Marvel Zombies 4 #3 (Marvel – Van Lente / Walker)
You’ve heard of Dark Reign, right? Well here comes the Dark Rain—a toxic cloud that zombifies everything in its path! The Midnight Sons can’t enter the deadly mist, so they call in a reserve member who can—the macabre Man-Thing! Can the muck-encrusted shambler of the swamps apprehend the undead before the Marvel Universe is totally infected? And will The Hood stop at anything in his mad goal to profit from the growing horror to his own gain?
I’m not going to say I’m 100% enjoying this book, but it’s got something that makes me keep picking it up, although I’m not sure I could tell you what it is. It tends to stray a bit from the conventional Marvel Zombies formula…but since Marvel Zombies was straying from a formula I don’t think I can complain about that.
Van Lente is comfortable telling a story, and the story seems to flow naturally enough, but the plot doesn’t really seem to move forward much. The virus has mutated and moves through the air as a cloud, this cloud does all the eating, not virus infected super thugs, so there aren’t interesting battles. And This world’s Big guns seem unconcerned.
The characters and their interactions are generally uninteresting. And the humor, so essential to MZs is flat and forced. Oh, and generally not that funny. I guess it just sort of curiosity as to how it will end, what this chapter will add to the Marvel Zombies Lore, that keeps me around.
Plus it’s a little different.
Kev Walker’s art and story telling it really good in this book, and continues to get better as the book goes along. While it’s not one of those books you’d pick up for the art alone, it is way above average in it’s visual story telling.
And The color in this book by Jean-Francois Beaulieu is really nice. Simple, low key, but very effective.
Story C+
Art B
