One of the coolest things to come out of the Ultimate Fantastic Four was the parallel Earth populated solely by Marvel superzombies.

During the UFF storyline, the team was lured into the alternate reality to be used as snacks. They escaped, of course, with the help of the alternate Magneto; later, the Ultimate Doctor Doom was transported into that reality where he found the zombies feasting on a fallen Galactus.

Marvel Zombies fills in the gaps.

The zombies, gathered in the wreckage of New York City, are tattered and rotting. They're also hungry, but there don't seem to be any uninfected humans left in the world for them to munch on. And they're so darn putrid, they don't get any joy from eating each other, although they do give it the occasional try.

Then the Silver Surfer arrives, heralding the arrival of Galactus. To the zombies, the Surfer is just a shiny cosmic appetizer. However, neither the Silver Surfer nor the main course, Galactus, are easy to swallow.

Marvel Zombies is a lot of fun, mostly because of the comedic trials of the former heroes who are losing bits of themselves at every turn. Spider-Man's leg is off, for the most part, and Iron Man is half the man he used to be. Hawkeye has lost his head in the frenzy, and Wolverine has learned the folly of attacking an impervious surface with indestructible claws rooted inside a decomposed forearm.

Eating makes the former heroes all lucid, temporarily at least, and it's then they suffer occasional pangs of guilt for their horrific appetites. (Spider-Man, for instance, can't help but feel bad for eating both Mary Jane and Aunt May.)

Robert Kirkman gets credit for writing the zombies down, but Sean Phillips gets bonus points for making them rot before our eyes. What a treat!

The only failing of this book is its failure to take into account the arrival of Doom. Assuming he'll return some day to the Ultimate universe, a recounting of his adventures in zombie world would have been nice.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
6 January 2007