Marvel Zombies 3 #2

Marvel Zombies 3 takes everything about the zombie genre and amplifies it by almost completely taking out the human element. Our heroes, who are both robots, enter the MZ universe in search of a living specimen, in hopes to return with a blood sample to save the people in their universe from the plague. Machine Man and Jacosta arrive in the Zombiverse and are immediately attacked by airborne ex-heroes and -villains, who for their own survival are forced to work together. Machine Man's hatred for humans combined with permission from S.H.I.E.L.D. to do what ever is necessary creates a monster, an Inspector Gadget without morals.

The team follows their radar to the spot where it seems life still actually lives, to find it swarming with zombies. Instead of the stronghold of humans fighting off the masses you'd expect to find, it's The Kingpin's lair, where everyone undead has to pay a can of food for five minutes inside, making bad guy who used to be feared and heroes who were loved to become scavengers.

An infected Black Bolt and the rest of the Inhuman Royal Family (minus Medusa, which hints she may have been eaten) arrive in Kingpin's dilapidated palace to discuss the agent on the "other side". First though, they are given free admission to the area all others are paying for, with Kingpin himself as a guide. Given the distraction, Machine Man and Jacosta make their move into the well protected building, and find the human they were looking for. Kingpin has saved a woman for himself, hiding her from all other zombies and using the one thing that puts him above all other men, his will, to keep her alive. She sits eating cat food from a plate, Kingpin's entire operation finally making sense, it's all just for her. They get their blood sample and make their way out with time to spare. On their way, they learn what everyone has been paying for, a giant room with lab equipment and incubation tanks everywhere, humans being cloned for the harvest. Machine Man has the revelation that it's not human beings that he hates, it's just most people. He sees the way they are treating the harvested humans and thinks of robots, and how his own people have been used and tossed aside, and makes the only heroic decision he's made since his Jack Kirby days and goes to save them all, or at least kill the ones killing.

Everything questioned from the first issue--where the human was going to be, who it was going to be and if it was going to be easy to get them(and a blood sample)--was answered in the first few pages of issue two. They gave you an idea of what the series was going to be and turned it upside down, making Machine Man an actual man, a good guy again, and not just a snarky dickhead robot guy with an alcohol problem. The "humanity" of Machine Man couldn't stay hidden any longer no matter how much he wanted it to. It's also another example of Marvel breathing new life into characters we all thought lost to obscurity and ironic jokes, using Machine Man in the Nextwave titles and then starring him in his own mini series through Marvel Presents magazines. Jacosta is also an "unknown" to most, her inclusion in the series almost forces fans to google her name and read up on her history, and not only that, making her exciting again. Now if we could only get a Stingray mini series.