Marvel Zombies: Dead Days HC

Robert Kirkman, Mark Millar & Reginald Hudlin
Sean Phillips, Greg Land, Mitch Brainteaser & Francis Portela

***Contains Spoilers!***

Bridging the original Marvel Zombies mini-series and its sequel is this book, which collects various material involving the zombies, including the one-shot Dead Days that it is named after, which tells of events that led to the situation at the beginning of Marvel Zombies. Also collected under this cover are issues of Ultimate Fantastic Four (#21-23 and #30-32) and Black Panther (# 28-30) that ventured into the territory of the Marvel Zombies.

The one-shot Marvel Zombies: Dead Days doesn’t so much explain where the zombie virus comes from as illustrates how it spread over Earth, infecting the superhero population, beginning with The Avengers who were first at the scene of the “incident,” which was never fully explained. Magento was the one to let loose the virus onto the populace, unaware that it would affect mutants as well as humans, but how he stumbled upon the virus, and where it originated, is yet shrouded in mystery. He attempts to make up for his mistake by gathering as many survivors as he can find, mutant or otherwise, to return with to Asteroid M to give Earth a chance of surviving the plague. His attempts are further explored in Ultimate Fantastic Four, where he is seen harboring a handful of humans as he takes in Ultimate Reed Richards and makes an unlikely sacrifice to see to Reed's safe return to the Ultimate Universe with the survivors he’d gathered.

The zombie versions of the Fantastic Four are still quite sharp. Reed actually infects his team with the virus, since, as a scientist, he views the zombies as a sort of evolution, since they are more efficient beings than humans themselves. A little farfetched, but I’ll assume that this version of Reed is a little off his rocker. Ultimately, Zombie Reed lures Ultimate Reed into the zombies' parallel Earth, meanwhile escaping the Zombie Universe themselves, intending to infect the new Earth. Fortunately, Sue, Johnny and Ben are waiting at the other end of the teleporter and are able to contain them. When Ultimate Reed returns home, he builds a new holding pen that effectively keeps their zombie doppelgangers prisoner until issue 30, when the Four leave for Latveria to confront Doctor Doom. In their absence, Zombie Reed, who’s been goading them for awhile about knowing how to escape their prison, plays out a trick. A pretty ingenious trick. Zombie Reed convinces the guards that he’s built a teleportation device out of a pen and the food that they receive, and that they have decided that Central Park is to be the point of initial infestation. So, as the guards watch on, the Four hold hands and disappear. Of course, this isn’t due to a bogus transporter - it’s Sue using her powers of invisibility, and before long they have eaten their way through many of the guards and scientists, and while they are confined to the upper levels of the Baxter Building, they have access to the portal to the Zombie Universe, where they intend to let their friends through and ultimately, break loose. This is all averted, of course, due to another unlikely sacrifice on the part of Doctor Doom. Great story overall. I wasn’t expecting much from the Ultimate Fantastic Four stories, but it was pretty damn entertaining. My only complaint is that Greg Land’s art looks way, way too photo-referenced at times. Like the-characters-are-all-posing-without-a-sense-of-movement photo-referenced, Sue actually in a sexy slouch with her jacket hanging off of her shoulder at one point. Pretty bad.

Black Panther sees the zombies who devoured Galactus and became the new “World-Devourers” invading a skrull world where the new Fantastic Four (consisting of The Thing, Human Torch, Black Panther and Storm) have unwittingly teleported to. The Fantastic Four are seen as part of the invasion initially, but the miscommunication is quickly figured out as the skrulls work with them to battle the common enemy. This was the weakest portion of the Marvel Zombies: Dead Days HC overall. The art was better than I’d expected going in, but the story was silly, relying on a random magical teleporter that brings them in and out of danger at a whim, leaving little room for tension, between constant one-after-another quips like Spider-Zombie’s “With great power…comes great hunger!” Not good. Overall, though, this collection was a lot of fun and I’m genuinely looking forward to Marvel Zombies 2. It was nice to see the original creative team of the first Marvel Zombies mini coming back to do the Dead Days one-shot, even if it was a little unnecessary. I’m getting a little tired of zombies, so I’m kind of hoping this new mini-series just wraps the whole thing up, but we’ll see…the sequel might be good enough to keep me salivating for more.

In Stores 5/21

Here are the highlights of comics shipping to comic shops today!

Pick of the Week

Hulk collections - With Iron Man soaring high in theaters, it's time to look forward to Marvel's next film, The Incredible Hulk, and the inevitable merchandise and collections that come with it. This week, The Incredible Hulk Omnibus (Volume 1) HC becomes available, as well as Hulk Visionaries: John Byrne (Volume 1) TP (pictured).

