Breaking Down Marvel's Secret Wars: Marvel Zombies

In the weeks following the announcement of the Secret Wars mega-event at New York Comic-Con, Marvel release 15 teaser images for event comics. Perhaps more interesting was that most of those teasers were for events that have already happened.

Last week, we discovered what the teasers were all about. These were the worlds that would come together during the events of Secret Wars to form Battleworld, the battleground planet where the event will take place.

To get you up to speed and excited for the events, we've prepared a series of articles breaking down the events that were teased so that you'll be ready to revisit them next summer. Today, just as Marvel doubled up on its second teaser, we're doubling down with our article series, with:

Marvel Zombies

What Was It? During the original run of Ultimate Fantastic Four, Marvel teased a story arc titled "Crossover," intentionally allowing fans to misinterpret it's premise as the first ever crossover between the Ultimate Marvel Universe and the 616-Marvel Universe.

This was not the case. The storyline actually involved Ultimate Reed Richards discovering a universe where earth is overrun by super powered zombies. This proved a popular enough idea to spawn its own miniseries, Marvel Zombies, which continued to follow the super-zombies after the events of "Crossover."

Was It Any Good? Robert Kirkman. Zombies. Marvel Comics. If you like any two of those three things, you'll probably find something to enjoy in Marvel Zombies.

Personally, I never caught the zombie bug, and Kirkman's writing has never managed to hook me, so there wasn't much for me to grab on to with this series. It featured a lot of zombies that looked like characters I know I love, but that acted and sounded completely different.

The series clearly found its audience though, spawning several sequels and a crossover with Army of Darkness.

Significant Deaths: It's a zombie book. Everyone is dead. That's kind of the point.

Lasting Consequences: Marvel Zombies was a more or less self-contained series, done mostly for fun. The zombies acquired the power cosmic and begin travelling through space, but none of that has any real effect on the Marvel Universe proper (though who knows if it will come into play in Secret Wars).

IN a story in Black Panther, the Fantastic Four (then consisting of Black Panther, Storm, Human Torch, and the Thing) are teleported to the Zombie's universe, where they encounter the "Zombie Galacti" on a Skrull planet.

In Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool's zombified head, a.k.a. Headpool, finds itself stranded in the Marvel 616 universe. Deadpool tries to help him get home. Later, Headpool becomes a member of the Deadpool Corps.

The Teaser: This teaser is unique among the others because it shows two event, and they don't seem to be getting along. I would think that the Age of Ultron timeline and the Marvel Zombies timeline somehow end up occupying the same region of Battleworld, leading to a Zombies vs. Robots style story in Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies #1.

Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies #1 is set for release summer 2015. Secret Wars begins May 2015.