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  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Two appearances of Captain Mexica (an Aztec version of Cap) that were never mentioned again.
  • Broken Base: Fans are divided as to the quality of this series. The first series is generally regarded as excellent while following installments are seen as contested sequels. And some people prefer the earlier volumes doing straightforward horror, while others prefer Fred van Lente's Horror Comedy version instead.
  • Complete Monster: Henry "Hank" Pym, aka Giant Man from Earth-2149, is the Greater-Scope Villain of the entire metaseries and a former superhero who got much worse during the Hunger Virus outbreak. After being infected, Pym kidnaps Black Panther to use him as a personal food supply and confesses to him that even if he would become human once again, he would still eat human flesh. When Wasp finds out about this and is angry with him, he bites her head off without hesitation. After Magneto destroys a portal to other dimensions, Pym, along with the other zombies, devours him in a rage. When the Silver Surfer arrives on Earth, Pym devours him and proudly reveals this to the arriving Galactus, angering him. Having devoured Galactus, he, along with several other zombies, uses the received cosmic power to kill all other zombies on the planet, seize Galactus's ship and travel on it across the universe. Forty years later, having successfully devoured all life in the universe, they return to Earth to repair the destroyed portal in order to devour sapient beings from other universes. Teletransported to Earth-91126, Pym devours Uatu, studies his technologies, and successfully turns the planet's population into zombies. Later, he betrays The Sentry and tries to use his powers to activate the portal. Selfish, merciless, and sadistic, Pym never tried to redeem himself, although he had such an opportunity, and would destroy his allies when they outlived their usefulness to make the multiverse his personal "All-you-can-eat-buffet".
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Much of the humor of this series is set firmly here.
    • Hank Pym hitting Wasp in the throes of an argument, invoking that infamous Never Live It Down moment that's been a stain on his reputation since? Not funny. Hank then biting off Wasp's head and spitting it out because of how bad it tastes? Priceless.
    • The fact that Spider-Man, by his own admission, really enjoyed eating J. Jonah Jameson is definitely this.
  • Fan Nickname: Zombie Deadpool gained the nickname Headpool, after being reduced to a severed head.
  • First Installment Wins: The first series is the only one that's universally seen as good.
  • Fridge Brilliance: In the "Marvel Werewolves" reality that Ash gets sent to at the end of the Army of Darkness crossover, he's dropped into New York right as the werewolves are devouring Galactus. However, in this group, Iron Man has been quietly replaced by Black Widow, presumably because as a werewolf, he couldn't fit into his suit and thus had nothing special going for him.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: The series begins with Ultimate Reed Richards meeting what he thinks is his Earth-616 counterpart, only to learn it was a trap. Things don't end up being that much better by the time they meet for real.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Marvel has always said that the Ultimate and mainstream universes won't Crossover (except of course when they did), as it would show that they had run out of ideas. The Marvel Zombies were introduced in the Ultimate universe, and then wound up crossing over with the mainstream universe during a Fantastic Four arc (from when Storm and Black Panther were replacing Reed and Sue), and Marvel Zombies 3 was about the Zombies trying to invade the mainstream universe. And then, in the 2015 Secret Wars Crisis Crossover event, they actually did meet up.
    • The Patient Zero that crossed into the Marvel Universe and started the outbreak was originally supposed to be Superman note  - 14 years later, DC would release their own Zombie Apocalypse story, DCeased, with the Man of Steel among the infected.
    • One of the many spinoffs was a crossover with Army of Darkness, which was directed and co-written by Sam Raimi. The comic came out after Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy first came out, but he would return to direct a Marvel film with 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is the MCU's first horror film to boot. And yes, Ash himself, Bruce Campbell, makes a cameo in the film getting to interact with a Marvel Super Hero once more.
  • Heartwarming Moments:
    • Zombie Spider-Man is one of the few who regrets what he did and eventually decides to become a hero again after having enough of Giant Man's insanity.
    • Zombie Luke Cage, despite eating people, is very friendly with Zombie Spider-Man most of the time becoming his only friend during their time in space because of their mutual regret over their actions to the point he even joins Spider-Man in going against the others.
    • Fabian Cortez, unlike his mainstream counterpart, is far more heroic and is a Reasonable Authority Figure as he tells the others off for attacking the Black Panther unprovoked.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Malcolm Cortez is a dickhead at times but does make reasonable good points about the zombies, considering that they are responsible for the near extinction of the human race and for the end of all galactic life. At the end, however, he is revealed to be responsible for the death of Black Panther's son and Forge's daughter, making their son an orphan, and tries to kill Black Panther. This ends up with him becoming a zombie, all because he wants to be on the throne, and swears to kill Black Panther's grandson when he is old enough. He selfishly does not want to leave at all because he wants to rule over the survivors, and does not want to see any other universe because he prefers the one he's got. He also viciously beats Forge up, if not straight up kills him, because he wants to bring his friends back.
  • My Real Daddy: Fred Van Lente redeemed the series after the disappointing Marvel Zombies 2.
  • Sequelitis: Marvel Zombies 2 is widely seen as a step down from the first book. 3 and 4 are generally seen as pretty good but not as great as the original. 5 is a Contested Sequel; some people like it (especially since it resolves the plot points set up in the 3 and 4), others think that the concept has overstayed its welcome. Return is generally seen as a nice way to wrap up the story.
  • Shocking Moments: The zombies overpowering and consuming Galactus in the first series certainly counts as one.
  • Squick:
    • Wasp and one of the Acolytes, a man named Reynolds fall in love. Okay. They eventually share a kiss. Okay. But one little detail: she's a zombie. Crosses the Line Twice in the last panel of that page.
    • In Marvel Zombies Return Spidey, due to some not better-specified "muscle memory", ends up using his veins and arteries as webbing.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Kitty Pryde of Earth-Z gets an arc of her own in the third issue of Return, having learned of zombies' existence thanks to the Zombie Spider-Man, and is left with the partially infected Wolverine of that universe (with the Earth-2149 counterpart having been slain just recently). Ultimately, she is shown to have been killed during a flashback in the final issue and only serves as another reason for the Earth-Z Wolverine to join forces with the Spider-Man.
  • Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Marvel Zombies is an unflinchingly bleak series from start to finish. The thought of many of Marvel's heroes being turned into flesh-eating killers who possess little of the traits that made them heroic in the first place is something that has made this series difficult for many casual fans to get into.
  • The Woobie: Spider-Man is tormented by his status as a zombie, especially since the two people he ate first were Mary Jane and Aunt May, which overwhelms him with guilt. Although his torment annoys his companions, who view it as Wangst, unlike the others it's what makes him the only zombie to really retain at least some semblance of his former humanity besides Doctor Doom, and aids his eventual Heel–Face Turn and redemption. Though he doesn't seem to mind devouring J. Jonah Jameson:
    "I'm going to enjoy this!"

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