Origin
The first Marvel Zombies universe was an alternate reality, designated Earth-2149, in which most of Earth's heroes have been infected by a zombified Sentry with a virus that turned them into zombies . This involved a paradoxical loop involving a Sentry from yet another alternate reality (Earth-Z) from Marvel Zombies Return.
See also Marvel Zombies team
Marvel Zombies 5 was the first to introduced some additional universes that have a unique variation that differs from the established virus. Other examples that have been shown in the alternate universes are Marvel Zombies Supreme and Marvel Zombies Destroy. In Supreme, the zombified Squadron Supreme is created when scientists graft the original team's DNA to human corpses and then use space radiation to revive them. In Destroy Loki plays a trick on Thor by infecting humanity so that Asgardians could rule.
Creation
The origin of the Marvel Zombie Universe was created by Mark Millar and Greg Land who wrote two story arcs of Ultimate Fantastic Four titled "Crossover" and "Frightful". These story arcs were the inspiration for the Marvel Zombies limited series by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips.
Overview
For more information on the Story Arc see Marvel Zombies
Main Series (Earth-2149)
Marvel Zombies: Days Dead
Prequel that shows the zombie infection spreading throughout the world, while uninfected superheroes try to devise a plan to save the human race inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier.
Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness (Earth-818793 "Army of Darkness")
Set before, and during, Marvel Zombies: Dead Days. Ash Williams is transported to the Marvel Zombies universe in Army of Darkness issue #13 and must fight the zombies while searching for a way to escape the universe after he finds the Necronomicon.
Ultimate Fantastic Four
Crossover (issues #21–23)
Reed Richards (Earth-1610) receives contact from another version of himself from an alternate dimension. After crossing over to the other dimension, Reed discovers he's been tricked and the entire world is infested with zombies who wanted to use the Ultimate Marvel Universe as a food source. The Fantastic Four of the Zombie Universe failed to capture Reed and crossed over to the Ultimate universe through the dimensional portal. With help from Magneto, Reed escapes the zombie universe and prevents more zombies from entering the Ultimate Universe.
Marvel Zombies
After zombie superheroes eat the human race to extinction, Galactus prepares to eat the Earth. Galactus sends his herald the Silver Surfer to Earth only to be eaten by Captain America, Giant-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Luke Cage, and Spider-Man. They then take the attack to Galactus. Now infused with the Power Cosmic, Giant-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Luke Cage, and Spider-Man, travel the universe as they search for more sources of food.
Ultimate Fantastic Four
Frightful (issues #30–32)
The Zombie Fantastic Four attempts to break free from their confinement. Also, Ultimate Johnny Storm is infected with a demon from the Negative Zone, and the Ultimate Reed Richards performs a mind-swap with the Ultimate Doctor Doom. When the zombies break free, Reed (in Dr. Doom's body) becomes the demon's new host and uses its power to defeat their zombie counterparts. Dr. Doom reverses the procedure and swaps their minds back to their own bodies, he then sacrifices himself by going through the portal to destroy it and trapping himself in the zombie universe.
Black Panther
The current Fantastic Four (Earth-616) of Black Panther, Storm, Human Torch and Thing, are teleported by King Solomon's Frogs to the Marvel Zombies Universe where they encounter the Marvel Zombies on a Skrull planet.
Marvel Zombies 2
After they had devoured all life in the universe over the last forty years, the Zombie Heroes return to Earth. They have the idea to access other dimensions for food. When they arrive on Earth, they face off against New Wakanda, a colony of humans who survived the zombie onslaught.
Marvel Zombies Return
After the events in Marvel Zombies 2, zombie Spider-Man, Giant-Man and Wolverine are teleported to a different universe. The series deals with the ramifications of their arrival on Earth-Z. Again with the lack of food they must obtain cross-universal teleporters.
