The “Marvel Zombies” of Marvel Animation do not have enough flesh on its bones in trouble | TV / Streaming

An episode of the first season of the animated anthology series of Marvel Studios “What if …?” showed what would happen if the zombies took control of the MCU. For an unknown reason, which has been adapted to a spin-off of mini-series in four parts, “Marvel Zombies”, which continues the narrative thread in a chipping setting. It is perhaps the first and the only time you see many McU non-Deadpool characters turn into TV-Ma territory. But unfortunately, the series, which is punctuated as quickly as a zombie “28 days later”, sums up the weakest of MCU tropes through an underdeveloped horror company and disappointing for the most powerful heroes of the earth.

The prominent anchor of the series is Kamala Khan / MS. Marvel (Iman Vellani), which is part of a team of young Avengers pre-established with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfield), Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) and the Iron-Man-Adopté on Friday (Kerry Condon). As a final line of defense against a horde of zombies and a Zombie Marvel captain, Khan is sent on an adventure through this post-apocalyptic MCU landscape to obtain a satellite part of Shield in a secure place to contact the Nova Corp in the hope that their technology heaks the land of the zombie plate. Along the way, she teams up with Blade Knight (Todd Williams), the Black Widow Squad – Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian (David Harbor), Melina Vostokoff (Kari Wahlgren) – and Road Warriors Shang -Chi (Simu Liu) (Awkwafina) and Jimmy Woo (Randall).

“Marvel Zombies” immediately underlines its mature and violent nature, incorporating the “What if …?”? Shaded art style with tons of grotesque and blood tripes. While the source episode has done a good work of mixing the events of “Infinity War” in the middle of an epidemic of zombies, this sparkled chronology is as convoluted and confusing as the current state of the live action MCU itself. “Marvel Zombies” focuses on the characters in phase 4 and describes them in a pre-established dynamic that is familiar (like the Black Widow family and the Shang-Chi team) or that has never really happened. These include the beginnings of the MCU of the team and the blade of young Avengers, which presents the resemblance of Mahershala Ali and a sound to Todd Williams (who also took over the “invincible” character of Ali, Titan). However, due to the current production of the blade, this iteration, this iteration supposes it as the Knoon Moon / Fists of Khonshu (F. Murray Abraham), because it was also a phase 4 entry.

Although it provides an intriguing character dynamic and an overview of the post-apocalyptic world, the series is so precipitated that it does not deliver a convincing and well developed story. He never gives the public time to understand the weight of his zombified reality, because he is more concerned with seeing the characters of phase 4 compete against zombie enemies of the same era, from Captain Marvel to Namor and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) in Scarlet Witch mode.

“Zombies” could have benefited from more episodes to expand the different factions and this construction of the post-apocalyptic world. Admittedly, there are major indications of the other dystopian properties of the 2010 years such as “The Walking Dead” and “Mad Max: Fury Road”, but he finds his own charm when he saw Shang-Chi and Katy become road warriors and the skulls being something like boys of war.

Sometimes, “Marvel Zombies” impresses in the way the killed graphic zombies go, especially when it happens to one of the heroes. However, the same problems as “What If” still exist, with the showrunner and the director Bryan Andrews, the ambitious scale and the scope of the action and the direction being hampered by the Guindé animation movement and the conceptions of hyperrealist characters. In one way or another, zombies have a more wide expression than human heroes. The lighting effect team does an excellent compensation work with exceptional lighting indices for each location, improving the horror atmosphere.

Some of the actors of the MCU who return offer a good voice, because they bring a level of passion to their animated roles that the animation does not correspond. The star is Iman Vellani, who has confidently the role of being the emotional nucleus of the series through a fierce and passionate performance. In addition, there is David Harbor, whose red goalkeeper serves as a paternal figure in Kamala and brings raw emotions that even live-action Harbor did not have in the same role.

The novelty of the characters MCU killing zombies in a bloody way is wearing quickly, however, mainly since the writing of Zeb Wells follows the formula “If it is not broken, it is enough to help it” which has become stunned in the MCU for years. Despite the Gore, “Zombies” follows the same pace that his PG-13 counterparts.

Unsurprisingly, it is actively boring how serious emotional rhythm or horrible bloody violence would only occur so that the characters follow it with the same funny variation of the “good, which has just happened”. He can never choose a path between wanting to be something like “Zombieland” in the tone when he has clues “The Walking Dead” everywhere. Everything feeds my confusion that is exactly the public of “marvel zombies”. I first thought that the “adolescents” were the answer, since it is the current Disney mission plan. But then, I crossed them because, even if I suppose that they would feel an advantage by watching a TV-Ma program, they would undoubtedly feel betrayed since it is the same tone focused on the family that has been present since they were children. This only raises the question: what is the point of making a series intended for a mature audience if you always work within the same formula limits and restrictive as the rest of the MCU order?

“Marvel Zombies” can be a light watch, but the lack of guts that he had to bring the MCU list to new peaks is wasted by a reassured tonal security disguised as freshness.

Four episodes projected for examination. New episodes streaming on Disney +.