What If Made a Quantum Leap Into the Darkest Timeline

While Marvel’s heroes seldom die on-screen (or keep lifeless for very lengthy) within the studio’s live-action productions, that hasn’t been the case with the Disney+ animated sequence What If. So far, the present has featured a lot of timelines within the MCU’s multiverse the place a number of Avengers have met their ends in horrible methods. Characters’ mortalities are changing into an even bigger a part of What If as its first season progresses, and the sequence is changing into markedly extra attention-grabbing in consequence.

Like What If’s different episodes, this week’s “What If… Zombies?!” attracts closely upon sure occasions and beats from the MCU films, however the sequence took a really particular horror flip with this one.

The fifth episode opens with a style of Avengers: Infinity War because the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) plummets to Earth by the use of the Bifrost, and crash lands into Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City. Like his Sacred Timeline counterpart, this universe’s Bruce involves in a dazed panic having simply had his ass handed to him by Thanos in area. But as a substitute of being greeted by the gray-templed sorcerer and Wong (Benedict Wong), this Banner finds Strange’s brownstone and the remainder of Manhattan seemingly empty for some cause. As he wanders out seeking different individuals, his spirits are briefly lifted when the Bifrost touches right down to ship another person to Earth. That little spark of hope instantly turns to dread, although, when Bruce realizes that the brand new arrivals are Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian, presumably despatched to complete him off.

What If moderately condenses parts of Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame all all through “What If… Zombies?!,” starting with a nod to the portals scene from Endgame’s ultimate act. Here, although, the portals come a lot, a lot earlier, and as a substitute of backup, what emerges from the round holes in area is a trio of zombified Avengers who instantly proceed to devour half of the Black Order. Were it not for Cloak of Levitation coming to Banner’s support, he possible wouldn’t have been in a position to cease Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Wong, and the now-zombified Ebody Maw and Cull Obsidian from consuming him (the Hulk continues to be refusing to resurface). To their credit score, the zombies do come shut to filling their gullets with Banner’s gamma-irradiated flesh, however their feast is thwarted by a swarm of ants who descend upon the zombies and fully strip them of their flesh.

One might forgive Banner for being confused as hell on the sight of Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) abruptly returning to full-size in her Wasp costume alongside a human-sized ant large enough to scarf down a decapitated zombie’s head. One might additionally forgive Hank Pym for not realizing how his spouse Janet by accident contracted the zombie virus whereas exploring the quantum realm. What’s considerably tough to forgive, although, is the best way “What If… Zombies?!” finally ends up hinging on the concept that this chunk of the MCU descended right into a zombie apocalypse as a result of individuals weren’t acquainted sufficient with horror film tropes.

Though apocalypses are usually miserable, What If’s Peter Parker (Hudson Haynes) is an optimist who in some way discovered the time to cobble collectively an educational video explaining the way to survive within the zombified plague occasions. Bruce has an opportunity to see different survivors like Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Ant-Man’s Kurt (David Dastmalchian, aka Polka-Dot Man), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), and Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) seem in Peter’s video earlier than Okoye (Danai Gurira) reminds him that it’s neither the time nor the place for lightheartedness. In just some weeks, the zombies have been in a position to fully topple society and depart a lot of the world’s inhabitants contaminated, save for the handful of heroes hiding out in Peter’s fortress of webbed-up practice vehicles suspended excessive above New York’s streets.

What’s prone to be one thing of a sore spot for followers of Marvel’s comics is how little this episode has in widespread with the comedian writer’s Marvel Zombies franchise—apart from the presence of undead superheroes. For causes that needs to be apparent by now, necessary Marvel Zombies characters just like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men merely don’t present up as a result of they’ve but to be canonically integrated into the MCU within the wake of Disney’s acquisition of Fox’s cinematic rights to them again in 2019. Instead, “What If… Zombies?!” considerably efficiently makes use of the creature idea to create one other dire, nearly hopeless scenario through which the percentages are stacked towards a small, ragtag band of heroes making an attempt to deliver the world again to life.

As was the case in Avengers: Endgame, the survivors’ desperation for the slim probability at making issues proper is de facto what’s retaining them going, however on this case, it’s laborious to think about how the Avengers would possibly really have the ability to pull that off. While the logical answer would merely be to go and ask for assist from aliens on one other planet, the concept’s by no means floated, maybe as a result of the presumption is that the remainder of the galaxy’s busy with Thanos’ method. What does look like a good suggestion, nonetheless, is for everybody to comply with a beacon emanating from New Jersey the place Okoye and the others consider there is perhaps different uninfected individuals. As non-flying heroes caught in zombified New York City, everybody’s finest guess for making it to Jersey is beelining for Grand Central Station and hotwiring an deserted practice automobile. But as a result of Peter’s the one one that apparently took the time to observe some zombie films earlier than the world went to hell, nobody else apparently realizes how they’re setting themselves up for an assault.

