MARVEL ZOMBIES

Reading order:

Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-23
Marvel Zombies: Dead Days
Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness #1-5
Ultimate Fantastic Four #30-32
Marvel Zombies #1-5
Marvel Zombies II #1-5

Marvel Zombies is a comic book miniseries, published by Marvel Comics. The series is set in an alternate version of the Marvel Universe (Earth-2149) where almost all superheroes and supervillans have become flesh-eating zombies. The series was written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Sean Phillips, with painted covers by Arthur Suydam.

Story

Prequel
Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips are developing a one-issue prequel to Marvel Zombies entitled Marvel Zombies: Dead Days dealing with the onset and spread of the infection. The one-shot will be in concurrance with the Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness crossover.

"Crossover"

Marvel Zombies is a continuation of an Ultimate Fantastic Four story arc titled Crossover, published in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-23 and written by Mark Millar, with art by Greg Land.

In this story arc, Ultimate Mister Fantastic is tricked into teleporting into a universe inhabited by zombie versions of Marvel super heroes. Mister Fantastic is saved by Magneto, one of the few survivors, who explains that the infection started only a few days ago after an infected Sentry from yet another dimension crashed into New York City looking for more people to eat and infect. Magneto is able to teleport Mister Fantastic and the other survivors back into the Ultimate universe, but Magneto stays behind to destroy the teleporter and make sure that the zombies don't infect other dimensions.

Marvel Zombies miniseries

The miniseries starts with Magneto surviving the explosion, but seemingly being the only non-infected person around. Colonel America (never a Captain in this universe) attempts to throw his metal shield at Magneto. However, this attack is easily deflected back and subsequently slices off a portion of the Colonel's head. Unaffected by this, the zombies continue their pursuit and eventually catch and eat Magneto.

It is revealed that there are 12 other survivors (the Acolytes) on Asteroid M. Based on dialogue in issue #2, there may be human survivors out west. Hank Pym (Giant-Man) has been using T'Challa (Black Panther) as a sort of larder, keeping him in a containment tank heavily drugged. The Infected have eaten everyone on the planet (that they can find, anyway) and are all afraid of eventually going hungry, so Hank was "rationing out" the still-human Black Panther by cutting off pieces of him to maintain a fallback food supply (already having cut off his right arm and half of his right leg).

The Silver Surfer (as the herald of Galactus) arrives on Earth and promptly informs the zombified heroes that Galactus is on his way to devour this planet. The zombies engage in combat with the Silver Surfer, eventually overpowering him and subsequently devouring him. As a result of this, the heroes discover that eating the Surfer grants them each a small amount of the Power Cosmic, enabling them to fly, among other abilities.

The Black Panther escapes along with the Wasp's severed, yet still alive head (that Hank Pym had bitten off and spit out in a prior argument) and meets up with the Acolytes, who were looking for Magneto. After having defeated them with the Wasp's unwilling help, he is met by the mutant Forge, who believes he survived the plague and can construct prosthetic limbs for the Black Panther.

Shortly hereafter, Galactus arrives on Earth and announces that he will devour it. The zombies attempt to conquer Galactus as well, but quickly learn that, even with the Power Cosmic, they are no match for Galactus, after which they retreat. Hank Pym, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner begin creating a device which will hopefully overcome Galactus and grant them more "food", while the rest of the zombies bide their time. They also make the discovery that they can re-eat bits of what they have already eaten, which helps fight off the hunger (making the process of thinking intelligently easier).

Upon completing the device, they return to Galactus wielding it, only to notice that several zombified villains (mainly Spider-Man villains) are incessantly attacking Galactus, who appears to be somewhat weakened. Using the device to amplify the powers they gained from the Silver Surfer, they blast a ray at Galactus, critically injuring him.

A battle ensues as the heroes and villains fight over the fallen Galactus. The only survivors are Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Giant-Man (Hank Pym) and Wolverine. Colonel America was "killed" when the zombified Red Skull ripped the remainder of his brains out. Together, they attack the weakened Galactus and consume him.

The story then skips ahead five years when the group aboard Asteroid M set foot on Earth again to discover it covered in plantlife and devoid of the living or undead. When contemplating what happened to the zombified superheroes, it is shown that they left with the cosmic power they gained from eating Galactus.

The story ends with the remaining Marvel Zombies descending upon an alien planet as the new Galactus.

After Marvel Zombies

The story ties into Ultimate Fantastic Four #30-32. In a story arc titled Frightful, the zombie versions of the Fantastic Four are returned from the Ultimate universe to the zombie universe. Ultimate Doctor Doom enters the universe with them, carrying a parasite that threatens to destroy all life on the planet. He arrives next to the zombies consuming Galactus, and they attack him. This scene with Doctor Doom arriving after the defeat of Galactus did not appear in the Marvel Zombies series.

Black Panther #28 will start a 4 part story arc where the new Fantastic Four end up on a planet inhabitated by skrulls in the Marvel Zombies universe