Comic Info
Comic Name: Marvel Zombies 2
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Sean Phillips
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2008
Marvel Zombies 2 #3
Reprints Marvel Zombies 2 #1-5 (December 2007-April 2008). The zombies have a problem. They’ve eaten their way through the universe and hunger is consuming them. When they realize that their only hope could exist on Earth, the zombies head home. A small group of survivors on Earth are trying to reestablish humanity, and they’ve discovered something about the hunger that drives the zombies that could change everything.
Written by Robert Kirkman, Marvel Zombies 2 is a Marvel Comics limited series. Following Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, the collection features art by Sean Phillips. The issues in the volume were also part of Marvel Zombies: The Complete Collection—Volume 2.
Zombies were huge in 2005 when the Marvel Zombies rolled out in the Ultimate Fantastic Four storyline. By 2008, I was already beginning to suffer zombie fatigue. There were zombie versions of everything and the solution for “originally” was simply to add a zombie (or another supernatural character) to a classic story. Marvel Zombies was an interesting ride, but this entry in the series feels like more of the same.
Marvel Zombies 2 #4
The first Marvel Zombies was kind of a mad-house rush. It was your favorite superheroes meeting their ends at the hands of the most popular characters (who of course were zombie-fied). This volume tries to keep it going and build more plot by having the enclave of survivors, the change of heart by some of the zombies, and the time-machine/interdimensional portal. It reads fast, but it feels a bit tired.
Most of the fun of the series comes from the outlandish behavior of the zombies. Kirkman’s other series like Invincible and The Walking Dead provides shock after shock, but Marvel Zombies is surprisingly less shocking. With a “What If?” concept (at least at this point), anything is possible and I wish that Kirkman had gone a bit more R-Rated on the storytelling and had the characters (since they are out of character) behaving even worse…yes, you get things like chopped open heads and severed bodies, but it could have even pushed it farther.
Marvel Zombies 2 isn’t bad, but I also don’t think it is very good. It seems like it is real niche based and if you are a fan of “serious” zombie stuff, it would be too goofy, but if you are fan of Marvel characters, you’ve already seen this world explored in the first few collections. Marvel Zombies 2 is followed by Marvel Zombies 3 which tries to take a new direction by sending the zombies to Earth-616 (aka the Marvel Universe proper).
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