Saturday, March 15, 2014
Comic Art
SO BAD...
As If we do not live in a world already a bit confused about good an evil - Marvel comics a few years back had to go am make it utterly wrong with the repetitive "Zombie" series. Now, had we found our intrepid heroes battling the zombie plague, I might find myself vaguely interested, but that's not what we have on our hands here:
That's right folks - our favorite heroes ARE the zombies. Apparently the heroes battle a corruption from within.:Marvel Zombies is a five-issue limited series published from December 2005 to April 2006 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips and covers by Arthur Suydam. It was the first series in the Marvel Zombies series of related stories. The story is set in an alternate universe where the world's superhero population has been infected with a virus which turned them into zombies.
Within the Marvel Multiverse is an alternate Earth designated Earth 2149, which contains alternate versions of Marvel superheroes. The story begins as a zombie Sentry crash lands before infecting the Avengers. The infection spreads via contact with the blood of the victim, usually through a bite by an infected individual. The zombie super beings largely retain their intellect and personality, although they are consistently driven by the hunger for fresh human flesh.So, they are trying to fight the enemy and their own desire for "human flesh." Lovely. IS there nothing left in our world that can be purely good? It's true, even theologically, we are all corrupt, but do we not need imagery and imagination of something pure and clean and good so that we can strive? Do we not need something to aim for? Is it truly fruitful to mire ourselves in our corrupt state - celebrate it even?
[...]
...discover a still-living Black Panther. The Panther has escaped from the lab of the zombie Giant-Man, who has been keeping him alive as a food source. As a result of several feedings, the Panther is now missing an arm and a foot. As well as the Panther, zombie Wasp got into another argument with her husband when she discovered that Giant-Man was hoarding the Black Panther for food and is decapitated, although her head remains sentient. After observing the Wasp's head begging for flesh, he reasons that the hunger is more psychological than physical.
Meanwhile, the zombies have decided that the flesh of other zombies just isn't satisfying.
Look, I know I am an old fart afloat in a sea of youthful zombie obsessed kids. I know that the zombie-obsession is one of those things that is a passing fancy, and I know that comic book publishers will hop on just about any band-wagon to sell comics (the marriage of two high-profile gay super-heroes will be along any minute now), but are their no limits? Wouldn't it be fun, for example, to see Wolverine, finally, after decades of having to restrain himself, being turned lose on a massive hoard of zombies - slicing and dicing his way to saving the earth. (Speaking of which, why could his healing factor not have handled this little gem?) Would not the carnage of a super-hero v zombie war have been good enough? Must we corrupt the super-heroes in the process? Maybe one or two character can become infected and they have to face the dilemma of dealing with that. I know, nothing original there, but wouldn't the divide amongst the heroes on that conundrum have been enough soul-searching?
I long for pure, untainted goodness.
comic art comic books comics villains zombies
