MCU Phase 5 Made One Guardian Look Incompetent 6 Years After Boosting His Powers

Marvel Studios’ What If…? season 2 inadvertently made one Guardians of the Galaxy member look much weaker, only six years after giving them a powerful upgrade. What If…? season 2 introduced several new variant characters to the MCU, and the season’s premiere episode, “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?,” focused on reinvented members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The MCU’s premiere cosmic team burst onto screens in the MCU’s Phase 2, introducing Peter Quill, Gamora, Rocket, Drax and Groot into live-action, but the Guardians of the Galaxy team has since recruited new members with innovative abilities, including the former Ravager Kraglin and Gamora’s adoptive sister Nebula.

Karen Gillan’s Nebula was the focus of What If…? season 2’s premiere episode. The episode explored an alternate reality where Nebula had been recruited into the Nova Corps on Xandar, though she soon realized that Nova Prime had become bitter and twisted in Xandar’s isolation. Nebula armed herself with a team comprising new versions of Groot, Korg, Miek and Howard the Duck, but she also acquired a powerful new weapon that helped in her revolutionary cause. Unfortunately, equipping Nebula in What If…? season 2 meant insulting another Guardian of the Galaxy, who saw a much larger role in 2017’s Vol. 2 and 2023’s Vol. 3.

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Nebula Mastered The Yaka Arrow In What If…?

During the opening moments of What If…? season 2, episode 1, Nebula and the Ravager leader Yondu were revealed to be associates on Xandar, though the latter was killed prior to the events of the episode. Following Yondu’s death, Nebula claimed his Yaka arrow for her own purposes, and used this as a powerful new piece of her arsenal during her battle against Nova Prime and the Nova Corps. With no training whatsoever, Nebula was able to master the use of the Yaka arrow in moments, perhaps proving her supreme skill and cybernetic attributes, but also making one other Guardians of the Galaxy member look comparatively insignificant.

Kraglin’s Yaka Arrow Failure Looks Worse After 2023

In the live-action MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 back in 2017, Yondu’s emotional demise meant that the Yaka arrow was passed onto his fellow Ravager Kraglin. One of Vol. 2’s post-credits scenes showed Kraglin attempting to use the Yaka arrow, with him now kitted-out with the iconic control fin. However, he failed miserably to master the skill quickly, and proved that he still didn’t have a grasp of it during Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, though he did eventually figure out the right technique. While Kraglin’s mastery of the Yaka arrow took several years, Nebula was able to wield the weapon expertly within moments in What If…?​​​​​​​.

Kraglin’s failure to use the Yaka arrow accurately in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was played off as a joke, and this continued in Vol. 3, particularly when he found himself in competition with the telekinetic Cosmo the Spacedog. While this could have been left as a funny nuance of using the Yaka arrow, Nebula’s seemingly effortless mastery of the weapon made Kraglin seem completely incompetent and significantly weaker. It surely wasn’t the intention of What If…? to make Kraglin – a new official member of the Guardians of the Galaxy – seem incapable, but the acclaimed Phase 5 series might have accidentally insulted him nonetheless.