Marvel Zombies...Hell Yes

This is for the ZOMBIE CHALLENGE!

I'm hyperventilating right now. I am. This was...heaven. A religious experience. God in print.

Oh, I promised myself I wouldn't cry...

I'm in what you would call a 'slump' when it comes to reading. I started re-reading Stardust--just cause--and then I just...stopped. I put it down, and didn't put it back up. Haven't read anything on paper for two days. Then this comes along...and I have to share it with the massess. I'd be a terrible person if I didn't.

Summery (From amazon.com):

Torn from the pages of Ultimate Fantastic Four! on an Earth shockingly similar to the Marvel Universe’s, an alien virus has mutated all of the world’s greatest super heroes into flesh-eating monsters! It took them only hours to destroy life as we know it - but what happens when they run out of humans to eat?! Follow their search for more food, and witness the arrival of the Silver Surfer! Collects Marvel Zombies #1-5.

I know, I know. It sounds kind of stupid, but I assure you, it's AWESOME! (a word I don't throw around to often...=P). Not in the epic way you usually expect of comics, but in a way that's almost hilarious in it's outragiousness. Oh, but it works. So, so well. The artwork by Sean Phillips is stunning, gory in this kind of cross between B movie horror and the best of Romero...except they're superheroes. It's a macabre, undead version of Spider-Pussy. I mean...come on. What's not to love?

I love this image of the zombified Silver Surfer:



My favorite part was the hypocricy the author uses in making the heroes abuse their powers--to get their daily feed, they would approach frightened citizens, who would greet them with open arms. Their saviors! Their heroes! Their--shitballz, fool ate my leg!

And I laugh.

I know this is a tad sick--who would want to watch Mr. Fantastic chewing on a child's toes like tator tots? (alright...me) But you guys have to keep in mind I broke into hysterical laughter during the birth scene in Rosemary's Baby. Maybe this is my way of dealing with the grotesque, but I think it's mostly because I am a deplorable individual who should be locked up as soon as possible.

Moving on.

Another comendable charactersitic is how every character still maintains the ghost of their former personalities. Peter Parker (more on him below), true to his pre-zombified state, turns into a sniveling, sobbing puss-cake whenever the unsatiable hunger falters and he is left with a clear mind--much like a hangover. You see, our dear Peter went a bit...Hannibal Lecter on his Aunt and Mary Jane (not that I mind the thought of Kirsten Dunst being eaten by Tobey McGuire...I'd see that movie) and, in his guilt, is even more annoying then normal. A wonderful poke at the character's insistant ponderings on the meaning of morality and Right Vs. Wrong, if you ask me. Even his fellow crime-stoppers are getting annoyed.

I had very few issues with Marvel Zombies, but if I had to chose...

Me Hungry: Okay, here's the thing. Directly after the zombie-people feed, they momentarily gain back their senses and that spark that made them humna. During this time, are they trying to find a cure for this disease? Are they attempting to save what's left of their humanity? No. They are trying to figure out where to get their next meal. That's right. Mr. Incredible is--in a moment of sanity--trying to find more humans to eat before he goes back into his pro-zombie mode. For Christ sake, it's all they talk about. All the time. Not mourning for the friends they digested (except Peter Parker, but about that later), or the loss of life as we knew it. Food. Food. Foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfood. Omigod it's not even funny the obsession they have with it. JE-sus.

Mopey Spiderman: Basically the angst in the entire thing consist of Peter Parker whining about how he ate MJ and Aunt May. Boo-hoo, we get it. Bruce Banner aka. The Hulk ate Betty, he ain't complaining. Even his fellow zombie-heroes are fed up with it.

Gross-ness: Okay, since they pretty much ate every human on the face of the earth, they reside to eating themselves. Okay, not eating themselves. Cutting their stomachs open and re-eating undigested body parts. Yeah.

Overall, though, the art work is amazing, the story is perfectly scripted to not be as ridiculous as it sounds, and it's just overall fun to read. Fun as in it doesn't take a terrible amount of brain work to go through...it's just so ridiculous, so outragious, that even the most fearful of dooms-day sayers will be chuckling to themselves at the audacity of it all. I myself enjoyed a good amount of lulz, and I am very hard to amuse.

Rating: 8 out of 10. Some flaws, but definitley worth trying

Also: Go here for details on how you can enter this contest as well!

Another Thing: I dare everyone to go out and watch ONE zombie film and report to me on how you liked it. Nothing formal, I'm just curious how me readers enjoy the undead.

ALSO: Check out my guest post at THE BOOK SMUGGLERS!