This past week, Marvel released the first issue in the third Marvel Zombies series with another brand new team putting out the book. Action Philosophers writer Fred Van Lente (who also co-wrote some of The Incredible Hercules issues) takes the Marvel Zombies not only in a new direction but into a new Universe to feed, the 616 a.k.a the main Marvel Universe. Van Lente is a huge fan of old Marvel horror comics and has decided to place more of those characters into the mix, and step away from who we're used to seeing in not only MZ books, but any Marvel comic. Every other month there's a new one-shot or mini-series on the shelf with a "forgotten" tale about Wolverine or Spider-Man, but outside of Marvel Presents we never see older, lesser known (and often times more interesting) heroes and villains. This book seems like that's exactly what it wants to give you, taking place in the swamps of Florida, home of The Man-Thing.
Can anyone name a single character in that picture? I've been reading Marvel all my life and I only knew one of them. They are "The Command", Florida's 50 State Initiative team of registered super-humans, all forgotten heroes and ex-villains now working for the government. The other Marvel Zombies books gave you the story from their perspective, the infected, not the survivors or the ones trying to kill them. You never really knew who's side you were on before, Colonel America's Zombie Avengers or Black Panther's small group of Wakandian Survivors. The zombies in this seem more desperate, less human, and we get to see living dead that are homo sapien rather than homo superior , which is a first for the series.
Kevin Walker steps away from the look and feel of the other two books and puts the story into the 616, but he doesn't change the general way that the infected look, the sharp teeth and empty darkened eyes, giving you the feeling it is in fact the same virus in a new place. Marvel Zombies 3 feels like a super hero book with zombies running around eating people instead of a zombie book with some super heroes in it, Kirkman's biggest mistake. For the first time the writers of MZ are True Believers, not just dudes who can write an ok zombie story.
Marvel Zombies 3 has a new cover gimmick as well, straying from Arthur Suydam painted classic Marvel covers "zombified" (which sometimes just meant a skull placed over the face and some eyeballs thrown somewhere) and moving over to classic horror movie posters, all drawn by Greg Land.
Bonus: Marvel Zombies Trailer Fan Film
No comments:
Post a Comment