Marvel Zombies 1x01/1x02 Full Reaction!
Added 2025-10-03 13:46:58 +0000 UTC
Comments
Cool to hear you interned in the Marvel archive room. Not read the comic myself, but I get how the episode previous would feel somewhat a letdown compared to how you describe it. The myriad of different combos one could do is a fun part of this, yeah. Our initial trio does work well. Shared appreciation for the U.S.S. Uhura. Did think Storm, though I caught the hair was blonde, and it clicked about it being Captain Marvel. Had to look up the Robb Stark character, another bland villain, afterward. They set the stakes early, giving Jess quite the start. The Blade of it all is hilarious at this point. Love how the showrunners essentially admitted, “...We didn’t think it’d take them this long to make the movie.” The consistent inability to acquire a script for the film, in addition to your description of “super vampire kills other vampires” seeming like a ridiculously easy concept to run with, you just yell to Feige, “What the hell do you think this is, Hamlet, Gone with the Wind, Ruggles of Red Gap? It’s a goddamn MCU picture! You know the drill!” I do miss Rachel in this, though the voice they got is good. Fair about you saying that you’ll take many a Violent Night with David. I repeat that with the second episode, I was lost for a moment, before it clicked, making me say, “Guys, I still haven’t seen that movie.” Figured you’d enjoy the Fury Road of it all. I assumed the ones I didn’t recognize were from Shang-Chi, so I’m as stumped as you on that one. Zemo was the big highlight of that show, which yeah, covid likely hampered it to a degree. I recall we both liked how the enemy mine trope played out with Zemo in that his goals roughly matched the heroes’ goals, he works with them, and never betrays them, all while sticking to his principles. Here, him being more overtly a guy who randomly does evil things just because the writing has designated him as a villain, I get how that rankles. Willing to chalk some of it up to perhaps a different past happened to this variant, and I concede that’s perhaps a weak stretch done to just run with it. Behind on Thunderbolts too, though it pleases me to hear about leaning into the Walker being a complete dumbass route. So long as they keep shitting on him, just as much if not more so than Star Lord, I’ll be good on that one. They do offer quite the bit of action with the zed words in this show, yes.
Thomas Corp
2025-10-04 23:52:41 +0000 UTCThat Mr. Fantastic line fits in way too well with his role in the Zombies comic, where it actually feels written by someone who actively hates him. There's only one Blade. Only ever gonna be one Blade. I kind of hoped Kamala's dream would end with Gladys grinning at her, before I remembered that's not a thing anywhere else even if it happened to Thanos AND the Silver Surfer. And I couldn't help wondering how the zombies got to Talokan in the first place, though I guess Wanda's magic gives enough wiggle room.
Ryan
2025-10-04 23:38:26 +0000 UTCI interned in the Marvel archive room during graduate school, where one of the perks was that I could check out any of the material I wanted whenever I had a spare moment. And one of the stories I was immediately drawn to was Marvel Zombies. The original comic is a pitch-black comedy where the heroes are ALL zombies, who retain every bit of their personalities and can still talk, so as fun as the What If episode was, I couldn't help feeling a bit let down that all that was gone. But this makes for quite a neat way to move closer to it while still playing fair with what she saw before. The show has a big thing working against it, getting us to invest in a setting we know is eventually going to just get all the zombies dumped into another universe. But that's what the massive amount of characters we already have attachments to are for, and even with all the ones taken off the board by What If, there's still plenty that can work well here, and it must have been so much fun working out the different combinations they could do. The girl power trio instantly clicks together, and I especially love Riri naming her vehicle Uhura, the OG inspiration for black girls in sci-fi. A lot of people have noted they had a bit of trouble recognizing Ikaris and Carol, and I thought they were Adam Warlock and Storm at first but caught on by the end. And the scene lets us know right away this is a show where we can't assume anyone is safe. That's always the best part about writing an Elseworld, and this is one of the best settings to take advantage of it. Of course, Blade is seen as the biggest deal here, but the show runner has actually said this wasn't meant to be any kind of big reveal, and they just assumed there would be a Blade movie at some point during the years of development they knew it would take. Count me among the numerous people mystified at how hard the MCU crew is finding it to build a decent script around "super vampire kills other vampires." A bit odd that Rachel is the one family member they couldn't get, but the accent is a lot of help in hiding it. And I'll always say yes to more of David Harbour hamming it up as he gets to put more people on the naughty list. I was fully on board right at the start of episode two, where you can really feel them going nuts with how many complications you can throw into the concept of a zombie outbreak in the MCU. And I was digging the whole Mad Max vibe, even if it was a bit distracting that I couldn't quite tell if I was supposed to recognize anyone besides the big three. Though once Zemo enters the picture, I couldn't help being a bit let down. One of the best things about the severely flawed Falcon and Winter Soldier is how it stuck firmly to his personality and motivations rather than just being a guy who randomly does evil things just because the writing has designated him as a villain, and this kind of crosses that for me. Even with his grudge against "heroes," I have a hard time seeing him going here after how he was fully willing to work with Sam and Bucky. At least we get a good appearance from John Walker, building on the realization in Thunderbolts that he works best as an ongoing character if he's kind of a dumbass. And throughout both episodes they clearly know we're here for zombie ass kicking and make sure to give us plenty, so I'm very much on board for the rest.
