The release of Marvel Zombies is just around the corner, coming to Disney+ on September 24. The four-episode animated series will take us back to the blood-curdling universe introduced in the fifth episode of the first season of Marvel’s What If…? — a universe where a deadly virus turned most of the population of Earth into flesh-eating zombies, including our beloved Avengers and (almost) every other superhero that could have turned the tide.
Despite every episode of What If…? taking place in an alternate version of the main Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) — offshoot realities where events from the movies happened differently — some of the show’s concepts were also inspired by the comics. Marvel Studios then expanded the episode into an animated miniseries, Marvel Zombies, named after the comic book that first hit the shelves in 2005.
With the show shambling our way shortly, now is the perfect time to take a look back at the stories that inspired it.
The Frightful Four
“…It all started with a flash in the sky and a ripple through the clouds” is how the beginning of the outbreak is often described. A putrefying Sentry came plummeting through the clouds and crashed in the middle of the city. The Avengers were the first super-team to go over and investigate, setting in motion the beginning of the end for civilization and life in the whole universe.
That story was first told in the pages of Ultimate Fantastic Four, where we see as the Ultimate Universe version of Reed Richards (the one who would one day become arch-villain The Maker) get tricked into traveling to an alternate universe where he would meet one of his multiversal counterparts with whom he had been communicating.
Upon arriving in this new reality, he found instead a dark and dilapidated world overtaken by hordes of undead heroes and villains. It turned out his variant was secretly a zombified Reed Richards who needed a cross-reality portal to be activated so that he and the rest of the undead Fantastic Four could travel to the uninfected universe and find more victims to feed on.
The arc was called “Crossover” and it happened on issues #21-23 of Ultimate Fantastic Four (the 2004 series), by Mark Millar and Greg Land, and followed Mister Fantastic as he attempted to make it out of the Zombieverse alive, alongside other survivors such as Magneto, while the zombified Fantastic Four brought horror and dread to his home reality.
While “Crossover” ended on issue #23, the zombie version of the First Family would be seen again in the following issues as they stayed quarantined in the Ultimate Universe, until their escape in “Frightful” (issues #30-32).
Marvel Zombies Spins Off
Just like the Disney+ show is a spin-off of the What If…? episode, the same was true for the comics, spinning off from Ultimate Fantastic Four. Written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Sean Phillips, Marvel Zombies came out in 2005 as a five-issue miniseries that aimed to delve deeper into the horrifying reality that is Earth-2149. This time, the focus was given not to the heroes (not the living ones anyway), but to their zombified versions, now overtaken by The Hunger, the driving force behind their cannibalism.
Having consumed the population of the entire planet twenty-four hours after the mysterious arrival of the infected Sentry variant, the former heroes had no more living flesh to sink their teeth into. The virus also seemed to have made them unable to enjoy the taste of undead meat, leaving them no options. That is, until the arrival of a certain silver-hued Surfer who descended from the stars to herald his master, the only one whose hunger exceeds that of the undead… or does it?
Despite returning for another Marvel Zombies miniseries, this particular group of zombified heroes would first reappear in Black Panther (2005) #27, at the very end of the story arc “Two Plus Two,” kickstarting the next arc, which lasted until issue #30. Here, we follow Earth-616’s T’Challa, Storm, the Human Torch, and the Thing as they get transported to the Skrull homeworld of Earth-1249, at the exact moment when the remaining zombies from the first Marvel Zombies series arrive to feast on the alien shapeshifters. That issue marks the first encounter between characters from Earth-616 and the Zombieverse.
Our revenant heroes would then return to their protagonism in Marvel Zombies 2 (2007), which took them back to planet Earth after having devoured all life in the known universe forty years after the events of the first book. They now sought out the multiversal teleportation machine used by Ultimate Reed Richards so they could access other universes and continue on their ravenous rampage. Upon arriving back on Earth, they discovered the machine was no longer in the Baxter Building, but in possession of a group of survivors who were willing to fight for it. Their excursion, however, would bring about a civil war among the undead and a possible end to their hunger.
Finally, in 2009, a rotating team of writers brought the undead heroes to a new universe in Marvel Zombies Return, the five-issue miniseries that would close the chapter that began in the first volume, answering some leftover questions and spreading new horror to the Marvel Universe. The zombies now found themselves separated in a universe that had never interacted with their infection… Until their arrival. It was up to zombified Spider-Man to attempt to concoct a vaccine to cure them and halt the plague from defiling a new universe, though it might have been too late for that.
