Oh lord, here they come. Marvel’s brain-slurping zombies are back, turning beloved heroes into limb-ripping monsters once again! The release of Marvel Zombies – Red Band: Death Story was met with a lot of fan excitement, particularly because of the “Red Band” label. While the series started out promising, it unfortunately does not stick the landing or live up to its “Life Story” premise. Still, if you love zombie comics, this is certainly a fun read, if you can get past some of its struggles and a majorly disappointing deus ex machina.
SPOILERS AHEAD for Marvel Zombies: Red Band – Death Story!
I want to start with compliments, because there are some things about the Death Story trade that I absolutely love. First of all, the book’s designer, Sarah Spadaccimi, absolutely hit it out of the park. The fleshy interior and exterior pages are truly gross, especially with the Marvel Zombies title card “stitched” to the skin, and it just sets up the horror story in a great way. The trade also includes some great variant covers, like the terrifying Mr. Fantastic cover seen below, from Ryan Brown. In a wild twist, I am even impressed by how much I enjoy the trade cover, illustrated by Greg Land, an artist whose career has been beset by decades of “swiping” accusations and just plain… bad art.
Marvel
Now, on to the story itself. Marvel Zombies: Red Band – Death Story is a five-issue mini-series that takes place outside the Marvel Zombies canon of Earth-2149. It is written by Ethan Parker and Griffin Sheridan, with art from Jan Bazaldua. This Marvel Zombies mini is a twist on the Marvel Spider-Man and Fantastic Four Life Story comics, which depict the history of these iconic heroes from their debut through their late life, allowing the characters to age across the decades instead of existing within Marvel’s “sliding time scale.” The first issue is amazing, and perhaps one of my favorite Marvel Zombies issues of all time… I was really impressed. Unfortunately, this comic uses major time skips because of the Life Story framing, leading to a lot of unnecessary exposition and the loss of fascinating zombified scenes and emotional losses happening off-page, only mentioned in passing by characters.
In my opinion, the biggest issue with Death Story is that its label as a Red Band imprint means readers expect a truly horrifying level of gore and violence, so disgusting that the comic required an extra warning label and perhaps even a poly bag. Unfortunately, this series does not live up to that expectation. I enjoyed Bazaldua’s art throughout the five issues, but my god was it simply not Red Band worthy. Some scenes in the first few issues, particularly the first issue, were perfectly horrible, like Susan Storm crushing Thor to death and juicing him so her zombie minions could drink his blood. However, in the final two issues there was not a single scene or image that would not have been published in a regular non-Red Band Marvel comic. I ended up really disappointed, and it makes me worry about picking up future Red Band titles.
Marvel
I wish the creators of Death Story had been given an eight or 10-issue run, because the story itself is compelling and interesting, but it felt so incredibly rushed. My biggest gripes, plot-wise, are the wasting of the New Avengers and the deus ex machina that saved the universe in the final issue. I loved meeting Darkchylde Magik, Logan, and new Black Panther and Iron Fist variants, but they were in the story for like five pages and didn’t have any battle time. What do you mean I didn’t get to see these heroes wreck a bunch of zombies!?!? Zombie Reed snapped his Infinity Gauntlet and erased all humanity like, a minute after these characters were introduced! And finally, I really didn’t like how Jean Grey swooped in at the last minute and defeated Knull. It felt way too easy and just like a rushed, cheap ending. AND WHY didn’t Jean just do that in King in Black? Ugh.
I really hate being overly harsh in my reviews, because I think that nearly every creative working for Marvel is talented and deserving of accolades, and that it is often editorial that messes up stories. I wish that Death Story had been longer, with more fleshed-out (no pun intended) battle scenes and emotional moments that made me care for the heroes. There are certainly cool moments, and if you like zombie comics, you should definitely check this out. However, if you are expecting a comic that truly rises to the level of “Red Band” and rivals the original Marvel Zombies series, you will most likely be disappointed. Fun, unique, but sadly not as devastating or gory as I would have liked.
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