Marvel’s foray into TV-MA animated storytelling is a gory, gorgeous success that descends the MCU’s finest into an unpredictable undead apocalypse.
Zombies aren’t just one of horror’s most popular and plentiful subgenres, but its territory that’s become so versatile that “zombie” is now an easy filter to apply to other ideas for even more ridiculous storytelling. There’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Call of Duty’s endless zombie modes, Afterlife with Archie, and even Dead Set — which combines the reality competition series, Big Brother, with a zombie outbreak. There’s an inherent degree of spectacle that’s present whenever two heightened ideas are thrown together, whether it’s sharks and tornadoes, a bear and cocaine, or zombies and superheroes. It’s easy to see why Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips’ Marvel Zombies, which subjects classic comic superheroes to a raging zombie outbreak, initially made waves back in December 2005.
Marvel Comics has done plenty with zombies in the two decades since, much of which has turned this gory B-horror extravaganza into a deeper deconstruction on power, restraint, hope and corruption. The MCU’s new Marvel Zombies captures all this and more. To be clear, Marvel Zombies is far from high art or the definitive horror superhero project, but it delivers on exactly what it promises. In a sprawling cinematic franchise that’s conditioned audiences to expect diminishing returns, Marvel Zombies punches above its weight and — ironically enough — has more of a pulse than many of the other lifeless Phase 4, and 6 MCU offerings.
The MCU’s original Marvel Zombies experiment from What If…?’s first season felt surprisingly stilted and lacking all the nuance and psychological horror that made the original comic run by Kirkman and Phillips such a success in the first place. Marvel Zombies picks up five years after that middling What If…? episode, yet it actually rises to the occasion in a way that the original failed to do. The series effectively builds upon the What If…? episode’s foundation in every regard and benefits from the heavy expository lifting already being handled. Marvel Zombies uses this time-jump to tell an end of the world Armageddon story that’s just as much a post-apocalyptic dystopian narrative as it is a zombie yarn. There are rampant shades of Mad Max throughout, yet in the best way possible that speaks to a uniquely deadly and unpredictable wasteland.
Kamala “Ms. Marvel” Khan helps lead a group of survivors that includes Yelena Belova, Shang-Chi, Kate Bishop, and Ironheart, who fight for survival in a zombie dystopian wasteland where undead versions of Captain America, Captain Marvel, the Hulk, and even Thanos reign supreme. Marvel Zombies actually becomes one of the better opportunities for the MCU to fill in some of its blank spots and feature characters who haven’t appeared in ages, such as Ikaris, Namor and Khonshu. Over 15 MCU actors reprise their live-action roles here, all of whom seem to be having a blast as they record their lines for these extreme scenarios. It’s a nice detail that adds a little something extra to this impressive package.
Marvel Zombies may be free of the “What If…?” branding, but it’s a miniseries that seems predicated on repeatedly asking the question: What if Spider-Man used his webslinging abilities on the spines of a whole zombie horde? What if Blade became the next Moon Knight and the ultimate zombie slayer? How do Ant-Man’s powers work in an undead context? Or how would a minotaur fare during a zombie apocalypse? Additionally, Marvel Zombies is careful to zombify some of its most interesting characters rather than playing it safe and worrying about how to rationalize some of this madness. The whole point of an exercise in excess like this that doesn’t need to later worry about the consequences is to turn overpowered characters like Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, and Ikaris into zombies. Marvel Zombies unleashes reality-altering madness and throws particularly volatile characters together as if it wants to provoke as extreme of a reaction as possible.
Audiences can absolutely enjoy Marvel Zombies without having seen the original What If…? episode. To that point, audiences can enjoy it even if they haven’t seen an MCU project in years — or ever. That backstory and knowledge of preexisting relationships certainly amplifies certain dynamics, but it’s hardly essential. In many ways, this is the perfect gateway project for any horror fans who were afflicted by superhero fatigue years ago. Marvel Zombies is less interested in how it fits into an intricate connected universe and its ability to set up other projects, but rather it just wants to combine Marvel superpowers with undead body physics and zombie rules in order to deliver maximum chaos. It’s just as much a macabre body horror experiment than it is a nihilistic superhero saga.
