History ComicBook / MarvelZombies

* ''Marvel Zombies vs. [[Comicbook/ArmyOfDarkness The Army of Darkness]]'': IntercontinuityCrossover with the ''Franchise/EvilDead'' series; at the same time as ''Dead Days'', Ash Williams finds himself in the Marvel Zombies universe. HilarityEnsues.

* ''Marvel Zombies Supreme'': [[ActionGirl Jill Harper]] and her Guardsmen team are sent to investigate a distress call at an isolated Project: Pegasus facility. What they find out is that a renegade biologist has A) cloned the ComicBook/SquadronSupreme and B) accidentally turned the clones into zombies. Notable for not having any overt connections to the "Hunger Gospel" virus, for being the series that brought back the Jack of Hearts, and for the second issue, which is pretty much designed to irritate the hell out of Franchise/{{Superman}} fans.

** The Squadron Supreme are, of course, all take-offs on members of the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}. That said, Issue #2 of ''Marvel Zombies Supreme'' is pretty much an extended slam on Superman's origin, with zombie Hyperion eating his way through small-town Kansas.

** ''An averted one''. Rather than the Sentry, Franchise/{{Superman}} was originally intended to be the superhero who started the outbreak without explicitly identifying him, but he was ultimately recolored into the Sentry due concerns of potential legal issues.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: It's pretty clear that the "Sentry" that infected the zombieverse was supposed to be Franchise/{{Superman}}, and was only given a PaletteSwap to avoid action by the Distinguished Competition (the hole in his costume the same size and shape as [[ChestInsignia the S-shield]] is a dead giveaway).

** In ''Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness'', Ash looks at the costumes of two characters -- [[BrightIsNotGood Thunderball's bright, colorful getup]] and [[DarkIsNotEvil Daredevil's demonic attire]] -- and makes an incorrect assumption about which one of them is the good guy, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero knocking Daredevil out]]. Punisher also gets a wrong genre savvy moment, seemingly thinking that these zombies are typical Romero shamblers and forgetting that they retain their powers, skills, and intelligence. This leads to his demise.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** In ''5'', one of the universes to get infected by a zombie virus is very similar to ours. It follows a Marvel devotee's (referenced above) transformation into a zombie. First he's freaked out, then he decides to become a superhero. Unfortunately for him, rigor mortis sets in just before he's killed.
** In the original series, Magneto sends a girder through Daredevil's chest. Later, when he complains about a painful swelling in his feet, the other zombies discover it's his ''blood'': without a heart to pump it, gravity is causing it to pool in his feet.

*** The biggest snarl is that Alison Blaire is shown in the original ''UFF'' "Crossover" book in a crowd scene as a zombie, but is a supporting character in ''Vs. Army of Darkness'' and [[spoiler:gets all the flesh blown off her head by Doctor Doom before she can turn]] [[TheWikiRule Marvel Database]] hypothesizes that, as she wasn't a zombie yet, she was revived as a part of the deadite army and subsequently infected.

* TooDumbToLive: In ''Vs. Army Of Darkness'', Punisher's idea of killing all the zombified heroes and villains was to shoot them while Ash throws ammo to him when he needs to reload.

* AntiHero: Spider-Man's anti-zombie New Avengers, Zombie Deadpool (a.k.a. Headpool), and the Midnight Sons.

* FriendlyZombie: Played with. While most zombies ''are'' flesh eating monsters, they [[RevenantZombie retain their intelligence]] and are able to act rationally so long as they keep their HorrorHunger in check. Certain zombies also possess altruistic qualities such as Zombie Spider-Man who constantly has MyGodWhatHaveIDone moments and eventually turned on his fellow zombies to side with the humans, while Zombie Colonel America still retains a degree of honor and promises to let survivors die painlessly first.

* GoodLipsEvilJaws: As soon as people become zombified their lips seem to disappear leaving their jaws entirely exposed.

