Beware the Queen of the Lifeless: This text accommodates spoilers for “Marvel Zombies” season 1, episode 4.
“WandaVision” sent Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) down a dark path, and “Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity” completed her transition right into a tragic however fearsomely highly effective villain. Now, after the occasions of that film despatched her chilling below the Wundagore Mountain, Wanda has returned for “Marvel Zombies.” Particularly, the sequence encompasses a glowing new alternate-universe model of the character within the type of the zombie-controlling Queen of the Lifeless, an antagonist who’s each robust sufficient to tackle an Infinity Stone-powered Hulk and petty sufficient to leap scare anybody at any time when the chance arises (which is surprisingly usually).
If we rely Wanda’s stint on “WandaVision” as a villain flip (which we completely ought to, since she’s the power who has locked the city of Westview right into a hellish sitcom existence and puppeteers everybody), this marks her third go-round because the overarching antagonist in an MCU venture. This can be a franchise first, since Tom Hiddleston’s Loki (“Thor” and “The Avengers”), Josh Brolin’s Thanos (“Avengers: Infinity Warfare” and “Avengers: Endgame”), Jonathan Majors’ Kang variants (“Loki” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”), and James Spader’s Ultron (“Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “What If…”) can solely boast two tasks apiece. What’s extra, she’s been a markedly totally different villain each time: A sympathetic, secret one on “WandaVision,” a possessed determinator and an occasional stalking horror menace in “Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity,” and a duplicitous lich queen who controls a military of the lifeless and eyes the Infinity Stones on “Marvel Zombies.”
Nevertheless, all of that’s simply icing on Wanda’s greatest achievement: In “Marvel Zombies,” she will get to win. A whole, unadulterated victory is nearly unheard-of for an MCU villain, which is but another excuse to crown Wanda as the very best antagonist the mega-franchise has seen so far.
Wanda has but to undergo a conclusive defeat within the MCU
Sure, there are different MCU villains who’ve racked up main victories. Effectively, two of them, anyway: Black ops colonel and eventual dance floor fiend Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) of “Captain America: Civil Warfare” fame succeeds in his plan to separate up the Avengers, whereas Thanos closes “Avengers: Infinity Warfare” with the snap that erases half of the universe’s life. Nevertheless, each wins are momentary. Regardless of the cut up, the Avengers are stronger than ever when Thanos rolls alongside — and, after all, the MCU devotes the whole plot of “Avengers: Endgame” to defeating Thanos and undoing the snap.
In the meantime, the one factor that has been in a position to defeat Wanda Maximoff so far is Wanda Maximoff. On “WandaVision,” she voluntarily drops the Westview spell after coming to phrases with the scenario. In “Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity,” she understands that the Darkhold is influencing her, destroys all the e-book’s copies throughout the Multiverse, and permits Mount Wundagore to bury her. And at last, on “Marvel Zombies,” she merely … wins. The final scene of the season means that Wanda has managed to siphon the Infinity Stones’ powers and used them to entice Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) in a faux actuality that hides the existence of zombies. If that leaves something unsure, the very last thing we see is Wanda’s zombified visage sneering on the digital camera.
After “Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity,” we right here at /Movie puzzled whether or not Marvel pulled its biggest punch with Wanda or if there are bigger plans for her. Within the “Marvel Zombies” universe, at the least, the latter appears to be proper, and Wanda continues to construct her legacy as probably the most untouchable MCU antagonist.
“Marvel Zombies” is presently streaming on Disney+.
