Z-POOL versus MAN-THING
Marvel Zombies 4: Midnight Sons Part 3 (Marvel)
Where: Marvel Zombies 4 #3 When: August 2009
Why: Fred Van Lente How: Kev Walker

The Story So Far...
When zombie infected heroes from parallel Earth-2149 find their way through the Nexus of Realities hidden in the Florida Everglades, an unprepared group of C-list heroes assigned by the Fifty States Initiative find themselves under attack! Alternate universe monitors, ARMOR, succeed in preventing mass invasion from the parallel universe, but are forced to deploy a team to eradicate infected Men-Fish.

Having played a pivotal role in containing the threat and defeating the zombie invaders; Dr. Michael Morbius emerges as a new leading operative with ARMOR. He recruits traumatized survivor Jennifer Kale, along with familiar occult allies, Son of Satan and Werewolf by Night, into a new taskforce dubbed the Midnight Sons. The group succeed in destroying the Men-Fish, but fail to recognise the threat of "Z-Pool" (Zombie Deadpool's decapitated head) and Simon Dark, the latter of whom falls under the spell of Black Talon -- a voodoo mystic capable of enslaving the zombie.

Black Talon offers the interdimensional zombie plague as a weapon to Kingpin of Super-Villains, The Hood. Through a series of blunders on the island of Taino, the plague is unleashed through Black Talon's minions, ultimately mutating into a gaseous airborne form. With the plague spreading to remote populated areas, the Midnight Sons battle against the clock to contain the threat, or condemn the area to destruction by an ARMOR nuclear assault.

Jennifer Kale summons Man-Thing to pursue the threat, while Z-Pool develops a mild psychic link with the plague as it becomes rain and raises corpse pieces of super-powered Roxxon security agents to create a super-powered composite being. Thus, the monstrous Man-Thing fights for the fate of humanity!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Man-Thing 5 (Superhuman)
Intelligence: Draw 2 (Average)
Speed: Man-Thing 2 (Average)
Stamina: Man-Thing 6 (Generator)
Agility: Man-Thing 2 (Average)
Fighting: Man-Thing 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Man-Thing 2 (Projectile)


- The exact details of Wade Wilson's early life remain a mystery, perhaps even to him. During his adult life he became a mercenary who, upon learning he had developed cancer, gave up on his life to submit himself to experimentation with the top secret remnants of the Weapon X program. The project experimented with altering Wilson on a genetic level, attempting to treat him with a healing factor developed from the genome of former subject, Wolverine. However, Wilson's cancer interacted with the process in unforseen ways, reducing the effectiveness of his healing powers, and rendering him hideously disfigured.

Skilled in hand-to-hand and weapons based combat, Wilson becomes Deadpool.
In the alternate universe of Earth-2149, Deadpool is among the countless heroes and villains who are infected by a zombie plague. He crosses through the Nexus of Reality into Earth-616, where he engages members of The Command. He is sliced into a pieces by a skiff propeller during the fight, by Wundarr and Jennifer Kale, continuing life as a decapitated head. He is nicknamed Z-Pool.

- Project Gladiator was an experiment to recreate the effects of the "Super-Soldier Serum" developed during the Second World War by assassinated German scientist, Dr. Abraham Erskine, and used to create Captain America.

Stationed in the Florida Everglades; a team of biochemists including Dr. Theodore Sallis work on Project Gladiator in secret in close proximity to agents of AIM. The science terrorist network infiltrate the project through Sallis, who defies protocol to sneak his wife into the base. Though Sallis was able to destroy his research, his escape was impeded when he injected himself with the serum, and crashed his vehicle into the neighbouring swamp. When he reemerged, it was as the marshy muck-monster, created by science and mysticism, called Man-Thing!

As Man-Thing; Sallis possesses a primitive mind rarely capable of recalling more than glimpses of the knowledge he held as a biochemist. He does possess an instinctive psychic empathy capable of sensing emotional disturbances. Via a secretion triggered by this shift, those who know fear burn at the Man-Thing's touch. The marshy composition of his form is also highly durable, capable of recovering from significant wounds and adapting significant malleability, while also producing form strong enough to deal superhuman strength.

