Tag Archives: Zombie Plague

Marvel Zombies 5

Posted on by
Reply

Marvel Zombies 5 in My Blog
Slowly but surely, the Marvel Zombies storyline is piecing itself together. Directly following the events of Marvel Zombies 4, Marvel Zombies begins with a familiar character, Machine Man. Also known as Agent Aaron Stack of A.R.M.O.R. (Alternate Reality Monitoring & Operational Response agency), Machine Man is mysterisouly paired with Howard The Duck to investigate a planestorm spreading the zombie virus throughout the multiverse. This “funky space fog” awakens all corpses, turning them into undead killers.

Interdimensional travel has been forbidden by Director Little Sky, but Dr. Morbius sends the pair anyway, hoping to grab a fresh zombie specimen from each dimension, in order for Dr. Morbius to create an antidote. Each universe has different zombie plague. And with each plague comes different zombies, including Ghoul Type-0211 Boyle, Ghoul Type-6810 Romero, Ghoul Type-834 Raimi and Ghoul Type-928 Jackson. Clearly, each type was affectionately named after various zombie movie directors.

Along the way, the pair meets Jacali Kane, also known as Swift Cloud, who eagerly joins the mission in hopes of visiting new worlds. She gets that and more as the trio visits the far-off lands of a lawless Wild-West; a reality where H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds is fact, not fiction; Camelot; a cyberpunk dystopia and Earth-0000, oddly similar to our own.

Unfortunately, many necessary details are omitted from this storyline. And because of that, this series may be falling into obscurity or worse… cancellation. First of all, this storyline follows Machine Man, who was last seen in Marvel Zombies 3, not part 4. Why is Howard The Duck paired up with him? Is Howard immune to the zombie plague? Was Howard’s character randomly chosen because he was the only B-Character left unused? Besides his inclusion in the story, there was no intro-duck-ion to Howard The Duck, he was just there, no reasons or backstory. This is terrible writing, shame on you for being so lazy, Fred Van Lente!

Another reason the storyline feels very light is because the protagonists basically have no one to fight. There weren’t many, if any, Marvel Universe villians as proper antagonists, which is a HUGE letdown, after all the other collections used so many (and naturally killed them off). The heroes basically fight hordes hordes of background characters, except for the few panels where someone is specifically mentioned… quickly followed by a disappearance from the storyline. Not only is the storyline bare, but the actual size of the hardcover collection is getting thinner and thinner, with each release. Fewer characters involved, fewer conflicts resulting in fewer total pages of Marvel Zombies. This can’t be a good sign for the future of this undead series. Here’s to hoping it improves… quickly.

Strength: My intro to Howard The Duck.
Weakness: Didn’t like the art so much. Few good one-liners.
WTF Moment: The Cyberpunk Dystopia felt too much like The Matrix and Neuromancer.

Notable Quotes:
- “Sorry about my friend… he’s got kind of a fowl temper.”
- “Pacifism and zombie apocalypses ain’t winning combinations!”
- “Zombies have saved the Earth!”
- “I don’t speak your crazy moon language!”

Review: 2/5

Marvel Zombies 4

Posted on by
1


Picking up where Marvel Zombies 3 left off, Morbius has gathered a group of anti-heroes to form the all-new Midnight Sons. Their mission: Hunt down and destroy all of the undead, and stop the two creatures who started it all, before not only Earth but the entire universe is destroyed. Those two (Simon Garth and the severed head of Deadpool) teleported to the bottom of an ocean, infected the Men-Fish race, and spread the zombification disease to land dwellers via a cruise ship.

Morbius discovers the zombie plague is anaerobic, it cannot survive in oxygen. And he has created a zombie vaccine, as well. And with that, a semblance of science and logic is introduced to the Marvel Zombie Universe. That is, until the virus mutates into a superbug strain that is airborne!

As soon as all hope is lost, an unlikely alliance is formed. That, plus a little luck, some primordial ooze and a whole lot of magic and life continues for another day, as relatively normal as possible… or at least until Marvel Zombies 5 is released!