Just moments after everybody splits up earlier than planning to catch their practice, contaminated variations of Hawkeye and the Falcon assault them, and the battle ends with Happy being turned and Okoye being compelled to place Falcon down. Falcon’s loss of life not phasing Bucky within the least seems like What If reminding everybody that it doesn’t matter what The Falcon and the Winter Soldier may need instructed you, these two males have by no means seen it for each other. Bucky’s confrontation with zombie Captain America says comparable issues about his emotions relating to Sharon, who finally ends up being turned by Steve simply moments earlier than Bucky arrives. There are few phrases exchanged through the combat, however the best way Bucky casually pushes Sharon apart earlier than dispatching Steve and taking his defend stands out because the episode’s flashiest (and most inadvertently humorous) scenes.

What If pivots again into grimness after Hope lets herself be swallowed by zombie Sharon so as to develop again to regular dimension and pop the zombie from inside. Hope’s plan works, however not with out her go well with and pores and skin being torn within the course of, and after all the things they’ve been by means of, everybody is aware of what the lower on Hope’s arm will ultimately imply for her. Even although they have been en path to what may need been a treatment for her an infection, Hope elects to sacrifice herself so as to get her companions to security when the practice runs out of gas. By rising huge and carrying them in her palms, Hope’s in a position to full the final leg of their journey and set the others down on the previous SHIELD base the place the beacon’s coming from.

What’s odd concerning the horde of zombies the heroes are confronted with after Hope drops them off is how none of them make any transfer to hurry the uninfected, though the fence retaining them aside has damaged down. No one thinks to ask Vision (Paul Bettany) what the hell is up with the ghouls simply standing there when he exhibits up and invitations them into the compound the place he’s been working. Aside from a number of yelps, everybody takes it fairly nicely once they’ve discovered how Vision “cured” Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) of his an infection with a sequence of experiments that left Scott as a speaking head in a jar.

Had anybody had the time or capability to catch a number of episodes of WandaVision, they could have seen What If’s ultimate twist coming, or at the very least had the wherewithal to ask whether or not Wanda was hanging out on the bottom as nicely. Both Vision’s clarification of the assessments he ran to see whether or not the Mind Stone’s energies may be harnessed to destroy the illness, and the best way the SHIELD base resembles Baron Von Strucker’s lab from Age of Ultron level to there being an unseen hazard the Avengers aren’t conscious of till it’s far too late. While Peter and Bruce are busy chatting it up with Vision, Bucky stumbles upon the room the place the remainder of the “survivors” are being saved and discovers T’Challa who informs him the reality of how Vision’s been retaining them to feed to a zombified Scarlet Witch.

Just as Bucky and T’Challa present as much as confront Vision about his deeds, Wanda herself (who hadn’t fed in days) breaks free from her cage in a blast of what we now know to be chaos magic and will get proper to making an attempt to fulfill her starvation. While Wanda begins tearing by means of the people, Vision accepts the wrongness of what he did in hopes of saving the lady he liked, and he rips the Mind Stone from his personal brow, additional underlining the parallels between this actuality and the Sacred Timelines. In one of many episode’s few shifting moments, zombie Wanda demonstrates how, on some degree, she’s retained her sentience, by depicting her falling to the bottom in grief after which going right into a rage as she realizes that Vision’s “dead.” With no different heavy hitters left standing, Hulk chooses to sacrifice himself so as to maintain Wanda busy lengthy sufficient for T’Challa, Peter, and Scott to make it away within the Quinjet with the Mind Stone in hand and a plan to move to Wakanda. What none of them know as “What If… Zombies” involves an finish is that Thanos has already made it there with the opposite 5 Infinity Stones locked into his gauntlet, implying that they’ve acquired little to no probability of survival once they arrive.

Though the Death from Marvel’s comics has but to make a correct look in What If, loss of life as an idea emerges as the true star of this chapter. The episode’s higher for it due to the way it opens up the area for plot turns that really feel more energizing than you’d anticipate. With 4 episodes left, What If’s gotten into a reasonably stable area by way of making its tales work regardless of every episode’s brief size. The query going ahead is whether or not the sequence will have the ability to keep its momentum because it builds to its finale.

What If airs Wednesdays on Disney+.

Wondering the place our RSS feed went? You can choose the brand new up one right here.