The What If..? comics are famous for ending in tragedy, with the alternative realities generally wrapping with the death of one or more beloved characters. This week’s episode took that baton and ran with it, showing us a truly brutal zombie apocalypse hitting the MCU.
The origins came from Janet van Dyne in the Quantum Realm, though it spread across the entire Earth very quickly once superheroes became infected. Most of the episode saw these zombified heroes being killed in gross ways – and if you’ve got a dark sense of humor it’s fun to see Steve Rogers be chopped in half, Tony Stark beheaded, and Sharon Carter completely exploded from within.
The episode has only been out a few hours, but fans are loving it:
One interesting development was that the story ended on a cliffhanger, with the final scene of the episode teasing an Infinity Stone-powered zombie Thanos. We already know roughly what the next episodes will cover, so we may have to wait until season two to see this resolved.
An added bonus for this episode was that we got more voice work from Chadwick Boseman. Many had assumed his appearance in the second episode would be his final MCU work, though he has a decent role here and may also be in the season one finale.
Right now we don’t have confirmation whether a conclusion is coming or not, but I need to see what happens on this doomed Earth. Somehow, I suspect that things are going to get a lot worse before the sun rises.
What If..? airs Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
