Marvel Zombies

Marvel Zombies is the continuation of the story of a zombie apocalypse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that takes place in an alternate timeline that was first introduced in the show What If...? in the episode "What If... Zombies?!" where a quantum virus turns the world's population, including the Avengers, into zombies. The series follows a group of superhero survivors who discover the key to possibly bringing the zombie plague to an end, and must journey across a dystopian comic book landscape in an effort to save the world.

Unfortunately for them, there’s a lot of zombies standing in their way.

What if…? debuted in 1977 from Marvel comics.

I’ve talked about this before. It’s often been one of my favorite comic book titles. An anthology series, it focuses on exploring how certain events might have gone in the Marvel Universe if they hadn’t unfolded exactly as originally told. What if the Fantastic Four had not gained their powers? What if the Phoenix had not died? What if the Punisher became an Agent of SHIELD? What if Wolverine had killed the Hulk? What if Spider-man’s Uncle Ben had lived? And of course, a long time favorite that I’ve definitely mentioned before now… What if Captain America were revived today? On and on and on.

It’s not always good, but when it is, it’s really good.

A big part of the whole thing, one of the things that I really love about it, is that more often than not, these tales from alternate world turn out pretty badly. Like in Avengers: Endgame, these stories basically show us that the main universe is the one dimension where it all works out right. This means that everywhere else is pretty much screwed, unfortunately. At its core, sure, this is in incredibly dark outlook on reality, but ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved the whole idea. 

I love the potential freedom that comes with these stories, where anything can happen. It's a given in fiction–especially in superhero fiction–that the heroes will win, that even the darkest moments are just a regular part of the heroes’ journey to victory. But here, in Marvel Comics’ What if stories (or with DC comics, these kind of alternate universe stories are called Elseworld Tales), everything is up for grabs. No one is safe. The heroes could lose. The heroes could die. And if they do make it out the other side, they might not be whole.

You never know what’s going to happen.

That tension, the unknowing, is the fun part. And it’s safe fun too, y’know? Because the whole time, the ”real” versions of these characters are ”safe” over in the main universe, right? These alternate universe stories all take place outside of continuity. That means they don’t count. That’s the key to the whole thing. This is what allows the creative teams to cut loose, to be daring, to make a character, who is otherwise protected from lasting harm by its own value, suddenly be at risk… at least in the narrative sense. This allows the creative teams to make the character’s actions and sacrifices count… at least, that is, within the confines of this small and very specific narrative box, of course. The point is, this allows the creative teams to tell the kind of stories that they otherwise are not allowed to tell with the big name characters in the regular universe.

That said, there are some people who just can’t handle this stuff.

They don’t like what they see as capricious stories of alternate world stories. The unpredictability makes them uncomfortable. They get all mad, sometimes even visibly upset, if their personal favorites get fucked up, or are presented in a “bad” light. This is a sadly all too common thing with fandom, a really sad spin on the idea of a Parasocial Interaction, which is already an incredibly pathetic idea to begin with. They’re way too sensitive about their oh so precious favorite fictional characters to allow for even a momentary detour into stories that might have real (“real”) stakes, and while I have nothing but sympathy for these sad little weirdo nerds, I can’t condone it. It’s just silly. Stop it.

Me? I love them. Like I said, the unpredictability is fun.

Plus, I love a story that’s set in a familiar and yet strangely different world. I love stories that are set in places where maybe only one small thing has changed, or one small moment has been changed, and that change ripples out in unexpected ways, or worlds where everything has changed, and it’s all different. I’m also a sucker for any stories where familiar characters’ famous outfits have been redesigned due to the changed context they exist in. Does someone now have an eyepatch? Or maybe a goatee? Is there a robotic arm? Or a whole robotic body? How has the character’s new attitude affected the color scheme of their outfit? Is someone else entirely now wearing the classic costume? I love that stuff. Just like I love when there’s new and unexpected relationships. Are any former enemies now the best of friends? Are any former friends now the worst of enemies? Will we get to see this world’s Avengers? Or this world’s X-Men? Are the Defenders somehow the premier superhero team? That’s crazy! I wonder what strange mix of heroes and villains might possibly appear on these teams? In a nutshell, I’m in. Make the old new again.

