Cover Talk: Marvel Zombies

The horror, the horror! It’s another horror-filled Tuesday with more Marvel Zombies Madness. Last week we covered the prequels/crossover with the Evil Dead series (I refuse to call it Army of Darkness) and as I promised, this time we’re covering the massive amount of covers…from the original series! Yes, that’s right; the covers that helped put Marvel Zombies on the map!

Now we’re throwing in the first 4 printings of the Hardcover too. Just because those 4 covers are also great. Now continuing with Halloween tradition, all we’re covering is Marvel Zombies covers. There will be, and I shall repeat this, NO Ultimate Fantastic Four covers. So don’t even go there.

Marvel Zombies #1

As much as I like this cover, I think Suydam kind of messed up the angle. It’s a great cover and the corpse screaming is cool, still…I would have liked the angle at the right angle from the original cover. Still, a great cover and I like the torn outfit on Spider-man.

#1 second printing variant

Classic Todd McFarlane awesomeness. Suydam got the eyes just perfect, and while the position is a bit off, this cover just rocks hard. The mouth looks really freaky and I like how the little avengers are all tied up in it. Very wicked image.

#1 3^rd printing variant

As I’ve said a few times, I’m a big John Romita Sr. fan so this is great. Again, Suydam does an incredible job homaging the cover, and Zombie Peter looks hilariously torn up.

#1…4^th printing variant? Seriously?

All right…4 printings….wow. That is…that is epic. Uh…anyway…great cover again. Like how Suydam changed the image of the Hulk from a simple looking monster into a furious zombie. He perfectly captures the image of a Zombified Hulk.

Marvel Zombies #2 (about damn time)

I never liked how Suydam sometimes makes the zombies falling apart in the cover. While to some degree its fine, with that Iron Man, it’s just ridiculous. That and I don’t like the baby birds in Cap’s head. Never cared for that part in the covers and I think it’s just weird. I get it; Cap lost the top of this head. Funny.

Marvel Zombies #3

I think this is the cover that started the trademark of Wolverine always having an eye hanging out on these covers. But notice…Wolverine’s mouth is full of eyeballs. Haha, that’s great. Of course we have Hulk charging Wolverine but I don’t really care. That sick image of Wolverine is priceless.

#3 2^nd printing variant

More classic Frank Miller homage. I like the melted face on Elektra, like she just got punched with a hot frying pan or something. The hanging eyeballs from DD’s mask are another great touch.

Marvel Zombies #4

I like everything but the odd coloring of Magneto. Why in the hell is he gold? Eh, either way this cover is pretty good. I like how Iceman is throwing frozen skulls, and the cut in half Jean makes me laugh. Even when undead, she gets all kinds of F***ed up.

#4 2^nd printing

More love for John Romita Sr. I like how Suydam stays very close to the original cover with this one. The fork in Green Goblin’s hand is absolutely perfect and he retains, even as a zombie, that evil grin so well.

Marvel Zombies #5

Easily the third best zombie cover by Suydam, this one is just too amazing not to love. For one the dead Mary Jane looks hilarious, the zombie villains look great and so do the heroes. Suydam just does an amazing job on this cover.

#5 2^nd printing variant

Eh…when following one as great as that Spider-man cover, this one is so-so. While it’s okay, and Silver Surfer did have a big part in the story, this one is just okay.

Marvel Zombies HC

Holy skulls in a basket, Batman! All right, first off, the Secret Wars #1 cover is iconic and great as it is. Now throw in a zombified version of it? Oh, it’s just too good to be true. Minus a few things (Spider-man position) this is pretty close to the source cover. Also the best Zombified Cap image ever. This is easily the #1 Zombie cover ever.

HC 2^nd printing cover

All right…compared to the Todd McFarlane cover it homages…it’s a bit of a stretch as far as position is concerned. But Suydam definitely does a great job on that Venom. Compared to the one in his Moon Knight covers, it’s amazing. Though there’s nothing zombie about him, I would have appreciated some missing ligaments or a hole in his head. Still, the dead Spider-man is enough for now.

HC 3^rd printing cover

That Galactus is spot on to Kirby’s original Galactus designs. That aside though, the zombies are hardly a big emphasis here. Maybe if he’d zombified Galactus too it’d be a bit better.

HC 4^th printing cover

This is the one I have. It took me a while to find a copy of the HC, seeing as MZ has been so popular here. Now this image is definitely my #5 favorite cover. Everything is so great, Zombie Hulk roaring, Thor with the bone face, and the torn up Iron Man. Looks like he had to rip at his armor to try and eat something. Very wicked and I love it.

So that’s it for this week’s Zombie Sacrifice (how awesome would it have been if Capcom had kept that subtitle for Dead Rising 2?)

I posted this pretty early in the day, since I won’t be online though most of today. But tomorrow I will get around to posting that review of Witchblade and Batman.

But until then good luck with that zombie horde outside your window.