Man-Thing also possesses mystic sensitivities and serves as the guardian of the Nexus of Reality -- an interdimensional crossroads located deep within the swamps of the Florida Everglades from which he arose.

Math: Man-Thing Ranking: Z-Pool (#449)

What Went Down...
Carried by a zombie of a very different kind, the decapitated head of Deadpool spies the looming silhouette of Man-Thing as it stalks through a red rain of gore and infection. Man-Thing, though not immune to the effects of the rain, shows considerable resilience as he is replenished by mother nature so long as he remains connected to the Earth.

Z-Pool [and Simon] takes the weather with him, and upon encountering a team of super-human security guards for a Roxxon Blackridge resort, gains the means to fight back against his stalker. The rain devours the guards, only to reassemble them as a composite revenant possessing their combined powers.

Receiving psychic direction from Z-Pool, the creature unleashes a bolt of electricity, taken from Lightning Fist, that severs Man-Thing's right arm.
Wielding the toothed whip of Razor Wire, the revenant throws the jagged saw into Man-Thing's body, slicing down through the shoulder deep into it's torso.

Feeding from the Earth, Man-Thing reconstructs it's vegetative limb and swings it with superhuman strength at the patchwork revenant!

The blow sends the creature hurtling into a nearby resort light, snapping the post with the impact. Gaining strength from the limbs of Ogre, the revenant creature proves strong enough to wield the lamp post as a weapon, which it again uses to bisect Man-Thing's form!

The swamp monster snaps the post and heals around the impalement, fighting on with a wild slash to the revenant's race. It is then, however, that the zombie creature makes a horrific deduction. Gaining understanding through the rain, the revenant clutches at the snapped-off post protruding from Man-Thing's chest, and denies him his connection with the Earth!

Robbed of the replenishment of nature, the Man-Thing begins to wilt in the rain, and gradually, he succumbs to decay as the burning zombie rain destroys his form completely. Held skyward by the composite revenant, Man-Thing dies.

The Hammer...
Infinite Wars stat counters will appreciate that it's incredibly difficult to make a call on exactly who or what gained victory in this exchange. For the implication that it was he pulling the strings, I'm going to make the easy call and say it was Z-Pool, but there's an argument the Marvel Zombies plague (as rain) has gained a degree of sentience. It should also be reiterated that the revenant was created from characters called Razor Wire, Lightning Fist, and Ogre.

After skipping MZ3, it's become apparent to me that Fred Van Lente has really been a revelation as writer of these series. We've documented in the past the origins of the high concept as a Mark Millar UFF storyarc [Crossover], and it's devolution as a thinly developed mini-series under Robert Kirkman, and a well beaten dead horse for marketting gimmicks like line-wide gimmick covers.

Even with those historic shortcomings; Marvel Zombies 4 has managed to rise above the past to be one of the very best Marvel comics published in 2009!

By utilizing a cast once popular, but now overlooked Marvel characters, Van Lente has transformed the brand into something slightly more conventional, but much more realised in it's design as a superhero-horror comic. With MZ4 in particular, he's drawn from the horror comic boom of the seventies, to create a grounding of character in the story that recalls that time period and embellishes it.

[Mark] Millar's original creation of the zombie heroes of Earth-2149, (in Ultimate Fantastic Four), played extensively with horror elements which Van Lente appears to have bifurcated between MZ3 and MZ4. The latter contains the conventional zombie horror of visualized gore and unsettling images of disfigured humans, while MZ3 inherently plays with the psychological horror of mistrust in characters who might not be themselves. This appears in MZ3 through the plot of Z-Morbius posing as our Morbius, but also through the threat of infection, ala; Jennifer Kale's turning teammates, and even Jack Russel in the cliffhanger for MZ4 [#3].

Of course, in developing the depth of plot further, Van Lente runs afoul some of the difficulties posed by Kirkman's thinly considered backstory.
The chief difficulty stems from the issue of immunity. It's a vital part of Man-Thing's almost checklist-like appearance in this issue (as another seventies horror icon), but rubs awkwardly against the list of characters who've been established as turned in the past [see; Marvel Zombies Defense Strategum].

I'm happy to not think about it too much, particularly if we assume there was never any grand plan for Marvel Zombies to explode the way they have. It's a great concept and I can't blame Marvel for wanting to expand upon it! It's just a shame there couldn't have been a greater awareness at the beginning, to allow for a more thorough design of this weird and wonderful world of undead heroes.

