Commentary: ‘Marvel Zombies’ Understood The Assignment

Some stories exist for a focused purpose. When that happens, all the other character and thematic work must revolve around that singular assignment. It doesn’t necessarily have to serve the story. It could be for propaganda purposes or merely fan service. In terms of Marvel Zombies, that assignment was systematically having all of the Marvel superheroes fall to the zombie horde. It began with the episode “What if…. Zombies?!” on sister series What If…? and it successfully continued over into the spin-off.

The end of that original episode features a group of heroes led by Spider-Man (Hudson Thames) as they escape the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who has become the Queen of the Dead. They head to Wakanda, which has unfortunately fallen to Thanos. After battling him, a destructive wave of Infinity Stone energy begins ravishing the planet. It’s only stopped by the Hulk, who is able to absorb the energy into his being. Meanwhile, another group of heroes featuring Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) is also struggling to survive. She meets other heroes along the way, but they all eventually fall to the zombies one-by-one as the Scarlet Witch continues to increase the size of her army to claim the Hulk’s Infinity energy for herself.

There is some plot and characterization in the show. Ms. Marvel has to reckon with the fact that all of her friends keep dying while the Scarlet Witch, who is sentient as a zombie to some degree, continues her world domination. But the horror is the main focus of the entire series, and rightfully so. Marvel Zombies exists on a promise to see the strongest superheroes in the world become undead fiends. In order for that to happen, these heroes must die in glorious, dramatic fashion, and they do time-and-time-again. For whatever faults and criticisms audiences may have of the show, there’s no denying that it understood its job was killing superheroes and it delivered on that promise.

Marvel Zombies is now streaming on Disney+.