MARVEL ZOMBIES #1

By: Kurt Amacker
Review Date: Friday, December 09, 2005

MARVEL ZOMBIES occurs in an alternate universe opened in the pages of ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR a few issues ago. Marvel teased that story as a crossover between the Ultimate Universe and the regular, 616 timeline, but 'twas not to be (to great relief). In this universe-within-a-universe, the Marvel heroes are all zombies and only Magneto remains human (or mutant or whatever). Of course, the Marvel zombies have one thought -- devouring the flesh of the living. Zombies Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Daredevil, and a host of others spend the better part of the issue pursuing Magneto and lose several extremities in the process to flying hunks of metal. After they finally overcome the Master of Magnestism and chow down, they spend the rest of the issue discussing (yes, they talk) the particulars of their zombie condition -- if they'll die, whether they really need to eat, and other problems particular to the living dead. It's an unusual scene -- a bunch of zombies contemplating their condition -- but not an unwelcome one. By the end of the issue, someone entirely unexpected flies through the skies of this wasteland and the zombies wonder if he's edible.

Unfortunately, the balance between action and talking heads seems a bit forced. Magneto fights the zombies for the first two-thirds of the book before they devour him. The zombies mull their predicament until the aforementioned visitor arrives. The difference feels a bit stark, but it doesn't ruin the book or anything. Kirkman usually writes great dialogue, and while MARVEL ZOMBIES doesn't quite dethrone THE WALKING DEAD for character development, it, ironically, offers a more human portrayal of the Marvel heroes than some writers are wont to write.

Sean Phillips and June Chung offer a gruesome, unsettling depiction of the zombie world. Horror comics rarely frighten or disturb me, but I must admit, the heroes' eating of Magneto left me a bit unnerved. I'm really amazed that Marvel let this go with a T+ rating and not MAX, because the violence is quite graphic here. I mean that only as an observation and not a complaint -- zombies, after all.

MARVEL ZOMBIES is certainly worth your hard-earned $2.99. It's not Kirkman's best, but it's still a worthy, interesting take on the Marvel heroes. It's alternate-universe setting means that anyone can read it without continuity concerns, so you have no excuse. Check it out.

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