A Suit Of A.R.M.O.R. Around The World
Even though Marvel Zombies Return was the final chapter of that story, it wasn’t the only book to explore the Zombieverse. Prior to its release, Marvel had also put out Marvel Zombies 3 (2008) and Marvel Zombies 4 (2009), both books scripted by Fred Van Lente.
Those books featured the next big crossover between Earth-1249 and Earth-616, the main Marvel Universe, where the top-secret organization A.R.M.O.R. (Alternate Reality Monitoring and Operational Response Agency) was called to put an end to the undead virus that had been brought to Earth-616 by a zombified Deadpool (the one who would later be beheaded and become the now famous Headpool).
Dr. Michael Morbius, the Living Vampire, was working on a cure for the virus which, according to him, required a blood sample from a living denizen of the Zombieverse, leading to Machine Man and Jocasta traveling to Earth-1249. The vampire would then assemble a new roster of Midnight Sons in the following series to locate and capture the undead Deadpool, setting them against the Hood and his superhuman gang. Headpool appeared next in Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth (2009).
Marvel Zombies Shambles On…
Marvel Zombies turned out to be a great success for Marvel, becoming an ever-expanding concept featured in plenty of books, both set in the original Earth-1249 and other similar zombified universes.
For instance, Marvel Zombies: Dead Days (2007) was a one-shot that filled in the blanks of what happened in the first twenty-four hours after the arrival of the infected Sentry, leading up to the apocalypse. Marvel Zombies 5 (2010) saw A.R.M.O.R. lead a team against a zombified Old West universe.
Marvel also published a crossover between a variant zombie universe and the Marvel Apes in Marvel Apes: Prime Eight Special (2009) and a crossover with the Army of Darkness in Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness (2007). Between holiday specials, a “black, white & blood” series, and other spin-offs, Marvel Zombies consolidated itself as a gruesome, multiversal threat.
The undead were also prominent during Secret Wars (2015), where a universe not unlike the Zombieverse was turned into one of the domains of the patchwork planet Battleworld assembled by Doctor Doom. The region was termed the Deadlands, being confined to the other side of the Shield, the wall that separated the inhabitable world from the more hostile regions. That led to two tie-in books set during the event: Marvel Zombies (Volume 2) and Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies.
What Is… The Hunger?
So what is the Hunger, anyway? While Hank Pym brought the virus to Earth when attempting to rescue Janet Van Dyne from the Quantum Realm in the MCU version of the story (implying the virus was native to that dimension), the comics never quite delve into the origin of the pathogen.
All we know, as explained in Marvel Zombies Return, is that the infected Sentry who came to Earth-1249 was originally from the universe where the zombified heroes were sent to after Marvel Zombies 2, a world known as Earth-Z. When that world succumbed to the infection, the now-zombified Sentry of that universe was one of the last big threats to the Multiverse. The Watcher from Earth-Z exiled that Sentry to Earth-1249, the original Zombieverse, kickstarting the infection again in an eternal loop between both universes.
The virus, which was often called “The Hunger” by the zombies, was described as a force which overtakes the carrier and forces them to feed on living flesh in order to temporarily abate the addiction. It appears to have a predilection for the bodies of superhuman beings, as it makes the process of spreading itself across the world faster. This is evident as most superhuman zombies completely devour regular humans to feed themselves while (mostly) choosing to turn their superpowered allies into revenants like themselves.
It’s also worth noting that, while the MCU version of the zombified heroes seem to keep little of their sentience, their comic book counterparts are smart enough to speak, strategize, and even maintain their original personalities, twisted as they may be. Once a zombified superhuman has eaten enough to temporarily halt their hunger, their minds often become clearer, allowing them to think better and even showcase emotions at times. Additionally, their attempts to “spread the gospel of the Hunger” also seem to imply the pathogen itself is somehow sentient.
The zombies have also claimed not to feel any physical pain, regardless of any damage or injury they might suffer. This, however, seems to be contradicted in Marvel Zombies Return.
A Grisly Legacy
Marvel Zombies is an irreverent story splattered with blood, drama, and action, taking the icons known to represent hope and courage and turning them not into evil monologuing villains, but into a gruesome, twisted force whose addiction cannot be sated.
That’s what makes the Zombieverse and its variant universes such a continuous presence in the Marvel Universe, to the point of becoming a show of its own. It speaks to the darker side of us, making us think, even subconsciously, on the nature of our humanity and of violence, mortality, addiction, morality, and regret—themes that churn just below the over-the-top gore and action-filled panels.
The upcoming show on Disney+ is but another installment of that grisly legacy left by the comics: a legacy that will likely survive for a long time.
Marvel Zombies streams on Disney+ on September 24.
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.