** In later appearances, it only seems to stick with [[spoiler:Spider-Man]], though; making him the closest thing to a hero that the original Marvel Zombies universe has/had.

* HandicappedBadass: [[spoiler:Black Panther survived the outbreak because Ant Man had locked him up in private so he can harvest Black Panther's limbs to satiate his hunger while he works on a cure. Black Panther was able regain conciousness and escape with Magneto's mutant army.]]

** Magneto ensures that the ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour (as well as a few civilians he had been protecting) get back safely to their own universe and then destroys the dimension-hopping machine, dooming himself to be trapped with the zombies.

* PerpetualMotionMonster: Reed Richards discovered that the zombies are basically immortal. They require absolutely no energy input to "live", but suffer from a severe case of HorrorHunger. Even so, he infects the rest of the ComicBook/FantasticFour (and by extension himself) out of grief for his children's deaths. It's revealed towards book 3-5 that if they can be forced to go without eating humans for a few months or years, the craving fades to manageable levels.

* RevenantZombie: The zombies depicted in the series maintain their intelligence and abilities, with their hunger being akin to drug addiction since they feel an insatiable hunger and pain that can only be negated after feeding on the living. [[spoiler: After consuming all life in the universe, the main zombies were able to lose their hunger and fully realise what they've done.]]

* AbortedArc: In ''Dead Days'', Magneto mentions to Cortez that they "made a deal" with something to bring the Hunger Gospel to Earth, and in so doing, inadvertently doomed the entire planet. Neither he nor Cortez elaborate on this, and later volumes seem to ignore this entirely. Officially, the ''Zombies'' and ''Return'' universes are [[spoiler:stuck in a stable time loop; the plague is initially brought by the infected Sentry, who begins a series of events that end with the last few zombies being sent back in time to the ''Return'' universe, which results in the Sentry getting infected...]]

* {{Cliffhanger}}: Ultimate Doom was never seen escaping the zombie reality, nor was Ash ever seen escaping the werewolf reality, leaving the possibility open for them to return.

* WrongGenreSavvy: As depicted in ''Dead Days'', a lot of the superheroes early on seemed to believe that this zombie plague is just the latest in a series [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed of constant crises]] and that eventually [[StatusQuoIsGod things will get back to normal]]. Pre-Zombie!Spider-Man rescues Ash and points out that his friends will have a hard enough time dealing with what they have done ''when'', not if, they get back to normal, while an actually zombified Colonel America manages to regain his composure briefly and insist they get help. If this had been the mainstream universe, they would be absolutely right, but alas, this is an {{Elseworlds}} tale. Only Nova is willing to point out how many they've already lost (and how hopeless the situation really is) while only now working on a plan of attack during a group scene on the Helicarrier.
-->'''Nova:''' '''''THIS IS CRAZY!!''''' Do you guys even ''realize'' what we're up against?! If someone you know is not ''here''--they're one of them! Don't you see what that means? We're completely outnumbered! And the plan is to turn this helicarrier into a flying Noah's Ark? How is ''that'' going to work?! How many people fit on this thing?! I'm sorry--I know we get together like this every few months to avert some global crisis or fight some enormous bad guy--I get it. That's what we ''do''. But I think you guys are treating this like another Kree/Skrull invasion--or Thanos attacking! This is ''different!'' Look how many we've ''already lost'' and we're just ''now'' forming a game plan?! We're all ''dead!'' We're as good as ''dead!''

** In ''Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness'', Punisher also gets a wrong genre savvy moment, seemingly thinking that these zombies are typical Romero shamblers and forgetting that they retain their powers, skills, and intelligence. This leads to his demise.

''Marvel Zombies'' in a nutshell -- an alien virus known as the "Hunger Gospel" is carried into an {{Elseworlds}} version of the Creator/MarvelComics universe by a zombified Sentry has transformed the Marvel superheroes and supervillains into [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] who, by the time we're introduced to them, have already consumed every living thing on their own Earth (in twenty four hours, no less) and so are desperately searching for a new source of food so as to quell the vicious, all-consuming hunger that they feel.

