A few years ago, the MCU introduced its own iteration of the Marvel Zombies universe, which it expanded upon further in a four-part miniseries released a couple of weeks ago. However, when you examine its comic book counterpart, you’ll realize that the MCU version seems A LOT tamer by comparison. I didn’t think an already bleak story about the zombie apocalypse could get any worse, but the source material is so deep, dark, and complex that even the resolution is bittersweet. In this article, we will further elaborate on the key differences that show how the MCU heroes got off WAY too easily.
Difference #1: The Zombies Themselves
Obviously, we can’t discuss two versions of a zombie story without comparing how they depict these supernatural creatures. “What If…?,” for example, started by portraying zombies as mindless, wandering, and starving monsters that can infect someone with a single bite. By the time of the miniseries spinoff, the zombies become more organized when Wanda takes control of them and adds them to her army. The comic book zombies, on the other hand, are entirely different from these!
While the comic zombies are just as hungry as the MCU ones, they’re twice as dangerous because they STILL RETAIN their intelligence and personalities! Throughout the whole line of comics, they hold conversations with each other, strategize together, and do anything else that sentient humans would do. For example, when the Silver Surfer came to Earth, the zombified heroes banded together and not only defeated and devoured him, but also gained some of his Power Cosmic as well! Unfortunately, when Galactus followed his herald to Earth, their newly gained cosmic powers made no difference at all. However, the zombies came up with a new strategy: gather tech and resources from the Sanctum Sanctorum, Dr. Doom’s castle, and Wakanda to make a super weapon! Not only did this weapon take down Galactus, but the zombified heroes ate the world-devourer and became twice as powerful as when they ate the Silver Surfer! Now, just let all of this information sink in for a minute: a group of zombies formed their own undead Avengers, built an extremely sophisticated weapon, and took down a being who literally eats whole planets. By stereotypical standards, this shouldn’t even be possible for zombies to do! And yet the comics took said stereotypes and turned them on their heads, transforming the zombies of this universe into an extremely formidable and overwhelming force.
But as the story continued, the zombies would demonstrate their intelligence in other ways. It all began when Zombie Giant Man proposed that they round up the surviving humans into breeding camps, in order to make more food for them to eat. This would prompt Spider-Man and Luke Cage to convince the others not to do this, eventually leading Giant Man to realize the zombies’ hunger was completely gone. However, this didn’t mean everything improved from that moment on, as the rest of their lives would be a constant moral struggle against the comings and goings of their hunger. It even got so bad that Spider-Man had to develop a cure to eradicate the zombies! Once again, let that sink in: a zombie was smart enough to create a cure that targeted his own kind! How often do you hear about a zombie curing other zombies? If anything, this only shows how much of a higher level the comic zombies are, compared to the MCU ones.
Difference #2: The Spread of the Plague
The threat of a zombie apocalypse carries no weight unless it spreads across the whole world, and the MCU would portray its terrifying potential. In “What If…?,” it all started when Hank Pym went down into the Quantum Realm to retrieve his long-lost wife, who was infected. After the pair were unleashed on San Francisco, the Avengers attempted to contain the now-infected city, but they quickly got infected and spread the plague across the whole planet. Thankfully, the Nova Corps was able to quarantine Earth, completely blocking access in or out of the doomed world. Earth-2149 (the comic zombie universe), though, wasn’t so lucky.
After consuming Galactus, Earth’s Undead Heroes would inherit the ability to traverse across the whole universe! Planet after planet, they devoured and infected everything in their path; no one and nothing was spared the onslaught. It got to the point where there was almost nothing left in the universe, except for a band of survivors led by Black Panther on Earth. Oh, but they wouldn’t just stop at organic beings. The realization would hit the zombie heroes as they feasted on the Skrulls on their throne world: they had the powers of a world-eating cosmic being, which meant they inherited the ability to eat planets like he did. Unlike the five-year-long campaign of the MCU zombie universe, the zombies devoured organics and (now) planets alike for FORTY YEARS! This would allow them to infect beings such as Phoenix, Gladiator, and even Thanos himself (and he wouldn’t die as fast as MCU Zombie Thanos did). Worse, the zombies got so powerful that they were able to consume Ego the Living Planet! It goes without saying, but this is no small feat, as not even Galactus could successfully consume Ego. Yet the zombified world eaters managed to make light work of him, and even then, it barely satisfied their hunger!
In fact, they were so unsatisfied that they had to go to a whole new reality to get more food! This would ironically happen when the zombies realize their hunger is gone and attempt to rebuild society, building a transdimensional portal to find more supplies and food. An enemy/former ally used the opportunity to send the zombie heroes to Earth Z, where they would all regain their hunger and begin feasting on the residents once again. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the zombies are not only smart enough to dominate the planet, not only surprisingly capable of conquering the Devourer of Worlds, but they’re able to travel across DIMENSIONS now! Seriously, at what point does this remain a work of fiction without going too crazy? Because if we have zombies that can navigate through the multiverse, let’s just say we’re EXTREMELY lucky! If the plague were left unchecked (more on that later), the zombies would spread unchallenged endlessly across infinite earths!
Difference #3: The Ending
If you’ve read my review of the Disney+ show, then you know how I feel about the ending. Finding out the Nova Corps weren’t the saviors the survivors were hoping for? Wanda absorbing the powers of Infinity Hulk and Ms. Marvel after a brutal showdown? Wanda creating a Matrix-like reality? It was all a huge blend of awesomeness, surprise, confusion, and a little disappointment as we got an amazing final battle, but a desire for more resolutions and explanations.
The comics version, on the other hand, was also very confusing but still had a weirdly satisfying resolution to the story. After arriving on Earth Z, a zombified Hank Pym would supposedly devour that world’s Watcher and begin plans to travel to more dimensions. Using the Watcher’s tech and assembling the zombie horde, the zombies’ new plan would soon come to fruition. However, Zombie Spidey would destroy the zombies with the help of a nanobot-infused Sandman. In addition, the Watcher would reveal that he survived and proceeded to take the final step in stopping the plague. First, he took the only zombie left (who was the Sentry) and then sent the overpowered zombie back in time on Earth-2149. There, Sentry would start the plague on that world, which would then lead to the events of the story, the travel to Earth Z, and the overall story would repeat on an endless time loop. That way, the plague would only be contained to two universes, rather than being allowed to spread across the whole multiverse.
It isn’t very clear, and yet somehow makes a lot of sense. First of all, the plague ends when it begins and vice versa, which is already enough to make your brain hurt. I mean, the plague starts when it ends? Or ends when it starts? Like, how can a disaster of this scale begin at a moment that technically didn’t happen yet? And how can ending the plague start a new one all over again? Even writing these questions makes me feel dizzy lol. But in a world where people have the weirdest and most dangerous abilities, where aliens and cosmic deities exist, somehow it makes sense that something like this should happen. I can’t explain it, but having a resolution like this is oddly satisfying. If nothing else, it provides a (mostly) clear beginning and ending, while tying up loose ends, which is what some readers or fans truly care about. The only thing is that I hate thinking about how the heroes and civilians of both universes have to suffer like this for all eternity, even though their collective sacrifice would prevent the rest of the multiverse from going through the same fate. It’s almost astounding how the heroes and civilians continue with their lives, going about their usual routines, all while remaining completely unaware of the horrors that sit next door to them.
Conclusion
The MCU certainly gave us a lot of blood, gore, dark twists, and character deaths with their miniseries. However, compared to the universal (and near-multiversal) threat of intelligent zombies who are capable of taking down Galactus and Ego? Yeah, the MCU played it very safe in comparison to the source material they borrowed from.