Other Noteworthy Releases

Bottomless Belly Button SC
Comic Arf SC
Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis
.....the Menace 1951-1952 SC - Now
............................................................available in softcover!
Hellboy (Volume 8): Darkness Calls
Mushishi (Volume 4)
Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution SC - Also
.....now in softcover after a long wait.
Sheena Queen of the Jungle (Volume 1) TP
Spider-Man (Volume 1): Brand New Day HC

Manga Monday: The Moon and the Sandals

The Moon and the Sandals (Volume 1)

Fumi Yoshinaga

The Moon and the Sandals is a yaoi manga from the creator of the excellent Antique Bakery. The book follows a young intimidating student, Kobayashi, who has a crush on a new young teacher, Mr. Ida. The initial chapter is a nice little story about the two of them confronting their feelings about one another. After this, the book sort of follows each of them in alternating chapters and scenes, where they often meet up with one another, but not always. New characters come into the fold, particularly Toyo Narumi, the beautiful arrogant boy who tutors Kobayashi in English, and both Kobayashi and Ida learn about love and life on their own and through each other. The art isn't quite as refined in this book as it is in Antique Bakery, but it's still really elegant and pretty. There are genuinely erotic moments amid the soap opera, and there's a generally cheerful feel to the book overall. I can't say that there's much to the characters, even with flashbacks that explain how they act the way they do, but the chemistry and silly interactions between the small cast makes each character enjoyable in the end, even if the emotions aren't necessarily heart-felt in a few of the scenes when Yoshinaga clearly intends to tug at the readers' heartstrings. But The Moon and the Sandals is certainly worth a look when all is said and done. It's probably one of the better yaoi titles I've read, although that's not saying much really, as I can't say there's ever been one that's blown me away. For a light, fun read, however, this does the trick.

Sky Doll #1 (of 3)

Alessandro Barbucci & Barbara Canepa

Soleil is a popular publisher of genre comics in France. Marvel recently acquired the rights to publish Soleil comics in English, Sky Doll being the very first offering to hit stands. The debut issue is 44 pages long with other future Soleil offerings previewed in the back. As far as first issues go, this is a very strong debut. Forty-four pages is a good amount of space to get a story rolling, and I feel like I got a full story from just this initial issue. A lot of action, likable characters and phenomenal art. The creators worked together on story, art and colors alike for a perfect overall package. I haven't seen cartooning this amazing in years, and somehow it's really appealing in a science fiction environment with adult themes. The story follows Noa, a robot owned by an abrasive fellow who has her, along with other robot "dolls," washing space cars seductively. In one funny little scene, events are going on surrounding two men in a space vehicle at the wash, oblivious to the dolls who are rubbing their breasts and butts against the windows while they clean in the background. But beyond the nudity and humor, there's a lot of substance in what's going on in this world that Barbucci and Canepa have created, surrounding religious figures, oppression and sexuality. It's all very interesting with a fun tone - captivating, beautiful and well worth the cover price.

Captain Britain and MI-13 #1

Paul Cornell & Leonard Kirk

A new on-going series launched this past week from Marvel, sort of spinning out of events from Secret Invasion, although it was originally intended to be a new Excalibur series. Captain Britain and MI-13 follows the former leader of Excalibur and other British superheroes as they, at least initially, deal with the invasion of the skrulls on their side of the world. Paul Cornell was the writer behind the recent MAX series Wisdom, and of course the star of that particular mini-series, Pete Wisdom, is also prominent in this new book. Other characters involved include Black Knight, Spitfire, the good skrull John and a new character - a human doctor named Faiza Hussain who gets caught in the blast of some skrull device before the issue ends. While Black Knight and Faiza Hussain work to save bystanders of the skrull invasion ships on the streets, the other superpowered members of MI-13 work to prevent the skrulls from reaching the portal to the magical Otherworld.

