So You Wanna Survive the Zombie Apocalypse: How We Got to "Marvel Zombies"
It’s been about four years since Marvel fans (at least the ones who don’t read comics) were introduced to the concept of Marvel Zombies in the fifth episode of Marvel’s What If…? on Disney+. Now, we’re just a couple of days away from those same zombies getting their own Disney+ series. But, since it’s been so long, let’s take a look back to see exactly how we got here.
What happened in What If…?
As the Watcher explains in the opening of the episode, simply titled “What If… Zombies," Janet Van Dyne returned from the quantum realm with a virus and Hank Pym, Hope Van Dyne and Scott Lang accidentally unleashed the zombie apocalypse on this universe.
Bruce Banner, fresh off of the events of Thor: Ragnarok, returned to Earth to warn them of Thanos’ impending arrival. However, he found himself instead in a New York City that had been ravaged by the zombie apocalypse. Just as they do in Avengers: Infinity War, Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian arrive in New York to seek Earth’s surrender. Instead, they are ambushed by zombified versions of Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Wong. They eventually attack Banner as well, but he is rescued by a group of super-powered survivors, consisting of the Wasp, Spider-Man, Bucky Barnes, Sharon Carter, Kurt, Happy Hogan, Okoye and Doctor Strange’s cloak of levitation.
As far as we know at this point, those are all of the heroes who have survived. We know the Avengers were overwhelmed by zombies, which led to the outbreak spreading faster because humanity was no match for the super-powered zombies they became.
The survivors hear about a cure being made at Camp Lehigh, the same camp where Captain America was made, and they head there to investigate. Along the way though, they are met by Zombie Hawkeye and Zombie Falcon, as well has a horde of… you know… normal zombies. Happy gets taken out by Zombie Hawkeye before the rest of the group escapes on a train. They don’t get far however before Zombie Captain America takes out Sharon and Bucky is forced to eliminate his old friend. Although, it’s worth nothing that Bucky does not take out Cap’s head and instead just cuts him in half. And we all know, you have to take out a zombie’s brain to kill them. We all knew that, right?
As the Wasp takes out the now-zombified Sharon, the group realizes she has a scratch, which means the virus will be setting in soon. The train runs out of fuel short of the camp and the team sees that they’re going to have to make their way through another horde of zombies. Hope, knowing her time is limited, sacrifices herself by becoming giant and carrying the team to the camp.
The group, which now only consists of Spider-Man, Banner, Kurt, Bucky, Okoye and the cloak, notices that the zombies are not approaching the camp, despite nothing holding them back. They are surprised by Vision who explains that he is the one who has found a cure and that the Mind Stone is keeping the zombies at bay. He proves that his cure works by revealing Scott Lang, who is sort of still alive. The once zombied Ant-Man is now just a head in a jar but he is once again human. The team realizes they can use the Mind Stone to create a cure if they can get it to Wakanda.
Things are only briefly looking up however, as the group soon realizes they have fallen into Vision’s trap. He had been luring people to the camp so he could feed them to Zombie Wanda. Bucky finds T’Challa, who is missing a leg because, well, Wanda gotta eat.
As the team begins to become combative with Vision, Wanda breaks free and attacks, killing Kurt immediately. Vision, wanting to atone for what he has done, helps the team escape but also refuses to leave Wanda. He points them to a quadjet and rips the Mind Stone from his head, which not only kills him but also removes the beacon that was keeping the other zombies away.
Wanda takes out Okoye and Bucky before the rest of the group, now also carrying Lang, reach the jet. It’s worth noting that we don’t necessarily see Bucky die. Banner tries to buy the rest of the group more time to get the jet working and runs into the horde of zombies, finally forcing the Hulk to emerge. The Hulk and Zombie Wanda battle as the team makes their escape. They are briefly delayed though when the still-giant, now-zombified Wasp grabs them, but they manage to escape her grasp and make their way to Wakanda.
Everything seems hopeful, with Spider-Man, Black Panther, what’s left of Ant-Man and the cloak making their way to Wakanda with the Mind Stone. However, in true horror movie fashion, we see that Wakanda has already been overrun by a now zombified Thanos and his (presumably) zombified forces. The heroes are unknowingly heading into a massacre.
What do we know about Marvel Zombies?
So, now it appears as though Marvel Zombies will pick off right where What If…? left off. Trailers and teasers have shown the battle with Thanos in Wakanda and things seem to not be going so well. We also know this series will see some other surviving heroes resisting the zombie apocalypse, including Shang-Chi, Katy, Red Guardian, Jimmy Woo, Yelena Belova, Kate Bishop, Iron Heart and Ms. Marvel. It also seems as though a new version of Moon Knight will be in the mix as well. We also see a number of new zombified characters, including Okoye, Namor, Ghost, Abomination and many more.
We also know that this show does come with a TV-MA rating. So, while it is animated, it is sure to be gory and much more adult in nature than most other Marvel projects we have seen.
All four episodes of Marvel Zombies will stream on Disney+ on September 24th.