The Internet Dunks on CNN for Calling The Walking Dead a Marvel Comic

The Walking Dead fans ribbed CNN after the outlet mistakenly identified creator Robert Kirkman‘s Image comic book as a Marvel Comics series.

“Just as Marvel Comics closed the books on ‘The Walking Dead,’ the company revealed that it’s bringing back another undead series: ‘Marvel Zombies,’” CNN tweeted in a since-corrected piece announcing the return of Marvel’s own zombie-centric limited series, originally penned by Kirkman.

“First Netflix cancels Good Omens and now Marvel is cancelling Walking Dead,” joked one commentor, citing a recent incident where a religious group petitioned Netflix to cancel Good Omens, an original series actually produced by Amazon.

The Walking Dead was published by Image Comics, not Disney-owned Marvel, for the entirety of its almost 16-year run. The book officially ended Wednesday with issue #193, a surprise final issue that has since been rushed back to print.

Because his book “has always been built on surprise,” Kirkman said in a multi-page letter ending the final issue, bringing The Walking Dead to a close without an announcement was in the spirit of his zombie comic where no one was safe.

“It just felt wrong and against the very nature of this series not to make the actual end as surprising as all the big deaths… from Shane all the way to Rick,” Kirkman wrote.

“I’m upset, too. I’m going to miss it as much as you will, if not more so. It breaks my heart that I had to end it, and we have to move on… but I just love this world too much to stretch things out until it doesn’t live up to what I want it to be.”

Marvel on Tuesday unveiled its resurrection of Marvel Zombies, a series set outside the main Marvel Universe continuity. The horror-tinged series depicted Marvel heroes such as Spider-Man and Captain America as sentient zombies with an uncontrollable lust for human flesh.

Two prequels, Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness and the Marvel Zombies: Dead Days one-shot, followed. Kirkman penned Marvel Zombies 2 before handing it off to Fred Van Lente with Marvel Zombies 3 and 4 and Marvel Zombies Return.

The publisher has not yet revealed if Kirkman returns to the latest iteration of Marvel Zombies, due out in October.

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