Kev Walker deserves a lot of credit for realising this and every other issue!
Zombie clouds, zombie rain, and all the other wonderfully wacky things going on in this issue could've made for a visual nightmare, but he pulls it off superbly. There's a suitable rough edge, but as I've mentioned before, the treatment feels a little bit more superhero friendly than the previous series. I like that it isn't quite as heavy-handed with the darkness, and not nearly as motley looking.

There are so many threads up in the air that I'm really looking forward to the fourth issue! I anticipate what might come next for this collaboration of brand and creators, because they really do seem to have a wonderful grasp of it all.
As if to go above-and-beyond the call of duty, there are also some really interesting developments in The Hood's story that will almost certainly be of interested to readers of Dark Reign and New Avengers! There's nothing as specific as references to events in other series, but the relationship between Parker Robbins and his (Dormammu) powers is explored in interesting ways.

The Fight: 4.5 The Issue: 5

Marvel Zombies 4 is a four-issue mini-series that concludes next month! You can pre-order it in collected form, or pick up one of the various previous Marvel Zombies mini-series, via Amazon! MZ3 in particular comes with recommendation for planting the seeds that gave us MZ4! You'll also find other tales in our Amazonian Gift Shop which features editions of most stories reviewed in the Secret Archives. By using any purchase links provided on the site, you help sponsor future entries in the Infinite Wars! Every referred buy is much appreciated and helps spread the Infinite Wars infection! Mmm, brains!

MARVEL ZOMBIES versus SILVER SURFER
Marvel Zombies (Marvel comics)
Where: Marvel Zombies #3 When: April 2006
Why: Robert Kirkman How: Sean Phillips

The story so far...
In the universe dubbed 2149, heroes and villains are no longer of any relevant concern. However, this is not a reality of uptopian peace and harmony among man.
The super powered heroes and villains of the Marvel universe have simply become infectious walking dead -- zombies!

With humanity all but exterminated, and the efforts of the genius zombified Reed Richards having been foiled by his alternate counterpart, the zombies are tortured by their lust for fresh meat.

Their undead prayers are soon answered with the arrival of a chrome skinned spaceman called the Silver Surfer, who warns of the coming of the great devourer, but they've got news for him: HE'S the one that's going to get devoured!

Previous Form:
Silver Surfer (#28): Silver Surfer had a victory over Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner.
Marvel Zombies: They ate Magneto...

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Hulk 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Giant-Man 6 (Genius)
Speed: Nova 7 (Light Speed)
Stamina: Silver Surfer 6 (Generator)
Agility: Spider-man 5 (Cat-like)
Fighting Ability: Wolverine 6 (Warrior)
Energy Powers: Silver Surfer 7 (Solar Power)


Ah, well, here we are again, approaching once more the monumental task of one unfortunate against the ravenous league of the Marvel Zombies. No, not the fans! The infected heroes and villains of the title of the same name.

Our format has changed considerably since the last time we did this [Marvel Zombies #1], and because of that, I feel the need to at least clarify the roster of zombified characters we are dealing with. They are as follows: Iron Man, Nova, Vulture, Falcon, Storm, Thor, Moon Knight, Black Bolt, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Wolverine, Angel, Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Crystal, Gambit, Ghost Rider, Speedball, Deadpool, Black Widow, Giant-Man, Spider-man, Hulk, Beast, Hercules and Power Man, Luke Cage.

That's twenty-seven zombie characters all up!
A pretty big ask for even the Silver Surfer, whose power cosmic provides a wide array of strengths and abilities.

A few people, in response to the Rise of the Silver Surfer trailer have expressed explicit confusion about the nature of the character's abilities. To clarify some of that (and hopefully make this section less boring than usual), the Surfer does not phase through objects.
At least, not in such bland terms. "Phasing" is an expression I would limit to a Kitty Pryde, whose chief ability relates to intangibility and passing through objects.

At various stages the extent of Silver Surfer's cosmic powers have been explored, highlighting his abilities on a molecular and atomic level. So, as far as passing through buildings and buses and whatnot, he's less "phasing" than he is displaying his brisk harmony with the universe, and molecular manipulation.
Given some time and energy, he could probably turn lead into gold, too.