And all of this is overseen by Uatu, the Watcher.

As his name implies, Uatu is a Watcher. Created in 1963 by that pair of seemingly perennial idea machines, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Watchers are a race of immortal humanoids from Planet T-37X, who first appeared in Fantastic Four #13. Giants with large melon heads, the Watchers are one of the oldest, most advanced races in the cosmos, and one of the first to receive sapience from caretakers of reality, the Celestials. They generally like to wear togas, flowing robes, and knee-high boots, which is a choice, but whatever floats your boat. The Watchers’ deal is, eons ago, they tried to share their incredible advanced knowledge with beings who weren’t ready, and that ended in nuclear fire. As a result, the Watchers vowed to never again meddle in the affairs of other species, and from then on to only ever observe and record the myriad events of the multiverse, all for the benefit of whoever it is that comes after them.

So that’s what Uatu does.

He’s our narrator, and he shares with us an endless litany of stories from the multiverse, stories of doomed worlds and noble failures and heroes striving to still make a difference in the face of everything having gone wrong.

I love that stuff.

Just like I love a good zombie apocalypse story. I’ve talked about this before, so you already know. In a nutshell, I love the idea of a good apocalyptic fort, and the logistics of stocking them, not to mention looting places, of course. Y’know, all that good stuff. And then, once my fort is well-stocked and fully locked down, then I'd stand in an upper window–all while wearing a turtleneck, obviously, and slowly swirling a cognac in one hand–as I regard the filthy hordes of undead as they mill about in the streets below me, a single eyebrow raised in a mix of contempt and disgust. “The riff-raff,” I would sneer, as I pressed the button that ignites the automatic flamethrowers.

But I digress…

The first appearance of the modern Marvel zombies idea wasn’t in a What if…? comic at all. It happened in the first version of the Ultimate Universe, specifically in Ultimate Fantastic Four, vol 1, #21, on July 13th, 2005.

As I’ve mentioned before, twenty-some years ago, Marvel created the Ultimate Universe. It was a side universe that was meant to reboot the Marvel characters in more modern settings, starting over from scratch, with a lot of the characters being generally younger in age and attitude. It was meant as a jumping-on point for new readers, all without intruding on the long ago established, and still ongoing, stories of the “real” Marvel characters. It was basically Marvel having their narrative cake and eating it too. And it was a huge success, one that has not only been heavily influential in comics, creating such now well-known characters as Miles Morales, but it was also hugely influential on the films of the MCU, both in the costume designs and in a lot of the ways that the films approach the characters.

Ultimate Fantastic Four was one of those comic books, presenting the familiar characters as teenagers, who are a part of a special institute for super intelligent teens. In the Ultimate Universe, instead of stealing a rocket and running straight into a cosmic storm, which is how The Fantastic Four gains their powers, Reed Richards (who would eventually become the villain known as The Maker) created a dimensional portal, and that ended up being the catalyst to create the Ultimate Universe version of The Fantastic Four.

So, in issue 21, after a few hints in previous issues that the young Reed has been chatting across universes with an older version of Reed Richards (one that readers were led to believe was actually the "Real" Reed Richards from the main universe), young Reed builds a teleporter that is capable of taking him to older Reed’s world. But when he arrives in the other world, all he finds waiting for him is ruins, and also a version of the Fantastic Four that are zombies.

I posted the shocking last page of issue 21 above…

So, as I have also mentioned before, when it comes to the classic Romero Rules zombies, where a person who is infected with the zombie virus dies, and are then reanimated as a zombie, there's two basic subsets of that version... dumb zombies and smart zombies. The Marvel Zombies, like the Deadites famous from the Evil Dead series, are smart. Or, maybe it’s better to say that they possess a low and vicious cunning. They're like slavering, slat-ribbed and ravenous wolves. And that said, some of them are smarter than others, and the smarter ones are especially evil and devious. But above all else, they’re all hungry. They're very, very hungry.

