“Marvel Zombies”
Writer – Robert Kirkman
Artist – Sean Phillips
Hardcover collection published by Marvel (2006)
136 pages
About 9 years ago I stopped buying comic monthly. Not any fault of the comic book publishers, but I just had other priorities and I moved to an area where there were no comic book stores (have you noticed it is nearly impossible to find a comic book in any store other than a comic book store, anymore?). I kept my ear to the ground though so I could keep up with what was going on in my favorite heroes life and some of the other things going on.
I had heard about the comic book “The Walking Dead” by Robert Kirkman and even read a couple of issues, and loved the story and artwork. Then when the TV series was announced I immediately commandeered the couch every Sunday night to watch this awesome series. After all it had zombies, and I LOVE zombies. The series continues to be great, although this second season had a couple of episodes without seeing a single zombie, so they have me worried.
Anyway this got me intrigued about Robert Kirkman and I looked into what else he had done. To my surprise he was asked by Ralph Macchio to write a series based on Marvel heroes being zombies, how cool is that? Well let me tell you pretty darn cool, oh and gory and brutal. This series was 5 issues long and was hugely popular among the comics crowd. I of course purchased the hardcover collection which not only features the entire story run, but also includes artwork for all the covers, which are based on classic Marvel comics covers.
The story begins with the heroes in a different dimension having turned to zombies and seeking out flesh to eat for survival. The problem is, no one is left on earth that has not turned. Magneto is left behind to fix the situation and he (not a zombie) soon falls prey to the heroes. With this being their only meal for awhile the heroes fight amongst themselves to get a slice of Magneto meat for sustenance. The comic then takes a bit of a crossover turn and the Silver Surfer comes to earth as the Herald of Galactus. With a world of zombies the Surfer decides the world is good for Galactus to devour. The zombie heroes have other plans, after all eating Galactus would make a great meal.
The great battle with Galactus and the zombie heroes and even a few zombie villains ensues and well let’s just say it gets pretty gory. Iron Man is only an upper torso, Colonel America (not Captain in this dimension) gets half his head sliced off, but still functions, and the Hulk eats so much that when he shrinks back down to Bruce Banner he bursts his abdomen.
Fun book and a some good gore for you Marvel and Zombie fans.