The series ends with the Watcher of this universe sending the infected Sentry back in time to the moment when the infection emerged on Earth-2149. This in turn contained the zombie virus to only in those two universes creating a contained paradoxical loop.
Marvel Zombies Returns (Earth-Z)
The Zombie Galacti from Earth-2149) return, however, their cosmic powers were lost in the transition between their universe and a new reality that greatly resembled the past of the Prime Universe. Zombie Spider-Man was inspired to try to fix his mistakes, but his hunger for flesh led to the death of his own counterpart and the zombification of the Sinister Six.
As penance, Zombie Spidey tried to find a way to wipe out the plague once and for all. Uatu the Watcher decided to send the infected zombie Sentry back in time to Earth-2149. This created a time loop that was meant to ensure that the zombie plague could be contained between the two realities. It was a good idea, but it was always doomed to fail because it didn’t account for the alternate zombie timelines.
A.R.M.O.R. & Guardsmen (Earth-616)
Marvel Zombies 3
When the zombies invade the Marvel Universe, Machine Man, Ultron and Jocasta go to the Marvel Zombies universe to retrieve a blood sample from an uninfected human. Unfortunately, zombie Morbius (Earth-2149) had plans of his own, and to use the blood to infect the Marvel Universe.
Marvel Zombies 4
The Midnight Sons, working for A.R.M.O.R., hunt zombies who have escaped to different universes. Elsewhere Dormammu commands The Hood to capture the virus for his own ends.
Marvel Zombies 5 (Earths-483, 691, 8410 & ?)
After the events in Amazing Spider-Man #622, A.R.M.O.R. discovers that several alternate realities afflicted with a variation of the zombie infection will temporarily merge during a cross-temporal planet storm. Morbius orders fellow A.R.M.O.R. agents, Machine Man and Howard the Duck to retrieve samples of the infection from each reality so that he can find a cure for his infected friend, Jack Russell.
Marvel Zombies Supreme
Responding to a mysterious emergency call, Jill Harper of the Guardsmen receives an emergency call and takes her special-ops unit into a top-secret underground research facility. They discover the experiments of the geneticist have created a new zombie strain. They used Squadron Supreme (Earth-712) to revive human corpses, which reduced them to cannibalistic murderers with a hunger for human flesh. Harper and her team fight against to stop the zombie menace, before it spreads.
Marvel Zombies Destroy
A.R.M.O.R. is called upon to rescue a reality where Zombie Nazis (Earth-12591) won WWII. They are now using Asgard magic to teleport themselves to every other universe. Howard the Duck enlists Dum Dum Dugan and a squadron of fighters known as Ducky's Dozen to stop them.
Other Series
Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth (Earth-616)
After the events of Marvel Zombies 4, Deadpool teams up with his zombified head (Headpool) after discovering it in the Savage Land. He then goes to Headpool's Universe (Earth-2149) to return him.
Deadpool Corps
Deadpool is still teamed up with Headpool for this mini-series. None of it takes place in the Marvel Zombie Universe.
Spider-Ham
Spider-Ham (Earth-7044) is transported to the Zombie Universe and infected becoming Undead Ham. He is killed by Ultron.
Exiles
A zombified Wolverine (Earth-6195), appears alongside other Wolverines on the All-Wolverine Exiles team.
Marvel Apes (Earth-8101 or 95121)
Not directly related to Marvel Zombies, but the events that occur are resolved in Evil Evolution.
See also Marvel Apes: Speedball Special
A glimpse of an unidentified zombie is seen.
See also Marvel Apes: The Amazing Spider Monkey
Red Ghost and Speedball are running away from zombie versions of Giant Man, the Wasp, Iron Man, Wolverine, and others after they came to the Ape Universe.
See also Marvel Apes: Grunt Line
Ape X, The Gibbon, Jane Potter, Gorilla Girl, and the Red Ghost's apes in the Marvel Zombies Universe.