Finally, just a quick note before we get into the show itself, normally with these comic book related movies and tv shows, I’ll list all of the main characters, and talk about their histories a bit, and blah blah blah, but there's just too many characters appearing in this mini-series for me to do that. Basically every character who has ever appeared in an MCU production shows up here, at least for a little while....

So, if you find yourself confused by any of the names, or where they‘re from in the MCU, a quick google should fill you in.

Good luck, True Believer!

Also, just fyi... the divergent point between this universe and the MCU that we all know and love, the moment where everything changes, happens at during the film Ant-Man and the Wasp is ending and Avengers: Infinity War is beginning. And the tale begins in the 5th episode of the 1st season of the animated TV series What If…?, which aired on September 8th, 2021.

What if... Zombies?!

When Hank Pym entered the Quantum Realm to find his long-lost wife, Janet van Dyne, he didn’t know she had been infected with a quantum virus that had turned her into a zombie. Now zombies, Hank and Janet return from the Quantum Realm, and attack Scott Lang. Their daughter, Hope van Dyne, escapes. Within 24 hours, the virus has spread across the western United States. The Avengers respond, and are soon infected, accelerating the spread of the virus across the globe.

Two weeks later…

With his last breath, the heroic Heimdall, guardian of Asgard, summons the Bifrost one last time and sends Bruce Banner to Earth, in order to warn humanity of the coming of Thanos.

But when Bruce arrives, crashing down in the Sanctum Sanctorum of Dr. Strange, he finds empty streets. New York City is seemingly abandoned. But when Thanos' lieutenants, Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian, arrive soon after, he watches them be devoured by a zombified Tony Stark, Stephen Strange, and Wong. They then turn on Bruce, who is having some performance issues when it comes to becoming the Hulk. At the last moment, Hope and Strange’s Cloak of Levitation kill the zombies, saving Banner, and whisk him away to their safe house. He meets a small group of survivors, Peter Parker, Bucky, Okoye, Sharon Carter, Happy Hogan, and Kurt, the Russian guy from Ant-Man.

Discovering a signal broadcasting to survivors that a cure has been found, the group follows it to Camp Lehigh in New Jersey, the birthplace of Captain America. Along the way, they're attacked by a zombified Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, and Sam Wilson. Sharon Carter and Happy Hogan are killed and turned. Hope is infected with the virus too, but before she succumbs, she sacrifices herself, growing to giant size and carrying the others over the waiting zombie horde to the old army base, which is somehow keeping the zombies from crossing its perimeter.

It turns out, the reason the zombies are not entering the base is because of Vision, who has the Mind Stone imbedded in his forehead. The yellow infinity stone is not only keeping the zombies at bay, it's also reversed the virus's effects, as evidenced by Scott Lang's sudden appearance, albeit as a human head in a jar, but at least he is no longer a zombie. Unfortunately, they also soon learn that Vision is keeping a zombified Wanda Maximoff captive too, as he can not bring himself to kill her, and has been keeping her under control by using his broadcast to lure survivors to the base, and then feed them to her. This includes the Black Panther, T’Challa, who is strapped to a hospital bed and is now missing a leg.

Things get worse when Wanda breaks free. She devours Kurt, who refers to Wanda as Baba Yaga just before she kills him, which is a much better nickname for what Wanda has become then it is for John Wick, Then she flings Bucky who knows how far away, and also kills Okoye. Vision attempts to stop Wanda by sacrificing himself by removing the Mind Stone, but this doesn’t work. Worse, without Vision using the Mind Stone, the zombies at the fences swarm into Camp LeHigh. Bruce Banner finally manages to become the Hulk, and stays behind, fighting Wanda and the horde, as Peter Parker, T’Challa, and Scott Lang’s Head, now wearing the Cloak of Levitation, escape in an old quadjet.

In the hope of possibly using the Mind Stone's energy to cure zombies around the world, the last three survivors fly off toward Wakanda, unaware that the country has already been conquered by a zombified Thanos, who is also wielding a nearly-complete Infinity Gauntlet, and only needs the Mind Stone.

The End.

It was a really fun episode, a classic zombie movie formula smooshed down to a half hour episode, using a fun and surprising cast of characters, and ending on a great open-ended tease typical of a What if story. And that was it.