So, against an army of Marvel Zombies, does this come in handy?
Maybe, but it isn't one of his chief abilities and requires some effort, so he's not about to try to turn Iron Fist into cheese mid-fight. He's more likely, as I'm sure you're about to see, mow them down with raw blasts of cosmic energy.

Since even Wolverine has been ravaged by the degenerative qualities of this particular brand of zombie-ism, it's safe to say the Surfer has a great chance of coming out on top here. That said, many of them retain their offensive powers, which does pose a problem.

I guess at the end of this we just have to look at it as one for the fans. Cheap!

The Math: Marvel Zombies (Total) Silver Surfer (Average)
The Pick: The Silver Surfer

What went down...
Trust the math to cop-out and pick both sides!
Things kick off from the opening of this action-packed issue! A zombified Tony Stark [pictured above] leads the charge, with various other flying characters hovering around for a taste of the action.

Not one for emotion at the best of times, and not really used to people doing anything but cower in fear in his presence, Silver Surfer meets their challenge willingly. His cosmic plast tears through Iron Man's armor with ease, shredding his decaying body at the waist.

The airborne torso manages to snag the Surfer's board and leg, while the Vulture and Nova swing around for a bite of the cherry. They provide sufficient interference to pull the Surfer's cosmic blast off course.
It narrowly misses Stark's head, leaving him free to ravenously attempt to take a bite out of the chrome thigh before him. His teeth chip on the cosmic wrap, much to the Surfer's stoic disgust.

"In all my travels -- I have never encountered such creatures!"
He frees himself of the full nelson, and fires off devestating blasts at Nova and Captain Mar-Vell, penetrating gut and face respectively.

A lurking Thor makes his presence known, swinging his mighty hammer Mjolnir with a thundering KROOM!
The force of the blow knocks the Silver Surfer from his board, but likewise shatters the stone head of the Asgardian hammer. Perhaps the barer was no long worthy...

Landing hard on the apocalyptic street level below, the harbinger from space finds himself with many more abominations to contend with.

Colonel America leads the charge, promising double rations to the man or woman who makes the kill. Something easier said than done. The Vulture and Moon Knight each take the brunt of cosmic blasts, followed by Namor, and Falcon.

Charging through some of the other street level characters, Wolverine declares his intentions, but is quickly embarrassed.
The mutant takes a swipe with his adamantium claws, but while the skeleton is willing, the flesh is weak. His claws and forearm tear straight through his failing skin and flesh as he strikes the Surfer's sturdy chest.

With his healing factor unable to fight the decomposition, and no ligaments to contain his adamantium laced bones, Wolverine trims the fat. With his good arm, he slices away at the exposed bones and ragged edges of torn skin and muscle.
At this time, he feels a tap at his ankle.

The upper torso of Iron Man asks Wolverine for a lift, and with his one good arm, he's all too happy to oblige a fastball special.

Iron Man hurtles through the falling and fighting bodies of Speedball, Ghost Rider, Deadpool and others, as Gambit's disembodied head floats across the battlefield. Giant-Man arrives from his lab in time to witness the slaughter, and remains content to hideout in the shadows of the alleyways for the time being.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Bruce Banner and Spider-man are both carrying prominent injuries. Banner, with a hole in his gut, feels the hunger gnawing, while Spidey metaphorically gnaws at himself, relieving his body of a useless, dangling leg. By then, Banner is no more, and Hulk has entered the fight.

Don't make him hungry. You wouldn't like him when he's hungry!

The Surfer continues to expell his energies, fending off the never-ending physical onslaught of the zombie armada.

Beast, Black Bolt and others are tossed aside as the rampaging Hulk charges at the first signs of food! He snatches the Surfer from Beast's grip, and scoops him up valiantly in a cradle, declaring "the silver man" as his.

The Surfer has other ideas, firing off a double barrelled blast of cosmic energy at point blank. The gambit is enough to free him from the green goliath's grip, and gives him an opportunity to reunite with his surfboard.

With Colonel America and others in pirsuit, it is again the Hulk who gets the benefit of the alien. Hulk's mighty leap sees him landing atop the chrome herald, forcing them again away from the intergalactic surfboard.

