This article contains spoilers for the fifth episode of What If…?
After five episodes, Marvel’s What If…? has shown audiences five different hypotheticals from the MCU. Each episode has brought its own set of criticisms and praises of the series handling of beloved characters and emotional moments. Its first two episodes offered an indulgent look at two characters stepping into another one's costume, while the third and fourth explored the dark side of alternate universes. The series’ most recent episode, titled simply ‘What If… Zombies!?’ is a departure from the previous two episodes — which were focused primarily on grief — and attempts to balance a zombie virus that has claimed thousands of lives with visual gags and one-liners.
And the comedy in the episode is creative and quick, arguably the best the series has had so far — but the final result has viewers riding on an emotional pendulum, one that swings from witnessing heartbreak to hurtling towards comedy with no time to recover. Instead of feeling like well-deserved breaks in the action or attempts to dissolve tension in a scene, ‘What If… Zombies!?’’s humor oftentimes feels like tonal whiplash, small pieces that don’t fit in the much larger, darker puzzle of the episode and series.
The episode stays away from the jokes long enough to establish the bleak situation on Earth — a “quantum virus” is released across the world after Hank Pym finds his wife after decades of searching the Quantum Realm. Within days, members of the Avengers are infected and the world turns into any other post-apocalyptic show. But a few members of the team remain, uniting to traverse the wasteland in search of a cure. The new Avengers is a mishmash of minor comic relief characters and heavier hitters like Scott Lang and Peter Parker, which is interesting to watch, but ultimately doesn’t have an emotional punch. ‘What If… Zombies!?’ doesn’t help this issue either. Viewers are given dark moments that are turned into laughs, such as Peter Parker’s protector Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau lends his voice for the episode) making gun noises as he is ripped away from the group and into the hands of the infected.
It’s difficult to go from What If…?’s previous episode, which dealt with Doctor Strange’s grief manifesting into obsession, to what feels like the MCU’s version of Shaun of The Dead. Yes, it's good that Marvel is starting to embrace darling storytelling in its new phase, as viewers have already seen in WandaVision and Loki, but creators must find a way to blend ambitious storytelling without falling into the same old pattern of quips of other projects in the MCU. The issue, if not addressed, could only get bigger over time. While it’s not drastic yet, it could very well get to an unignorable point in upcoming films such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
None of the creators involved in What If…? are reported to be working on the next Doctor Strange film, but the sequel to the 2016 film has a lot of ground to explore thanks to recent events in the MCU. While not much of the plot is known — except for a storyline involving Strange’s friend and teacher Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) hunting down fellow sorcerers — it is rumored that Loki (Tom Hiddleson) and confirmed that Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson) will be major players in the film alongside the sorcerer himself (Benedict Cumberbatch).
With the use of the multiverse almost guaranteed by the title, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness could address heavy issues for its characters in alternate universes. It would be upsetting if that potential for character work and worldbuilding was undermined by trying to fill a quota for jokes or trying to have every scene end with a laugh. That’s not to say that the MCU needs a complete overhaul with how it delivers its dose of comedy or drama — just that its handling should be taken into account.
As What If…? reaches the second half of its first season, an episode like ‘What If… Zombies!?’ could be a palette cleanser before a final four episodes that could be packed with the storylines and darker moments fans were just getting used to. While it came out of left field, the fifth episode of What If…? offered fans another chance to see some of their favorite heroes attempt to navigate a world different than the one they’re used to. With such an array of episodes, it’s anyone’s guess where the series is off to next or how it plans on wrapping its first of hopefully many seasons.
What If…? is available to stream on Disney Plus with new episodes released on Wednesdays.