It certainly helps that Marvel Zombies also receives a creative overhaul for the better. Matthew Chauncey of the original “What If…Zombies?!” is gone, with Zeb Wells (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Robot Chicken, Deadpool & Wolverine) taking over the head writing duties. Wells has the perfect experience with heightened parody and passionate pop culture homages that are essential for a project like this to come together. All of Wells’ work on Star Wars and DC specials, not to mention his celebrated runs on Marvel Comics’ Amazing Spider-Man and New Mutants runs were the perfect training ground for him to cultivate the ideal tone for something like this and knock it out of the park. Wells is joined by Bryan Andrews (Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and a storyboard artist on a wealth of Marvel movies), who serves as co-creator and showrunner. It’s a reminder of what a difference the right creative team makes and why that’s always going to be more important than how many MCU actors are back to reprise their live-action roles.
These four episodes highlight that Wells is not just an unabashed comics fan, but also a hardcore horror aficionado. His work beautifully comes to life in this ultra-violent wasteland. Between Wells’ work on Deadpool & Wolverine and Marvel Zombies, he’s become the MCU’s authoritative voice on R- and TV-MA-rated projects. It will be curious to see if this trend continues and if Wells is brought on to co-write the upcoming Blade film, especially after his glowing work with the character here. He’s clearly someone who understands this character and the best contexts to put him in.
To this point, Deadpool & Wolverine didn’t “waste” its R-rating, but Marvel Zombies feels like the superior mature MCU project at this point. There’s such gratuitous bloodshed and evisceration throughout these four episodes that continually raise the stakes, only to culminate in a bonkers finale. It’s exactly the type of polarizing conclusion that’s meant to divide comic fans and trigger debate among audiences.
Whether the Marvel Cinematic Universe decides to pay off on this ending in a future project or not, four episodes is the perfect length for this sort of story. It continually escalates its carnage with each passing episode without needing to stumble over padding and filler, which can completely ruin the pacing in any post-apocalyptic zombie story. This miniseries isn’t even afraid to leave the comfort of the Earth’s atmosphere in order to keep its audience on their toes. While the MCU’s Eyes of Wakanda began life as a movie that was later split into a four-episode mini-series, Marvel Zombies actually feels like an episodic saga where each episode has a proper beginning, middle, and end, while still contributing to the series’ greater hellscape.
On a visual level, Marvel Studios Animation doesn’t have the best reputation and there’s a tendency to choose cheap animation that’s easy to replicate. The visuals in What If…? are accordingly hit or miss, but Marvel Zombies is a much prettier endeavor that’s closer in quality to Eyes of Wakanda. There are still going to be plenty of people who prefer traditional 2D animation over the more stylized 3D visuals. Nevertheless, Marvel Studios Animation has worked out many of its issues and each episode features some immaculate setpieces. There are so many action sequences where the screen is just filled with chaos and endless zombies. The series captures the necessary scope and grandeur that’s necessary for a story of this nature. The busier and more meticulous action sequences, like Blade Knight’s swordplay, are elegantly choreographed. The weapons-based combat and magical spectacles both deliver and take advantage of the destructible nature of these Marvel characters.
Marvel Zombies makes sure that its bite isn’t just skin-deep and that there’s some form of commentary and substance under all the gory goodness. It gets to the bottom of why an uncontrollable hunger and a zombie epidemic is the best way to tell this specific story with these exact characters. There’s plenty of brains here, both in the figurative and literal sense. Marvel Zombies isn’t the program that’s going to save the Marvel Cinematic Universe or turn non-believers into staunch superhero fans, but it’s also not trying to be. This is four episodes of gonzo, out of control brain-chomping, limb-ripping, body-blasting carnage that turns Marvel’s standard superpowered theatrics into a disturbing dystopia that celebrates horror’s desire to disrupt. It’s an entertaining binge-watch that’s ideal viewing for any Halloween party and hopefully not the last that audiences see of this creepy corner of the MCU.
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