We are preempting our regular programming because I was seized with a desire to write thousands of words about a Disney Plus Miniseries. I have only so much ink in my pen! Regular FGC planned articles resume next week, but right now here is a “review” of Marvel Zombies (2025 Miniseries). I will now spoil the miniseries, assume you have general familiarity with recent MCU movies, and also examine comics from 20 years ago. You have been warned!
We need to talk about the shambling corpse of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Remember comics? Let’s start with comics. 25 years ago, there was the “main” Marvel Universe, 616, and the Ultimate Marvel Universe, 1610. The Ultimate Marvel Universe was new, and it was stated by the writers and editors at Marvel that the 616 and 1610 universes would not crossover. The repeated statement was that such a crossover would be a clear sign that the Ultimate Universe had run out of ideas, and that would never happen, because this whole new universe of the House of Ideas would be evergreen forever. So everyone groaned in 2005 when the Ultimate Fantastic Four starred in a story called “Crossover”. Within that story, it appeared that the young Ultimate Reed Richards was crossing over the dimensions to speak to 616 Reed Richards. But all was not as it seemed! The Ultimate Universe was not talking to Earth 616, but Earth 2149. And on Earth 2149, Reed Richards and nearly all the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe were zombies.
So from about 2005 to 2009, there was one, continuous Marvel Zombie plot across a handful of miniseries. The initial, previously mentioned Crossover storyline was your basic story about Ultimate Reed Richards joining a group of survivors attempting to survive a (superhero) zombie apocalypse. Right down to an adorable kid that needs to get their medication, it is a remarkably straightforward zombie survival story (just one where the Mutant Master of Magnetism is your Daryl). This led directly to first Marvel Zombies story where there are no “crossovers” involved, and it is just Marvel Zombies zombieing around. From there, we got a single-issue prequel (Dead Days) and Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness, which was an excuse to have Ash Williams hang out in the Marvel Universe and flirt with Dazzler. Marvel Zombies 2 was another survivor story, but with a “28 years later” twist (okay, 40 years, but nobody ever named a movie after a midlife crisis). Marvel Zombies 3 may as well have been another Army of Darkness crossover, as it was Machine Man chainsawing through any Marvel Zombies that had not been killed on screen during previous issues. Marvel Zombies 4 was a stealth pilot for The New Midnight Sons, and, aside from it maybe being responsible for interest in Marvel’s Midnight Suns XCOM Xover, it is a remarkably typical superhero comic where zombies are just a threat to be squashed. Marvel Zombies Return (effectively Marvel Zombies 5) features zombies that “starred” in the original miniseries as they travel through time and zombie-up classic Marvel tales. It is pretty fun, but it also boils down to a series of undead-themed What If stories (what if… Tony Stark had to fight zombies while super drunk). That all culminates in a duel where the Superhero Zombies must fight Supervillain Zombies in a battle for the soul of the universe (and, weirdly, it almost works as a Marvel vs. DC crossover). Regardless, the finale winds up creating a time loop that plops the zombie plague back at the start of Marvel Zombies (1), so it is fair to say this the end of Marvel Zombies timeline. Give or take an ape fight (long story), all Marvel Zombie materials past 2009 feature entirely new zombie continuities and/or wildly varying definitions of the concept of a “zombie”. Does Punisher killing the Marvel Universe because Spider-Man was patient zero for a cannibal plague count here? Or that recent trade where Groot initiates a The Last of Us contagion? Who knows! What is important is we can say there was one continuous Marvel Zombies story for about four years.
And, through all of those tales, it never got better than the first story.
Well, second, for those of you that are paying attention. The first story was Crossover, and the result of that was that the Zombie Fantastic Four (occasionally named the Ultimate Frightful Four) wound up trapped in the Ultimate Universe. And I do mean “trapped”: the Ultimate Fantastic Four defeated them, and, unable to execute their own doppelgangers, kept them locked up in some kind of ultimate prison for several issues. There were sporadic check-ins with the zombies, and these were… Well… You ever seen Silence of the Lambs? It was basically that, over and over again. Which, in a way, was fairly novel: these Marvel Zombies maintained their intelligence, but they were singularly focused on murdering and devouring literally every human on Earth. They were a terrible perversion of our heroes, as they were still some of the smartest and strongest people on the planet, but aimed squarely at genocide. In a way, they were the typical evil twin archetype, but there was something deeper there. Something primal. They just wanted a snack, dammit, and every conversation ended with a reminder that they were somehow inevitable. Everyone dies. Every great civilization eventually falls into ruin. All they needed was someone to leave the door open a crack, or for the barrier between us and them to degrade the tiniest bit, and they would be free. They would conquer this universe just as they had taken over theirs, and that would be it. It would be dead days for everyone.