But then…

Marvel Zombies, Episode One

Episode one begins in New York City. It’s five years since the zombie virus has devastated the Earth.

Riri Williams, Kate Bishop, and Kamala Khan, along with the F.R.I.D.A.Y. AI inhabiting an old suit of Iron Man Armor, survive together in the ruins of New York. One day, their usual careful scavenging run is interrupted when a quadjet suddenly crashes in the middle of the city. Inside the quadjet, they find a zombified Erik Selvig, and inside of the zombie Erik Selvig, they find a transmitter device that has been shrunken down using Pym Particles. But before they can look for more clues, a horde of zombies show up, including a zombified Hawkeye, who damages F.R.I.D.A.Y., and the three young heroes barely get away alive, dragging the AI with them.

Later, a zombified Okoye is shown at the head of an undead horde, investigating the crashed quadjet in the name of a mysterious Queen…

Back at their safe house, Riri manages to crack the transmitter, and tracks its signal to an old S.H.I.E.L.D. base in Ohio. The four heroes set out the next day, driving across a ruined America, and unknowingly enter an area known as The Valley of the Broken Gods. Here, a massive ongoing battle is waged between the malfunctioning Eternal, Ikaris, and a zombified Carol Danvers, and the fallout of that much power has decimated the surrounding countryside. While the heroes try to escape the mayhem, Carol kills Kate, and Riri is bitten by a zombie. Riri fights off the horde, and orders F.R.I.D.A.Y. to fly Kamala away from the battle, but as it attempts to do so, the suit and the AI is destroyed in the chaos that is wrought by Ikaris and Carol’s fight.

At the last minute, Kamala is saved by the man known as Blade Knight, the dhampir vampire hunter, who in this universe is also the avatar of the Egyptian God of the Moon and the Night Sky, Khonshu, and thus, is tasked with protecting those who travel at night.

Blade Knight takes Kamala to Ohio.

When they get to the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, Kamala and Blade Knight find Melina Vostokoff, Alexei Shostakov, and Yelena Belova all waiting, protected by a ring of Melina's mind controlled zombies. Together, they determine that the transmitter needs to be taken to space in order for it to broadcast a distress signal to the Nova Corps, an intergalactic peacekeeping force.

But then the base is attacked by a zombie horde led by Okoye, who serves the Queen of the Dead, Wanda Maximoff. The horde includes zombie Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Ava Starr aka Ghost, and Emil Blonsky, otherwise known as The Abomination. The horde overwhelms the base's defenses. Zombie Ghost kills the myriad of Black Widows. Alexei manages to kill Zombie Steve Rogers, and even though Zombie Steve Rogers has no legs at the time, he still feels pretty validated by that. Then Blade Knight takes down Zombie Ghost with his sword, and finally, Melina sacrifices herself to allow the others to escape. Blade Knight reveals that he knows where they can find a ship that is capable of reaching space.

Marvel Zombies, Episode Two

Episode Two begins with a flashback to the early days of the zombie outbreak.

Shang-Chi, Katy Chen, and FBI agent Jimmy Woo are trying to survive the fall of San Francisco, as the military desperately tries to save a panicking populace from the rampaging zombies, that includes a few giant zombies as a result of the chaos at Pym Labs. The trio are saved by Shang-Chi’s father, Xu Wenwu, who is known as the Mandarin, the leader of the Ten Rings criminal organization, and his right hand man, the silent ninja known as Death Dealer. When Shang-Chi is bitten by a zombie, Wenwu gives him the mystical Ten Rings, with one of the rings wrapping his bicep, acting as a mystical tourniquet in order to contain the infection, leaving Shang-Chi with a single zombified arm. Wenwu then sacrifices himself so that the group can escape.