Furious about the damage suffered at the Surfer's blast; a charred face Hulk, seething with strength, guarantees the Silver Surfer regret his resistence.

The Hulk's teeth and jaws prove powerful enough to penetrate the Silver Surfer's hardy exterior. He crunches down, biting the head off like a crazed rockstar.
The cosmic energies housed within spew forth from both the Hulk's mouth, and the gaping neck of the gleeming herald to Galactus.

Giant-Man steps out of the shadows to give Iron Man and Spidey a helping hand toward the feeding. Thor, Wolverine, Powerman and Colonel America are all quick to get their fill, before having the torn body snatched away by Giant-Man.

As things start to get nasty amongst the squabbling zombies, Colonel America makes the discovery that they have inherited some of the Surfer's power by feasting on his chromed flesh. He does so by blasting Beast's objecting head off.

The hammer...
Is there any way being eaten could make you the victor? With the killing blow struck by the Hulk, I declare the Marvel Zombies victorious! Assists for all, with Hulk picking up the kill!

I've probably gone a bit generous on this one. There were a few characters thrown in there getting the assist who really weren't seen to be all that effective. Crystal shows up for a single panel, as best as I can recall at 2:30am.
There's some implication that Gambit is about to do something pretty spectacular, but the biggest scenes for the Cajun are being blasted through the chest, and his decapitated head being thrown across the background.

Still, I guess thems the breaks when we dare to do these BIG superhero battles on Secret Earths. They're usually a bit of fun to read, but when it comes to recapping and judging, it can be a bit of a pain in the ol' arse, if I may say so.

A lot of love being thrown the Marvel Zombies way again with the recent Army of Darkness vs Marvel Zombies mini-series.
I haven't had the chance to pick up any issues yet, but I do have one distinct problem with the project. No, it's not the longevity of the concept, and it isn't anything to do with burning sacred cows. It's the longterm logic of it.

As near as I can tell, the series is set before this particular mini we reviewed here today [Marvel Zombies], but that means Ash and the Army of Darkness intellectual properties, rights and trademarks are being tied into something that will inevitably outlast any agreement between the involved parties.
So not only do you have a concept from an unrelated medium impeding on proceedings, but there's the real likelihood that it will prevent any canonical reference to this period of the past.

Of course, I might be scaremongering there. It might not really matter, and certainly for the on-going adventures of the Marvel Zombies, I can't imagine it will. I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming storyarc with Black Panther and the new Fantastic Four.

Dramatic resonances of the Black Panther involvement aside [BP is a surviving human in Marvel Zombies], I just think it's a nice change of pace to be seeing quirky concepts like this being drifted toward the 'serious' business.
It could very easily overstay it's welcome, and cross into in-your-face mundanity, but for the time being I watch with interest.

On another related note -- if you backtrack through the downing of what went, you'll notice during Thor's moment of glory I made reference to Mjolnir.
The hammer explodes upon impact with the Surfer, which isn't really what Mjolnir is known for in the regular universe, so it potentially answers a question I would have asked: -- Is zombie Thor still worthy of lifting the enchanted hammer?

I guess you could theorize that deep-down he is worthy, and that the spell is somewhat robotic or mechanical in it's determination. You could extrapolate to come up with some sort of meta-mystic theory that the hammer shattered because it was weakened byproxy by the infection.
Or you could just say it was a fun moment, with a bit of creative oversight.

Certainly, despite an upcoming prequel, the series does not feel like something carefully crafted and built atop lengthy planning. Which is where some of my concerns for the Zombies franchise enter the picture, but we'll burn it as it comes.

Ah, we can also harken back to a discussion had previously [What if...? #24], where I asked how Wolverine, healing factor and all, could be infected to begin with. Apparently the proposition here is that the zombie infection has simply overpowered his regenerative capabilities.
It's a simple solution, but I can't help but think it isn't what I'd go with...

Well, it's getting late and I'm probably minutes away from getting incoherrent, so I'll wrap it up here. Stay tuned for next week when we wrap up with a MAJOR finale for What If Wednesdays, and fight out where we're going next in the May Punch-Up! Cheers!

The Fight: 5 The Issue: 5.5