So Marvel Zombies (eventually sometimes called Marvel Zombies 1) is a look at the Marvel Zombie Universe immediately after that visit from Ultimate Reed Richards (and I do mean “immediately”: issue 1 starts seconds after Reed escapes). Humans are nearly extinct, but the “main characters” of the Marvel Universe are all running around with the minor handicap of being undead eating machines. Heroes and villains alike are all solely focused on devouring living flesh, and there is just as much fighting between Spider-Man and Doc Ock as Spider-Man and Captain America when there are scraps to be had. And, for five issues over five months, Robert Kirkman tells a story that is pretty fun! We have all seen 10,000 “bad Superman” or “bad Avengers” stories at this point, but this is pure nihilism. There is not going to be some redemption, or “how will the world survive” scenario. It’s all over! Entropy won, and now we have a Spider-Man that ate Mary Jane. These are your heroes perverted: recognizable as their archetypes, but completely alien to their typical characterization. Thor is carrying around a cinderblock because Mjolnir finds him unworthy. Captain America is literally leaking his brains out of his skull! It is horror comedy and horror tragedy at the same time, and seeing our heroes at their absolute worst is the absolute best this concept would ever achieve.
Marvel Zombies (1) works because you know what these “zombies” are supposed to be doing but are not. There is an ultimate villain to fight/problem to be solved (Galactus! The guy who eats things!), but the zombies are doing it wrong. They accomplish their goals, but they do it in the most perverse way possible, and with the absolute minimum amount of cooperation. This is not how the Avengers are supposed to work! There are decades of precedent here! Stupid Zombie Ant Man! You’re doing it wrong!
The story is wrong, but the plot is just shambling on like some kind of, I don’t know, zombie.
So, let’s shamble into the cinematic universe.
Four years ago, we got the What If…? series on Disney Plus. In its time, we were still in the “innovative” era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney Plus. Wandavision was a different television pastiche every week. Loki took a Norse god, and stuck him in a British sci-fi universe (am I talking about Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or Doctor Who? Yes). The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had an awful lot to say about boat maintenance. And What If…? had the most promise: an animated version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that played with the stories you knew, and twisted them into something new and original. And it… mostly succeeded. I mean, let’s be honest here: a healthy portion of What If…? existed exclusively to remind you of the MCU’s greatest hits (What if we could figure out a story for Peggy Carter?) or promote (then) upcoming projects (What if Dr. Strange cared about that one woman from the first movie that you really have to admit you forgot about but she will be super important in the next Dr. Strange movie?). It is not a surprise that Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, who were both not involved in scheduled projects, were significantly less featured than Thor, T’Challa, or even Gamora. But, overall, What If…? Season 1 did live up to its premise, and we got a chance to repurpose stories that had been important through Avengers: Infinity War. Oh, and speaking of Avengers: Infinity War, Episode 5 was an alternate take on Avengers: Infinity War that asked “What if Earth had its own problems before Thanos showed up.” What If… Zombies?!
What If… Zombies?! is simultaneously the most original of the Season 1 What If…? episodes, and the most predictable. In this universe, Janet van Dyne caps off Ant-Man and the Wasp by bringing a zombie plague to the MCU. The original Avengers are infected almost immediately, and then what would have been Avengers: Infinity War plays out with our “heroes” as the main threat to the universe. Hulk, Hope van Dyne, Spider-Man, and a collection of random MCU supporting players are doing the “surviving a zombie apocalypse” thing, and their quest to walk around the dead is stymied by Zombie Captain America, Hawkeye, and Iron Man. The most interesting bit in there is a sort of perversion of WandaVision where robotic (and thus immune) Vision is keeping a zombified Scarlet Witch alive(ish), thus threatening everyone’s safety. Gawrsh, it’s almost like a modern take on the whole “survivor hides that they have been bitten” trope. Otherwise, it is a typical zombie survivor story with typically brain dead zombies, just a few of the zombies can shoot laser beams. As the survivors move from fallen safe space to fallen safe space, it all concludes as Thanos shows up with the Infinity Gems, and, whoops, he is a zombie, too. Guess this universe is pretty well damned! Good thing it only had to last a half hour!
