Marvel Zombies: The MCU’s Biggest Moments Reimagined in Gore

By contrast, the spinoff miniseries Marvel Zombies delivers on the promise of genre-bending reinvention. Directed by Bryan Andrews and co-written by Zeb Wells, the series riffs on Robert Kirkman’s Marvel Zombies saga and expands a grisly “What If…?” cliffhanger into a tightly wound, emotionally charged tale about courage and survival in a world undone.

Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for Marvel Zombies.

Andrews and Wells transform the brazen premise of “What If… Zombies?!” into a reconstruction of the MCU’s darkest milestones, reimagining the climactic events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame through a lurid, tragic lens. As in Infinity War, a desperate stand in Wakanda against a zombified Thanos results in devastating losses; sacrifices meant to save the planet instead fuel a contagion that threatens to escalate even further.

Rather than fast-forwarding to a five-year reckoning like Endgame, Marvel Zombies lingers on the fallout. It makes smart use of Phase Four characters, recasting their backstories and showing how they adapt — or fail to adapt — to a shattered world. Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) inherits her powers just before the plague erupts; Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) takes up the Hawkeye identity while hunted by a feral Clint Barton; and Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) proves far more formidable here, commandeering the armor removed from Tony Stark’s corpse.

The series leans into the familiar road-trip trope of survivors crisscrossing a ruined landscape in search of a cure or purpose, but Vellani’s earnestness grounds those sequences and keeps them from feeling trite. The journey also allows the show to peek into the fates of other heroes and villains. A broken, haunted Thor (Greg Furman) receives sympathetic treatment rather than being played for laughs, and there’s a tantalizing hint of moral complexity in Baron Zemo’s (Rama Vallury) control of the Raft, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s underwater penal facility — an intriguing setup that could have offered sharper commentary on security versus liberty in post-apocalyptic governance.

The show’s MA rating gives Andrews license to depict grisly carnage, but the choreography and staging would stand on their own even without the gore. The Valley of the Fallen Gods — a set piece where ostensibly immortal fighters are trapped in perpetual combat — is a visually sumptuous and thematically clever answer to the comic-book parlor game of “who would win?” One standout moment is the grotesque, darkly comic clash between Captain America and Red Guardian (David Harbour), which subverts expectations by making Captain America a convincing horror figure.

Andrews also borrows kinetic beats from films like Ant-Man and the Wasp and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to create a frantic sequence that captures the chaotic first hours of the outbreak. It also offers a poignant origin for Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), illuminating the contradictions in Xu Wenwu’s (Feodor Chin) character — a father devoted to his family yet indifferent to the wider human cost.

The series additionally refines the portrayal of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), presenting a more chilling and coherent antagonist than some previous multiverse-centric attempts. As the Queen of the Dead, this version of Wanda wields overwhelming psychic force and seductive persuasion, offering characters the easy release of surrender in place of continued struggle.

Where What If…? sometimes played things safe — trading ambitious twists for Watcher-centric plotting or oddball one-offs like a Happy Hogan homage to Die Hard — Marvel Zombies embraces risk. Its bleak, uncompromising reinterpretation of the MCU suggests a bolder creative path the franchise could take if given the freedom to pursue darker, more inventive stories.

Source: Polygon