While I was less than impressed with the initial issues of Wisdom, Paul Cornell kicks Captain Britain and MI-13 off to a decent start. Lots of action with nice introductions to the characters involved, already setting up the roles that each will play within MI-13. Leonard Kirk does a nice job of illustrating the issue with some very neat fight sequences, and paces events pretty much perfectly. I'm not familiar with the character of Spitfire, so when she began to rip skrull's jugulars out with her teeth, I was a little...unsettled, perhaps, but it turns out that she was bitten by a vampire in the past and although she had a transfusion shortly thereafter, there seems to be some lasting effects of the experience, something that the creators are sure to touch on in future issues of the book. It's a good team of characters overall, though I'm not quite sold on John the skrull who adopts the look of the deceased Beatles member. It's a fun book, but I'm kind of glad that they didn't launch this as yet another new Excalibur series in wake of the dreadful ones we've had to suffer through since the original. The only thing in common with that original book are a few characters and the location. The tone and feel are all wrong, things that made the light-hearted, silly-but-serious-when-it-needed-to-be Excalibur distinct among the dozens of other X-titles out at the time. While this is a great beginning to a new darkish government-funded superhero team, it's hardly unique to other superhero books.

Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1 (of 3)

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Barry Kitson

***Contains Spoilers***

I don’t know why I’m giving into this crossover event, but I am. Secret Invasion is just a lot of fun and I’m enjoying every step of it so far, which is why I decided to pick up this issue of Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four. I don’t follow the Fantastic Four at all, but I’ve read some issues in the past and it’s not like much has changed over the years. However, I’m not really familiar with the whole “I Married a Skrull” story, so Patrick had to fill me in: The skrull Lyja replaced Alicia Masters in an attempt to get close to the Thing, but had to improvise her plans when the Thing didn’t return to the team in wake of Secret War. So she began a relationship with Johnny Storm instead, eventually marrying him and developing feelings. In the end, she turned her back on the skrulls and became a member of the foursome for awhile. So why does this matter? Well, because, as a skrull, Lyja returns to the lives of the Fantastic Four in this three issue mini-series. In Secret Invasion #1, a skrull infiltrates the Baxter Building in the guise of Sue Storm and sends half of the building into The Negative Zone, along with the Thing, the Human Torch and the two children of Reed and Sue. Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four does a good job of briefly running over these events before delving into new material, showing Sue being replaced in a prologue, and what occurrs after The Baxter Building is sucked into the other dimension. By the end of the issue, the skrull posing as Sue Storm reveals to Johnny that she is in fact Lyja. Seems pretty out-of-character, but we’ll see how things go. Who knows? Maybe the skrull replacement is actually a skrull…er, a different one. Anyways, I was impressed with the art of the issue by Kitson and the overall quality of the book. Usually it seems that these spin-offs of crossovers are complete throw-away material, but it seems that more effort is going into things with this latest event. I had my reservations about picking this up in wake of last year’s debacle that was Civil War: Runaways and Young Avengers, but it seems that some things can be well-thought out and executed around the main events of a universe-wide battleground. And the Alan Davis cover certainly doesn’t hurt. If the quality remains high on these secondary books, Marvel may just suck me in on spending way too much money, but then it will have been worth it. It’s certainly off to a decent start.

The Sisterhood #1 (of 3)

Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski & Wellington Alves

The Sisterhood is a three issue mini-series from Archaia Studios Press that came out a month or two back. It’s another one of those comics from small publishers that was hard to get my hands on, so when I went back home for a visit to Minneapolis, I picked it up there, where it seemed every comic store I went to had a couple of copies on their shelves - quite a difference from the Milwaukee shops. I was thinking that I would just pick up the inevitable collection since it is a short series, but when I saw it, I had to at least give the first issue a go. And I’m glad I did. The Sisterhood has a cool premise. It follows an order of ass-kicking nuns with some strange powers of exorcism, where they can track down demons and take them into their own bodies, human cages of sorts. If they die natural deaths, the demons die along with them. If they die violently, the demons are released back into the world to wreak havoc. Once a nun reached “full capacity,” she retires to die quietly at one of several hidden sanctuaries, wrestling the demons within herself and living out her days in relative peace without the threat of a violent death to undo all of the work she’s done. Unfortunately, it seems someone else has other plans when a convent of retired nuns is massacred, releasing hundreds of demons back unto the populace. That’s where Sister Eden comes in. The young busty nun who makes a living writing travel guides between exorcising demons on her exotic travels has been called on to uncover who is behind this new plot and put a stop to it. In accepting said assignment, she may have gotten more than she bargained for, if the first issue is any indication. So, this book has a very cool story going for it. And really, I was kind of impressed with the interior art. I was expecting a sort of Top Cow look through and through, given the cover and a glance inside (a little too 90’s for my tastes), but there’s some nice detail work and the panels are well-paced, with a pretty spectacular opening that set the mood of the book pretty much perfectly. There’s not much meat beyond the plot of the book, but it makes for one great action/horror extravaganza that easily surpassed any of my expectations.