Comments on: Die, Marvel Zombies, die! Er, again.

By: Comics Should Be Good! » Marvel Zombies 3 #1 Review (One Very Well Marked Spoiler At The End)

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:41:26 +0000

[...] yeah, for someone who was kind of annoyed by their popularity to a degree that he wrote a post on a blog a..., I was quite fond of this opening salvo in their continued existence. I think one of my problems [...]

By: Ben Reiley

Ben Reiley — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:28:32 +0000

I agree with you completely, I couldn't believe it when it came out, all your favorite superheroes in totally gross zombie forms cannabilzing everything they see! Great... and everyone likes them too. Its like tons of people think its an instant cult classic thats so likable and are willing to put money in the pockets of Marvel. I don't really think its the fault of people for supporting the craze though, Marvel came up with the marketing scheme and used their characters to detriment for money, and as it seems all for money

By: Agustin Mojica

Agustin Mojica — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:45:15 +0000

One more thing, about the saturation point: Marvel is definitely making a mistake by throwing the variant covers where they don't belong, without at least coming up with some better marketing reason for them to be there besides "well, here is a zombie cover for this book." It's never a good idea to push fans into turning on certain marketing ideas en masse. It's one thing to have lots of people annoying fans by pushing something popular, I.E., Buffy. It's another to have fans turning on the company itself because they can't get a goddamn copy of Power Pack without a rotting corpse on the cover.

By: Agustin Mojica

Agustin Mojica — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:41:19 +0000

It's striking imagery. It ties into this strange zombie zeitgeist -- a movement that oscillates between a serious zombie revival (The Walking Dead) and outright zombie silliness (Marvel Zombies), both of which Kirkman dabbles in, although I think he does the former better than the latter. Steampunk is running the same course, although I think it's mostly stayed out of the malls. It will be there soon enough, though. To the guy who mentioned that 25% of the people with the Secret War parody shirts probably didn't read the book: I think you'd be hard pressed to find 25% out of the people wearing those shirts who DID read the book! This phenomenon isn't entirely tired into Kirkman and Phillips' work, after all. And that's exactly why it shows up where it really is uncalled for.

By: Marionette

Marionette — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:14:53 +0000

I thought it was a weak joke in the first place. Repeating it over and over again isn't making it any funnier.

By: avengers63

avengers63 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:28:38 +0000

Fair enough, I suppose.

By: Lorin

Lorin — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:29:42 +0000

@avengers63 Isn't "I hate. No I haven't read it" essentially the point of those five paragraphs? I'm just saying that an examination of why it's so popular, rather than a "I hate a popular thing" post, would have been much more interesting and fruitful. The articles on this site are usually pretty in depth(mostly). This one was lacking.

By: avengers63

avengers63 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:14:39 +0000

So..... out of 5 paragraphs, that and "I hate it. No I havenâ€™t read it.â€ is all you could pull out? I thin kyou're missing the whole point. Brian, and doubtlessly others, are sick of the overmarketing and overexposrue of the zombies. He's unable to turn his head without seeing them, and it's just driving him nuts.

By: Lorin

Lorin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:39:08 +0000

@avengers63

Sure it's great to vent. We all love to vent. But let's vent about something besides, "The kids at the school I teach at wear stupid shirts."

By: avengers63

avengers63 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:29:29 +0000

"Instead, this is just tilting at windmills."

But that windmill had it coming!

Seriouisly, it just feels good to vent sometimes. Aside of not buying all the zombie stuff, this is really among the best options to get your voice heard. Creators, editors, and executives read this blog. I've seen a post by a Marvel editor here more than once.

By: Lorin

Lorin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:32:56 +0000

Itâ€™s totally on my last damn nerve, and Iâ€™ve never read a full issue of it. This statement bugs me more than anything. It seems to be a consistent complaint all over the comic blog intarweb. "I hate it. No I haven't read it." If this had been an essay on the inherent problems with the actual mini-serie's themselves and not just an attack on merchandise and branding, I would have been impressed. Instead, this is just tilting at windmills.

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:49:24 +0000

avengers63, I concur. That's why I can't get into Buffy, Angel, Spike, Firefly, Serenity, or any of Joss Whedon's original concepts. Everyone I know has hyped them into oblivion, given me dirty looks when I say I'm unfamiliar with their obscure references, and loaned me countless DVDs so I can "catch up". I have no reason not to, except that I'm already tired of the concepts without having ever enjoyed them.

By: avengers63

avengers63 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:08:28 +0000

Zombie movies have always been a niche market, just like comics are. They both have their die-hard fans, and have both gone through periods of more and less popularity. Just like every other genre on the big screen, Zombie comics were bound to pop up sooner or later. That they poped up whe zombie movies are fairly popular right now should come as no big surprise.

What should ALSO come as no surprise is that Marvel is going to ride this cash cow to the very end. How can they do anything else? They know how fickle fans of ANY type are. Sooner or later, the saturation point will be exceeded and interest, therefore sales, will decrease. Like any other fad, it'll die sooner or later, or at least decrease to the point of fading into the background.

Until then, it's just one more evil we have to endure. I remember a point in the 90's when there were more X-related books than all other Marvel combined. It slowed down, this will too.

On a related note, I've never read Dragonlance, and I never will. The series debuted when I was in high school. Everyone read it, then insisted I read it too. Obviously, it was good ennough to be a sustained franchise for 20+ years, so I DO believe it would be a good read. But... it was pushed so dang hard I got completely turned off by the whole thing. Kinda like you & the zombies right now.

By: tom fitzpatrick

tom fitzpatrick — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:11:52 +0000

Sooooo, what about The Walking Dead, Zombie Tales?

Any complaints. anybody?

By: RexDart817

RexDart817 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:00:12 +0000

I think the issue here is, as usual with us the consumer. (Most) people latch onto any new/exciting trend or idea, and Marvel Zombies is no exception. While I personally am not sick of it (I don't buy the variant covers unless I really like the art), I do think it might refresh the idea if Marvel let it rest for a bit. I loved the first and the AoD crossover, but Marvel Zombies 2 just sucked.

By: J to the AAP

J to the AAP — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:23:36 +0000

I think Lothor got it right, but of course, too much of any snack can eventually upset your bowels. Just stop eating when you're full. And if you don't like the taste to begin with, that's cool too, nobody's forcing you to eat. I do believe you're overthinking it a bit.

By: J to the AAP

J to the AAP — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:19:46 +0000

The overabundance of the zombie cover variant can get annoying indeed. The 'Marvel zombieverse' itself has produced some pretty entertaining comical horror though, imo. I still think it's funny when Galactus shows up in the first mini-series and asks "Where is my herald?" to which the Marvel zombies simply reply "We ate him.".

By: Lothor

Lothor — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:33:00 +0000

Marvel=chocolate ; Zombie=peanut butter. as in,
"You got Zombie in my Marvel!" "Yeah, well you got Marvel in my Zombie!"

Marvel Zombies=Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
"They taste great together!"

(Not applicable if you are allergic to peanuts)

By: The Mad Monkey

The Mad Monkey — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:15:56 +0000

Well...they wouldn't do it if people didn't keep encouraging them by buying the books...

And that...is one to grow on...

By: DBish

DBish — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:17:08 +0000

I think its totally wrong to have a Marvel Zombie cover on any bok that does bot contain actual Marvel Zombies.

I like the arc in Ultimate FF, the first mini-series, the arc in Black Panther and I love MZ vs AOD, so chances are I'm a little bit of a fan. When I just see the zombie covers on random books it's overkill, even for me. Thats pretty much what they're doing with the skrulls now.