In the present, after dispatching a marauding gang of Skrull motorcycle bandits, Shang-Chi, Katy, Jimmy Woo, and Death Dealer arrive at the coastal city sanctuary of the Baron Helmut Zemo. At the same time, Kamala Khan, Blade Knight, Yelena Belova, and Alexei Shostakov also arrive. The two groups agree to work together so that they can get to the spaceship Blade Knight knows of, which is located in the town of New Asgard. To get there, they book passage on Zemo’s submarine, which is the repurposed super-prison that was once known as The Raft, piloted by Zemo and his security head, John Walker. While the group rests during the journey, Wanda Maximoff, the Queen of the Dead, haunts Kamala's dreams.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the Zombie Okoye destroys Zemo’s coastal city sanctuary with a horde of zombies.

Unfortunately, Zemo is never to be trusted. In order to ensure safe passage, he attempts to sacrifice the heroes to the infected Atlanteans, and distract the undead mer-people with blood in the water. Instead, under the sway of the Queen of the Dead, a zombified Namor and the Atlanteans attack the Raft, killing the refugees within. Zemo and John Walker attempt to flee in an escape pod, capturing Zombie Namor in the Hulk Containment Cell left over from the Raft’s prison days, but it doesn’t hold, and Namor escapes and kills John Walker.

Realizing that Wanda is after the transmitter, Kamala and the others stop Zombie Namor as the Raft begins to sink. Damaged in the battle, Yelena decides she will stay behind to launch the escape pod, sacrificing herself so the others, including Zemo, can survive. Yelena toasts her escaping allies just before the Atlanteans break into the Control Room, and the Raft explodes.

Marvel Zombies, Episode Three

Episode Three begins with a flashback to just after the end of the original What if episode, as Peter Parker, Scott Lang's head, and the one-legged T'Challa arrive in Wakanda to find that the country is nothing but zombies now, and zombie Thanos is waiting for them and the Mind Stone.

The trio fight the waiting zombie horde and zombie Thanos. Thor, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot make their big Infinity War entrance, but Zombie Thanos kills Groot and Rocket, and gravely injures Thor. T'Challa sacrifices himself in order to push Thanos into Wakanda's vibranium core, causing the Infinity Stones to shatter and release a massive surge of energy. Peter Parker and Scott Lang are saved from the giant Akira-like explosion by a sudden sparkle-circle cast by the remaining sorcerers of the hidden city of Kamar-Taj.

In the present, Kamala and the other hero’s reach the walls of the town of New Asgard, which is run by Valkyrie. At first, she denies them entrance, but then Blade Knight has Khonshu convince Valkyrie, deity to deity, even though to everyone else it looks like Blade Knight and Valkyrie are talking to thin air.

Inside, the heroes find a disquieting scene awaits them, as the Asgardians are in the middle of a huge feast, gifted to them by the Queen of Sokovia, who turns out to be Wanda. No longer looking like a zombified Queen of the Dead, Wanda tells them that she has regained control of herself and that she is not actually after the transmitter. She is hoping that Kamala will use her powers to help Wanda curb the still raging energy surge blasting up from the site of Wakanda's vibranium core, due to the broken Infinity Stones, in order to save the world.

Through all of this, a scarred and broken Thor remains slumped on his throne.

That’s when the feast is suddenly revealed to be zombie remains, and all of the Asgardians, and also Alexei, start to turn into zombies, as they all were eating the food. The heroes rush for the space ship Valkyrie, Thor, Loki, and Hulk once used to escape the planet of Sakaar. In the ensuing melee, the Zombie Asgardians kill Zemo, and Death Dealer, which gives Randall Park (as Jimmy Woo) a chance to yell out dramatically “Death Dealer! Nooooo!” before he dies.

Thor joins the fight at the last moment, facing down Zombie Wanda in order to give the rest of the group time to escape in the space ship. They fly off into space and activate the transmitter, sending out their distress call to the Nova Corps. Unfortunately, the Nova Corps are already there and have placed the Earth under quarantine. They order the heroes to turn back or be incinerated.

Marvel Zombies, Episode Four

The heroes try to avoid the Nova Corps starfighters, but they get shot down, and tumble back to Earth.

Luckily, they are rescued by the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj, who reveal that the surging energy of the Infinity Stones is actually being contained by a creature that is now known as The Infinity Hulk. And that as long as Bruce Banner lives, and as long as he stays where he is, squatting like a Zen Master above the remains of Wakanda’s Vibranium Core, absorbing the torrent of Infinity Stone Energy, then the world is safe.

