The idea of a Marvel Zombies comic book metaseries has always been one of the boldest and darkest in the Marvel universe. The concept, where beloved heroes don't just die, but turn into intelligent but hungry monsters that devour the universe and reflect on their own cruelty, had incredible tragic potential. When Marvel Studios announced an animated series with an adult TV-MA rating, it seemed that we would finally get an uncompromising and truly scary project. Unfortunately, Marvel Zombies turned out to be a bright, bloody, but completely empty attraction that takes the legendary name but completely ignores its meanings.
| Name | Marvel Zombies |
| Genre | comic book, horror, animation |
| Directors | Brian Andrews, Zeb Wells |
| The roles were voiced | Iman Vellani, Dominika Thorne, Hailee Steinfeld, Carrie Condon, Todd Williams and others |
| Channel | Disney+ |
| Episodes | 4 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Link | IMDb |
Marvel Zombies continues the story that began in one of the episodes What If…?, and tells about a group of surviving heroes in a world engulfed by a zombie virus. The team, consisting mainly of characters from the fourth phase of the MCU - Kamala Khan, Elena Belova, Kate Bishop and others - is trying to find a way to save the remnants of humanity. They have to face not only the crowd of the dead, but also their former friends and colleagues, who are now super-powered zombies who have retained their own superpowers.
The show makes it clear almost immediately that it has shifted its focus from dead characters to living ones, and that has proven to be a big problem. In the original, the focus was on zombies. It was the tragedy of Peter Parker crying over eating Aunt May, or Hank Pym pondering the nature of his hunger. The zombie heroes retained intelligence and personality, which is what made the story truly terrifying.
Instead, Marvel Zombies turns them into a regular, mindless horde led by a fictional "zombie queen." Thus, a unique story turns into another standard survival plot that we've seen countless times before, from The Walking Dead to every other zombie drama.
This script weakness is compounded by the chaotic tone. The series has an adult rating, and it is not shy about showing severed limbs, rivers of blood and other attributes of the genre. However, this brutality absolutely does not work, as the authors are in a hurry to ruin every potentially tense or dramatic scene with an inappropriate joke in the MCU's signature style. The characters constantly exchange taunts in the style of "well, that just happened", which completely kills the atmosphere of horror. Marvel Zombies can not decide what it wants to be: a dark drama about the end of the world or a light comedy in the spirit of Zombieland. As a result, it does not cope with either of these tasks.
Four 30-minute episodes are woefully short for so many characters. The show's fast pace means there's simply no time for character development. We don't get to bond with anyone or feel a real threat to their lives, so deaths that should be shocking don't evoke any emotion.
Most characters, especially the minor ones, only appear to die spectacularly or make a few jokes. Even Blade's appearance, which fans have been waiting for for years, feels strange and out of place here, as it's not a full-fledged debut of the character, but just a sketchy version of him in an alternate world. So the show's focus on the "alive" instead of the "dead" didn't work.
Of course, the series has its bright sides. The animation, done in the same style as What If…?, looks high-quality and expensive. The action scenes, especially at the beginning of the second episode, are staged inventively and dynamically. It is also worth noting the work of the voice actors: many MCU stars returned to their roles and did the job with enthusiasm. Iman Vellani stands out in particular, whose Kamala Khan is the emotional heart of this somewhat soulless story.
But these advantages are too few to compensate for the fundamental flaws. Marvel Zombies is a huge wasted opportunity. Instead of creating a bold, mature, and tragic work, the studio took the path of least resistance, releasing yet another safe, predictable, and tonally vague product.
This is a series that wants to be brutal but is afraid to be serious. The result is a project that will probably disappoint everyone: comic book fans will not see their favorite story in it, and new viewers will see nothing at all except another conveyor belt product from Marvel.