What If...? - What if... Zombies?! - Review: From a Place of Love and Hope

SPOILERS AHEAD!

I tend to dislike post-apocalyptic stories. I'm also not very fond of zombies tales. Therefore, I was expecting "What if... Zombies?!" to be my least favorite episode so far.

Surprisingly, that didn't happen! Instead, I enjoyed this whole new journey a lot — even though there is some stuff I'd like to discuss with you.

"Like too many great catastrophes, this one sprang from a place of love and hope."

One day, Hank Pym went into the Quantum Realm to search for his lost wife, Janet. In this reality, however, Janet contracted a quantum zombie virus. She spread it to her husband, who went back to reality and transmitted it to other people. In two weeks, the whole world had contracted the disease — including most of the mightiest heroes, as Captain America, Hawkeye, and Iron Man, to name a few.

The initial context is the same from Infinity War: Thanos attacks the Asgardian ship, and Heimdall sends Hulk to Earth. Before he can warn Doctor Strange and Wong about Thanos, though, Banner discovers that the planet has problems way bigger right now.

Things start to get interesting after Banner meets the one group still standing and fighting: Hope van Dyne, Bucky Barnes, Happy Hogan, Okoye, Sharon Carter, Peter Parker, the Cloak of Levitation (the mightiest of all!), and Kurt (if you don't remember him, he's a minor character from the Ant-Man movies.)

This combination of characters seemed very fitting for me, as the entire group is composed of either secondary, minor, or recently introduced/underused heroes. The Wasp, for example, we've not seen so much of her before when compared to other heroes, so I was really joyful to see that they put the spotlight on her for a while. Also, Peter is the classic comic relief that brings heart and soul to the story; Bucky, Sharon, and Okoye are the tactical players/fighters all teams need; Happy is still the number one fan of Thor, and so on.

"I've lost a lot. But my Aunt May says... used to say... that if we don't keep smiling when they can't, then we might as well just be gone, too. And... well, they'd want us to keep going."

Their main mission is what everyone should expect in this scenario: they heard rumors of a cure and are trying to find it. Along the way, some zombie attacks happen, and some heroes turn into these scary creatures. When the remaining survivors arrive at the mysterious place, they discover that the cure is nothing more, nothing less than Vision's Mind Stone. The Infinity Stone keeps the zombies away from the camp and can cure the virus, which worked fine with Scott Lang. With his head, at least.

Then, a plot twist: Vision tried to cure Wanda, but she was too powerful for it to work. So the synthezoid kept her imprisoned, feeding the Scarlet Witch with parts of T'Challa, who is, by the way, still alive. Bucky rescues our King, and everything could have ended well if Wanda didn't escape and kill most of them. Vision gives his Stone to Peter, believing it can still be used for good, then dies.

The episode seems to end on a hopeful note, with Peter, T'Challa, Scott, and the Cloak (it'll never die, thankfully) escaping with the Stone. Until zombie Thanos appears, only one Stone missing from his gauntlet. Probably our heroes are about to have an unpleasant meeting with him. We don't get to know how it happens, however. The episode ends with Thanos, and that's it.

My biggest problem with this episode is related to how it ends. I usually don't mind open endings, but this felt very abrupt. Like scenes were missing. Maybe we'll return to this universe next season, I don't know. It's similar to what happened in episode 2, where loose ends that could become a season 2 episode about Peter Quill and Ego were left. The cliffhanger worked better there. Here, it just left me unsure.

"Even in the darkest of times, humans will give all to save their planet. Even if it might bring an end to the universe."

Now, some quick comments:

• I already said I liked it because of the characters, but I also need to praise the fight scenes. It's nice to see all those heroes, with all the power they have, going evil and wreaking havoc. Fun time, indeed.
• Zombie Wanda cared about Vision's death! I mean, these two! They're truly tragic and beautiful. Anyway, what if Wanda created the WandaVision Hex in that zombie scenario? I feel this would be awesome to watch.
• What about the Guardians of the Galaxy? Thor? Are they somewhere in space? Not to mention Captain Marvel. Fury would have called her, right?
• Did Zombie Thanos keep searching for the Infinity Stones? Because if he already had most of them before turning into a zombie, wouldn't he be too powerful to be caught by the zombies? For me, it looks like the less you think about Thanos, the more you can enjoy this.

That's it. In general, it was good, fun, and I had a really good time watching it. What about you? Did you like it? Are you also scared/a big fan of Baba Yaga? Excited about the next one? 

Thanks for reading, and see you soon.