Another day, another mind-bending episode of "What If...?"
Just as we recovered from the emotional torment of the Disney+ series' fourth episode, longtime MCU
fans were dealt another series of emotional blows with a speculative episode that saw many of their
favorite Avengers turning on each other — this time, with exceptional violence. It was awesome.
"I should be sad, but I'm not."
Episode 5 of the MCU's first animated series introduced zombies into the
Marvel Cinematic Universe — real ones, not some freaky vision.
Reportedly, this particular episode pulled more from Marvel Comics than
any previous four episodes. In a series that's literally titled "What If...?" head writer A.C.
Bradley had a tremendous amount of creative freedom, but for Episode
5, she pulled a good bit of the plot from the source material.
So far in this series, we've discovered the answers to several mysteries:
What if Peggy Carter became a super-soldier? What if T'Challa was Star-Lord? What if
the Avengers never existed? What if Doctor Strange lost his heart instead of his hands?
Episode 5's theme is a little looser, with its title being simply, "What If... Zombies!?"
"You have finally asked a relevant question."
The story examines what would have happened if Janet Van Dyne was infected with a malicious virus
while in the Quantum Realm, which was brought into the world after Hank Pym rescued his long-lost
love. In a flashback, an unknowing Hope Van Dyne brings her infected mother back through the
quantum tunnel, and the virus spreads throughout the entire Pacific Northwest within 24 hours.
The fallout from this turn of events is catastrophic and
alters the world of the MCU as we know it.
"That's… uh, that sorta seems like overkill."
Episode 5 of "What If...?" picks up the timeline right at the start of "Avengers:
Infinity War," after Bruce Banner has been beamed to Earth by Heimdall to warn of Thanos' coming.
So everything we know about the MCU before that film is still canon in this story, except for
the reveal that Janet Van Dyne spent her time in the Quantum Realm becoming increasingly zombified.
From the get-go, we learn that most of our beloved heroes were overtaken by
the virus before Bruce even arrived. Our survivors include Peter Parker,
Bucky Barnes, Bruce Banner, and Hope Van Dyne. Sharon Carter, Happy Hogan, and Kurt (the X-Con
worker from "Ant-Man") are also still around and aid in the resistance against the virus.
Also floating around is the Cloak of Levitation, which single-handedly saves Bruce from being
devoured by a zombified Doctor Strange, Wong, Iron Man, Ebony Maw, and Cull Obsidian.
Okoye arrives from Wakanda and joins the resistance,
and we also learn later in the episode that T'Challa and Vision are both still
around as well. Later on, we find out with some horror that Wanda Maximoff is a zombie as well.
As powerful as she is, the silver lining here is that she has not yet fully become
the Scarlet Witch — so she's not quite as terrifying as a zombie version of her could be.
After the surviving heroes start to drop like flies and turn on each other,
we're left with just Peter, Bruce, Kurt, Bucky, Okoye,
and Hope as they make their way to Camp Lehigh, where a beacon has been sent out.
When the team learns Hope will soon zombify due to an injury,
she sacrifices herself by going giant-size to help the team cross a wasteland of zombies
to get to the camp. She crashes down in a blaze of glory as she succumbs to the virus,
but not before getting her friends where they needed to be.
It's no surprise to learn here that Vision is still around; because he's not made of living
flesh, he's of no interest to the zombies. He's also kind of lost his mind. We find out
he has been using a kidnapped T'Challa to feed zombie Wanda. That's no way to treat a king.
"One more word, and I will feed you to my children."
Because Vision can't bear to destroy his love for the greater good, he keeps her imprisoned -- which
is probably not what Wanda would do if the tables were turned, but that's neither here nor there.
On top of learning about Vision's desperate scheme to keep Wanda alive,
our heroes also learn that the Mind Stone is the key to beating the virus.
Vision was able to use the stone to keep an infected Scott Lang alive — kind of, at least.
"I know what you're thinking! I've lost weight. Thank you for noticing."
To save the world, the team just needs a way to broadcast the stone's frequency to
all humanity -- a tall order, sure, but doable. The only place capable of doing this is Wakanda,
so the new mission is to escape Camp Lehigh with the stone for Africa.
Before they can break for Wakanda, the surviving heroes accidentally release Wanda,
and all hell breaks loose. As the heroes start dying in the fight against her, Vision also
sacrifices himself by pulling the Mind Stone out of his head so surviving team members can
take it to Wakanda. For whoever's counting, this brings the synthezoid's MCU death count to four.
Eh, he'll be fine.
Our final survivors of the zombie apocalypse are now Peter,
T'Challa, and Scott, who have escaped in a quadjet to Wakanda. As the episode ends,
we are left to wonder if they will complete their mission -- and that seems to be a big "if."
In the final scene of the episode, a zombified Thanos with five out of the six Infinity Stones
is revealed to be waiting for them in Wakanda -- and Peter, Scott, and T'Challa have no idea the
threat that is coming. It looks like the universe as we know it is going to crumble yet again.
What happens if a quantum virus zombifies all of humanity? Well, Thanos still shows up, apparently.
"I am… inevitable."
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