Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Undead Fun: Marvel Zombies #1

Zombies, those loveable, shambling, undead rascals, have been experiencing a bit of a renaissance lately. For a long, dark, sad time, the walking dead stumbled out of the public eye. Fortunately, due to a recent upswing in the number of quality undead movies and comics, zombies are finally getting the respect they deserve! Or at least as much respect as anyone can have for a rotting, mindless fiend whose only desire is to eat you and your tasty brains. Mmmm, brains....

Marvel Zombies #1 is NOT about a bunch of crazed fans who only read Marvel comics, but is instead Marvel's turn at jumping on the undead bandwagon. (Not a wagon you want to be downwind of, by the way.) The events of Marvel Zombies spin out of a recent storyline in Ultimate Fantastic Four, but you don't need to read UFF to enjoy the undead fun of this comic. In a parallel dimension (not the regular or Ultimate Marvel universes), Earth's heroes become victims of a zombie plague. They retain much of their original personality, powers, and memories but they are still undead, decaying, flesh-eating ghouls. Unable to think much beyond their next meal, the undead heroes go on an eating spree, until almost all of their food supply (the citizens they once protected) is wiped out. They squabble over the last remaining tidbits on the buffet, until a new, tasty morsel shows up. A "delivery" from off planet on a silver surfboard....

Marvel Zombies writer Robert Kirkman knows a thing or two about writing both super-heroes and the undead. Not only does he write the greatly under-rated Marvel Team-Up, he is the writer/creator of The Walking Dead, published by Image. (If you aren't reading Walking Dead, you should try out the trades. You'll quickly find yourself hooked on this great series.) Kirkman's zombie expertise really shines in this comic. There is a lot of dark undead humor here, such as zombie Spidey breaking his leg "like, in half," but there is also some quite horrific and disturbing stuff to freak out the faint of heart. The creep-out factor is greatly enhanced by Sean Phillips dark, scary, and rather squishy, art.

Marvel Zombies is certainly unlike anything Marvel has ever tried before. Where else are you gonna see an undead Captain America carrying around a handful of his own brains, or a bunch of zombie Avengers arguing over how much of Magneto they get to eat? Nowhere, that's for sure! So shamble on down to Four Color Fantasies and moan incoherently until someone hands you a guaranteed copy of Marvel Zombies #1! Just don't try to eat your copy. You wanna save that room for some tasty brains when you get home

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