The world of Marvel Animation’s What If…? takes a chilling turn with Marvel Zombies. Building on the glimpse of zombies in the previous season of What If…?, this new series delves into the depths of zombie lore, offering a unique and intriguing twist to the Marvel universe.
The series kicks off with a team led by Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), Ironheart/Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), and Hawkeye/Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). As they navigate through the plague, desperately seeking a solution, the trio’s struggle to keep it together and stay safe in the face of the zombie apocalypse is palpable, evoking a strong sense of empathy from the audience. With a lack of non-infected superheroes milling about, Kamala, Riri and Kate are doing the best they can. However, that’s clearly easier said than done in a zombie apocalypse.
The stakes are high, but when a Quinjet crashes, the group’s hope for potential survivors and proper gear is reignited. The discovery they make is a turning point, promising a possible solution to their plight, and leaving the audience hopeful for the group’s survival.
Directed by Bryan Andrews with a story by Andrews and Zeb Wells, Marvel Zombies is a good addition to the Marvel Animation catalogue. The series has a lot going for it in terms of concept, but that doesn’t mean it’s all executed perfectly. Without getting into spoiler territory, Marvel Zombies hits a few missteps as the episodes progress, and it doesn’t remain as strong as the first episode throughout the rest. However, it thankfully picks back up the further you get into the series.
While there are some very cool character moments within the series, such as the fight between Blade and Ghost, I wanted the series to lean harder into the horror aspect, especially considering the series has a TV-MA rating. After watching the show, it’s clear that the rating stems from the zombie killing scenes peppered throughout, rather than anything particularly frightening. That said, the character moments and well-animated kills do not make up for the show’s underdeveloped story. Truly, Marvel Zombies only having four episodes is probably one of the most significant drawbacks the series has.
At times, the episodes don’t allow for certain moments to breathe, while others are overtaken by comedic beats that felt unnecessary, particularly from episode two onward. Some of this stems from the series focusing on too many characters that seemed superfluous to the storyline. Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan does much of the show’s heavy lifting, and Vellani does a fantastic job voicing Kamala (not that there was ever any doubt based on her live-action performances as the character). It was also enjoyable seeing characters interact on-screen that we might not see together otherwise, especially in the form they’d taken, such as Todd Williams’ Blade as Moon Knight. It was also great seeing Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie back in action.
While Marvel Zombies does have some incredibly cool moments sprinkled throughout the series, it doesn’t make up for an undercooked story that likely would have benefited from a few more episodes or the same number of episodes with a longer runtime. Although it doesn’t hit the same heights as past Marvel Animation shows like X-Men ’97, the series is worth watching for its fantastic animation (provided by Stellar Creative Lab) and voice acting performances, especially with spooky season fast approaching.
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