Wanda knows this, and thus far, has not been powerful enough to defeat the Infinity Hulk. Unfortunately, between her original horde of undead, the various zombie Avengers she gathered along the way, and her recently acquired horde of zombie Asgardians, she now has more than enough zombies at her disposal for her to face The Infinity Hulk in battle.

When Zombie Wanda arrives, she finds the Infinity Hulk waiting. Infinity Hulk initially makes short work of the hordes, but there’s a lot of them. Then the heroes and the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj arrive to defend Infinity Hulk. All they need to do is to keep Wanda from touching The Infinity Hulk.

Now it’s on like Donkey Kong.

Pretty much everyone who’s become a zombie in the story by this point joins the fights, and ends up getting splattered. A zombified Thor shows up, who kills Blade Knight with lightning, before Infinity Hulk crushes him. Shang-Chi is turned and then destroyed. Katy Chen, Peter Parker, and the Head of Scott Lang are all killed. Zombie Okoye stabs Valkyrie. One by one, the Defenders fall, and the seemingly endless hordes start to wear down Infinity Hulk. Finally, Zombie Wanda manages to touch Infinity Hulk. She then manipulates Kamala Khan into taking her hand, and the world goes white.

Kamala wakes up in a world that is the way it was before the zombie apocalypse. She and Riri and Kate, neither of whom remember the Zombie apocalypse, go out for boba tea. It’s really nice. Everything seems fine. Maybe it was all just a weird dream… But then reality flickers, and Kamala suddenly sees zombies all round her, and the real Riri is fighting to get to her, begging Kamala to wake up, to realize that none of this is real…

End credits…

Damn you, cliffhanger!

A whirlwind tour of the MCU caught in the rotted grip of a zombie apocalypse, the story is basically an extended chase sequence, as Wanda Maximoff pursues Kamala Khan across the globe.

And it took forever to finally come out.

Marvel Zombies was originally announced four years ago, and I was excited from the start, but it kept getting delayed and pushed back, and I began to wonder if it was ever going to come out. And eventually, I just assumed that it wouldldn't. Four years is a long time to wait. But in the end, it was worth it. I'm not totally sold on the animation style of these shows, still, this is obviously right up my alley. As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I’m both a comic book fan and also a fan of zombie apocalypse stories, so yeah I'm in. All I was really looking for here was some classic zombie apocalypse stuff mixed with fun MCU nods.

And Marvel Zombies delivered. I loved it.

That said, if you know me, then you know that I'm not that big fan of intelligent zombies. And normally, that’s definitely true. I generally prefer my zombies to be dumb, nothing but moaning mobile obstacles which can then be used to disrupt and force changes on the story of the human characters.

But…

For super hero zombie apocalypses, I think intelligent zombies are really the only version that can work. The zombies simply need to be smart enough to be able use their powers. They need to be smart enough to be able to plan surprise attacks and ambushes, and to know who to strike first and how, right? Otherwise, how could they defeat any super humans who are still alive?

So I was fine with that.

But while I did really like this one, it's fair to say that it was being made for the fans, and more specifically, for a specific subset of fans like me, the ones who like more of a hard left turn from the usual fare featuring these characters. So, it's not something that I would necessarily recommend to the Casuals out there. I mean, if you're interested, sure, dive in. Have fun, but if you were at all lost in the litany of characters I mentioned above, then maybe this isn't really for you. Because Marvel Zombies definitely focuses on a lot of MCU minor characters and details. So much so, in fact, that at times, it definitely feels like the show was deliberately sweeping the corners of the MCU a bit, purposely gathering up as many forgotten details and underused characters as they could. Now, for me, this was a big part of what made it such like a good time. For others, you might be confused by this, or you might not even notice it, and some of you might be annoyed by it. But that said, if do you like the MCU, and if you do like zombie apocalypses, and if you do like What if stories, then you should definitely enjoy this.