So, naturally, Marvel Zombies: The Movie was announced as a sequel to the Disney Plus episode. That’s how you put butts in theater seats, baby!
Buuuut turns out there are some hangups on Disney making a movie involving Spider-Man without Sony’s tacit approval. And there was definitely some internal debate about how badly anyone wanted grandma to sit down for the latest Avengers movie with her grandkids, and then watch helplessly as Hawkeye sprays blood all over a camera lens… Maybe this could just be a limited series on Disney Plus?
So, naturally, Marvel Zombies: The Movie was announced as Marvel Zombies (2025 miniseries). Don’t worry, cats and kittens! As four 30-minute episodes, you can still see exactly how this would have been the originally proposed movie.
You MCU heads may be aware that Avengers Infinity War/Avengers Endgame was the end of the first big chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Do not listen to any Kevins: the only “phases” that are worth remembering are Before Endgame and After Endgame. Because, let’s face it, after wrapping up the tales of the Avengers that started this whole mess, the MCU has had less and less of a cultural footprint. Yes, it is certainly still a juggernaut that has warped cinema forever, but go ahead and see if you can find anyone that can rattle off the names of The Eternals like they could for Fox’s X-Men. And it seems like the Marvel Cinematic Universe is losing interest in itself just as much as the audience: recent films have included world changing, “continuity” events that would effectively change the whole of their global economy (all new, indestructible material from giant monster statues) or politics (President Hulk), but are barely even getting lip service past “half the population disappeared for five years”. And this is not to say that the MCU is getting worse with every passing second (Thunderbolts* was neat!), simply that the global mental cache the MCU once held has well and truly slipped. There was a time that the Fantastic Four being presented as an alternate universe team of heroes that are going to “visit” our universe would have been discussed on the evening news. Now it is just typical nerd shit that pales in comparison to reports of the cost of Robert Downey Jr.’s dog groomer.
I’m not mentioning this to establish how I have become too cool for the Marvel Universe. I swear! No, this is germane to the conversation, as, in much the same way What If…? Season 1 existed to remind you of the previous thirteen years of MCU good feelings, Marvel Zombies (2025 miniseries) is here to remind you of all that has all come after Avengers: Endgame. Our protagonists are…
- Ms. Marvel of the Disney Plus Series Ms. Marvel and The Marvels
- Riri Williams of the Disney Plus Series Ironheart
- Kate Bishop of the Disney Plus Series Hawkeye
- The Red Guardian and the Red Roomers of Black Widow and Thunderbolts*
- Shang-Chi, Katy Chen, and Death Dealer of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Jimmy Woo of Netflix’s The Residence
- Baron Helmut Zero of technically Avengers Civil War, but much more featured in Disney Plus Series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Khonshu, the Egyptian God of the Moon of Disney Plus Series Moon Knight
- Valkyrie of later Thor sequels
- Blade, who really should have formally appeared in the MCU by now, but sometimes getting executives to approve a script is like ice-skating uphill
And our villains? Zombie Captain America does not make it out of the first half hour, but we do have an entire episode that focuses on Namor and his fish force from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Okoye is once again the highly competent assistant to a more powerful main player, and that main villainess is Wanda Maximoff, who you may recognize as the main villain of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Never you mind that Wanda was a powerful but mindless zombie in the previous What If…? story, she is back in full control of her brains for this adventure. We must have a chosen one fighting a competent villain! This is how things are done!
And, yes, despite ostensibly being a survivor story, Marvel Zombies (2025 miniseries) is 100% a tale of a superhero™ and their supporting cast triumphing over a very punchable villain with a master plan. Ms. Marvel is front and center for nearly this entire adventure… And that kind of sucks, because Ms. Marvel is at her best at the very start when she can be a loveable goofball making silly refences as part of a trio. But before the first episode is out, Ms. Marvel’s supporting cast sacrifices themselves (twice!) so she can make progress to the eventual goal of pleasing an Egyptian God and vampire.
Actually, yeah, let’s take a moment to talk about the daywalker.
