The old world is dying. The new one struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.
Introduction
Being a fan of the genre since the original story, I waited and anticipated Marvel Zombies Episode 1. Thankfully, it did not disappoint. They establish the stakes right out of the gate. Three heroes, Kate Bishop, Riri Williams, and Kamala Khan live and fight together against a horde of zombies, both human and superhuman. Their main foe in the first part of the movie is a zombified Hawkeye who continues to be a deadly adversary even in undeath.
While traveling through the city, they hear a Quinjet that crashes. Thinking that it might be full of supplies, they track it down. No supplies, but a zombie pilot holds something in its stomach that they deem important enough to dig out of the zombie’s guts. A transmitter. As it turns out, a transmitter that may hold the secret to defeating the plague and saving what remains of the human race.
Found Family
The super hero movies of the summer all focused on family. Perhaps my favorite of the three, Thunderbolts emphasized found family over blood relatives. If you read that article, you’ll understand why I consider that so important. Also, as luck would have it, after her found sisters both meet a grisly (yeah, I’m doing spoilers in these) end, she stumbles upon Alexei, Yelena, her mother, and the Sisters of Liberty.
A hero comes along to save her (more on that in a bit) and deliver her to the safe zone. As you might imagine, it doesn’t stay safe for long. Even though Kamala brought the zombie horde to their doorstep and they lost Yelena’s mother and the Sisters to the horde, they take Kamala in and vow to deliver her and the transmitter where it can be used to deliver the message.
Zombies and the Loss of Identity
One of the most powerful ideas in zombie movies is the concept of identity and the loss of identity that comes with transferring. I’m not sure if it’s a result of their super human physiology, but many of the hero zombies retain much of their personalities and identity.
I already discussed Hawkeye and the fact that he’s still a killer shot with the bow. Likewise, Captain America is easily recognizable as the resourceful man who uses everything to his advantage when fighting. I like that twist on the genre because it makes them even more dangerous. It also makes it more believable that super heroes would get turned in the first place. I always wondered that about the original story.
Animation, Horror and Faithfulness
The original story that I remember grew out of the pages of the Ultimate Marvel universe and bled into the main comic books. While this episode doesn’t give us any indication of how the plague started, I feel like this plays more off the recent plan to explore the multiverse in Marvel cinema and that this is an alternate reality.
The animation style goes a long way to adding to my enjoyment of the show. It shares some stylistic choices with the old realistic animated movies of the 1980s like Heavy Metal. That along with the ability to mix some gore with more psychological elements of horror make the series a success in that regard.
Battle Scenes and Overall Tone
It might feel weird to lump those together. However, both follow directly from the previous points. Some might argue that the tone is too jokey, but I disagree. The zombie movies that I enjoy the most and end up watching on repeat are the ones like Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland that deftly balance the comedy with the horror. It reduces some of the heaviness of a world with little to no hope (more on that in a bit) and let’s you enjoy yourself in spite of everything happening.
One of the reasons that Disney goes with animation over live action for so long is that animation allows for so much more than humans. The battle scenes prove that, especially the scene between Blade and Ghost. Though it only takes a few seconds, it’s probably my favorite recent battle scene in any Marvel project. I just love everything about it.
The Verdict
The zombie genre always tries to restore hope in a hopeless world. I talked much about this in the recent episode of Noob’s Book Club. However, let me share some here, too. We currently live in a world where it feels like there’s little hope. The bad guys have won and they continue to spike the ball in our stupid faces more and more every day.
It can be easy to simply give up hope and give into despair. But, as many have said, that’s exactly what they want. If you have no hope, you have no reason to fight, and they continue to win. As long as we hold onto our hope (and the zombie fighters in the show do the same) we have a chance to battle back and take our world back from the ghouls.
Because, otherwise, as I’ve said more than once, what’s the point? If we can’t fight for what we want and need, why are we even doing any of this? Might as well just succumb to the darkness and let it swallow you.