Marvel Zombies: The Origin of The Virus is Finally Revealed

Warning: contains spoilers for Marvel Zombies: Resurrection #3, out now!

In any zombie movie, there is always a patient zero: the first infected person whose carelessness sent it all to hell. While the original Marvel Zombies began when an infected hero from another dimension, who brought the hunger to another Marvel universe, the latest chapter in this hero-munching series has a different origin to explain why the Earth’s Hungriest Heroes are here. As the primary group of living survivors fall for a cleverly laid trap, an infected Silver Surfer reveals that this unique version of Marvel Zombies began in the stars, with two unlikely parents who had no idea that their “children” would threaten the universe and beyond.

In Marvel Zombies: Resurrection, the infection began when a majority of Earth’s heroes responded to a distress call from Captain Marvel which had members of the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four investigate what appeared to be Galactus’ corpse in space. What they discovered was Galactus’ body was actually a trap, his insides full of notable space heroes who had been infected by an unknown, and apparently intelligent, virus. With all of the Earthlings present infected, Galactus’ body headed back to Earth, which its occupants invaded, infecting the remainder of Earth’s heroes. Eventually, the survivors dwindled to the former Spider-Man Peter Parker, Valeria and Franklin Richards and the later addition of vampire hunter Blade, all searching for the Galactus Hive as it was called, in hopes of finding a cure and ending this zombie nightmare.

In Marvel Zombies: Ressurection #3 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Leonard Kirk, our ragtag survivors fall for another trap investigating the seemingly abandoned outpost at Atlantis. Discovering the mutilated yet still living remains of Wolverine, a zombie Magik disables their heavy hitters and teleports them to Blackspring, formerly known as Limbo, where they see a massive meta-spawn army waiting. As Valeria and Franklin are reunited with their undead parents, Logan’s claims that they are the alien race known as the Brood but is corrected by the corrupted Silver Surfer. Galactus’ former herald clarifies that the Brood were their forebears; one half of their parents, who chose Galactus to be the host for the next generation of Brood aliens. Unexpectedly, Galactus’ powers, which rely on regularly devouring other worlds, combined with the Brood’s physiology to form a new species that was literally hunger made flesh. “The Hunger Cosmic” has apparently devoured countless other worlds, and Earth is simply the latest course on their never-ending buffet to cleanse all known existence.

This evolution of the Marvel Zombies brand is a welcome change, especially considering that other iterations of the successful undead franchise never fully explained how the virus came about. The original Marvel Zombies became nothing more than a universal time loop that decimated two realities, and other universes either already had some unique zombie virus or were threatened with infection from the original Marvel Zombies dimension. Johnson and Kirk have taken their version of the zombie invasion and made it a new form of Galactus, an intelligent virus that reproduces and consumes like the Brood but whose insatiable hunger moves unchecked throughout the known universe similar to Galactus’ infamous appetite. While the previous generation of Marvel Zombies devoured Galactus and used his power to search out food, this new generation uses the World Devourer in a far scarier way. With the knowledge that the infection comes from such a powerful source, it’s looking less likely than ever that a happy ending is on the cards.

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