See also Marvel Apes: Prime Eight
Iron Mandrill and other heroes receive a vision about the Marvel Zombies. The 7 most powerful Apes gather and have to work together with Dr. Doom and a Nick Fury 2099. They realize that the zombies have already arrived and one of the apes will be infected.
Marvel Zombies: Evil Evolution
A One-Shot crossover between the Zombies and the Marvel Apes Universes (Earth-8101 or 95121). It fills in additional information about the origin of the zombie plague and is set between Dead Days and Marvel Apes Crossovers. It is also implied that the dimensional portal Reed Richards was testing had brought Zombie Sentry to this Earth.
Marvel Zombie Christmas Carol (Earth-?)
Retelling of Charles Dickens Christmas classic with Zombies.
Marvel Zombie Halloween
Kitty Pryde tells her son Piotr Rasputin about Halloween. When he goes Trick-or-Treating he is attacked by zombie versions of Alex Power, Darkhawk, Karolina Dean, Mettle, Squirrel Girl and has to be saved by Mephisto.
Night of the Living Deadpool
A darkly comedic tale featuring Deadpool that revisited classic and modern tropes of the genre.
Marvel Zombies (Secret Wars)
Spinoff miniseries, which found Elsa Bloodstone in the treacherous terrain of Battleworld that was overrun by Marvel Zombies. Along the way, Elsa reunited with her long-dead dad, Ulysses Bloodstone. Elsa even briefly became one of the undead herself before coming up with her own solution for the zombie problem.
Marvel Zombies: Resurrection
This was essentially a reboot of the zombie storyline with no ties to its previous incarnation. This time, Spider-Man escaped intact, and found himself as the surrogate father and protector of Valeria and Franklin Richards, with an assist from Blade and Wolverine.
In this timeline, the zombie plague was engineered by the Brood, and it claimed most of Earth’s heroes as well as Galactus. Spidey also had to deal with the secret of Franklin’s survival, as a young boy, Franklin was bitten by a zombie, and yet he never turned.
Collected Editions
In Other Media
Television
Zombie Scarlet Witch- The Marvel Zombies concept was adapted for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the What If...? episode "What If...Zombies?!" The episode follows an alternate timeline where Janet van Dyne, the original Wasp, became infected with a virus that transformed her into a zombie during her time trapped in the Quantum Realm. When her husband Hank Pym arrived to save her, she infected him, who in turn spread the virus to the Avengers after returning to Earth. The virus quickly spread across the planet, with a small band of heroes including Spider-Man, Hope van Dyne, Sharon Carter, Happy Hogan, and the Winter Soldier left as humanity's last hope for survival.
Video Games
Ultimate MVC3- Frank West's ending in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has Mister Fantastic show him the Marvel Zombies universe, with a warning that the zombified heroes may attempt to make their way to the mainline universe. To prevent this, Mister Fantastic enlists Frank's help (due to his extensive experience battling zombies in the Dead Rising video games) and asks him to travel to the zombie universe and report on what is happening.
- Zombie Venom appears in Marvel Future Fight.
Merchandise
Marvel Legends- Marvel Zombie versions of Spider-Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Magneto and Sabretooth were featured in the Marvel Select action figure line from Diamond Collectibles.
- Diamond Collectibles also produced Marvel Zombies figures for the Marvel Minimates line.
- Diamond Select produced several busts and statues of the Marvel Zombies versions of characters like Spider-Man Captain America, Wolverine, and Deadpool.
- Gentle Giant Studios also produced a line of Marvel Zombies busts, including Magneto, the Kingpin, Doctor Doom, Mysterio and Venom.
- Hot Toys produced a Zombie Deadpool figure.
- Zag Toys produced a line of Marvel Zombies figures for their Domez brand.
- Funko produced a line of Marvel Zombies Pop! bobbleheads.
- Hasbro produced a figure of Zombie Captain America as part of the Marvel Legends Watcher Build-a-Figure wave.
- CMON and Spinmaster produced a Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Board Game.
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