know about Marvel's 'Shang-Chi'
After the group lose Happy 'Blam Blam' Hogan, Hope asks Spider-Man how he stays so upbeat in the face of loss. "Practice, I guess," says Peter. "My mom, dad, Uncle Ben, Mr Stark… I’ve lost a lot. But my Aunt May says ‘If we don’t keep smiling when they can’t, then we might as well be gone too.'"
So there we have it! You might have assumed that Uncle Ben, the man who helped raise Peter, would have been mentioned at least once before, but this is actually the first time he's ever been acknowledged in the MCU. Before Spidey made his debut in Captain America: Civil War, the previous Spider-Man films that did include Ben weren't technically canon... although that could change soon given the multiverse hijinks coming up in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
And crucially, Marvel's What If...? is already officially canon in a way those films are not, despite its seemingly random takes on previous Marvel films. Head writer AC Bradley confirmed this to IGN and producer Brad Winderbaum has even said this show is just as important to the MCU as Loki was.
Before all this, fans just assumed that Uncle Ben had been in the MCU before he died, despite him not being mentioned. All we officially knew was that Peter and Aunt May had suffered some kind of loss, and that's why Spidey was reluctant to stress May out further by revealing the truth behind his hero exploits. The closest we got to a direct Uncle Ben reference in these films was when fans spotted Peter using a suitcase with the initials BFP in Far From Home.
However, that wasn't always the plan. Back when Spider-Man: Homecoming was released, writers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley revealed to EW that they originally hoped to bring Uncle Ben in more directly:
"We did talk about there being a scene where [May] references him directly," Daley says. "It was when [Peter] was getting ready for homecoming and the wardrobe she was giving Peter was all Uncle Ben’s clothes. It was a nice moment, but we also knew that it veered away from his arc. If you’re going to talk about someone’s death, you don’t want it to be a throwaway."
While that scene didn't make the cut, Ben's spirit was still felt, and not just in Spider-Man's arc. Over the years, a number of Marvel TV shows have played around with his famous "great power... great responsibility" speech, including Jessica Jones and Agents of SHIELD.
So even though Uncle Ben is no longer with us, and even though it took all this time for him to even get a mention, it's like T'Challa says again at the end of this episode: "Death is not the end." That's true of Uncle Ben's legacy, and also the zombies that chowed down on all our favorite heroes this week too.
You Might Also Like
