Nearly a year ago, Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Leonard Kirk revealed a new Marvel Zombies narrative in Marvel Zombies: Resurrection #1 involving a zombie Galactus and a Fantastic Four that’s way too inquisitive. This week, enter Marvel Zombies: Resurrection…#1. No, that’s not a typo — the series is getting a fresh start in a new four-part miniseries, and it’s not looking good for Spider-Man.
It’s not looking good for the world, either. The rotting zombie corpse of Galactus has tainted Earth and now most humans are cannibalistic monsters struck with a virus. Spider-Man more or less leads a team of only a handful of heroes including Val and Franklin. At the center of this narrative is Peter Parker’s promise to keep the Richards kids safe, while also living with himself after committing countless horrors to stay alive.
This is a slower, more contemplative zombie tale. It opens with an exciting action sequence that drops us into Times Square when Galactus arrives, but soon takes us to a remote wood where the heroes are trying to avoid getting bitten. This book works well at capturing Peter’s guilt and doubt about being a hero. You feel for him, especially if you’ve loved the character like many of us have for years. Through these quieter moments, we feel for him and get a sense of where he’s at mentally by how other characters treat and talk to him.
Love this opening page!
Credit: Marvel Comics
Consisting of basically three scenes — the opening, a scene in the woods, and a scene at a famous Marvel location — the book spends takes its time to reveal the headspace of its characters. Running 43 pages, this is an extra-sized issue filled with extra-sized details. Part of the fun of these alternate reality stories is seeing how the world has changed and where characters have ended up, and there’s plenty of fun details like that scattered throughout. I won’t spoil a single one, but know there are some cool weapons to keep an eye on.
Leonard Kirk’s art paired with colors by Rachelle Rosenberg is effective for a book like this, with great close-ups and mid-range shots to show characters speaking to each other. For such a dark book, Rosenberg maximizes the effects and lighting. There’s great atmosphere in the forest scene, with eerie greens and blues, and the opening full-page splash is haunting in its use of colors. Speaking of, Kirk’s work on this page is excellent, drawing your eye all around as the mayhem takes out the city. You get the sense of horror from the street. Silhouette is used quite a bit as well, creating a haunting nature in most scenes.
Of course, if you strip out those fun nods, you’ll realize there isn’t a lot there. Parker’s struggle is interesting, largely because we’ve rarely seen him like this, but there isn’t a lot else here. Characters you think will last don’t, or clues to where the heroes go from here don’t have quite enough to go on to know how the plot will proceed. It glides along, offering us just enough details to pique our interest, but never goes deep enough to really matter. Still, it’s a fun ride if you can stomach the $5.99 price tag, and what it lacks in scares it makes up for in suspense.
Marvel Zombies: Resurrection #1 is a suspenseful slow burn story that has enough references to intrigue most Marvel fans. This one shouldn’t be missed by Spider-Man fans who want to see him go through a different kind of crisis. Still, it’s a slower book that doesn’t hook you all the way.
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