Battleworld: Marvel Zombies

Comic Info

Marvel Zombies #2 Variant

Reprints Marvel Zombies (2) #1-4 and Marvel Zombies (1) #1 (February 2006-December 2015).  Elsa Bloodstone has taken her place at the Wall and spends her days defending against the endless hordes of zombies that try to overtake it.  When Elsa accidentally finds herself deep in the Deadlands, she finds a child with a mysterious background…and realizes someone or something is stalking them.  With zombies on every side and monsters at every turn, Elsa Bloodstone will have to find the strength her father Ulysses had to live up to her Bloodstone name.

Written by Simon Spurrier, Battleworld:  Marvel Zombies is a Marvel Comics Secret Wars spin-off limited series.  Featuring art by Kev Walker, the series collects the four issue limited series which ran from August 2015 to December 2015 along with Marvel Zombies #1 (February 2006) by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips.  Issues in this collection were also included in Monsters Unleashed! Prelude.

I always like the short lived Ulysses Bloodstone storyline and Elsa Bloodstone’s strange introduction in Bloodstone…which seemed to fizzle and disappear.  Elsa began popping up in recent years in books like Nextwave:  Agents of H. A. T. E., but in a much different form than her original appearance.  Here, we get solo Elsa who is fun.

Battleworld: Marvel Zombies #3

Elsa is driven by commitment to her family name, but a rage instilled in her by her father.  Of course, this rage is tempered when she meet the child in the Deadlands, but much of the book is Elsa trying to find a balance of distance and acceptance.  The end (in that sense) is a bit unsatisfying because though she kind of finds a happy-medium, it doesn’t get to really explore it (and with no continuing Bloodstone title, it is just an ending).

The story itself is also hindered by the Secret Wars/Battleworld set-up.  The whole idea of Secret Wars did create an interesting way to tell different stories, but it also was a strict format.  The series were all going to be limited series and the ending was always certain…but that also leads to disengagement by the readers who know not to connect to the characters or the stories.

With the inclusion of the first Marvel Zombies issue, the book is fattened, but it still feels sparse as a four issue limited series.  The world of Battleworld is rather rich and there are endless opportunities…but everyone knows that it is going to end.  Books like this make me wish that Marvel had attempted a Tales of Battleworld series after Secret Wars which would have allowed some of these characters to continue on…be it thought prequel stories or whatever.  With Elsa Bloodstone’s appearance in the MCU one-shot Werewolf by Night, hopefully Elsa will get some more love…she deserves it even if the series is a bit ho-hum.