Marvel Zombies: Dead Days

9 Ratings: 2.2

A prequel to the original Marvel Zombies story.

Marvel Zombies: Dead Days is a comic book one-shot first published in May 2007 by Marvel Comics. It was written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Sean Phillips, with cover art by Arthur Suydam. It is part of the Marvel Zombies series. The issue is a prequel … see full wiki

Tags: Books, Cafe Libri, Action, Comics, Comic Books, Marvel Comics, see all

Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Date Published: July 2007

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Marvel Zombies: Dead Days - The living dead heroes march on.

Jun 9, 2011

by Madpenguin
posted in Speech Bubbles: Comics & Graphic Novels

Rating:

After a flash in the sky occured, a disturbance took place in Manhattan. For unknown reasons, earth's superheros began on a blood thirsty rampage which seemed to be only calmed by consuming warm flesh. Within a matter of hours, the Earth was pushed to total extinction and most of Earth's surviving heroes were infected. Several superheroes who weren't infected instead are desperately trying to survive.

Now with the food supply very low, the infected superheroes are in very large number, and are now searching for another food source. These are no longer the Marvel Superheroes you once knew, these are the Marvel Zombies... And they are very hungry.

Previous Volumes:

Marvel Zombies
Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness

Marvel Zombies: Dead Days

Manhattan is in total chaos. Earth's Mightiest Heroes the Avengers, are rampaging through the streets in a bloody rampage with characteristics that exhibit zombie like behaviour, and they're devouring all civilans in their path. There is little knowledge on what caused this. Meanwhile, other heroes who were attacked are trying to make sense of the events taking place with very little time to act. Nick Fury devises a plan together with the remaining heroes. Their mission is to try and save as many lives as possible, plus put a stop to the blood-thirsty former heroes.-summary

Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, which is written by Robert Kirkman with artwork by Sean Phillips is the prequel to the Marvel Zombies series, which also takes place before the second volume of Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness. The story tells the events before the actual apocalypse and the heroes struggle to control the situation.

The story begins with intense action and the death toll begins to rise. It's superhero vs. superhero to the gory death pretty much from beginning to end. The plot is very straightforward but the direction is well executed. The infection spreads like wild fire, and it's something to see when a couple of heroes face the reality of the situation that this could be their very last fight. One hero in particular who completely breaks character, happens to quickly point out that this situation is far more fierce than the mad titan Thanos seeking universal genocide. When looking at it from that context, one who has a vast knowledge on Marvel Comic crossovers will quickly understand how serious the situation is. I mean worst than Thanos? Yeah that's pretty bad. Things definitely look bad for everyone.

The artwork is pretty good when displaying the brutal action and you get a good amount of it. I only wish the zombie dine out sessions were more detailed. The character designs on the other hand aren't really that good at all. The writing format is pretty good though, and it's easy to tell who's saying what. Overall, this chapter of the story is more action driven with some depth to the storyline, but it doesn't contain any of the comedy you will see in the later versions.

The graphic novel also contains three more stories which are crossovers. Two of these stories that take place involves the Ultimate Fantastic Four, which is written by Mark Miller, with artwork by Greg Land and Mitch Brietweiser. This occurs when the Reed Richards of the zombie timeline attempts to crossover into the alternate Earth, by duping his younger Reed Richards counterpart into opening up the dimension. The stories are very solid as side stories, but don't expect to see the over the top gory madness found in Dead Days, or Marvel Zombies despite the crossover delivering a little bit of that. This portion of the story also boasts the absolute best artwork. The character designs are amazing, and appear to be up to date with some great detail. The writing format is also up to standard. However, I won't say that the series is well written though. There are definitely continuity errors, but I'll keep them to myself to lower spoilers.

The last side story takes place with Black Panther, who is flanked by members of the Fantastic Four and Storm of the X-Men. This story takes place after Marvel Zombies, and appears to take place sometime before Marvel Zombies 2. This is the one thing about multiple crossovers I could never stand. There are story elements provided where one must possess knowledge of previous events from titles. There are several things that aren't explained here, which can somewhat ruin the enjoyment. The saving grace to this portion is the additon of the zombies on another all out rampage, with the addition of the slapstick humor that almost always delivers. This chapter is written by Reginald Hudlin with art work by Francis Portela. The artwork is rather solid here, but not on par with the Ultimate Fantastic Four stories.

Although I enjoy this portion of the series because it provides background. I kind of feel it was a little unnecessary. There's nothing wrong with providing background, but it didn't reveal anything new. We all know who was devoured or turned into zombies, but I would have enjoyed seeing it in all of its gory detail.

I think those who are new to the franchise will benefit the absolute most when coming into this volume. Those who are interested in the series. I recommend picking up Dead Days, Marvel Zombies and Marvel Zombies 2 at the exact same time. Start on Dead Days, finish the first chapter and go straight to the Ultimate Fantastic Four crossover without reading one word of the interlude. Next, go to Marvel Zombies and finish that completely. After that, go to the Black Panther and finish off that chapter, and continue into Marvel Zombies 2. If you're a diehard Evil Dead fan, then pick up Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness as well, and I think it's best to read that before everything since several early events take place there, but it feels more like a tacked on expanded prequel, however, it's still very entertaining. This way, I think one will get the best experience from it. This volume is broken up into 4 chapters at 272 pages:

Chapter 1: Dead Days
Chapter 2: Ultimate Fantastic Four - Crossover: Issues 21-23
Chapter 3: Ultimate Fantastic Four - Frightful: Issues 30-32
Chapter 4: Black Panther - Good Eatin': Issues 28-30

Pros:
-Provides some background
-Good action and gore scenes

Cons:
-Crossovers aren't as strong as main story
-Mediocre artwork during Dead Days

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woopak_the_thrill June 10, 2011

Ok, I see that you've posted quite a lot so I'll have to start here. I think I've read this one before under your other account but laways nice to re-read it here. That Ultimate FF crossover was pretty good, at least the first one was. But I may be referring to the actual intro of the zombies....

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FM_ALEX June 09, 2011

I enjoyed all the Marvel Zombies books, love the breakdown at the end on the order one should read them.

Madpenguin June 09, 2011

Thanks. I didn't love or like all of them, since they had some real problems. you'll see in my reviews. And thanks, I wish someone did that on other sites. it would've helped me out a great deal.