Coming up with a new way to
breathe life into the Marvel Zombie franchise is hard so this latest graphic
novel doesn’t even try. Marvel Zombies Destroy! is the familiar
story of the A.R.M.O.R. (Alternate Reality Monitoring & Operational
Response) team being sent to an alternate world where the zombies have taken
over and now want to enter another reality, possibly ours. At the head of the team is Howard the Duck
who has recruited Dum Dum Dugan for his Ducky Dozen team to rid Earth-12591 of
the zombie plague only this time it seems that the Nazi’s won WWII by becoming
zombies and thus have advanced to the point of not only having taken over the
world but now have found a way to exit their world and to enter a new world
with new flesh to pursue.
It’s plain from the beginning
that Howard the Duck has an alternative reason for bringing Dum Dum Dugan into
the foil which makes for a very comedic episode but this series suffers from
the same issue that many of the more recent Marvel Zombies stories suffer from
which is the lack of substance to the story.
Written by Frank Marraffino & Peter David the story seems more
concerned with having fun, killing Nazi zombies, and cracking as many jokes as
possible (which is what you would expect from a story that features Howard the
Duck and Dum Dum Dugan) but that’s the extent of the series and like previous
series this one will be easily forgotten once read. The series has been running on empty for
quite some time and I do have to admit that Nazi zombies was an inspired choice
to go with but putting Howard the Duck and Dum Dum Dugan at the center of the
action does the story and the franchise a disservice. I’m itching for there to be a return to the
glory days of the Marvel Zombie franchise from such early stories as Dead Days and the first two stand alone
series.
The other bad thing that is
happening with these stories as they are becoming way to predictable in terms
of who is going to live and who is going to die and with a zombie story it
should be unpredictable but with each subsequent story in the Marvel Zombie
franchise this is telegraphed to the reader by the “who’s who” of no name
supporting characters and especially in terms of Howard’s Ducky Dozen the
reader knows from their first appearance that they are all more or less going
to die as they are characters no one has ever heard of. I do have to admit artists Mirco Pierfederici
and Al Barrionuevo have found some unique ways to kill both the good guys and
the Nazi zombie bad guys and for those who thrill at this aspect of the
franchise this series does not disappoint.
I do miss the alternative covers
for each of the individual issues that used to accompany the graphic novel at
the end and even the regular covers from the initial five issues are nowhere to
be seen so there are absolutely no extras to be had with this edition which is
sad. Only an “undead” letter from the
editor and a page of recap art are at the end and this is just a travesty.
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