Marvel just resurrected the first perfect Avengers pic in MCU history... and completely missed a glaring plot hole

Warning: This article contains spoilers for What If...? season 3, episode 3, "What if... the Red Guardian stopped the Winter Soldier?"

One shot inside And if...? season three revisited the first chapter of the MCU, but created a huge plot hole centered on Alexei Shostakov's Red Guardian. And if...? Season 3 comprised eight episodes released simultaneously during the 2024 holiday season, bringing the Multiverse Saga animated series to a close. The third season was without a doubt the wildest chapter of And if...?but the season also explored an intimate, grounded cop-style story for Bucky Barnes' Winter Soldier and Red Guardian.

And if...? Season 3, Episode 3 explored a universe where the Red Guardian stopped the Winter Soldier from killing Howard and Maria Stark in December 1991. "What if... the Red Guardian stopped the Winter Soldier?" pits Barnes and Shostakov against General Dreykov and the Red Room forces, and while Barnes is eventually re-arrested by HYDRA, Shostakov has better luck. This storyline established a new superhero career for Red Guardian in this alternate reality and repeated one of the MCU's most iconic moments.But not all of this story made sense.

Red Guardian joined the original Avengers in What If…? Season 3

And if...? We briefly revisit the events of 2012's The Avengers

The Red Guardian and the Winter Soldier battled Obadiah Stane's Tower and Dreykov's forces in Las Vegas, ending with Shostakov destroying the last package of supersoldier serum stolen from the Starks. After this fight, the Winter Soldier was taken back to Siberia to be reprogrammed, and insisted to HYDRA that the Red Guardian was dead. In truth, Shostakov ended up working in the United States as a teacher, which allowed him to be approached by Bill Foster with the prospect of doing some good and even becoming an Avenger..

This gave Marvel Animation the opportunity to recreate the iconic Avengers circle team moment from 2012. The Avengers. The original Avengers team got this moment during their battle against Loki and his Chitauri army, and it's been repeated several times since. And if...? Season 3 Episode 3 featured Red Guardian alongside all six other members of the original Avengers team, but that didn't make sense. If Red Guardian had stopped the Winter Soldier, this Avengers lineup would look drastically different.

And if…? The new Avengers team lineup should have been very different

Howard Stark's survival would have changed the Avengers

And if...? Season 3 Episode 3 began with Red Guardian stopping the Winter Soldier from killing Howard and Maria Stark, urging him to just steal the super-soldier serum. Howard Stark was an extremely influential figure in the main MCU continuity, and his death in 1991 had huge repercussionsmost notably the instigation of his son, Tony Stark, as CEO of Stark Industries, which eventually led to him becoming Iron Man. If Howard Stark had survived in 1991, Tony might never have become the armored hero, so he wouldn't have been included in the original Avengers lineup.

It's also possible that Howard Stark's survival seriously impacted S.H.I.E.L.D., of which he was a high-ranking founding member.. This could have prevented people like Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff from joining S.H.I.E.L.D., and the careers of Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, and Thor in the Avengers could have been affected as well. It would have been great for And if...? to show the audience which heroes would have banded together if Howard Stark had survived, but this plot hole only factored into a huge missed opportunity for the series.

• Release date

  February 14, 2025
  

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  July 25, 2025
  

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  July 24, 2026