After a year of bright, hopeful superhero flicks, Marvel flips the script with “Marvel Zombies,” a four-part miniseries that takes a dark, gritty, refreshing swing and dares to ask, “Who will save our heroes?”

Set outside the main Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Marvel Zombies” is a direct spin-off from “What If…?,” continuing the alternate timeline sparked by the Quantum-Realm virus that first blighted the Avengers roster.

The Disney+ series is Marvel Studios Animation’s first TV-MA title and plants its flag in R-rated horror rather than mass-appeal spectacle.

Created by Zeb Wells, whose only previous credit is Marvel’s R-rated “Deadpool and Wolverine,” a perfect background for the violence required to make a project like this, “Marvel Zombies.”  Is the MCU’s attempt to create a new market for those who love adult animation

Some of the show’s most frightening moments feature our familiar heroes as grotesque monsters. Rough textures—frayed fabric, mottled skin, chipped teeth—so the zombies feel grimy, not glossy. 

But that is just one technique the show uses to terrify. Where “Marvel Zombies” excels is its ability to build fear through skill and not through true cheap scares. 

The sound works to do a lot of the scaring. Breathing scrapes in from the sides, radios cut out mid-sentence, then a single crack or bite lands like a jump scare. The score is inconsistent, but intentional; it rises, peaks and falls back, and keeps you on your toes. It doesnt scare you—yet; just makes you uneasy, unnerved. 

But it’s the visuals that do the realy heavy lifting. The camera crawls slowly like it always has something unveil or spring on the audience, there are more than a few scenes that take place in the pitch black abyss, and on occasion it’s illuminated by bright, disorienting bursts.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Promotional Image Courtesy of: Marvel Animation

Lighting is key to the mood. Sodium-orange streetlights rot into green-gray tunnels. Muzzle flashes bleach faces for a single ugly frame. Silhouettes smear in smoke. Colors drain until red is the only hue that pops, which is its own dark joke. The result feels more like a survival-horror video game than a glossy comic.

Compared with the slick cel-shaded look of “What If…?” and the punchy 2D style of “X-Men ’97,” “Marvel Zombies” leans into heavy 3D, creating a sense of depth, of reality in the otherwise supernatural world. 

The pacing swings between slow, quiet stalking and sudden, ugly bursts of violence. It’s more psychological tension than campy splatter, with a few dark jokes that pop the tension only after a scare has landed.

The show’s nastiest thrills aren’t just viscera but irony. Watching icons like Captain America return as predators curdles the reflex to cheer when a familiar silhouette arrives. The shield comes back across the screen, but it doesn’t save anyone. 

“Marvel Zombies” sinks its teeth into what we project onto symbols, gnawing at just how comfortable we are with hero worship.

Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan is the show’s lone beacon of hope—and Vellani’s performance is a masterclass in voice work that grounds the otherwise otherworldly series. She stays bright without turning chirpy, and when her bravery wears thin, the tremor in her voice sells the “last light” premise. That performance becomes the hinge of the story: Kamala’s leadership isn’t pep but a choice to stay human while the world demands you harden into hunger, leaving the series to ask—through her stubborn humanity—whether hope serves as bravery or denial.

Where “Marvel Zombies” wobbles is its fan service. At times, the show is in a tug-of-war between franchise quips and full-tilt dread. 

A stray wink or cameo beat occasionally lets the air out of the room just as the series is tightening the screws.

But when it commits to the nightmare—lets the frames linger, trusts the silence, weaponizes light and texture—it’s ruthless and effective.

And damn good.

The net result: an sometimes uneven ride that still lands hard. As an experiment in pushing Marvel animation into adult territory, it works—often thrillingly. 

The show gnaws at the comfort of hero worship and, by the final credits, it feels like both a warning shot and a proof of concept: if Marvel wants to live in this darker neighborhood, it can. 

“Marvel Zombies” premiered on on Disney+ Sept. 24.