20th Nov2018

‘Marvel Zombie #1’ Review

by Phil Wheat

Written by W. Maxwell Prince | Art by Stefano Raffaele, Rachel Rosenberg | Published by Marvel Comics

marvel-zombie-1-cover

Years ago I got hooked into the world of Marvel Zombies – the book which featured numerous Marvel superhero zombified by a virus, running rampant across the globe. I read pretty much everything that came out with the “zombies” moniker on it right up until Marvel Zombies 4, skipping out on any other titles apart from Marvel Zombies 5 which I read [many] years after the fact.

The reason being? Well that particular “franchise”, over the course of a myriad of volumes and a few spin-offs, eventually became something of a joke – instead of sheer terror we got ghoulish laughs and the series became more a a laughing joke, even for die-hard fans like myself, eventually ending on a low-note. Personally I never read anything “Marvel Zombies” after the aforementioned fifth volume and its tale of Machine Man versus zombies… however when it was announced that THE Marvel zombie, Simon Garth, was to be resurrected (excuse the pun) in a new comic I knew I had to pick it up. And I’m certainly glad I did.

Set years after an incurable zombie virus ravaged the world, Marvel Zombie #1 sees a small colony of survivors  protected by the Marvel U’s few remaining heroes, including Spider-Man, Daredevil, Misty Knight, Moon Girl and the Falcon. However humanity is losing the battle and the zombie hordes are growing – so much so that our heroes devise an all-encompassing plan to wipe out the zombies… It’s a short but effective story that, within the space of 32 pages, manages to say a LOT about humanity – through the eyes of a zombie and a child!

Merely a one-off, Marvel Zombie #1 feels very much like the start of what could be a long running book. The storytelling is fantastic, not just in terms of script (for which W. Maxwell Prince should be VERY highly praised) but also in terms of art: Stefano Raffaele and Rachel Rosenberg’s interiors are just superb – really capturing the grim and grisly nature of a zombie apocalypse; and I really loved the new “sombiefied” takes on classic characters like Norman Osborn and Doc Ock (who gets THE most amazing accidental death scene ever at the hands of Spider-Man!).

As I said, this feels like the start of what could be a longrunning new title, however whether Marvel Zombie SHOULD become an on-going book is up for debate – what is captured in this one shot, in these 32 pages, is perfection and I worry that Prince and co. could never improve on this; and honestly there’s no need to… even though I’d really love to see more adventures of Simon Garth.

***** 5/5

Marvel Zombie #1 is out now from Marvel Comics.

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