Blade is a featured player from the first episode of this miniseries to the last. Except he’s not Blade: he has taken on the Moon Knight mantle, he is identified as “Blade Knight”, and his actions appear to be 90% influenced by Khonshu. Blade is a cool badass that slices and dices his opponents, but what could be identifiable as a personality is entirely absent. He exists almost entirely to tap into (literal!) deus ex machina powers and keep the team trudging forward to the finale. Blade, half-vampire monster hunter who likely could have some additional insight into this whole zombie thing, is basically a living GPS. Everyone remembers Wesley Snipes’s famous quote, right? “Turn left at the next Wawa”? Man, the 90’s were great…
Come to think of it, that’s the biggest problem with Marvel Zombies (2025 miniseries): everyone is zombies. Hawkeye or Okoye get passes for not having personalities, because they are brainless undead. But Shang-Chi, Katy Chen, and Jimmy Woo? They were brimming with personality in their original appearances. Katy Chen was a breakout character four years ago! Here, the whole gang gets one featured introductory sequence as the zombie apocalypse begins, a five years later bit of business to establish that they have seen Mad Max: Fury Road, and then they are just generally helpful supporting players. Shangi-Chi has a zombie arm that has the potential to infect him if not for the strength of the ten rings! And it never presents itself as an issue or potential threat! Ash Williams would have made that plot beat groovy! Moving on to the vaguely villainous side of things, Helmut managed to play Captain Americas (plural!) against their own interests in his MCU appearances, but he is little more than a used car salesman here. Oh! And Wanda! The one smart zombie? Remember how her unstoppable desire to have a family took her from general bad decisions in WandaVision to multiversal murder in Dr. Strange? Well, her motivation here is… uh… power? I guess? She is aiming for the Infinity Stones, and she claims she is going to reboot the universe with their power. But there is significant evidence she will not do that, and she already rules the zombie horde of practically every (kinda) living person on the planet, so… Uh… I’m sure there is some reason she is fighting our heroes.
Hell, let’s just talk about the fight.
So the driving force of Marvel Zombies (2025 miniseries) is that Ms. Marvel has discovered a device that could summon space-based reinforcements that will save the day. Three of the four episodes of this saga are all dedicated to Ms. Marvel and her gang trekking across the world to secure a spaceship so they can activate this device in the upper atmosphere. The grand finale of this quest/Episode 3 is that space is already well aware of Earth’s various issues, and they will answer your call in the order it has been received, and please press 9 if you would like to avoid a global genocide. Sorry, we did not hear a response, genocide will be initiated. So Ms. Marvel and the Marvelettes crash down from space, and… Well, time to initiate Plan B. Turns out that this whole space odyssey was a bust, and we still have a half hour to go, so we are going to reveal that the Infinity Stones were shattered, and all their power was absorbed by… Let’s say… The Hulk. Why the Hulk? Well, he did not die on screen during the What If…? episode, and being the Hulk would unbalance the power dynamics of literally every fight, so let’s claim he has spent the last five years sitting quietly with Infinity Power. Because, you know, the Incredible Hulk is known for his patience. So, after a whole miniseries where it is emphasized that simply crossing the street in this environment can be deadly, left alone the absolutely perilous pilgrimage it took to get to that space ship, the auxiliary cast of Dr. Strange (remember the minotaur?) just instantaneously teleports all relevant players to The Hulk Pit in Wakanda, and it is time for the final battle. Oh! And Spider-Man and Scott Lang(‘s head) are there, too! Because we may as well call in the reinforcements that were previously… uh… meditating? Feeding the Hulk? Whatever! What is important is that there is an army of zombies facing a small handful of traumatized/superpowered protagonists, and the rules are literally that Zombie Scarlet Witch cannot touch Now I’m Shining Hulk, or the world ends. Let’s do this thing!
