The following article contains spoilers for What If…?.
What If…?’s eighth episode is an Age of Ultron joyride that finally unwraps how the series will come together for its finale next week, but as entertaining as it may be, this multiversal threat might have just introduced some of the MCU’s biggest plot holes.
As Ultron finally gets his shiny vibranium hands on Vision’s body and unravels nuclear doom on the planet, his actions somehow go unnoticed by the almighty Time Variance Authority, as if that wasn’t enough to unsettle Miss Minutes’ beloved sacred timeline. Granted, such an event is a daily occurrence in the type of worlds Loki explored during his brief TVA internship, but the more one analyses everything that goes down in What If…?, the more it appears like the TVA is slacking off when it comes to watching over the animated realities.
No problem then, even Infinity Stones are supposed to be no more than shiny trinkets confined to office desk drawers in the MCU’s Phase Four, thus rendering Ultron’s quick disposal of Thanos as nothing more than a minor event. However, once Infinity Ultron has his quiet meditation moment, it's quite perplexing to see him destroying a bunch of planets without invoking a swift raid from the TVA’s Hunters, Mobius M. Mobius, and Loki himself for that matter.
The first possible inconsistency that some fans pointed out is how Infinity Ultron manages to conquer the Soul Stone without any form of sacrifice, yet it should be noted that when Thanos arrives early to Ultron’s doomsday party, it’s assumed that he already threw Gamora down a cliff in Vormir to claim the orange gem. Just like in Infinity War and Endgame, Ultron can then proceed to pry the gauntlet from the Eternal’s cold, purple, and very much dead hands to conquer the rest of the universe.
Even accepting that wreaking havoc across the entire galaxy is not enough to trigger a nexus event that requires the TVA’s attention, it’s hard to argue Infinity Ultron’s showdown with The Watcher doesn’t call for it. Not only does this threaten the very fabric of the Multiverse that He Who Remains put together, it elevates Infinity Ultron’s powers to levels that are hard to pinpoint in the MCU.
After all, Captain Marvel and Infinity Gauntlet Thanos are supposed to be some of the universe’s most powerful beings, and yet they’re quickly tossed aside by Ultron. While the Eternals are supposed to be safeguarding Earth as food for the Celestials, Infinity Ultron doesn't even get a slap on the wrist from them.
Of course, this is just playing devil’s advocate here, since the Eternals are supposed to be off-hands for What If…?, nevertheless, the entire premise for the episode seems to define Infinity Ultron as the single most powerful Marvel creature to have ever existed, one that’s only sort of matched by The Watcher surprisingly strong hand-to-hand combat skills.
Should What If…? be fully canonized into the MCU’s lore, there’s only one plausible explanation to why the TVA chose to abide by The Watcher’s neutrality oath, and that would be that these multiverse events occur after Loki and Sylvie already put He Who Remains out of his misery to send the sacred timeline spiraling into disarray. That would actually make far more sense in the grand context of things, considering how strict Ravonna Renslayer is supposed to be.
Every single punch Ultron lands on The Watcher is like a condensed TemPad that sends the two across another reality. be it the two literally going medieval on each other, in a Skrull inhabited Earth, or at Steve Rogers’ presidential inauguration. Ultron is so overpowered per the MCU’s own standards that What If…?’s creators even gave him Galactus’ world-devouring appetite times square because he munches on the entire Milky Way as if it was a tiny cracker.
Nitpicking at every tiny moment in What If…? can definitely rob the series of the very charm it brings to the table (this is the same series that made what if zombies happen), and somehow it’s also painfully necessary as part of the growing relevance the Multiverse appears to have in Phase Four. The entire theme for Marvel Studios' next deployment stage is that the Infinity Saga was child’s play compared to what’s to come, a notion that Infinity Ultron definitely drives home like few others.
Infinity Ultron brings timeline problems for What If…?, it practically ignores Loki altogether, and whatever Doctor Strange is doing in Spider-Man: No Way Home probably makes little sense put next to this. Regardless of that, the episode should act as a reminder that What If…? is meant to be fun above all things, so maybe there’s no harm in Ultron shattering all realities. No kissing Lokis though, the TVA does not tolerate such atrocities.