What If... Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?

What If... Nebula Joined the Nova Corps? is the first episode of the second season of What If...?.
==Synopsis==
In a world where Ronan deposes Thanos long before the events of "Infinity War," Nebula is recruited to join the Nova Corps. Desperate to escape her father's shadow, she sets out to prove her detective skills.
==Plot==
Ronan the Accuser betrays Thanos and manages to kill him and Gamora, while Nebula is left stranding in space. She gets rescued by the Nova Corps and decides to start a new life by swearing an oath to Nova Empire after Irani Rael recruits her. Xandar gets attacked by Ronan's forces and out of desperation, Rael makes a call to enable the Planetary Shield and lock down the whole planet, essentially cutting it out of the rest of the universe.
The five years of isolation lead to civil unrest and a massive spike in crime rate, and one night, Nebula discovers that Yondu Udonta has been murdered. The Nova Corps takes over the investigation, with Garthan Saal warning Nebula to stay away from the case. Nebula ignores him and finds Udonta's Yaka Arrow, which contained some unknown schematics that had no records in archives that she had access to. She then gets contacted by Rael to discuss the case, and Nebula remarks that despite Udonta's reputation, something about his murder did not add up. Rael switches to a secure line and tells Nebula that Udonta's murder might be a sign of an upcoming calamity that could put the whole planet in danger, telling her to continue her investigation in secret.
Nebula goes to Howard's Casino, where she shows the schematics from Udonta's arrow to Howard the Duck, and Korg recognizes it as the source code for the Planetary Shield generator. Nebula concludes that someone might be trying to take the shield down to make way for an invasion, so she must reach the Xandarian Mainframe Core to prevent it from happening. Knowing that she needs someone who knows a way around the Xandarian security, Nebula releases Yon-Rogg from the Xandarian Correctional Facility and recruits his help. Yon-Rogg helps her to get to the mainframe core, however, he betrays Nebula and causes the core to implode.
Surviving the blast, Nebula gets surrendered by Rael and the Nova Corps and realizes that all of that was a setup from the beginning. Rael reveals that after witnessing Xandar falling apart and as the Nova Corps was unable to uphold the law, she decided to make a deal with Ronan. In exchanging for taking down the shields and letting Ronan's forces in, Rael would be left in charge, however, she needed Nebula's cybernetics to access the mainframe core. She then leaves Nebula to be executed by Saal and his corpsmen, but Nebula manages to fight back and escapes by diving into the sewers. Heavily injured, Nebula makes her way back to the casino, where she passes out in front of Howard.
Howard and Korg manage to boot Nebula up again, before she requests Howard to provide her with some heavy weaponry. Howard objects to having access to such things, mentioning that helping Nebula does not benifit his business, but relents after Nebula says that Rael can take away his liquor license. Together with Howard, Korg, Miek and Groot, Nebula arms herself with the Yaka Arrow and makes her way to the Nova Corps Headquarters. They confront Rael, the Nova Corps and Yon-Rogg, but Rael already started the shield's opening sequence, telling Nebula that she can still take her side.
However, Nebula reveals that she suspected Rael from the very beginning and rewired the core to reverse the sequence, which results in Dark Aster being destroyed and Ronan dying with it. Rael attempts to get away and Nebula chases after her, while Saal and Yon-Rogg get taken out by Korg. Rael tries to escape in a Star Blaster, but it crashes as a result of her struggle with Nebula. With Rael dangling from a cliff, Nebula offers her a hand, but Rael instead tries to shoot her and misses, falling to her death. With the shield going down, Xandarians celebrate the end of the planet's isolation, and Howard congratulates Nebula on a job well done.
==Cast==
Starring Cast
*Jeffrey Wright as Uatu/The Watcher
*Karen Gillan as Corpsman Nebula
*Jude Law as Yon-Rogg
*Michael Rooker as Yondu
*Seth Green as Howard the Duck
*Taika Waititi as Korg
*Peter Serafinowicz as Denarian Garthan Saal
*Julianne Grossman as Nova Prime Irani Rael
*Fred Tatasciore as Groot / Drax the Destroyer (uncredited)
Guest Stars
*David Collins as Additional Voices
*Terri Douglas as Additional Voices
*Robin Atkin Downes as Additional Voices
*Melanie Minichino as Additional Voices
*Dave B. Mitchell as Additional Voices
*Helen Sadler as Additional Voices
*Matthew Wood as Additional Voices
*Secunda Wood as Additional Voices
*To-be-confirmed voice actress as Mindy (uncredited)
Non-Speaking Characters
*Ronan the Accuser
*Miek
==Appearances==
===Locations===
*Xandar
**Nova Corps Headquarters
**Howard's Casino
**Xandarian Correctional Facility
*Sanctuary
===Events===
*Assassination of Yondu
*Escape from the Xandarian Correctional Facility
*Destruction of the Xandarian Mainframe Core
*Battle at the Nova Corps Headquarters
*Ambush on Thanos (flashback)
*Battle of Xandar (flashback)
===Items===
*Yaka Arrow Controller
*Yaka
**Yaka Arrow
*Planetary Shield
*Xandarian Mainframe Core
*Krehalium
**Kree Armor
*Kree Pistol
*Quad Blasters
*Universal Weapon
*Starforce Uniform
*Magnitron Gauntlets
*Nova Machine Gun
*Space Throne
*Thanos' Armor
*Love Bots
===Vehicles===
*Accuser Warship
**Dark Aster
*Star Blaster
===Sentient Species===
*Watchers
*Luphomoids
*Xandarians
*Kree
*Kronans
*Sakaarans
*Flora colossi
*Centaurians
*Skrulls
*Xeronians
*Krylorians
*Sneepers
*Titans (mentioned)
===Creatures===
To be added
===Organizations===
*Nova Empire
**Nova Corps
*Kree Empire
*Ravagers (logo)
*Black Order (mentioned)
===Mentioned===
*Thanos
*Gamora
==Music==
Song title 	Artist 	Location(s)
Capitulate 	Universal Production Music	
*Nebula enters Howard's casino.
Absolute Future 	Universal Production Music	
*Howard dismisses the guest surrounding him to speak with Nebula
Break the Algorithm	Universal Production Music	
==Videos==
===Clips===
What If…Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?
"How's Business?" Official Clip - Marvel Studios' What if... ? - Disney+
==Trivia==
*While the episode's story was created without the intention to parody, the visual style of the episode was inspired by the movie .What If..? Season 2 Live Q&A With Creative Team (A.C. Bradley, Matthew Chauncey, Bryan Andrews)
==Behind the Scenes==
*The episode was created following Karen Gillan's performance as Nebula in What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?, which impressed the creators and led them to want an episode centered on Nebula. The idea to make it a noir detective story came from Matthew Chauncey.
==References==
==External Links==
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