Avengers: Infinity War saw all the active superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe doing their best to stop Thanos from acquiring the Infinity Stones, and with the help of the Infinity Gauntlet, wipe away half of life in the universe, and fans have since pointed out all the mistakes they made, and now What If…? has shown one solution that fans have been suggesting. The focus of the first three Phases of the MCU, collectively known as the Infinity Saga, was Thanos’ quest to find the Infinity Stones, the Infinity Gauntlet, and use their power to “bring balance to the universe”, and while this storyline is now over, it continues to be a topic of discussion among Marvel fans.
The MCU is now moving forward with its highly-anticipated Phase 4, which covers both TV shows and movies, and fans are currently enjoying the animated anthology series What If…?. The series explores different timelines in the MCU multiverse where some of the most defining moments of this universe happened differently, such as Peggy Carter becoming Captain Carter, T’Challa becoming Star-Lord, Hank Pym killing the Avengers, and Doctor Strange becoming evil. Episode 5 of What If…? brought a fan-favorite storyline from the comic books to the MCU: Marvel Zombies, and through it, it showed a simpler, most effective way to stop Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
What If…? episode 5 took the audience to a timeline where Hank Pym’s rescue of Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm went wrong, as she contracted a quantum virus that “corrupted her brain” and turned her into a zombie. Janet attacked Hank, and when they returned from the Quantum Realm, they infected Scott Lang, and within 24 hours, the virus had spread, turning civilians and various MCU heroes into zombies. Episode 5 opens with Hulk/Bruce Banner landing on Earth to let his fellow heroes know that Thanos was coming, as seen at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, and crashing through the roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum. Bruce soon learned that his colleagues Tony Stark, Doctor Strange, and Wong had been turned into zombies, but luckily for him, the Cloak of Levitation, Hope van Dyne, and Spider-Man arrived to rescue him – and the Cloak pulled a move that fans have argued Strange should have used against Thanos.
Even though they were zombies, Doctor Strange and Wong retained their magical abilities, and when they tried to catch Bruce Banner, they opened portals. The Cloak helped Bruce by tying itself around Strange and Wong’s legs, and when Wong opened a portal and was very close to biting Bruce, the Cloak pulled him back, and when the portal closed, it decapitated Zombie Wong, effectively killing him. Now, fans have argued that there were a variety of ways in which the MCU heroes could have killed Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, the most talked about one being one that involved Ant-Man and Thanos' butt, but there are other, less messy methods. One of them involved the portals that Strange can open, and if he had used them when battling Thanos on Titan, he could have literally “gone for the head” or his left hand, which held the Gauntlet. Instead, Strange and the rest of the heroes in Titan opted for trying to take the Gauntlet off of Thanos’ hand, and the plan failed when Peter Quill let his anger over Gamora’s death take over.
Thor came close to killing Thanos at the end of Avengers: Infinity War when he used Stormbreaker to stab him in the chest, with the Mad Titan telling the God of Thunder he “should have gone for the head”, as that didn’t stop him from snapping his fingers. What If…? has included different references to online fan discussion about the MCU and teased some interesting stuff about the MCU that, hopefully, will be explored in the future, and through its Marvel Zombies episode, it proved a fan theory right by showing how closing a portal can be used to decapitate someone.
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