How Marvel’s Zombie Avengers Still Have Powers

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Marvel's What If...? episode 5.

Marvel's What If...? adapted the classic Marvel Zombies miniseries for the MCU, but it never explained just how the zombie Avengers still had superpowers. This question wasn't as pertinent as it was in the original comics, as most of the Avengers in the MCU were ordinary humans with special training or advanced technology, and the episode ended before there was any chance of seeing a zombie Hulk. Still, the question remains as to why Captain America still seemed as durable as ever in death and how Doctor Strange and Wong were still able to cast spells with half-rotten brains.

"What If... Zombies!?" was set in an alternate MCU where the zombie virus was a product of the Quantum Realm, accidentally unleashed when Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) was brought back to reality, as in Ant-Man and the Wasp. The episode opened as Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) returned to Earth delivering a warning that Thanos was coming, only to find that the zombie plague had already lain waste to most of the Earth. Bruce was rescued by an ad hoc Avengers team led by Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) who were trying to find a cure for the virus while struggling to survive, as they were hunted by the zombie Avengers.

This is not much of a change from the original Marvel Zombies comics, where the zombie virus was known as the Hunger and was spread from the world of its origin by an infected variant of the Sentry. Much like the symbiote race that spawned Venom, the Hunger was a sentient being requiring a host and had the ability to animate those it infected, simulating basic life functions long after the host's heart had stopped beating. The hosts retained their intelligence and personality in their altered state, only becoming feral when there was a non-infected being close by. The irony was that the infected did not truly need to eat, being dead, and were only driven to try and bite other life forms so the Hunger could spread itself to new hosts.

Marvel What If Episode 5 Vision Explains Zombie Virus Cure

While "What If... Zombies!?" did not go into the details of how its zombie virus functioned beyond it being spread through the saliva of the infected, it seemed to follow the same rules as the Hunger. This would explain why the zombie Thanos, depicted in the episode's final scene, still seemed to be focused on acquiring the last of the Infinity Stones, when a standard zombie would only care about devouring the living. It would also explain how the Zombie Captain America seemed to display the enhanced strength and physicality of the living Captain America, despite his flesh rotting on the bone.

Given that most of the infected Avengers in the reality of Marvel's What If...? were ordinary people armed with advanced technology, a lengthy explanation as to how people retained their powers was not as necessary as it was in Marvel Zombies. The MCU's current lack of mutants proved a boon in this case, as it prevented the story from being slowed down to explain why Wolverine no longer had a healing factor but his enhanced sense of smell still worked. While it's a fun bit of trivia some fans might like to ponder, it wasn't important in the grand scheme of things.

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Marvel's What If...? releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.