And it’s zombie. It’s zombie all the way down. You have these heroes in mortal peril (the last we see Spider-Man, he is literally about to be chewed)… but none of it matters. The good guys are not even numerous enough to start a baseball team, there is no way they are somehow bringing the world back from the brink by normal means. The zombies are zombies, and have no goals beyond “serve Wanda”. It has been established that Rainbow Hulk can be some kind of cosmic reset button… so does anything about this fight matter? Is there a reason none of the good guys “used” Hulk before this exact moment when the bad guys showed up? If they win, do they go back to the status quo of… a dead world with no future? If Zombie Wanda wins, does she rule more of the world? This is a colossal, theatrical fight that forgot to include any drama. But Zombie Wanda compensates by using her magical powers to summon recognizable threats from earlier in the miniseries. Your friends are now back as malevolent zombies was a given, but an entire friggen’ boat-prison is tossed in there just so Hulk can get wet and fight fish zombies for a hot minute. Remember those fish? Remember that bit from an hour ago? Sure you do! We are certainly hoping that will distract you from the comically low stakes of this entire adventure. Twenty minutes ago, it was established that the heroes had access to global teleportation and a Cosmic Hulk for the last five years, and now that is apparently a problem. This whole miniseries was just an excuse to get to some perverted, twisted version of the finale of Avengers: Endgame.
Holy crap someone actually understood the assignment.
It may be another silly zombie survival story. It may be a wholly unnecessary miniseries that could have easily stayed a pleasant half hour on Streaming Service #8,172. It may be a superhero story that is best described as “passable”. But in the same way that Marvel Zombies (1) showed us a twisted version of our favorite heroes, now we have a warped mirror of the preset of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Zombies (2025 miniseries) was released at the exact right moment (2025). Maybe the next big MCU event is going to turn things around! A Dr. Doom that is not “that guy from Charmed” just might do it! But now, in this moment, Marvel Zombies (2025 miniseries) casually delineates the top ten ugly truths of the Marvel Cinematic Universe…
- Captain Marvel and the Eternals are too powerful, so they need to just have their own little corner, and no one should go anywhere near it
- Don’t think about the space stuff. It’s a dead end.
- Fights are just vibes. Black Panther singlehandedly defeats an Infinity Gauntlet-equipped Zombie Thanos. Black Panther accomplishes this while managing the handicap of missing a leg.
- For the purpose of any large battles, the cannon fodder may as well be anonymous for all anybody cares. Just going to be CGI chunks at the end of the day anyway.
- The main villain’s motivation must get us to that final battle. It need not otherwise exist.
- The main villain can have whatever powers are convenient for the plot. Mass telepathy? Telekinesis? Teleportation? Magical disguises? God-poisoning? Whatever, gotta move the plot along.
- There are new heroes that are meant to replace the “original” Avengers. None of them matter. Nothing they do matters.
- The only people capable of accomplishing anything are beloved heroes from earlier phases (in this case, Hulk & Black Panther) Also, their accomplishments technically happen before this story starts.
- Relatedly: this miniseries requires watching a previous episode of another series. That episode recommends you watch a movie or two for the full context.
- And above all: Nothing is allowed to end
So Ms. Marvel has been receiving random visions all through her journey. When Ms. Marvel meets Zombie Wanda in part three, it is noted that Wanda believes the young superhero has some greater purpose. At the absolute finale, it is only Ms. Marvel and Wanda at the center of the ∞ Hulk Storm. And I guess Wanda needs Ms. Marvel’s help? Does Ms. Marvel have some extra reality-shaping powers? Or maybe it is that Wanda cannot start Wandaing safely with Ms. Marvel right there within stabbing distance? Whatever the case, Ms. Marvel apparently must consent to Scarlet Witch activating the power of the stones that we know can restore life. And… It’s fine! Kamala Khan wakes up in a world that is perfectly fine and dandy! Happy ending! Except… Oh no! Riri/Iron Heart “breaks in” like the world is a television transmission, reveals that the zombie apocalypse is still on, and… Credits. That’s a ball game, folks. You might also like: Star vs. the Forces of Evil.
So either this was the most pointless odyssey in the history of tragedies, or there will be a sequel. A sequel to the miniseries that was a tv show that was a spin-off of a movie that kinda sorta was related to a comic from twenty years ago. Maybe they can squeeze a full-blown trilogy out of it! Maybe this ridiculous little offshoot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe can shuffle on for years and years! Dead, but never allowed to rest! Feeding on resources and time and eyeballs until the heat death of the universe! Marvel Zombies (2025 miniseries) forever!
Save your brains, dear reader. It is too late for me. I liked this. I thought this miniseries was simultaneously pointless and good. But now my streaming queue is full, and the dead are going to walk all over me.
What’s next? Random ROB already chose Ghosts ‘n Goblins. I swear I will get back to that next week. Please look forward to it!