The Screen Scribe

It’s been a long time since the Marvel Cinematic Universe felt dangerous. For years now, we’ve watched familiar faces punch through apocalypses and multiverses with the unspoken understanding that no one truly stays dead. Enter Marvel Zombies, an animated miniseries that finally puts the “dead” back in the deadpan. Gory, unrestrained, and unapologetically bleak, it’s Marvel’s first proper foray into R-rated horror, and while it doesn’t always land its punches, it’s easily the boldest swing the studio has taken in a while.

The series picks up in the aftermath of the zombie outbreak first glimpsed in What If…? season 1. The infection has ravaged Earth’s mightiest heroes, turning the Avengers into flesh-hungry monsters. With the world in ruins, a ragtag band of survivors including Ms. Marvel, Blade Knight, Yelena Belova, and Shang Chi, set out to locate a cure for the virus and stop its spread before what’s left of humanity is wiped out. What follows is a frantic, four-episode dash through a wasteland of broken icons and shattered ideals.

What immediately stands out is how unshackled Marvel Zombies feels. The TV-MA rating isn’t window dressing, this is the MCU stripped of its squeaky-clean gloss. Heroes are decapitated, limbs are torn off, and the colour red makes a triumphant return to a franchise that’s been allergic to blood for over a decade. It’s gleefully brutal, often funny in a macabre way, and more visually inventive than anything Marvel has animated before. The stylised violence is shocking at first, but it’s handled with flair, more comic-book spectacle than sadism.

Yet beneath all the viscera, Marvel Zombies has something to say. For a universe built on invincibility, there’s something refreshing about watching its gods fall, literally. The show taps into a primal thrill: seeing the perfect and powerful laid low, stripped of their humanity and turned into predators. It’s a simple but effective metaphor for what Marvel has become, an empire feeding on its own mythos, and that self-awareness gives the series surprising bite.

Still, ambition doesn’t always equal execution. The writing occasionally buckles under its own weight. The short format leaves little room for character development, so emotional beats arrive fast and fade faster. Some survivors are little more than archetypes, and the dialogue leans heavily on quips to mask thin motivations. The pacing also wobbles, moments that should breathe are rushed, while others linger too long on exposition. By the time the final episode hits, you’re left wanting another hour just to let the story land properly.

That said, the animation team deserves full credit. Every frame bursts with kinetic energy in the way light flickers across ruined cityscapes, the comic-book panels that seem to leap off the screen, and the eerie stillness of undead heroes frozen mid-hunt. The character design is top-tier too, half-rotted superheroes rendered with just enough grotesque detail to be chilling without losing their recognisability. It’s a visual feast, and it proves that Marvel can still surprise when it stops playing safe.

The voice performances seal the deal. While not every actor from the live-action films returns, those who do bring weight to the chaos. Yelena’s sardonic humour, Ms. Marvel’s stubborn optimism, and Kate Bishop’s reluctant leadership give the group texture, even when the script doesn’t. And yes, seeing zombified versions of beloved heroes, complete with fractured memories of who they once were, adds genuine tragedy amid the gore.

Marvel Zombies won’t be for everyone. Some fans will find the gore excessive or the story too thin, while others will see it as the creative jolt the MCU desperately needed. It’s messy, uneven, and sometimes too gleeful for its own good, but it’s never dull. In a franchise that’s spent the last few years drowning in sameness, that alone feels like a small miracle.

In the end, Marvel Zombies isn’t the second coming of Marvel animation, but it is a statement. After a relatively safe and unsatisfying What if…? seasons 2 and 3, it’s proof that the studio can take risks again, even if those risks come dripping in blood. It’s the MCU unmasked, flawed, fearless, and finally a little bit feral. Brutal, stylish, and gloriously unhinged, Marvel Zombies breathes undead life into a tired franchise. The story stumbles, but the bite more than makes up for the bruises.

3 / 5 ✨ from the Screen Scribe

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