Introduction
Thank you, Disney for thinking of us in our time of need. Truly, though, they should be thanking me. I considered canceling their stupid streaming service in response to their capitulation to the regime. But, as we argued as a family, Disney has always been Nazis. Additionally, I have plenty of things to cover this year for Frightober, but I like that this show got released in time for the Halloween season. Four weeks in the month? Four episodes released? Week 2 seems the perfect time to write about Marvel Zombies Episode 2.
They pull the old okie doke in this one. Both introducing us to a new group of heroes and taking us back into the past to give some context. We still don’t get the genesis of the zombies. However, we see the chaos that happened in the middle of the attack. We also get giant bugs, birds, and zombies! None of this is explained as the characters are “saved”, a family member makes a sacrifice, and we travel five years into the future as they get their Mad Max on.
New Characters
The first part of the episode follows Shang Chi, Katy, and his father who flies in with a helicopter regiment who cleans up some of the zombies. Not enough, though, as it’s Shang Chi’s father who is the one who sacrifices himself to save his son with the 10 rings. Jimmy Woo joins them when they make it back to Chinatown, in flames and everyone’s gone.
Later in the episode, Death Dealer becomes a silent partner in their Mad Max team. They are attacked by a Skrull biker gang while hauling their cows. When they arrive at their destination, they run into the survivors from the previous episode. A brief misunderstanding leads to them facing off, but a huge fight is avoided by the leader, Zemo. For the record, USAgent (John Walker) plays his toadie second in command.
Our final character that joins the party is Namor and his zombie Atlanteans. More on them in a bit.
Themes
Survival: Obviously, the central theme of any of these shows or movies is survival. Shang Chi slams us over the head with it at the beginning of the episode when they ask what they’re going to do. We survive, he responds. And, whatever happens in the 5 years during the time jump, they adapted to survive as road warriors who are now on their way to cash in and enjoy some safety.
Safety (or the illusion of): Occasionally, our protagonists find a place that represents safety for them. They are allowed to fall into routine and enjoy life again. Inevitably, this safety gets shattered and they find themselves again fighting for their very lives. Not to put too fine a point on this, but you know that I’m going to draw a parallel between this theme and life for the last 25 years at least. I mean, it’s probably always been like this, but 9/11 and everything since allowed them to just drop the curtain and show us the ugly underbelly.
Heroes/Hope: The survivors are not only heroes. So, Zemo can use their status in order to build them up as saviors in two ways. First, they’re allowed into the society to bring hope to those living there. Then, he turns it on its head by telling the people that they are the heroes who have come to save them from the Atlanteans. When, what he actually did was served them up to the zombies and Namor to keep the horror at bay.
Horror Level
They turn up the gore in this episode. That’s to be expected. As the zombies become more “regular” and less scary, then you need to make the deaths more gory and sensational. Zombieland made fun of this trend with the “Zombie Kill of the Week” bit and it’s probably the most perfect satire of the genre in that way. Thankfully, they either understand or want to leave room for even more gore over the final two episodes, because I didn’t feel like the gore was over the top.
Also, they give us more traditional horror, as well. The introduction of and build up leading to the face off with Namor follow a slow and creeping arc of horror that gives me chills just thinking about it. The payoff, ultimately isn’t worth it because his death is anticlimactic, but everything else including the final battle live up to the hype.
A note on tone: I don’t have enough to say about this to make it it’s own section. I couldn’t figure out whether to put it here or in the themes, so I’ll just leave it here. People might complain that the show contains out of context humor, but not me. I love the humor in the series. While not as uproarious as Shaun of the Dead or biting as Zombieland, it still fits and leaves me chuckling more than once.
The Verdict
The show started off well. Marvel Zombies episode 2 introduces new characters, gives some background prior to the complete breakdown of society, brings some major horror and action, and gives us a heartbreaking ending. Yet, somehow, we need to come out of that with a sense of hope and safety.
I already talked about how they tried to take away hope from us in the previous episode’s rundown. This time, I want to talk about safety. I can’t count the number of times that I said, “illusion of safety” over the last 25 years. Because, they take away our freedoms one at a time and convince us that we are somehow safer. Yet, mass shootings abound. The military march through the streets of our cities. Yeah none of this makes me safer.
But, still, we need to continue to work towards true safety. Find common threads with your neighbors and other community members. Use that to build up them and yourselves. Then, nothing, ever, can truly take our power from us ever again.