History Recap / WhatIfS1E5WhatIfZombies

** After Sharon becomes a zombie and she approaches Bucky, he just simply shoves her out of the way instead of finishing her off immediately. Because of this, Hope ends up getting scratched by Sharon and becomes infected.

* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: After the Avengers got zombified in San Francisco, while it's reasonable for Iron Man to have flown himself back to New York, how Captain and Hawkeye got there isn't explained. For that matter, how Hope, Kurt, T'Challa, and Scott all got from 'Frisco to the NY/NJ area, are also unexplained.

* CitadelCity: Okoye tells the surviving Avengers to go to Wakanda, believing its high-tech protection would keep out the zombie horde. [[DefiedTrope It doesn't]].

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 fallen victim to the plague.

** Peter, T'Challa, and Scott end on a BolivianArmyEnding note, with the last scene see of them is arrive to a Wakanada 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 if Peter and the others actually survived or not.

* AnArmAndALeg: When Bucky finds T'Challa, the latter is short a leg from Vision's machinations.

* ItCanThink: The zombies still remember how to use their powers and technology, and are even capable of working together against their prey. A zombified Wanda seems to briefly mourn Vision after his death, suggesting something of their personality remains even if the virus is dominant.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[https://twitter.com/whatifofficial/status/1424082919316992002 Art]] by [[https://twitter.com/chris_digiart Chris Christodoulou]]]]

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

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

** If you count being undead as "spared", then normal humans also apply. In the comic, the zombified heroes and villains completely devour all the ordinary people, leaving nothing left to come back as zombies.[[note]]Reed Richards believed that the virus was deliberately selecting metahumans as carriers to spread it, while Nick Fury offered the more mundane theory that the citizens were simply unable to fight off the zombies enough to avoid being completely consumed.[[/note]] Here, the normal zombified people make up most of the undead population, with the heroes serving as EliteZombies.

[[caption-width-right:350: Art by [[https://www.instagram.com/bosslogic/ BossLogic]]]]

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.

* 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, they're little more than your stereotypical zombies who can't speak and mindlessly shamble towards the heroes they want to consume.

** The Hulk was amongst the very first heroes to be turned into a zombie in ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies''. Here, Hulk's skin is tough enough to actually NoSell zombie bites, which allows him to fight off several of the undead, and stand up against a zombified Wanda Maximoff. This is especially notable given that even Thanos, whose skin is just as strong, yet ends up being infected as well.

** Spider-Man and Hulk manage to stay un-zombified, unlike their comic counterparts in the Marvel Zombies storyline.

* BloodierAndGorier: ''Easily'' the single goriest and most violent piece of MCU media there is so far, and that [[Series/ThePunisher is]] [[Series/{{Daredevil}} saying]] [[Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier something]]. Between Falcon and Captain America being ''[[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bisected]]'' and both Cull Obsidian and Ebony Maw being straight up '''devoured''' by the now zombified Iron Man and Doctor Strange, well… let's hope you're not too squeamish. Than the [[AlienBlood zombies bleed a vague sort of blue instead of red saves the episode from becoming too much of a horror show]].

* BloodierAndGorier: ''Easily'' the single goriest and most violent piece of MCU media there is so far, and that [[Series/ThePunisher is]] [[Series/{{Daredevil}} saying]] [[Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier something]]. Between Falcon and Captain America being ''[[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bisected]]'' and both Cull Obsidian and Ebony Maw being straight up '''devoured''' by the now zombified Iron Man and Doctor Strange, well… let's hope you're not too squeamish.
* BloodlessCarnage: In spite of the above, very little blood is shown being spilled by the living, despite the injuries inflicted upon them. The little cut we see on Hope's arm is as bad as it gets.

* LighterAndSofter: Than the ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' comic on which it is based. Most of the deaths either happen off-screen or are [[GoryDiscretionShot hidden]], such as Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian's deaths. And when the zombies are killed, they don't have [[AlienBlood red blood]] at all. Granted, if they did, then the episode would not get a TV-14 rating.

** In the original Marvel Zombies the zombie Ant Man keeps Black Panther alive and uncontaminated in order to eat him so he can stay sane and be able to work on a cure for the zombie Plague. This role is given to Vision who controls Black Panther and works on a cure while Wanda is the zombie that needs to eat him in order to be kept tame.
** The same can be said for Wasp who in the comic after turning into a zombie ends up as a decapitated head that is able to help the humans. This role is given to Hope van Dyne who ends up a Zombie and Scott Lang who ends up as the decapitated head that helps the survivors.

* LighterAndSofter: Than the [[ComicBook/MarvelZombies ORIGINAL]] Marvel Zombies on which it is based. Most of the deaths either happen off-screen or are [[GoryDiscretionShot hidden]],like Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian's deaths. And when the zombies are killed, they don't have [[AlienBlood red blood]] at all. Granted, if they did, then the episode would not get a TV-14 rating.

** In a larger sense, in the original Marvel Zombies story, the infected heroes managed to devour all life in the universe besides a small number of human survivors. Here the zombies never make it off Earth, which means that cosmic-level heroes and various alien planets avoid the infection or getting devoured.

* TheWorfEffect: Just how deadly is this zombie disease? The zombified Avengers are able to take down Cull Obsidian and Ebony Maw with ease, even though they were a significant challenge in the Sacred Timeline. And if that's not enough, the ending reveals that Thanos, the [[NighInvulnerability impenetrable]] Mad Titan himself, has succumbed to the plague.