Marvel Zombies: A Joke Made Flesh
In the world of comics retailing, fans who only bought comics published by Marvel Comics (and often followed many different Marvel titles) were called “Marvel zombies.” In the 1990s, the phrase was commonplace throughout the industry (used, by other publishers than Marvel, somewhat dismissively; one presumes that Marvel was all for it because it created a sense of shared identity among its most faithful customers).
The Origin Story
In the mid-2000s, after writer Mark Millar created an alternate Earth populated by zombies in the Ultimate Fantastic Four series, Marvel decided to capitalize on the phrase and asked Robert Kirkman—by then a comics superstar with his zombie series The Walking Dead at Image Comics and multiple Marvel titles under his belt—to create a series in which Marvel’s own superhero and supervillain characters were zombies. As walking-dead characters, they performed acts of superheroism and supervillainy, all while hungering for human (and superhuman) flesh.
After an initial miniseries launched in 2005, the Marvel Zombies concept was carried over through a long series of one-shot comics, crossovers, and additional comics miniseries. Various Marvel zombies have appeared in videogames and movies (Headpool, a zombie Deadpool, showed up in the feature film Deadpool & Wolverine), and one novel, The Hunger, by Marsheila Rockwell. They’ve even guest-starred in some Marvel What If…? episodes.
New Territory to Conquer
Now, two decades after they shambled into the public eye, the Marvel Zombies are taking over a brand-new piece of the planet: their own TV show. On September 24, Marvel Zombies, a four-part animated series from Marvel Animation, will appear on the Disney+ streaming channel. The main cast includes several names familiar to fans of Marvel movies: Awkwafina, Paul Rudd, David Harbour, Simu Liu, Elizabeth Olsen, Randall Park, Florence Pugh, Hailee Steinfeld, Dominique Thorne, Iman Vellani, Todd Williams. The series is written by Bryan Andrews and Zeb Wells and directed by Bryan Andrews. The official trailer is out now [https://www.marvel.com/tv-shows/animation/marvel-zombies/1], and it promises to be a bloody good time.
