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Written by Aria Clarke
**spoilers ahead**
Marvel Zombies is a bloody mess. It’s a quick watch, with four episodes, all 30-to-40 minutes long. Short as it may be, the new entry from Marvel Animation is still packed with action and a compelling, albeit sometimes confusing plot.
For those suffering from superhero fatigue, Marvel Zombies seems like the perfect escape from caped crusades and happy endings. And in ways, it does; it is grittier, darker, and bloodier than most Marvel projects.
It doesn’t, however, provide an escape from overpowered villains. Zombies with refined motor skills are bad enough, but zombies with superpowers are in a league of their own. People are torn apart like paper by various characters introduced in their zombie forms, including Captain America, Captain Marvel, Ghost, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Thanos (equipped with Infinity Stones), and Thor.
The series is a revolving door of characters, allowing so many cameos that it’ll make your head spin. However, some characters hardly get ten minutes of screen time before they’re killed off, while others last until the finale. With such powerful characters as Captain Marvel and Scarlet Witch being infected, it’s a bit hard to believe that characters like Katy and Jimmy Woo, who both have no superhuman abilities, are able to survive for any time at all.
Marvel Zombies’ primary focus is on Kamala Khan (also known as Ms. Marvel) and her quest to get to space and relay a transmission to the Nova Corps, a powerful otherworldly organization that presumably has the power to end the “zombie plague” and allow Earth to return to normal. She joins forces with heroes along the way. A horde of mind-controlled zombies belonging to “The Queen of the Dead” tails Kamala and her group of heroes as they try to gain access to a spaceship in New Asgard.
“The Queen of the Dead” is Wanda/The Scarlet Witch, and she wants to enlist the help of Kamala because she is unable to absorb all the power of the Infinity Stones by herself. But Kamala refuses, and Wanda shifts into her “I always get what I want” attitude seen before in both WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Wanda wants to take power for herself for some undisclosed reason. She is considered the “Queen of the Dead,” but does that mean that she wants to condemn the entire world to be zombies forever? She has the power to rule over people without them being infected, so why would she want to keep things status quo? Not to mention, if everyone became a zombie and she was the most powerful being on the planet… there’d be nothing to do. She would just rule over a massive horde of zombies, which would quickly become boring. It would have been beneficial for the audience to understand Wanda’s motivation for wanting more power.
Marvel Zombies could probably exist as a stand-alone series, but the character introductions and pacing of the plot would make it hard for someone who wasn’t already acquainted with the Marvel Universe to keep up. Things move so fast sometimes that even a knowledgeable Marvel fan could get whiplash. The series doesn’t leave room for character development or growth, leaving audience members to fill in the gaps. Or not, because there’s a strong possibility that characters will end up dead before you can make sense of them.
Despite its shortcomings in storytelling, the animation in Marvel Zombies is gorgeous. The combat scenes are incredibly fluid and fun to watch. Additionally, there are many humorous moments to break up the darkness. Red Guardian’s presence as a comic relief character was appreciated. The introduction of Blade as Konshu’s new host created an intriguing dynamic that will hopefully be explored in the future.
Overall, Marvel Zombies is an engaging watch, but it could have been improved with slower pacing and more insight into the characters.
