This episode of What If…? finds an alternate world of zombies! Marvel Zombies is a limited series by Robert Kirkman, of Walking Dead fame, and Sean Phillips, it spun out of Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-23 (2005). The title needs some work and this episode may be a little too early for Halloween. We follow the Hulk sent to Earth in Avengers: Infinity War. He crashes into Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum as Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) o warn the Avengers about Thanos. Banner is alone and puts on Wong’s clothes to walk outside. The streets are empty. This actually doesn’t make sense where there are endless zombies in the rest of the episode. Another beam brings down Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughn-Lawlor) and Cull Obsidian. Banner tries to transform into the Hulk, but fails. He is the main character here. Ebony Maw makes his announcement, but a portal has Iron Man’s gauntlet appear and send out a repulsor blast. Banner cheers on the Avengers bashing the Black Order. Banner sees the violence of his teammates and then Iron Man turns to show his zombie face! Zombie Wong chops on a piece of the Black Order. Banner starts to run and is helped by Doctor Strange’s Cloak of Levitation.
The Zombie Avengers are consumed by insects, Zombie Iron Man is about to blast Banner, but he is destroyed by the Wasp. A giant ant consumes the Zombie Tony Stark and Banner is repulsed. Banner is taken by Spider-Man who swings him away. A world of Insect Heroes! The Watcher explains that two weeks before, Dr. Hank Pym traveled to the Quantum Realm, and he finds that she has contracted a Quantum Virus turning her into a zombie. Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) checks on the quantum vehicle and her zombie father attacks, she shrinks, but Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is not as fast. Wasp has a prominent role for this story. The zombie plague spreads across the Pacific Northwest. At the Golden Gate Bridge, the Avengers land in a quinjet; Captain America (Josh Keaton), Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). Keaton played Steve Rogers in the pilot episode, but here he has a cameo. Three of the Avengers are exposed with faces and necks. Cap is bitten by a tiny Ant Man. The zombies overrun the Avengers. Part of the What If comic book is that they are alternate worlds so the body count is usually quick, but there is some hopeful outcome.
There is an elementary school letters, “So You Wanna Survive the Zombie Apocalypse”, put together by Spider-Man (Hudson Thames). The actor has done some voice work including The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013). He is making kinda of a humorous video at the Chrysler Building. He goes to Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) who is wearing the shirt “I’m not single I’m saving myself for Thor”, he is not happy. Playing the zombie is Kurt (David Dastmalchian) from the Ant-Man cast. Spider-Man explains that the virus is transmitted through saliva. Kurt bites Happy’s exposed arm and then squirts him with a ketchup packet! Next, Peter explains that zombies are drawn by the smell of human flesh (so that wouldn’t be the Black Order or the alien Guardians of the Galaxy?). This concept is not really realized in the episode. Peter is the self aware character in horror movies. He pulls aside the shower curtain which had a showing Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) who grabs Kurt by the neck with his bionic hand! The Kurt and Peter team are funny.
Then, Sharon Carter (Emily Vancamp) appears and Spidey hits her in the head with a toy dart. He explains its an orientation video for Bruce Banner. They meet with Okoye (Danai Gurira) who is of course searching for T’Challa. She explains that they recieved a beacon from the wires, these are lines of communication that hang from pods above buildings like a spider-web. They may have a cure, but the beacon was corrupted. Banner works out the message’s code and Winter Soldier recognizes the location of the survivor camp, Camp Lehigh. Agent Carter notes it was the first S.H.I.E.L.D. base also where Cap trained. Happy is driving the van, a massive zombie head roars at them, and then he hits the Pym Particle button smashing the zombie when the van goes full sized. Okoye sends Hope, Banner, and Peter to find a train to use at Grand Central Station. Spidey jokes to Okoye about splitting up the group is not good in horror movies. She shoots back that Wakandans have American reality shows. Kurt likes the burn on all of them! Okoye’s group is Agent Carter, Winter Soldier, and Happy. Both groups have no modification for exposed skin and human scent.
Kurt is trying to hotwire the train, Wasp, shrinks to charge up the engine. They need a jump start, Spider-Man suddenly appears and webs the front of the train engine. Happy blasts dark shapes with the Iron Man repulsors, but they are only birds. Agent Carter wonders why he was saying “Blam”! He is harpooned in the shoulder and dragged down a tunnel. Sharon Carter tries to warn the others and then she is hit by an arrow! Zombie Hawkeye. So earlier, he and another zombie character were consumed by ants and they reformed? Okoye’s team is surprised by Zombie Falcon crashing through a window. Agent 13 is impaled by the arrow to a wall while Zombie Happy blasts at her. Okoye leaps onto Zombie Falcon, but she has to jump off. Sharon Carter turns Zombie Happy’s replusors on him. Zombie Falcon stumbles towards Winter Soldier, but is taken down by Okoye. Agent 13 arms herself with a repulsor. Spider-Man has stretched the web back to what he says is 4,000 pounds of thrust! A zombie almost bites Spidey, but the Cloak of Levitation bashes it. The cloak’s part in all of this is confusing, it didn’t protect Dr. Strange who also could turn back time with the Time Stone and teleport which is also what Wong could do. So it protects Peter except when it doesn’t? Minor story inconsistencies with this episode.
The zombies swarming the train are zapped by the Wasp. Sharon Carter also blasts a zombie with the repulsor. Kurt drops the brake and the train hurtles through the zombies. Doctor Spider-Man appears with the cape which Wasp admires. Okoye apologizes for splitting up the group, one of the few times she has apologized. The survivors are not safe though. Sharon hears creaking on the roof, fires the repulsor, and then screams. Winter Soldier runs back and faces Zombie Captain America! He also has to take on Zombie Agent 13 who swallows the Wasp! Winter Soldier takes down Zombie Cap and slings the shield on his back! He finally have Captain Bucky! Wasp explodes out of Zombie Sharon, but Banner notices that she has a cut on her shoulder. Hope’s condition is becoming worse, Peter notes that in horror movies there’s always a chance. Peter has a nice moment. I actually like Spider-Man in this zombie world more than the movies. Finding the survivor camp may lead to more horrors! What happened to the giant ant army? Can’t spoil it, but at one moment another character manages to use the shield! Plus, no zombie spoilers for the other cameos in "Zombies?!" Also, a good, goofy sci fi reference kinda like Futurama. I’ve always found the zombie world premise to be weak in a superhero universe, but the What If…? episode has some great superhero moments and humor!
Four Repulsors out of Five!
#WhatIf, #Zombies, #EvangelineLilly, #MarkRuffalo, #HudsonThames, #DavidDastmalchian, #DanaiGurira, #EmilyVancamp, #JonFavreau
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