What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?

What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes? is the third episode of the first season of What If...?.
==Synopsis==
Nick Fury struggles to launch the Avengers when candidates are targeted by a serial killer.
==Plot==
On Monday, S.H.I.E.L.D Director Nick Fury and Black Widow approach Iron Man at a donut shop to discuss the Avengers Initiative, as well as his worsening condition due to his palladium-leeching Arc Reactor. But when Black Widow injects the Lithium Dioxide antidote into Iron Man to slow down the poisoning, he instead suddenly convulses and collapses to the floor dead.
Tuesday sees Phil Coulson contacting Fury about a mysterious hammer found in the New Mexico desert. As Black Widow is handcuffed on the suspicion of being Stark's murderess, Fury, knowing her innocence, covertly hands her the syringe, suspecting that an unknown individual in the organization had compromised the antidote. Black Widow boards a STRIKE transport bound for New York, but she manages to break out of her cuffs and overpower the entire STRIKE unit. Brock Rumlow slams the truck's brakes, but finds Black Widow had already escaped. 
By night, S.H.I.E.L.D. has assembled a base to observe the hammer. Thor infiltrates the facility and attempts to retrieve the weapon, but despite Fury's order to stand down, Hawkeye inadvertently fires an arrow, killing Thor. Hawkeye, who claims the act was not intentional, is relegated to confinement for the incident, but when Fury tries to talk to him, he is also found dead. Observing the bodies of who would've been Avengers, Fury rules out Barton committed suicide as he had a family, determining that both Barton and Stark's deaths were linked.
Romanoff visits Culver University on Wednesday, meeting with Betty Ross. Handing her the syringe for observation, they discover that not only did the antidote fail to reach Stark, but the tip had been shattered by a tiny object. Soon after, Fury contacts Romanoff about Barton, leaving her distraught and seething with vengeance. Fury noted that the dead were candidates of the Avengers Initiative, and the only two still alive are her and Bruce Banner. When urged to locate Banner, Romanoff locates him hiding in a nearby closet. They are prompted to start fleeing when Thaddeus Ross and the military arrive at the campus. A supposed sniper round goes off and injures Banner, causing him to turn into the Hulk. The military launch an all-out assault to take down the green giant, but Hulk's body suddenly swells and explodes, much to Ross' horror and distraught.
Concurrently in New Mexico, Loki arrives at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base with the Einherjar, seeking vengeance for Thor's death. Fury attempts to negotiate with the God of Mischief, but Loki uses the Casket of Ancient Winters to attack S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. Fury and Sif eventually convince Loki to drop his assault in favor of diplomacy; he gives Fury until the crack of dawn to capture the assailant, otherwise he will reduce Earth to a frozen wasteland. At night, Romanoff retreats to a library in Manassas, Virginia. As she is locked out of the system, Coulson lends his password to Romanoff in order for her to access the Avengers Initiative files. Finding that an agent who died two years prior had recently accessed the database on Tuesday, Romanoff contacts Fury to inform him only for the assailant to appear behind her. The attacker is quick and seemingly invisible, overwhelming Romanoff, who is only able to reveal that "hope" is the answer before she is dragged into the darkness to her death.
With the five Avengers dead and with only Romanoff's cryptic message to go on from, Fury goes to retrieve an old pager, but, realization striking, decides not to activate it and instead sets up a meeting with Loki. Heading into a cemetery in San Francisco on an early Thursday morning, Fury visits the grave of Hope van Dyne, where a revengeful Hank Pym meets him. Pym, accuses Fury of exploiting van Dyne's love and grief for her mother as a way to lure her into S.H.I.E.L.D. and in turn her death. The grief-stricken Pym proceeded to don his Yellowjacket Suit and embark on a campaign to kill the candidates for the Avengers Initiative: sabotaging Iron Man's antidote, forcing Hawkeye to release his arrow on Thor before killing him via internal hemorrhage, and the sniper round on Banner actually being him entering his body before using an enlargement disk to destroy his heart.
Yellowjacket then shrinks to kill Fury, but the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director is able to counter him. Fury is actually revealed to be Loki using his illusions to overwhelm and defeat him. Fury turns Yellowjacket over to the Einherjar while Loki decides to remain on Earth, later traveling to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on Friday to announce his supreme authority over all of humanity, effective by the next day. Despite the Avengers falling before they could rise, Fury remains determined to assemble a new team: he locates Captain America in the ice, and has summoned Captain Marvel to Earth using the pager.