Of course, because they tend to bray the loudest, the usual butthurt nerds will be mad about the amount of quips in the dialogue. And to be fair, they're not entirely wrong about the overuse of that kind of dialogue in the MCU and how it can break dramatic tension too often, but to be even more fair… they're simply too fucking butthurt about it.

Plus, let’s be honest here, it really is unreasonable to be mad, or to act shocked, that a cartoon of a very mainstream franchise isn’t some brutally dark, grim and gritty, horrifying experience. It's just not going to happen. There's only so much "horror" a franchise like this is capable of. So, if you hear this, be aware that this is the kind of complaint that you will only hear from the worst kinds nerds, the self-loathing weirdos and social rejects who hate the fact that their hobby is rooted in children’s stories and as a result, has an unavoidable silly side, so they act like it’s some kind of huge betrayal that things like Marvel Zombies aren't terrifying or graphic or super-duper adult serious.

But whatever, nerds are gonna nerd.

But anyway, not only is this fun, and makes good use of the whole MCU, I was also impressed by how well the show kept track of where its characters are in the MCU timeline when the divergence point happens. I’ve seen a few people out there claim that the show is sloppy with the timeline, often citing such character groups as the Black Widow family or Team Shang-Chi, for example, as having cheated in the way they portray the characters, saying it fudges relationships and character dynamics that had not been established at that point in the MCU, but that’s just… wrong. I’m not sure if they’re just talking out their ass, weren’t quite paying attention, or they were confused while watching, or maybe they were in too much of a rush to be the first person to post a reaction–a pretty common online nerd problem–and so they didn't give it as much thought as they should have or what, I don’t know. Whatever it was, I did not see the discrepancies they complain about. In fact, I’m not even sure what it is that they think isn’t right.

So that was cool.

Then, I saw some people out there getting a bit too nit-picky—which to be fair, is the natural inclination of the comic book nerd—and say shit like: “So how did Riri, Kamala, and Kate all meet?” Honestly, that is kind of embarrassing. For someone to not be able to fill in the blanks on their own? To demand spoon feeding? I don’t know, dude… is it really that unreasonable to think that a couple of people, all with the kind of skill set that could eventually lead them to become super heroes, all of whom live in NYC at the time, and all of whom are trying to survive the chaos of a zombie apocalypse, might not eventually run into each other? It’s been five years, my dude. Then, I saw some others out there saying dumb shit like: “How did Blade Knight even happen? That is too random!” And I don’t know what to even say to something like that. Sorry you don’t like cool shit, I guess. Nerd.

Honestly, I just don’t think any of those nitpicks are valid.

I think, if you’re going nitpick, then you should instead focus on the fact that the show really does crib a few too many recognizable ideas and moments from some other well-know properties like Mad Max, and the Walking Dead, obviously, and even Game of Thrones.

Still... what a great trailer.

I love that this show focuses so much on the Young Avengers… at least for a little while anyway. Blade Knight was awesome too. Plus, I love it any time that Alexei shows up, I'm a fan of the MCU's portrayal of Red Guardian. That said, I do kind of wish that Namor had survived and been a hero for at least a little while, but that's the thing about the zombie apocalypse... everyone dies... and then gets up and kills. The people they kill then get up and kill!

Also, while it does make since why some characters, like She-Hulk, or Peter Quill, or Nebula, or Drax, or Mantis, or really, any of the various Guardian characters, I do wonder where Rhodey is, or Pepper Pots, or Agatha Harkness, or Frank Castle, or Daredevil, or even where Nick Fury and the SHIELD Helicarrier might be at this point? I was also surprised that Bucky didn't show up again. It was implied that he died, sure, much like Riri in the first episode, but we never saw a body, either dead or undead, and he clearly could have survived a fall like that. Maybe in Season two, I guess? If there is a Season 2, that is… But given how well this show performed, as it apparently broke some streaming records, there’s a good chance there might be. Fingers crossed. Because while I loved the ballsy-ness of the cliffhanger ending, I’d love it a lot more if it were eventually resolved.

I guess we’ll see.

Anyway, like I said, this was fun. If you're not already in the bag for the MCU in general, like me, and so you haven’t already watched it, I’ll just say this, if you liked the recent Predator cartoon, I think you'll like this one too.