Customer Reviews

Marvel Zombies, Vol. 2

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Last time we saw these Marvel superhero zombies, they've gained cosmic powers (thanks to having munched on Galactus) and had left Earth, hungry and craving yet more living flesh. And, forty years later, the zombies have eaten all sentient life in the universe. After several "What now?" moments, zombie Giant Man comes up with the brainstorm of returning to Earth to activate Reed Richards' otherdimensional transporter, thus giving them access to more "food." But Earth, it turns out, isn't completely devoid of intelligent life. A tiny band of humanity, led by an aged Black Panther, still clings on, and these survivors aim to put up resistance...

So, I totally savored the original MARVEL ZOMBIES series, not to mention the Ultimate Fantastic Four related stories which preceded it. I thought Marvel Zombies HC (Iron Man Cover) was delightfully demented, refreshingly irreverent, and oozed with a ballsy attitude. I had a lot of fun reading it, passengering Kirkman's wildly careening ride of a series. Then this one comes along.

This trade, MARVEL ZOMBIES 2, collects issues #1-5 of the second mini-series. Sean Phillips is again solid with the interior artwork (although, this time, his stuff does seem more rushed), while Arthur Suydam's always awesome cover paintings continue to be an eyeballing treat (as well as tongue-in-cheek nods to famous comic book covers). Oh, man, but the story...

Maybe this Marvel Zombie mania can be mined for only so long. We've already had the MARVEL ZOMBIES: DEAD DAYS one-shot and Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness limited series, all good stuff. But MARVEL ZOMBIES 2 isn't quite as good. I think, for me, it's partly because I'm not that big a fan of the Wasp or the Black Panther, and they're central characters here. And the power play subplot involving T'Challa and Malcolm Cortez, son of Fabian Cortez, is just dreary. Plus, writer Robert Kirkman loses some originality points by having another character get the top of his skull sliced off, brain bits dutifully dribbling out (yes, this one is as violent and gory, good thing). Kirkman gets more earnest with the plotting and the character development, but, I dunno, the story comes off as dull; it just didn't draw me in. The ending, which is unsatisfying and fizzles out, does leave an opening for more Marvel Zombies stories. I guess I'm glad.

For me, a huge part of the fun was in seeing iconic superheroes get chomped on and then twisted into immoral, ravenous, undead versions of themselves. But, here, Kirkman switches it up and tries to revert some of these nasties into their former do-gooding selves. And, somewhere along the way, that sense of crazy fun evaporates. As a reader, the last thing I wanted to see was redemption for the zombies. One of the zombies who regains a conscience happens to be my all-time favorite superhero (Okay, it's Spidey), and I actually begrudged the fact that he was chosen to be again a good guy. It just seems to undermine that audacious, anarchic touch which MARVEL ZOMBIES had so gleefully pulled off.

Marvel Zombies 2 starts right where the original series left off. The zombie team has been roaming the universe for forty years eating literally every living thing in sight. Giant-Man, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Power Man, Wolverine, Phoenix, The Hulk, Thanos, Gladiator, and Firelord have now ran out of food and return to Earth to find the inter-dimensional portal Reed Richards designed. Once on Earth, they discover the hidden city of New Wakanda, and the leader of the city, the Black Panther. With Ms. Wasp apparently cured of her "hunger," they find the head of Hawkeye and try to give him an artificial body and train him to fight the hunger just as Wasp did. However, once the zombie team discovers the city, Forge, Black Panther, Hawkeye, Wasp, and others must stop the hungry monsters from eating the inhabitants of the city. After putting up a force-field, Forge reveals that the device is not still in Reeds' lab and actually resides in New Wakanda. Eventually, Wasp gets through to the remaining zombies and tells them they can beat the hunger if they wait it out long enough. At this point, everyone is working together to rebuild the human population and get Earth going again. However, all it takes is one back-stabber, by the name of Cortez to ruin everything!

So, this second story ends with a pretty big cliffhanger but it was a good read. It's more than just zombies infecting superheroes and watching them fly around eating people. There's a pretty juicy story to be had here with the zombies out of food and a way for them to beat the hunger. There's lots of dialogue and personal insight to how the zombies feel to eating the entire universe and the struggles they go through to maintain a small amount of their humanity. The art, like the first, is gruesome and detailed and really well done. The writing is well done and seeing all these superheroes in one 5-issue series is pretty neat. You even get to see the return of the original Iron Man suit! So, overall, this is fantastic second part to the series and I look forward to reading the third! Also, there is a cover gallery at the end with the five issue covers and the original covers that they were designed from.

I had to write a review on this....I felt that the first MZ book was hysterically funny, and should have been left with just those stories. Dead Days was actually very good as well, with the Army Of Darkness spin-off rounding off an already tired storyline.

This story should have been much more solid, but I can only deduce that Mr. Suydam's artwork is what kept this series going....because Mr. Kirkman seemed to have run out of ideas. I gave this three stars because although the beginning is interesting, the end is atrocious; horribly cliched dialogue and an overall feeling of disappointment. I recommend all the volumes for collectors, but really, this series needs to end with this; even if there is a possibility of dragging out another story, enough is enough.

Marvel Zombies 2, while an enjoyable sequel, doesn't live up to the frenzied go-for-broke zany glee of the first Marvel Zombies. Without spoiling the book, I will say that this story loses some of its "teeth," so to speak, and it's easy to tell why they went in a completely different direction for Marvel Zombies 3 (which, in contrast, may be one of my favourite Marvel Zombies stories--be forewarned, though, that it contains little to none of the characters from Marvel Zombies 1-2, or Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness [with the exception of one character thought dead from the latter {but I digress; I'm reviewing Marvel Zombies 2, not Marvel Zombies 3}]). Another minor gripe is that the characters have undergone a costume change for no explained reason (why is Hulk the only character still dressed in any semblance of the Galacti costume? And at what point did Spider-Man fix his mask?), and picked up some new characters along the way, whose introductions go unexplained. Hopefully more of this will be explained in Marvel Zombies Return, which I haven't read yet.

So far, I would rank the series thus:

1)Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness
2)Marvel Zombies 3
3)Marvel Zombies: Dead Days
4)Marvel Zombies
5)Marvel Zombies 2

(I haven't read Marvel Zombies 4-5, or Marvel Zombies Return, yet.)

Even a five-year old could write a better story than this one.
It was a big disappointment, specially because the write is the creator of `The Walking Dead`. I really thought he could do better than this.

And the art is also horrible. There is no background in a lot of frames, giving the impression of a rushed work.

I really do not recommend this to anyone older than 8.

A good continuation of the series. I liked it as much as the first book.

Didn't relize that I already had this one, oh well, still good as a christmas present for my lil bro. LOL! If you are just now getting into to the series and decided to go online to find out what all you need to purchas to complet the series, do not buy the black panther or the Fantastic 4 collection were marvel zombies make an apperance, because those comics are already in this book! If you haven't relized, I made that mistake myself, Oh well, like I said earlier, still works well as christmas presents for the lil bro. LOL! Anyways, about the book itself, it was pretty freaken good. What do you think a small group of super powered flesh eating super heroes will do when they have eaten every living being across the universe........ Well buy this book and find out!!! LOL!

Lots of zombie flesh eating with some superheros getting back a little piece of their humanity and feeling sorry for eating thier friends and family. Nice, fun for the whole family.

Gift for husband. He is all into these things. He collects them. Five stars.

Marvel zombies universe is pretty cool. I highly recommend it. The book arrived in a timely fashion and wasn't damaged at all.