Marvel’s What If…? went all out in Season 3 on Disney+, creating even wilder alternate universe scenarios for short, fun little superhero stories. The final season also opened its doors to some of the newer characters to the MCU. One of the especially fun episodes this season, “What If…1872?” created a (howdy) partnership out of Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) from Hawkeye and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Similar to the What If…? Season 2 episode in which our favorite Avengers lived in Shakespeare’s time instead of modern day, this episode takes place in a universe where various contemporary Marvel heroes instead came to prominence in the Old/Wild West. Characters like John Walker, Kate Bishop, and Shang-Chi all play cowboy in the episode. The latter go on a quest together to confront a villain terrorizing the area called “The Hood,” who Shang-Chi thinks kidnapped his sister, and also face off against Sonny Burch, Walton Goggin’s character from Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018). Only What If…? can mash-up Marvel characters in such creative ways.
Who is “The Hood” Kate & Shang-Chi are chasing?
This one is a bit complicated. “The Hood” is a Marvel supervillain named Parker Robbins who had his own comic book series called Hood and also appeared in comics including Hawkeye, Werewolf By Night, The Punisher, and The Invincible Iron Man to name a few. The character is set to make his live action debut in the Ironheart series played by Anthony Ramos (In The Heights). That series was delayed, and I have the sneaking suspicion that the What If…? writers thought it would be out before this episode dropped. Since no version of the character has appeared in live action yet, the inclusion of this character here feels kind of random.
But Parker Robbins is not who Kate and Shang-Chi are after. In the episode “What If…1872,” the Hood’s identity is Shang-Chi’s sister Xu Xialing (Meng’er Zhang). The heel turn isn’t that surprising. She’s sort of an antagonist in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings as well. She wasn’t kidnapped by the Hood after all. She tells her brother that she killed the previous Hood (maybe that one was Robbins, but we’ll never know) and took his powers.
What *are* The Hood’s powers?
While wearing The Hood, Xialing has the power to teleport. She seems invulnerable, too, and super strong. It also seems like the Hood has some kind of mystical power that’s corrupting the wearer, kind of like how the Darkhold corrupts Wanda and Agatha in their respective stories. (Or, if you nerds prefer, like wearing the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings.) When Kate apologizes for killing his sister, Shang-Chi sadly replies that the Hood killed her first.
Is the kid, Kwai Jun-Fan, significant in Marvel Comics?
Sort of! Shang-Chi and Kate are assisted in their adventure by an eager kid whose father has been brainwashed by the bad guys. He escapes certain doom, potentially with the help of the The Watcher. At the end of the episode, Kate mentions that the kid has iron fists, which may have pinged a memory for those who watched the Marvel shows on Netflix back in the day. “Iron Fist” is a moniker attributed to several characters in Marvel Comics, including Danny Rand (played by Finn Jones on the Netflix show) and Kwai Jun-Fan. In the comics, Jun-Fan was the Iron Fist in the Old West. This is a different universe for him, but the right timeline. He’s mentioned in a few mid 00s issues of The Immortal Iron Fist.
While I doubt we’ll see Jun-Fan on the big screen, it does seem like Marvel Studios is purposefully pointing out that Danny Rand isn’t the only Iron Fist.
Who is The Eminence?
At the end of the episode, a character who looks like our Watcher appears to tssk tssk the not-so-impartial narrator. He is the Watcher’s mentor and boss. He’s not pleased with how the Watcher has been gently encouraging happy endings for the heroes of these various alternate universes. You’ll have to keep watching What If…? to find out what happens with him!