* ''Marvel Zombies: Resurrection'' (2019): The Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men go to investigate the corpse of Galactus at the edge of the solar system, and come back from space changed into "Earth's mightiest predators". Several years later, Spider-Man leads a small group of survivors hoping to find a cure. Initially announced under the name ''Respawn'', it is a reboot of the concept, set in its own continuity and taking heavy cues from its contemporary counterpart ''ComicBook/{{DCEASED}}''. There is little in the way of humor and the Hunger Gospel is completely absent in favor of an alien contagion known as the Respawned.

''Marvel Zombies'' in a nutshell -- an alien virus carried into an {{Elseworlds}} version of the Creator/MarvelComics universe by a zombified Sentry has transformed the Marvel superheroes and supervillains into [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] who, by the time we're introduced to them, have already consumed every living thing on their own Earth (in twenty four hours, no less) and so are desperately searching for a new source of food so as to quell the vicious, all-consuming hunger that they feel.

* ZombieApocalypseHero: The S.H.I.E.L.D. sub-agency A.R.M.O.R.[[note]] Altered-Reality Monitoring and Operational Response Agency[[/note]] is introduced in ''Marvel Zombies'' as a group of self-appointed GuardiansOfTheMultiverse. One of their main objectives is to fight, contain and ultimately eradicate the zombie infection that has spread to several other realities and transformed all of their inhabitants into flesh-eating undead. A.R.M.O.R. agents (in particular, Machine Man) are the most recurring protagonists because most of them (being demons, machines, and other creatures without mortal flesh) are immune to zombification.

* GenreShift: Somewhere around ''4'', in order to help reduce the amount of stagnation, the series moved to being horror-comedy, signaled by [[ComicBook/{{Nextwave}} Aaron Stack]] becoming a main character.

* ''Marvel Zombies 3'': Set between ''Marvel Zombies'' and ''Marvel Zombies 2''. The alternate-reality police organization ARMOR dispatches Aaron Stack, a.k.a. Machine Man, and Jocasta to the Marvel Zombies universe in an attempt to create a vaccine for the zombie disease. What they don't know is that the entire thing is a [[ThePlan trick]] by the zombie version of Michael Morbius, to ensure a new food supply for the zombies left behind on his Earth.

Elements of this comic franchise are incorporated into the [[Recap/WhatIfS1E5WhatIfZombies fifth episode]] of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse animated anthology series ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021''. An animated adaption is set to air on Creator/DisneyPlus which will continue the story of the ''What If...?'' episode. It will be notable as being [[https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1550563104345526275 the first TV-MA program]] created expressly for the streaming service (which had previous forbad the inclusion of movies and shows with adult content ratings).

Elements of this comic franchise are incorporated into the [[Recap/WhatIfS1E5WhatIfZombies fifth episode]] of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse animated anthology series ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021''. An animated adaption is set to air on Creator/DisneyPlus which will continue the story of the ''What If...?'' episode.

* {{Cliffhanger}}: With Ultimate Doom never seen escaping the zombie reality, there could be another sequel showing him trying to survive. Plus Ash is never seen escaping the werewolf reality so that could lead to another crossover. If so wouldn't it be awesome to see [[RuleOfCool Doctor Doom and Ash teaming up to fight werewolf and zombie super heroes from alternate universes with Galactus's level of cosmic power.]]

* CrapsackWorld

* DoubleStandard: This is a series in which characters get graphically torn to shreds, but they censor swear words. No, I don't get it either.
* DownerEnding

* ApocalypseHow

* BloodierAndGorier: Compared to regular Marvel titles. Inverted with the ''Secret Wars'' tie-ins, which are about as violent as the typical Marvel comic.

Elements of this comic franchise are incorporated into the [[Recap/WhatIfS1E5WhatIfZombies fifth episode]] of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse animated anthology series ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021''. It is set to get an animated adaptation airing at Creator/DisneyPlus.