Season 1 / Episode 5: What If... Zombies!?

Man, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills, because this was my least favorite episode by far. And I’m a bit more forgiving of Marvel a lot of the time, so that’s saying something.

The tonal whiplash going from scene to scene was so jarring. Slightly brutal introductory scene of zombified Avengers killing two Black Order members, then lighthearted scene of Peter Parker doing a Zombie Apocalypse prep video. And the fact that this episode was so short meant that I could never sit with moments of characters dying because it just moved from scene to scene, location to location so quickly, so I didn’t feel anything.

And the quipping. When other people complain about a lot of the MCU films being too quippy ruining dramatic moments, that’s how I felt with this episode. It gave this episode a tonal dissonance most of the time where characters should’ve been feeling a bit bad about other characters dying, but instead make a funny joke making light of their horrible fates. Falcon getting bisected, then Bucky casually saying he doesn’t feel bad. Kurt dies by Zombie Wanda, then Scott saying, “She’s a maneater.” What?!

Between that, it being rushed and the tonal whiplash, I didn’t know what to feel, so I didn’t feel anything. Characters don’t care, so I don’t care.

Also, I wouldn’t mind if Mark Ruffalo and Sebastian Stan were replaced with soundalike, professional voice actors in the future. It’s so apparent they aren’t cut out for this voice acting gig, and just aren’t good. At all.

Paul Rudd is great, though. A few out of place quips aside, he can stay.

The few saving graces for me were Hope and Peter’s interaction, her sacrifice, Zombie Wanda, Hulk vs Zombie Wanda, Cloak of Levitation being the MVP. Also, Futurama head Scott wearing the Cloak. That’s about it, though. It was kind of a fun episode, but I wish it was more than that. The fact that it wasn’t brings it down for me quite a bit.

To quote Bucky in this episode, “I should feel sad, but I don’t.”

6/10. And that’s being generous. That may go down in future rewatches.

 

I've felt similarly.

 

Really wanted to see more of Hulk vs Wanda.

 

only thing I didn't get was how the zombie Avengers were still able to use there powers (especially Strange & Wanda) if they still had enough brain function to be able to control complex spells/ or use their tech, shouldn't they be self aware or have some self control too?

 

All of the episodes have felt they're being recited by a 10 year who is hyper-charged by a gallon of soda. This particular one was no different and by far the worst of the bunch. Maybe I'm just Marvel'd out at this point - I'm just not getting what I hoped for.

 

Why the heck didnt Wasp shrink after she transported everyone? Did no one in this universe watch Game of Thrones? Her fate seemed so obvious

 

I know Peter created a home video in "Homecoming" but spending time to make a Zombie tutorial video( Anyone catch the Joss Whedon company homage?) felt out of place.

Happy Hogan acting like an idiot with the "blam! blam!" stuff didn't fit the MCU version and being a stiff.

 

I saw the Giant Zombie coming from a mile away.

 

Giant Wasp throwing that random zombie at the quinjet made me laugh out loud.

 

I think she could have snapped a train car off and just pushed/flung it like a little kid pushing a car across the ground

it would just barrel through the horde of zombies clearing a path

 

Why not just shrink the whole group to get onto the base once their train arrived? We saw they were still using the old shrunk car gimmick earlier, no?

 

Just got around to watch the zombies episode and I very much enjoyed it. It was nothing more than good mindless entertainment. Had a good mix of comedy & light terror, kinda like Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead

Would love to see a follow up episode

Still think last week’s Doctor Strange episode is the strongest this far. But that’s already 2 episodes in a row with pretty dark, tragic material. Hope next week’s is more lighthearted to kinda even out the variety

 

As the zombified heroes retained their abilities, I don't think Hope shrinking would have fixed the problem. And shrunk travel takes longer, which could explain why our survivors didn't use this method upon approaching the base.

But more importantly - what do we call supersized Hope? It took me way to long to realize Giant Man is Ant Man with a two letter prefix. My initial thought is that she should be known as Was-Up, but I am open to suggestions.

 

ohh, so you haven't seen Zack Synder's ARMY OF THE DEAD? or Brad Pitt's WORLD WAR Z? Zombies are smarter and faster now Bro.

 

I’m really enjoying the variety on offer in this series.

 

Definitely not as good as the previous episode. It was rather uneven in tone and not really all that much like a Twilight Zone episode.

I think Janet Van Dyne needed the Pfizer Pfieffer vaccine.

 

Nah...

What they do with zombies in another film has nothing to do with how they were employed in this episode where they gave zero inkling their zombies had any control other than pure Zombie instinct.

Using tech, weapons and magic that requires some kind of intelligence and skill was incongruous with how they showed the Zombies to be in all other ways but... This episode was chock full of "just cuz" BS to either further the plot or land a joke.


So...

The criticisms writ small of about half of what Marvel Studios puts out.

If the personalities and intelligence of the heroes had been retained in some form as is the case with the Marvel Zombies series of books then fine, but none spoke or showed any glimmer of who they were.

 

I did find it odd that even as zombies, they knew how to use their powers/weapons. It's the equivalent of zombies in The Walking Dead being able to shoot guns.

 

Could have done them as vampires instead to counteract that.

 

Yeah Zombie's having the know how and coordination and skill to do covert mystic rings at the beginning was odd.

Also the ending with Zombie Thanos seeming fully aware of how to use the gauntlet etc etc.

 

To be fair, this isn't the first property to do smart zombies.

 

What I found odd was that the every day people were like the zombies we know, slow and dumb but all the avengers zombies were different like you say, smarter.

 

Yeah, it was all over the place but because of the nature of the show itself, you can look the other way and not really go crazy questioning it.