Or – “All Things Must Come To An End…”
So, another wave of zombie madness has fallen upon the Marvel Universe, and several of Marvel’s 70’s monster heroes have united to stop them. Of course, having inoculated themselves with the zombie virus, they could easily turn sides and eat each other, which leads to some uncomfortable conversations here and there. Zombie Deadpool is onboard, and things are about to wrap up the hard way. Taking bets now as to who will be standing at the end…
Previously, on Marvel Zombies 4: With their own universe decimated, the 
zombies of the alternate universe documented in “Marvel Zombies” version one have spread out through the multiverse, and have successfully made inroads into the 616 reality through the Nexus of All Realities in Florida. The Midnight Sons (Michael Morbius, Daimon “Son of Satan” Hellstrom, Jack “Werewolf By Night” Russell, and Atlantean sorceress Jennifer Kale) tracked the zombie infection to a small island in the Carribean where the zombies had gone to ground. Unfortunately, the voodoo priest Black Talon planned to weaponize and sell the infection to The Hood (ugh) and caused the the strain to turn airborne, and even more dangerous. Add to this Jack Russell turning zombie, the zombified head of the alternate Deadpool doinga weird buddy movie with Simon Garth, the original Zombie (as in “Tales of”) and Jennifer Kale cutting a deal with the Hood’s patron deity (the Dread $&#@ing Dormammu, who plans to finally destroy the Earth dimension with the newly vicious zombie plague) and we’ve got the makings of utter disaster. Five to one Morbius bites it… Pun fully intended.
We open with the last of the Video Will and Testaments, this one Daimon Hellstrom’s. Daimon sits silently, and says only thre words: “Patsy… I’m sorry.” Cut immediately to ARMOR headquarters, where Director Little Sky has to debate whether to fire nuclear missiles into the zombie infested areas or not. “Should I abort the countdown?” asks a technician nervously… and the director tells her no. If the Midnight Sons can’t fix this one, then they have to pull the trigger. In the DMZ, the Midnight Sons are forced to go to ground by the zombified versions of The Night Shift (mostly old Spider-Woman villains) while their resident witch flips the hell out and The Hood goes ballistic (literally) with an automatic weapon. It’s actually one of the few moments where I’ve liked Parker since his ascendency to “forced down my throat,” and he’s actually not annoying. Not far away from the chaos, Simon Garth and the head of Deadpool recover from their battle with Man-Thing, and wonder if they shouldn’t just get it over with and die already.
Daimon Hellstromfaces down the possessed Jennifer, who tries to entrap him by taking the form of his ex-wife Patsy (aka Hellcat of the Marvel Divas) before he breaks free. Morbius tries to interfere, but gets attacked by zombie Jack Russellwho taunts Morbius about being a poor excuse for a monster. Dormammu tries again to ensorcel Damion, but the Son of Satan has dealt with greater creatures than he, freeing Jennifer with a burst of hellfire from his trident. Jennifer in turn transforms Jack into his werewolf form, which Morbiusthinks will cure him. (Why? I dunno… Just keep moving.) The Sons force Black Talon to help with an incantation that gives the virus a human form, and the Sons attack it. “We will NEVER sotp fighting!” cries Morbius. “Does that frighten you? Well it should!” As Man-Thing bursts through the wall and attacks the creature, and things go the way things do when anyone fears the Man-Thing. (Hint: It rhymes with “ponfire.”) With perfect timing, Simon Garth arrives and is used as a body in which to house the flesh-eating virus. Morbius quickly calls off the nuclear strike, and The Hood heads for home (with his powers returned.) The Midnight Sons regroup, having come through it all alive, and wonder what happened to Simon’s old pal Z-Pool. As they realize they’ll never know, we cut to a boat floating into the sunset, with dead Deadpool on board. “Thanks, Si. Wherever you are! You’re the best friend a head ever had!” Heh…
I really liked the final panel of this issue, but I have to say that I’m ambivalent to the overall miniseries. Despite liking these characters and the previous minis, I just didn’t feel the love. It started strong, but came apart in the middle, and never really recovered enough for my tastes. Had this and the previous miniseries been one 6 issue series, I think we would have had a much stronger overall product. Fred Van Lente does excellent work with dialogue, but the plot doesn’t quite gel for me. Also disturbing is the cover image, with a strangely proportioned Jennifer Kale looking like her spine will break under the weight of her pectoral regions. It’s a disappointing book (especially from Van Lente, whom I have a great deal of love for after “MODOK’s 11”) and with the imminent return of the original cast of Marvel Zombies, it feels like a good jumping off point for this franchise for me. Marvel Zombies 4 #4 earns 1.5 out of 5 stars overall, less through being bad than feeling relatively incomplete and somewhat anticlimactic…
4 Comments
I don’t read Marvel Zombies personally .. but i have to ask you… do you think that Blackest Night may have influenced your opinion of this issue in any way?
I hate The Hood. I’m waiting for the day when it turns out his hood is actually a symbiote that he can control and turn it into a jacket, at which point he’ll be named The Jacket(because it’s easier than thinking of a real name)and he will still suck
I liked the previous one, #3, Jennifer does the classic noble hero bit:”I’ll never be your slave Dormammu!” yet as soon as he sees Zombie werewolf she screams for Dormammu’s help, that was cool. This series could have been alot better if Dead-Deadpool had more panels, he’s a barrel of dead monkeys :)
I don’t read Marvel Zombies personally .. but i have to ask you… do you think that Blackest Night may have influenced your opinion of this issue in any way?
Hmm… I’m not sure what you mean. I’ve been less and less enchanted with each issue of this mini (as my reviews would attest) and I’m thinking now that comes partly from the fact that it’s been so isolated while taking place in the mainstream Marvel U. There should be a HIGHER sense of consequences, especially given that it took less than 3 days for the virus to overcome an entire universe of heroes much like our own.