WARNING: The following contains spoilers for What If…? Season 1, Episode 7, “What If… Thor Were an Only Child?,” streaming now on Disney+.
The most recent episode of What If…? asks its viewers to peek into a reality where Thor never grew up with his brother, Loki. Rather than be the warrior from the prime timeline that fans know and love, this version of Thor prefers to party on every planet he visits. However, once he arrives on Earth, he quickly finds that its inhabitants won’t let it fall without a fight. This leads to a confrontation between Thor and Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel. By bringing the cosmic hero into the episode, fans finally get to see which of the two heroes would win in a fight.
Their first fight in What If…? opens with Thor and Captain Marvel literally punching each other across the world after Thor calls her a “party-pooper.” There are also some impressive displays of power consisting of Thor using some fancy hammer tricks and Captain Marvel utilizing her energy absorption skills. In the end, Thor wins the first round by knocking Carol to the ground and placing his hammer on her. But it’s later learned in the episode that this was only a taste of what’s to come.
After Korg accidentally knocked out Fury during the party, Maria Hill became acting Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and called in Captain Marvel. After Carol’s defeat, Hill is annoyed and distraught as to why Carol lost the fight. She even tells Danvers that she’s supposed to have a punch equivalent to ten nuclear bombs. Carol retorts that she was holding back, as one strong punch could destroy an entire city. Rather than give up and let the Earth be destroyed, Hill and Danvers devise a plan to take on Thor one more time without risk to any civilians.
Carol’s power comes from exposure to the Tesseract. Since her powers came from an Infinity Stone, her limits are immeasurable. This is how she can handle Thor’s punches and lightning without breaking a sweat. When she meets Thor again, she greets him at full power, calling back to when she went binary at the end of Captain Marvel. She throws him into a mountain on the remote end of Siberia, telling him that she gave him a warning punch before their first fight. Not only does this establish her power level, but it also shows how well she handles potentially hostile situations.
While it appears that Carol will handle Thor one way or another, Director Hill doesn’t trust her and arms nukes to fire at the God of Thunder. A concerned Coulson questions her, stating, “I thought she was the nuke?” But Hill quickly responds, “she’ll be fine.” The scene shows that Hill prefers to have control over a situation and doesn’t care whether or not Captain Marvel has a handle on the task at hand. But she seems to be assuming Carol will likely survive and Thor will be potentially incapacitated.
What If…? shows fans the outcome of a battle between Thor and Captain Marvel. While the second round never led to blows, enough context was given to show that Thor had no chance in the fight. Captain Marvel’s ability to absorb energy coupled with her immense strength proves that even a god can’t stop her. The episode also does a fantastic job setting up Carol’s power level by having her fight Thor while she was holding back and he wasn’t. The effect is that fans now have an idea of how strong Captain Marvel is and how she measures up against the likes of a god.
To see Captain Marvel take on Party Thor, What If…? Episode 7 is currently streaming on Disney+, with new episodes airing on Wednesdays.
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