Ryan
2025-10-04 23:18:08 +0000 UTCOh, so we’re doing this. All right. Bit behind on it myself. See we have another show with a skip intro button as useless as the one for Rebels. And yes, the last time we dipped our toes into the Marvel Zombie world, you were not in your present house. The show having “zero chill” seems a fair description. Starts out with the good showcase of the Young Avenger Trio. Love how the arrow made you think of Daryl. Daryl would have been nice to see, though, alas, he and Carol have their hands full in Spain presently. They were doing a good job with the hope. (Not that one, as she’s dead.) Plot starts in earnest with the discovery of the one thingy. They now have something that could save the planet from this zombie world. Meaning that we need to keep it as FAR away from Mister Fantastic as possible. Unless, of course, Ellie’s not involved in this thingy, in which case, we’re good at letting him take a look at it. Sweet how the ride was named after Uhura. Chimed in when they quoted Next Gen, “Wrong Star Trek show, but thanks for playing.” You got a chuckle out of it, so I’ll shut up. Tension rises when zed word Captain Marvel and the Robb Stark Eternal had their tiff. You’re sharper than I was with the Robb Stark Eternal. I had to look that one up to verify. Brave of Kate to fight, though when the confetti was unleashed, you say, “Oh, shit, she picked the cute one!” and no sooner do you say that, does Kate got fried extra crispy, leading to that rather delightful whiplash of you going from laughing to the scream of terror. Unfortunately, Kamala’s hero is Captain Marvel. And now Captain Marvel has killed her friend. ...It’s ironic. Riri holds the door so Kamala can escape. Hurts to hear Kerry perfectly sell Friday’s last lines. Can we get that woman a bigger Marvel role? Please? Blade of course was delightful to see. And we STILL don’t have Mahershala as Blade. This is becoming obscene. We got excited about the Black Widow characters. You asked was it your girl, and I replied, “Alas, not dear Rachel providing the voice, but yup, that is your girl, Jess.” Good to see Melina; we both love her. Hell of a battle that happened. Alexei gets his song. Shame about Abomination being one of the zed words. Blade had the DAMN fine move with the slice-and-dice with Ghost, showing us what happens when some motherfuckers STILL keep trying to ice skate uphill. Melina staying behind, we had the shared reactions there. Albeit, you give her the praise, “Ok, THAT was c*nty.” and I can only reply, “Can someone please explain to me what that phrase means? And again, can I even say that phrase? I don’t think I can.” Sad to see her die all the same. Rotten that Okoye is not heeding your advice. Seems that in this universe, her romantic and emotionally beautiful reunion with Rick and their kids, that didn’t happen. Oh, and we divulge that the role of big bad will be played by the Scarlet Witch. Yeah, you too had the unsurprised response to the revelation that the Scarlet Witch is the queen of the dead despite the show playing it as a reveal. Makes me say, “Well... I thought it was obvious.” I was lost in the opening of the second episode. Halfway through said opening, it clicked, as I said, “Guys, I still haven’t seen that movie.” Nice of the Mandarin to lay down his life for his boy. Any particular reason why Shang-Chi didn’t hack his arm off. Nice to see Woo. The city on the sea raises tension again. You expressed the worry about Zemo. I was distracted by Walker being in this, saying, “...The entire world goes to shit soup, and THIS asshat is STILL ALIVE? Goddamn it.” I did live for your look and dance when Zemo indulged in the villainous activities. Before that, a good food bonding scene where I advised Woo about Alexei, “Oh, don’t worry, just keep your hands and feet away from his mouth.” Got distracted by Yelena seeming to express an attraction to Shang-Chi. Namely I asked, “...I thought Yelena was ace. I mean, I realize that we’re dealing with multiversal madness, all the same, I’m fairly certain that Yelena’s ace.” Nice to see your concern for Kamala now that the Scarlet Witch has taken an interest. Love your reaction to calling that being in the ocean led to the one underwhelming villain from Wakanda Forever. We shared the response when Kamala makes Namor’s head go Scanners, and I said, “SHIT. That’ll work.” Walker got killed, and I note, “Yes. Very sad. Anyway!” Bringing us to how we both had the emotional response to Yelena’s sacrifice. Alexei got me especially in the heart. I don’t even have kids, and I felt that. The part, as mentioned on youtube, that got me the worst was Yelena saying his words to her dad, and Alexei’s despair as he says that line, “No. Yelena, you don’t get to use my words against me. No, you don’t get to say that to me, Yelena!”, that line hurt something fierce. As did Yelena saying, “I love you, Daddy.” She does die well, as she said. We all now eulogize her, as we were singing: My, my, this here Anakin guy. Maybe Vader someday later, now he’s just-Oh, shit. I’m singing completely the wrong lyrics. DAMN. I keep doing that. So sorry. In terms of future death in this, I think I’m safe on severe emotional devastation as of my top five, Thanos has already become a zed word as we saw, so the pressure’s off there. Red Skull’s on Vormir, so he’s good. Think Nebula should be all right. Can see Agatha living still and thriving with the beautiful wickedness. Likewise, I KNOW that Kingpin and Vanessa are having the lovely time just living their best Long, Long Time life and have many a candlelit dinner in front of Rabbit in a Snowstorm. That is canon. Make it so. Great reaction to the first half of this, Jess. This is fun. Thank you.
Thomas Corp
2025-10-03 20:18:16 +0000 UTC
