Marvel Zombies

Marvel Zombies is a five-issue limited series published from December 2005 to April 2006 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips and covers by Arthur Suydam. It was the first series in the Marvel Zombies series of related stories. The story is set in an alternate universe where the world's superhero population has been infected with a virus which turned them into zombies. The series was spun out of events of the "Crossover" story-arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four, where the zombie Reed Richards tricked his Ultimate counterpart into opening a portal to the zombie universe.

Plot

Within the Marvel Multiverse is an alternate Earth designated Earth-2149, which contains alternate versions of Marvel superheroes. The story begins as an unknown superhero from another dimension, brought by the "Hunger", crash lands before infecting the Avengers. The infection spreads via contact with the blood of the victim, usually through a bite by an infected individual. The zombie super heroes largely retain their intellect and personality, although they are consistently driven by the "Hunger" for human flesh. As the story begins, the Marvel Zombies have already devoured all non-transhuman human life on Earth and are now without food (as prefigured in Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, a later tie-in).

Marvel Zombies (series)

Marvel Zombies is a comic book metaseries published by Marvel Comics. The series features zombie versions of Marvel Universe superheroes and supervillains who have been portrayed as both protagonists and antagonists through the different limited series within the metaseries.

Publication history

The series of titles begins with two Ultimate Fantastic Four story arcs, "Crossover" (2005) and "Frightful" (2006), by Mark Millar and Greg Land. The story arcs were followed by a Marvel Zombies limited series by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips, who also created the prequel Marvel Zombies: Dead Days and sequel Marvel Zombies 2.

A crossover with Army of Darkness, Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness, was written by John Layman with art by Fabiano Neves, Fernando Blanco and Sean Phillips.

With Marvel Zombies 3, Kirkman and Phillips were replaced by Fred Van Lente and Kev Walker. The team continued on to Marvel Zombies 4, a four-issue mini-series starting in April 2009. Van Lente then stayed on to write the first and last issues of Marvel Zombies Return a series of five one-shots looking at different aspects of the outbreak. With Marvel Zombies 5 he teamed up with Kano, with the story picking up from the end of Marvel Zombies 4.

Marvel Zombies 2

Marvel Zombies 2 is a five-issue limited series published from October 2007 - February 2008 by comics publisher Marvel Comics. The series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips and Arthur Suydam. It is part of the Marvel Zombies series.

Publication history

The Marvel Zombie concept first appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-23 (2005), in which almost all of the superheroes on Earth became flesh-eating zombies after being infected by an alien virus. The Marvel Zombie phenomenon then continued with the Marvel Zombies metaseries that was published from December 2004 to April 2006. In the series, the zombie superheroes eat the human race to near-extinction then begin to travel the universe to search for even more sources of food.

In 2007, a single comic came out, called Marvel Zombies: Dead Days. Dead Days is a prequel to the Marvel Zombies series, in which the zombie infection spreads throughout the world and the superheroes try and create a plan to save the human race. Lastly, there's Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness, a crossover five-issue series published in 2007. The series is set before and during the prequel Dead Days, where Ash Williams is transported into the Marvel Zombies universe and must fight the zombies while trying to escape back to his own universe.