What If... Ultron Won?

 "All those worlds. All that suffering. And you just watched?"

And that's more like it. Wow.

(Bear with me on Sandman: more Netflix issues!)

It's the penultimate episode, so of course they do something different with the format and end in a cliffhanger. It's nice how they very quickly show Ultron destroying all life on Earth, a nice touch being how quickly he dispatches Thanos... and takes all the Infinity Stones. Thus he destroys all sentient life in the universe... via montage. Then he's finished. and has no purpose.

Throughout all this he's opposed by Black Widow and an increasingly despondent Hawkeye, his wife and children certainly dead. Clint's death is brutally and emotionally bleak, followed shortly by Natasha, but Ultron has long since discovered theb Multiverse... and broken the fourth wall by challenging the Watcher. In a nice touch, he calls him "creepy"!

And so the Watcher must break his oath, in a way which nicely deconstructs the entire premise of the series in ways that, of course, the eponymous comic book did many times, but still packs a punch here. It's magnificently done.

What If... Thor Were an Only Child?

 "We never get to fire the nukes...!"

I think it's fair to say this is a lighter episode in both senses. Yes, it's light-hearted and yes, it's funny... but it's not that funny. And, as it's fairly lightweight in every other respect, having little of substance to say, it nearly needs to be funnier than it is in order to be more than ok.

The premise is that Frigga and Odin never adopt Loki, and Thor therefore develops into a bit of a frat boy, spending the whole episode partying on Earth.

The episode plays everything for laught. Countries are emblazoned with their names, as we see Thor hurl Captain Marvel from land named "France" to land named "United Kingdom". The characterisation and dialogue are funny; Jane Foster and Darcy are a great comedy double act. Yes, people act out of character for the sake of having witty lines and visuals, but an episode like this can get away with that.

This isn't unfunny. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just... well, ok.