Spooky season is a year round thing over but I always welcome the influx of scary things that pop up during Fall. Which is just one of the reasons I was excited for the latest from Marvel Studios and it did not disappoint. Marvel Zombies, a bloody, gut-spilling, head-ripping good time.
Marvel Zombies Review
For anyone new to the comics, Marvel Zombies debuted back in 2005 penned by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips. The series was dark for Marvel but fans loved it. Our heroes were now not-so-brainless undead monsters with superpowers and plenty to say aka they were chatty zombies. Fast forward to the first season of What If…? where the zombies made their highly anticipated MCU debut and everyone wanted more. Well, I guess if raging flesh eaters aren't your thing you might not have been as amped as myself. Regardless, Marvel Zombies is finally here and in just four episodes ushers in the delightfully dark corner of the Marvel Universe.
Marvel Zombies is one bloody, gut-spilling, head-ripping, helluva good time. This adult animated series, brings the popular Marvel Comics run to life with all the gore, viscera, and blood splatters one could want. Familiar voices and characters return, like Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff and Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan. Plus viewers are treated to some seriously amazing Blade action scenes that will reignite the excitement over his eventual live-action introduction. When zombies have superpowers you know it's going to be one brutal showdown and Marvel did not skimp on the graphic nature of this concept.
In the What If…? episode, Bruce Banner arrives back on Earth like he did in Avengers: Infinity War but instead of finding heroes to help fight Thanos, he finds a world almost completely destroyed by a “quantum virus.” Janet Pym was infected with it during her exile and Hank brought it back with him in this timeline's version of Ant-Man and the Wasp. Five years later, Zombies picks up in a world where only a few heroes have survived. Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Vellani), Riri Williams/Ironheart (Dominique Thorne), and Kate Bishop/Hawkeye (Hailee Steinfeld) are living together and trying to survive the hellscape they live in. The three Young Avengers regain some hope for the future when they discover a device implanted inside a zombie who recently crashed a quinjet. They set off to find someone who can help them and along the way meet up with other supers like Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). Saving humanity won't be easy though because the Queen of the Dead is eagerly hunting them down.
What follows is a loose adaptation of the source material. Kirkman and Phillips' story made the undead Avengers the protagonists. Earth's Mightiest Heroes were on the hunt for food aka living humans which obviously became increasingly scarce. They were chatty, sometimes silly, and of course violent. The violence remains but the rest is nowhere to be found, save for Wanda, the only villain who still possesses her human intelligence and thereby the ability to effectively communicate. The show itself sticks close to what you would call a textbook zombie story. The main characters flee to known locations right before the zombies show up and ruin their plans. The survivors somehow find each other and make a plan to save what's left of the world, that really doesn't work but they at least try. Then they are left to regroup and figure out a way forward once all their good ideas have been massacred. It's not until the final episode where the show creators Bryan Andrews and Zeb Wells unleash the potential of this zombi-fied Marvel universe.
That means that anyone and everyone could become the next victim, and yes that makes it more dramatic. When even the A-list, popular Avengers can get the ax… or the bite… then figuring out who lives becomes harder, amping up the excitement for the final showdown. Marvel Zombies gives this What If…? concept the proper space to stretch its decaying limbs and deliver a thrilling and satisfying new entry into the Marvel animation portfolio. Using similar stylings from What If…?, although with definite upgrades, Marvel Zombies takes full advantage of its medium for the violent mayhem it unleashes across the four episodes. This show is not for children but I will admit the violence stops short of say Mortal Kombat-level finishers. Make no mistake though, this is not cartoonish nor sanitized brutality.
Amongst the carnage, there is the beating heart of the story and that is Kamala's relationship with her friends as well as with Red Guardian (David Harbour) as she attempts to use the Macguffin to save the world. Vellani is as perfect as ever, showing off the range of emotions Kamala feels during the course of the story. Everything from rage to heartbreak comes through her vocal performance as clear as if we were watching her on screen. Scarlet Witch fans will be happy that Olsen is back and our beloved mutant is stronger than ever. I know she's the big bad but she's just plain awesome and powerful. You actually expect me to root against her? The other big standout is Blade (Todd Williams), reimagined here as the new avatar of Khonshu (F. Murray Abraham). He is both as serious as an apocalypse and sarcastic as hell. Plus Blade has several amazing fight sequences, including the one with Ghost shown in the trailer.
Verdict
Marvel Zombies is dark, bloody, gory, and just what Marvel fans have been asking for since they introduced this reality back in 2021. It has solid vocal performances, animation tailor-made for this type of story, and an epic finale that will feel like Avengers: Endgame. Zombies truly has it all. Blade slicing up bodies with his sword, heroes sacrificing themselves in blazes of glory, and Scarlet Witch proving we've barely scratched the surface with her powers in the live-action world. My only complaint is the length. I would have loved more episodes in this season but it is clear with that slightly ambiguous ending that they are setting up for another round of zombie mayhem.
The complete first season of Marvel Zombies is now streaming on Disney+.
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