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

One shot in Bucky Barnes' Winter Soldier and the Red Guardian.

What 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?" pitted Barnes and Shostakov against General Dreykov and the Red Room's forces, and while Barnes is eventually re-apprehended by HYDRA, Shostakov is luckier. This storyline established a new superhero career for the Red Guardian in this alternate reality, and repeated one of the MCU's most iconic moments, but not all of this tale made sense.

Red Guardian ed The Original Avengers In What If…? Season 3

What If...? Briefly Revisited The Events Of 2012's The Avengers

The Red Guardian and the Winter Soldier battled Obadiah Stane's Rook and Dreykov's forces in Las Vegas, ending with Shostakov destroying the last packet of the super-soldier serum stolen from the Starks. Following this fight, the Winter Soldier was taken back to Siberia to be reprogrammed, and he insisted to HYDRA that the Red Guardian was dead. In fact, Shostakov ended up working in the United States as a teacher, allowing 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-up moment from 2012's The Avengers. The original Avengers team pulled off this moment during their battle against Loki and his Chitauri army, and it has been repeated a number of times since. What If...? season 3, episode 3 featured the Red Guardian alongside all the other six of the original Avengers team, but this didn't make sense. If the Red Guardian had stopped the Winter Soldier, this Avengers line-up would look drastically different.

What If…?’s New Avengers Team Line-Up Should Have Been Very Different

Howard Stark's Survival Would Have Changed The Avengers

What If...? season 3, episode 3 began with the Red Guardian stopped the Winter Soldier from killing Howard and Maria Stark, urging him to only steal the super-soldier serum. Howard Stark was a massively influential figure in the MCU's main continuity, and his death in 1991 had huge repercussions, most notably the instigation of his son, Tony Stark, as the CEO of Stark Industries, which eventually led to him becoming Iron Man. Had Howard Stark survived in 1991, Tony might never have become the armored hero, so he wouldn't be included in the Avengers' original line-up.

It's also possible that Howard Stark's survival could have seriously impacted SHIELD, of which he was a high-ranking founding member. This could have stopped the likes of Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff from ing SHIELD in the first place, and the Avenger careers of Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers and Thor could have also been affected. It would have been great for What If...? to show audiences what heroes would have come together had Howard Stark survived, but this plot hole only factored into a major missed opportunity for the series.

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