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What If... Zombies?!

"Don't eat me!"

This is the episode I was most excited to see when the trailer for this series first dropped. Zombies! We got zombies!

Here, our Nexus point was poor Janet getting infected with some kind of virus that turns everyone into zombies. But these aren't your normal, mindless zombies who can only shuffle after brains. No. I was so excited when our zombified heroes retained enough intelligence to still use their powers and equipment. It's such a fun twist on the formula and it gave us some varied fight set pieces.

Banner may have been the first character that we saw this time, but Peter really was the heart and core of the episode. He may have attributed the concept of hope to Hope (It's her name! Has to mean something!) but he really was the true embodiment of it. He was the one who could continue to smile and live on for others and almost aggressively believe that they could get through this in the end.

He was also the funniest part of the episode for me. Scott's constant Dad Jokes made me roll my eyes, but Peter's orientation video made me smile, especially the names and specialties that he gave to everyone involved in it.

Plotwise, the episode did fall apart in some areas, specifically after they got to Camp Lehigh. It was simply a series of stupidity one after another. Why did Vision let Bucky go off and explore instead of just telling him that there was a jet in the hanger? Why didn't Vision wait just a few seconds to give everyone the Mind Stone when they were on the jet? Or wait to double check that Wanda was actually gone? Why didn't Hope shrink back down to normal size before dying? Why Is the Hulk not capable of being infected? I know to allow at least some dumb choices in horror movies, but this stretched my suspension of disbelief just a bit too far.

I think that the issue mainly stems from the runtime. This has been an issue that has popped up all series. They're trying to squeeze a movie's worth of content into half an hour. You need to take shortcuts in order to get where you want to go, and it just doesn't work 90% of the time.

My second issue had to do with Peter Parker, although I suppose that it's less of an issue and more cognitive dissonance. He just didn't feel like the MCU version of the character to me. If anything, he felt more like Andrew Garfield's version. Granted, Tom Holland was not the voice so that may be playing a role, but even the character design didn't look like Holland.

Pulling back a moment to look at the series as a whole, I'm curious to see how the Watcher ends up playing a role overall. I noticed that last episode he had been slowly playing a larger and larger role as the series progressed, culminating in actually taking an active role and interacting with Dr. Strange. This week, the Watcher took a small step back, although just a small one. He still loomed over everything and was more than just a silhouette. We got facial features this time around. Either way, he is definitely more than just the passive narrator or guide that he is said to be.

Random Thoughts

Love the "Oof. That happened," when Janet attacked Hank.

Also the fact that Wakanda doesn't need horror movies because they got American reality TV.

When I first saw T'Challa, I wondered how he could be infected thanks to his suit. I was very pleased when he popped up again.

Also, T'Challa mentioning how death isn't the end in his culture got to me. God, I miss Chadwick Boseman.

Zombie Thanos. Talk about a time where you need to aim for the head.

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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.

6 comments:

  1. I don't know how many more appearances we'll have from Chadwick, but each is a gift. I kinda of like this, and I loved the meta of having Michonne actively leading a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse. I agree, Peter felt more like the Garfield Spider-man, possibly even a bit like the main character from Zombieland too.

    The Watcher does seem to be affected by all these realities, I wonder if he will finally see one that he has to interfere with. That comment about 'oof that happened' felt a bit glib for a dispassionate 'Watcher'. Honestly the most terrifying thing about this episode was all those zombies with Avengers powers. That takes things to a whole other level, but even people as capable as Sharon Carter was overwhelmed by the hoard.

    I'm curious what's next, I think it might be the Killmonger episode so we'll see.

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  2. I thought it was kind of Doctor Strange's red cloak to take pity on Scott and give him a way to get around.

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  3. Due to the weird Sony / Marvel rights issues with Spidey, they'd have had to be very careful how close they were to tom Holland's Spidey.

    While Marvel don't have the rights to make live action Spidey stuff without Sony, they retained the rights for animation.

    They can't use anything from the movies though, so no tom Holland, no facial likeness, and a different suit. That'll also probably be why him and Happy barely had any lines together, to skirt round the Aunt May relationship

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  4. I was really looking forward to this one, too, but I didn't like it at all. I think it was too jokey for me, especially considering the circumstances. I know Peter had some heartfelt moments, but still, he seemed way too ready to make jokes while these characters were dying. Bucky even made a joke after killing (re-killing?) Steve! And while his orientation video was cute, it was a straight-up ripoff of Zombieland, which I wasn't a big fan of either. But at least Zombieland was original.
    Last week's episode about Dr. Strange was far and away my favorite episode.

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  5. Interesting. I didn't realize that the Sony/Marvel ownership pickle would extend to this. That's a little annoying!

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  6. I really loved this one until Camp Lehigh. It's ooc for Vision to keep Wanda around, giving her snacks. He can lift Thor's hammer, it's just not something he would do and I'm sticking with that.

    I also don't understand why, knowing that the zombies retain their intelligence, Hope didn't break her suit or something before succumbing to the zombies. I feel like this one will be continued next season, but what of T'Challa? Will they recast? I miss Chadwick Boseman so much. Cancer sucks.

    The whole time I kept thinking did we forget about Thanos? Zombie Thanos. What will he do?

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