==Cast==
Starring Cast:
*Jeffrey Wright as Uatu/The Watcher
*Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury / Loki (illusion)
*Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
*Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
*Tom Hiddleston as Loki
*Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
*Jaimie Alexander as Sif
*Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow
*Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
*Mick Wingert as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Guest Stars:
*Michael Douglas as Hank Pym/Yellowjacket
*Stephanie Panisello as Betty Ross
*Mike McGill as General Thaddeus Ross
*Alexandra Daniels as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
*Terri Douglas as Additional Voices
*Elisa Gabrielli as Additional Voices
*Piotr Michael as Additional Voices
*David Michie as Additional Voices
*Arthur Ortiz as Additional Voices
*Shane Sweet as Additional Voices
*Matthew Wood as Additional Voices
*Shelby Young as Additional Voices
*Unknown actor as Agent Jack Rollins
Non-Speaking Characters:
*Thor
*Volstagg
*Fandral
*Hogun
*Destroyer
*Tony Stark/Iron Man (recap)
*Ivan Vanko/Whiplash (recap)
*Bruce Banner/Hulk (recap)
*Thor (recap)
*Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (recap)
*Clint Barton/Hawkeye (recap)
*Loki (recap)
*Steve Rogers/Captain America (recap)
==Appearances==
===Locations===
*Earth
**Inglewood, California
***Randy's Donuts
**Puente Antiguo, New Mexico
***S.H.I.E.L.D. Crater Investigation Site
***Isabela's Diner
***Pet Palace
**Willowdale, Virginia
***Culver University
***Stanley's Pizza Parlor (logo)
**Manassas, Virginia
***Manassas Public Library
**San Francisco, California
**New York City, New York
***United Nations Headquarters
***Times Square
***Stark Expo (recap)
***Stark Tower (recap)
**India
**Paris, France
***Eiffel Tower
**Arctic
**Malibu, California (recap)
***Tony Stark's Mansion (recap)
**Monte Carlo, Monaco (recap)
***Circuit de Monaco (recap)
**Washington, D.C. 
**Odesa, Ukraine (mentioned)
*Sun
*Asgard (mentioned)
*Jotunheim (mentioned)
===Events===
*Bruce Banner Manhunt
*Assassination of the Avengers
**Assassination of Tony Stark
**Assassination of Thor
**Assassination of Clint Barton
**Assassination of Bruce Banner
**Assassination of Natasha Romanoff
**Ambush on Yellowjacket
*Asgardian Invasion
**Battle of Puente Antiguo
*Duel of Monaco (recap)
*Chitauri Invasion (recap)
**Battle of New York (recap)
*Ambush in Odesa (mentioned)
===Items===
*Black Widow's Bite
*Hawkeye's Bow and Quiver
*Asgardian Armor
*Horned Helmet
*Casket of Ancient Winters
*Sif's Sword and Shield
*Uru
**Mjølnir
**Gungnir
*Bulletproof Vest
*Einherjar Shield
*Iron Man Armors
**Mark IV Armor
**Mark V Armor (recap)
**Mark VII Armor (recap)
*Arc Reactor
**Palladium
*Lithium Dioxide
*Vibranium
**Captain America's Shield
*Gamma Radiation
*Yellowjacket Suit
**Pym Particles
*Starforce Uniform
*Vita Radiation
*Transmitter Pager
*Pingo Doce (logo)
*Whiplash Mark I Armor (recap)
*Tony Stark's New Element (recap)
*Chitauri Helmet (recap)
*Chitauri Staff (recap)
*Captain America's Uniform (recap)
*Cyanide Pills (mentioned)
===Concepts===
*Bifrost Bridge
===Vehicles===
*Humvee
*Asgardian Skiff
*Quinjet
*Valkyrie
===Sentient Species===
*Watchers
*Humans
*Frost Giants
*Asgardians
*Vanir
*Kree
*Chitauri (recap)
*Demons (mentioned)
===Creatures===
To be added
===Organizations===
*S.H.I.E.L.D.
**STRIKE
**Avengers Initiative
*Asgardian Royal Family
*Warriors Three
*Einherjar
*United States Army
**Strategic Operations Command Center
*United Nations
*Avengers
*Avengers (recap)
*S.H.I.E.L.D. (recap)
===Mentioned===
*Alexander Pierce
*Jackson
*Laura Barton
*Lila Barton
*Cooper Barton
*Captain America
*Janet van Dyne
*Maria Hill
*Hope van Dyne
*Stanley Lieber
*Isabela Alvarez
*Odin
*
*
*
*
==Music==
Song title 	Artist 	Location(s)
Interrogation (Natasha Romanoff's Theme) 	Alan Silvestri 	Black Widow fights STRIKE agents in the back of a transport truck.
Hammer Found (Thor 2011 Shield Theme) 	Patrick Doyle 	Phil Coulson finds Mjølnir.
Groove Holmes 	Beastie Boys 	Tony Stark in the Randy's Donuts.
Theme from Spider-Man: Far From Home (Nick Fury's Theme)	Michael Giacchino	"Nick Fury" battles with Yellowjacket.
Captain Marvel's Theme 	Pinar Toprak 	Captain Marvel appears.
Love is a Game 	Extreme Music 	The Watcher observes as Phil Coulson drives across the New Mexico desert.
*
==Videos==
“Land a Punch” Official Clip - Marvel Studios’ What If…? - Disney+
==Trivia==
*The episode retells the events of the MCU tie-in comic book The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week which combines the main events of The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor, setting them all within the same week.
*Although The Watcher hints that the point of divergence in this universe is Tony Stark's death in Randy's Donuts in 2010, the real point of divergence seems to be Hope van Dyne's decision to become a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent like her mother and dying on a mission a few years before the events of the episode.
*Hope van Dyne's death during a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission in Odesa is similar to how Natasha Romanoff was shot by Winter Soldier in the main universe.
==References==
==External Links==
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ru:Что если... Мир бы потерял величайших героев?
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