Marvel Zombies: Dead Days


By Robert Kirkman, Sean Phillips, Mark Millar, Greg Land & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3563-0

Fast becoming one of modern Marvel’s most popular niche-franchises the canny blend of gratuitous measured sarcasm and arrant cosmic buffoonery collected here traces some of the shorter early appearances of the deadly departed flesh-eating superheroes of an alternate universe which wasn’t so different from the one we all know – at least until a dire contagion killed every ordinary mortal and infected every super-human upon it.

This volume collects the first appearances of the Marvel Zombies and includes the one-shot prequel that delineates the final hours of that tragic alternity where it all kicked off.

That out of sequence prequel forms the first chapter of this gory storybook: ‘Dead Days’, by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips, sees Earth rapidly overwhelmed by its costumed crusaders after a super-villain imports an extra-dimensional curse to that reality: one that turns the infected (for which read “bitten”) victims into ravenous, undead eating machines.

Very much a one-trick pony, the tale depends on a deep familiarity with the regular Marvel pantheon, a fondness for schlock horror and the cherished tradition of superheroes fighting each other. This time, however, it’s for keeps, as beloved icons consume one another until only a handful of living heroes remain, desperately seeking a cure or a way to escape their universe without bring the zombie plague with them…

This is followed by the first chronological appearance of the brain-eaters: a far subtler and blacker exploit which first appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-23. This team is a revised, retooled version of the Lee/Kirby stalwarts created as part of the Marvel Ultimates project began in 2000.

After the company’s near-demise in the mid-1990s new management oversaw a thoroughly modernising refit of key properties: fresher characters and concepts to appeal to a new generation of “ki-dults” – perceived to be a potentially separate buying public from those readers content to stick with the various efforts that had gradually devolved from the Founding Fathers of the House of Ideas.

This super-powered quartet are part of a corporate think-thank tasked with saving the world and making a profit, and in ‘Crossover’ by Mark Millar, Greg Land & Matt Ryan, wunderkind Reed Richards is contacted by a smarter, older version of himself offering the secrets of trans-dimensional travel. Defying his bosses and comrades Reed translates to the other Earth only to find he’s been duped by zombie versions of the FF, looking for fresh fields to infect and people to digest…

Breaking free Reed discovers a devastated, desolate New York populated with manic monster superheroes, all eager to eat one of the last living beings on the planet. Suddenly rescued by Magneto, Reed meets other remaining survivors as they prepare for their last hurrah. Offering them a chance to escape Reed is blissfully unaware that he’s already allowed the Zombie FF to invade the still living world he came from…

Culminating in a bombastic battle on two planes of reality and a heroic sacrifice, this saga ends with the Zombie FF imprisoned on Ultimate Earth and segues into stories not included in this volume: so in brief then, Zombie World is visited by the Silver Surfer and the world-eating Galactus, who both end up consumed.

In ‘Frightful’ (Ultimate Fantastic Four #30-32, by Millar, Land, Ryan & Mitch Breitweiser) the Ultimate Universe Dr. Doom enacts a subtle plan to crush Reed Richards, but the imprisoned, lab-rat zombie FF have their own agenda: one which includes escaping and eating every living thing on the planet…

A far more serious tale of revenge and obsession, this yarn is a real frightener in a volume far more silly than scary. The Zombie franchise grew exponentially and another un-included tale revealed how, back on undead Earth, six victorious zombies – Tony Stark, Luke Cage, Giant-Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine and the Hulk finally ate Galactus and absorbed all his cosmic power. With all other food sources consumed they ranged their entire dimension, killing everything and every civilisation they could find.

Meanwhile on the original Marvel Earth, a civil war erupted between costumed heroes after the US government ordered all superhumans to unmask and register themselves. From that period comes ‘Good Eatin”, a light-hearted, grotesquely slapstick three-part hoot from Black Panther #28-30.

One-time X-Man Storm, Human Torch, the Thing and the Panther go dimension-hopping and land on a hidden citadel of the Shape-changing Skrulls just as the Galactal Zombie Diners Club discovers what just might be the last edible planet in their universe. ‘Hell of a Mess’, ‘From Bad to Worse’ and ‘Absolutely No Way to Win’ by Reginald Hudlin & Francis Portela comprise an action-packed, hilariously bad-taste splatter-fest to delight the thrill-seeking, gross-engorged teenager in us all…

This book also includes a plethora of alternate and variant cover reproductions and concludes with a fascinating commentary by painter Arthur Suydam, who based his stunning pastiche images on some landmark covers from Marvel’s decades-long-history.

By no means to everyone’s taste, this blend of dark fable with gross-out comedy mixes the sentiments of American Werewolf in London, the iconography of Shaun of the Dead and the cherished hagiography of the Marvel Universe to surprisingly engaging effect. Not for the squeamish or continuity-cherishing hardliners, there might be a loud laugh or frisson of fear awaiting the open-minded casual reader…

© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 Marvel Publishing, Inc, a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.