Marvel Zombies 3 introduced androids and robots as the only answer to the zombie plague, since they are immune. Part 4 introduces us to the Monster Squad, which is immune as well… but I’m sensing a pattern here. It’s clear that the majority of heroes from the Marvel Universe have already been used, but it’s pretty neat to focus on the B-squad of superheroes once in a while, to save the universe. I fear the upcoming collections will scour the depths of Z-grade talent and won’t be able to carry the storyline forward… but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll pluck those feathers when I get there.

Strength: These monsters actually worked well as protagonists. Surprised me.
Weakness: A whole lotta magic got in the way of the storyline. I was lost at times.
WTF Moment: The virus supercloud has a super consciousness… and Deadpool can tap into it???

Notable Quotes:
- “I figured it takes one to catch one. A monster, that is.”
- “Another convert to the Hunger Gospel. Praise be flesh without end.”
- “For the first time… even after all these years… I finally know what it feels like to be a monster.”
- “Apparently, losin’ 95% of body mass cures zombies! Who knew?

Review: 3.5/5

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After

Posted on by
Reply

Slipping into your favorite, aged T-shirt or worn-thin pair of jeans is always a welcome, comforting experience. As with wearing your most comfy clothes, returning to a familiar place can be an equally as pleasant. Third time’s the charm with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After.

Steve Hockensmith returns to Hertfordshire, four years after events occurred in the original book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are happily married, although Elizabeth feels unsettled, yearning to hunt Zed in order awakened her wild side. Events are put into motion when Darcy is bitten by an unmentionable and Elizabeth (with Mary, Kitty and Mr. Bennet in tow) is sent to London on a wild adventure by Lady Catherine, seeking the ultra-secret anti-zombie serum held by King George III’s personal physician, Dr. Sir Angus MacFarquhar.

Elizabeth, Kitty and Mr. Bennet pose as a family of new money in England in order to seduce Sir MacFarquhar and/or his son, Bunny, in order to save Darcy with the serum.

The book gets moving into the right direction as soon as the Bennets pose as the Shevingtons. Having hardened, trained warriors posing as seducing temptresses was an entertaining fish-out-of-water experience. And of course, nothing ever goes quite as planned. But the book takes a misstep, trying to transcendently detail Darcy’s moving toward the “light,” as the crusaders hunt for the cure. The story gets back on track as the undead attack during King George III’s recoronation and all hell breaks loose.

Hockensmith redeems himself with Dreadfully Ever After. His previous book, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, seemed to take well-established characters and mold them into something they weren’t. In Dreadfully Ever After, these same characters seem to be back to normal, however possible that can be during the rise of zombies in the Regency Era. And as and added bonus, Hockensmith neatly ties up the trilogy with an important dangling loose end from his previous book. I’m back on track; still a fan of this series.

STRENGTH: Commoners, British Nobility and ninjas make a great combination.
WEAKNESS: Pulling the timeframe of zedding out into an entire novel seems a stretch.

WTF MOMENT: The Zombie Plague never spreads beyond Great Britian.

Noteworthy Quotes:
- “Although one couldn’t say the creatures had joie de vivre, both joie and vivre being long beyond them, they were undeniably enthusiastic in their quest for succulent flesh.”
- “The ghoul-child stumbled back still chewing furiously on a stringy chunk of flesh torn from Darcy’s neck.”
- “They were a motley assortment, fresh next to rancid, rag-shrouded beside fashionably clothed, all united in the democracy of death.”
- “Lady Catherine de Bourgh was a great warrior, a national hero, a living legend, and, by all accounts, a monumentally vindictive bitch.”
- “Most had blood and blobs of poorly masticated viscera ringing their gaping mouths.”
- “A great, gooey geyser of rotting brain squirted onto the floor, and Judith was at last not merely dead, but dead.
- “I used to fear the Bennets would end up infamous, but I had no idea we would manage it so spectacularly.”

REVIEW: 4/5