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 are instead 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
Marvel Zombies 2
Marvel Zombies 3
The zombies figured out a way to enter the mainstream Marvel Universe which is Earth 616, and they immediately devour a scout team. Under the request of Michael Morbius and the secret organization A.R.M.O.R.(Altered-Reality Monitoring and Operational Response), Machine Man and Jocasta are sent on a mission to recover an uninfected human with the hopes on creating a vaccine. Assisted by the inter-dimensional jumper Portal, the two are taken to the zombies dimension and are immediately met with resistance.-summary
This new chapter to the Marvel Zombies storyline has been catching quite a bit of heat since its introduction, and I'll be honest and admit that it's kind of for the right reasons. This chapter doesn't really feel like a sequel at all. Instead, it has the feel of a side story mainly because it does take place in-between the first two stories. This fact is mentioned in the dialogue. However, the break from the main story doesn't mean that this chapter is indeed bad.
This time around, Marvel Zombies 3 is written by Fred Van Lente with artwork by Kev Walker. The artwork is a tremendous step into the right direction, and characters are very beautifully drawn with nice detail. The action panels are also a huge step up, and it's quite possibly the best up to this point. Those who aren't familiar with Machine Man may come out a fan of his, because he pulls out his bag of tricks, and deals out some heavy destruction to the zombie hordes. In battle, he rips to shreds, burns, dismembers, and blows away the opposition in gory fashion. I have never been a fan of Machine Man, in fact, I was heavily behind the Hulk when he tore him to pieces back in Hulk #235 in 1979, but should he receive a new series with this type of style, and given a few kick-a** lines. I'll be pretty quick to give his title a shot.
The gory action scenes aren't what completely makes the volume. Where as the first two series contained a good amount of dark comedy. Here, it's pretty much limited, and the tone is a lot more serious. This portion is far darker, pretty atmospheric, with some disturbing and horrible content that I won't spoil. Surprisingly, one of the complaints I've heard in regards to this is the gore. If I had a million years to live on this planet. I will never be able to wrap around my head why someone would come into a zombie, or a horror title and complain about gore. If certain folks hate gore. Then why bother with anything horror or zombie related in the first place?
Writer Fred Van Lente should also be commended for taking an unpopular character like Machine Man and developing him so well. The character development that is present mainly takes place with Machine Man, and the plot element used to push it was a brilliant move to me. Jocasta who I don't recall ever being very popular(and yes I was an avid Avenger fan back then) isn't left out of the equation. She isn't used only as a plot device because she deals with her own demons.
I already pretty much understand that most of the hate for this volume is because it strayed away from the main storyline, and left an opened ending which is a legit reason. I also noticed that fans are very biased, and wanted to see certain popular mainstream heroes. Well so did I, but I didn't allow myself to be blinded, and in the process completely ignore the solid story that was right in my face.
Marvel Zombies 3 may not be a direct follow up, but it's a damn good follow up, and to me, it's much better than the previous sequel. Could the series have provided closure instead of milking the Marvel Zombies name? Well of course. But at least it doesn't come off as a very lazy and overly repetitive cash cow. I recommend this mainly to fans of the franchise. The book is 112 pages.
Pros:
-Fantastic artwork
-Gory action panels
-Good character development
Cons:
-Strays away from original source material
-Doesn't add much to the original storyline
