History Recap / WhatIfS1E5WhatIfZombies

* ForWantOfANail: The primary diverging point in this universe was when Janet van Dyne was infected with a quantum virus and was Patient Zero for the zombie plague. She infected Hank, and from there the world was gone inside a week.
-->'''Uatu:''' ''Like too many great catastrophes, this one sprang from a place of love and hope. Two weeks earlier, Dr. Hank Pym journeyed into the quantum realm, searching for his long-lost wife. But in this universe, Janet van Dyne contracted a quantum virus that corrupted her brain. So when she finally reunited with her husband after thirty long years… [[BlackComedy Oof. That happened.]] Alas, Hope van Dyne's long-awaited family reunion was not to be.''

Bruce Banner returns to Earth to warn their heroes of [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar the impending arrival of Thanos]]… only to find a world where humanity has been decimated by a zombie plague. Even worse, most of the Avengers have already fallen victim to the plague.

* LetsSplitUpGang: At Grand Central Station, Okoye tells the party to split up and secure the building. [[GenreSavvy Peter]] immediately points out what a terrible idea that is, but is overruled. After losing Happy and narrowly escaping on the train, Okoye is forced to admit that splitting up ''was'' a bad idea.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** Peter [[NeverSplitTheParty warns against Okoye's plan to split up]] at Grand Central Station, but she ignores his warning. After this results in Happy's death and everyone else barely escaping, Okoye admits to Peter with clear regret that he was right, they ''shouldn't'' have split up.
** Hope blames herself for the state of the world, since she was so desperate to get her mom back that she never stopped to consider what she might have brought back with her, and this resulted in a ZombieApocalypse.
* MythologyGag: T'Challa's missing leg mirrors a ''Black Panther'' covers from a story where he dealt with zombies.

** Okoye's belief that Wakanda is invincible and could never possibly fall like the rest of the world, causes humanity's last hope to be flying into a trap. Not only has Wakanda fallen, but a zombified Thanos is there with an Infinity Gauntlet only missing the Mind Stone… which the heroes are bringing right to him.

** Peter, T'Challa, and Scott end on a BolivianArmyEnding note, with the last scene being their arrival to a Wakanda that has already been overrun by a zombiefied Thanos and his army. Come the time of the [[Recap/WhatIfS1E9WhatIfTheWatcherBrokeHisOath final episode]] which brings together the heroes of the various What If universes, Peter was mysteriously absent. In fact, the only reference to this episode is Strange summoning a zombie horde to act as a distraction, so it doesn't paint the best picture of whether Peter and the others actually survived or not.

* ButNotTooBlack: The animated version of Okoye is notably lighter than Creator/DanaiGurira, who originated the role in the MCU.

!! "What If... Zombies?!"

!! "What If... Zombies?!" contains examples of:

* AmbiguousEnding: Thanos was zombified, so those zombies clawing at Wakanda's shield wall... are they clawing to get in or out?

* BadassInDistress: Black Panther ends up being overwhelmed by the zombies on the Golden Gate Bridge alongside the rest of the Avengers, which prompts Okoye to go to the States to rescue him. The surviving heroes later find out that Vision rescued T'Challa from certain doom...only to capture him and chop off part of his leg to feed to Zombie Wanda.

* DwindlingParty: As is standard of the genre, the survivors are picked off one by one as the story progresses. Happy Hogan is the first to go, followed by Sharon, Hope, Kurt, Okoye, Vision, Bucky, and finally (maybe) Banner. Only Peter Parker, T'Challa, and Scott's severed-but-alive head survived, [[CruelTwistEnding and they might not be for long...]]

* MeaningfulName: As in Episode 3, the name "Hope" is doing double duty. Uatu states that this catastrophe "sprang from a place of love ... and hope," and then goes to Hank and Hope's attempt to save Janet. Peter lampshades this after Hope tells the Avengers to kill her [[ZombieInfectee before she becomes a zombie]] and puts them all at risk.

** Okoye's belief that Wakanda is invincible and could never possibly fall like the rest of the world, causes humanity's last hope to be flying into a trap. Not only has Wakanda fallen, but a zombified Thanos is there with an Infinity Gauntlet only missing the Mind Stone... which the heroes are bringing right to him.

* OffhandBackhand: As Bucky is busy fighting Zombie Cap, a newly zombified Sharon Carter rises up to try to eat him as well...only to be thrown to the side by Bucky, despite his attention sole focus being on Steve.

* OhCrap: Bruce has this reaction when he realizes that Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and Wong are [[FleshEatingZombie doing a bit more]] than simply ''defeating'' Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian...

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

* IncrediblyLamePun: Scott, who's had his body amputated, deals with the trauma by making Dad jokes. He lampshades it.

--->'''Uatu:''' ''Within 24 hours, the entire Pacific Northwest was infected. Ironically, it was the Avengers' heroism that sealed humanity's fate. Because once Earth's Mightiest Heroes joined the infected, no one else stood a chance. Unless, of course, they knew the rules.''

** This isn’t the first time [[Series/TheWalkingDead a character]] played by Creator/DanaiGurira had to survive a ZombieApocalypse.

* MythologyGag: T'Challa's missing leg mirrors two of the ''Black Panther'' covers from the Marvel Zombies comicbook event.

* AdaptationalDumbass: In the ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' comics, the undead superheroes are capable of thinking, creating plans and utilizing their powers in unique ways to capture and eat other humans, and were also capable of communicating with each other like they used to in life. Here, while some of the heroes retain their knowledge of how to use equipment or magic and are capable of coordinating in ways they never demonstrated when alive, they're little more than your stereotypical zombies who can only manage groans and simple words (as demonstrated by zombie Happy saying 'Blam!' after getting turned) and mindlessly shamble towards the heroes they want to consume.

* AdaptationalNonsapience: Played with. The ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' distinguished itself by having conscious, sentient zombies well aware of what they were doing, but powerless to stop it. Here, the zombies are your bog-standard mindless brain-eaters, although they still know how to use their weapons, gear and powers, much like the zombies in the comic books did. There's also a brief moment where the zombified Scarlet Witch stops chasing the heroes to cradle Vision's corpse, implying that there may be ''something'' left of Wanda Maximoff. Also, Zombie Happy still says "Blam!" when using his repulsor, showing they can at least speak simple phrases.

* HelicopterFlyswatter: Zombified giant Hope grabs the Quinjet as the surviving heroes take off from Camp Lehigh.

* The events of Film/ThorRagnarok seem to have still happened in this reality, as the Hulk ends up crashing into the Sanctum Sanctorum via the Bifrost, just like in the beginning of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. There's also the implication that the cosmic events of the latter film are still happening as they did in the Sacred Timeline, due to the Quantum Virus never getting off of Earth.

* UnexpectedCharacter: Power Broker, of all people, shows up in this episode.