Commentary: ‘Marvel Zombies’ Was Always Going To Falter With Its Ending
by Frank Martin
There are some premises that are just difficult to end by their very nature. They set the story up towards a trajectory that will not leave the viewer particularly satisfied. In order to conclude these stories, writers have to get particularly creative to wrap things up nicely while also giving viewers some sense of satisfaction. Marvel Zombies has a simple-but-great premise that makes for some very entertaining content. Unfortunately, that premise also means it was never going to have a particularly strong ending, which is exactly what happened with the first season.
The show is a spin-off of What If…?‘s “What If…Zombies?!” episode. It focuses on a new group of characters centered around Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) while also continuing the story from the initial episode involving Spider-Man (Hudson Thames). The basic plot focuses on the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) becoming the Queen of the Dead and commanding an entire zombie army. She is after the Hulk, who had to absorb an enormous amount of Infinity Stone energy after an explosion caused it to decimate the planet. The program ends with Ms. Marvel giving in to the Scarlet Witch, where she finds herself in an illusion of a reality where the zombie apocalypse never started.
One of the main appeals of Marvel Zombies: fans get to see their heroes fall. In a typical superhero story, there may be one or two deaths, but the faithful typically want to see their heroes succeed. Watching heroes fail doesn’t make for great entertainments, unless that’s the mission from the beginning. Marvel Zombies is built around the concept that all of the heroes will eventually fall to the zombies. There may be a glimmer of hope and the chance that they could triumph, but there’s something morbidly fun about watching fan-favorite superheroes turn into undead monsters. In order to follow through on this premise, the story was always going to be difficult to end. The show wanted to provide some sort of happiness for Ms. Marvel while also giving the zombies their victory, which was never going to be truly satisfying.
Marvel Zombies is now streaming on Disney+.
