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Marvel Zombies (Collected Editions) #3
Marvel Zombies 3
Board up Avengers Tower! Lock down the Baxter Building! The ravenous hordes of Marvel Zombies are invading ... the Marvel Universe! That's right, the next chapter of the MZ saga is a non-stop, in-continuity gorefest with major implications for at least one Marvel hero! When the super-undead stumble into the MU from the Man-Thing's Nexus of All Realities, all of Florida is quarantined against the zombie plague. Time is quickly running out for a cure, so the Initiative sends a most unlikely group of heroes into the Zombieverse on a desperate mission to find the one item they need before the whole MU is consumed! The scream team of Fred Van Lente (Incredible Hercules) and Kev Walker (Annihilation: Nova) unite for a Marvel Zombies story like you've never seen before! Collects Marvel Zombies 3 #1-4.
104 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
20 people are currently reading
692 people want to read
About the author
Fred Van Lente
1,324 books316 followersFred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
August 31, 2020
I’ll be honest, when I first picked this up, I thought ‘Here we go; Robert Kirkman’s moved on but Marvel are going to keep flogging this dead horse with another, probably inferior, creative team’ but hush my mouth and call me Sally if this didn’t turn out to be much better than either of the first two Marvel Zombies books!
For starters, Kev Walker is on drawin’ duty and I really like his stuff (I wonder if they’re deliberately putting 2000AD alumni on these books or if it’s just a coincidence) so that was awesome. Then I find that the new protagonists are Machine Man and Jocasta, two of my ALL TIME favourite Marvel heroes, especially together! Then Fred Van Lente goes and pens a cracking good tale that manages to be horrific, funny and occasionally even a little bit tragic all at once!
Take a bow, gentlemen; this book is gold!
For starters, Kev Walker is on drawin’ duty and I really like his stuff (I wonder if they’re deliberately putting 2000AD alumni on these books or if it’s just a coincidence) so that was awesome. Then I find that the new protagonists are Machine Man and Jocasta, two of my ALL TIME favourite Marvel heroes, especially together! Then Fred Van Lente goes and pens a cracking good tale that manages to be horrific, funny and occasionally even a little bit tragic all at once!
Take a bow, gentlemen; this book is gold!
April 29, 2012
This is a sequel to the original and excellent Robert Kirkman and Sean Philips Marvel Zombies miniseries set before the events of Marvel Zombies 2. The original creative team have move on to separate projects and Marvel, rather than set a cash cow to pasture follows it up with another set of books the superhero and zombie fusion to be handled by a different team.
Fred Van Lente is a capable is capable replacement. His scripts have a dash of humor in an otherwise morbid story. It channels Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy with Aaron Stack the Machine Man in the Ash / Bruce Campbell role who is armed with both a saw and boom stick from his morphing limbs. The story reads fast and the twists would blindside you as you cannot adequately prepare yourself.
I miss Sean Philips moody art, but Kev Walker is up to the task of depicting decapitation, immolation and consumption of human flesh. I miss Arthur Suydam’s covers as well since he contributes a couple of variant covers with Greg Land providing the covers for the series. Which in a way is appropriate as the Marvel Zombie universe first reared its ugly head in a book Land handled the art.
A fun read and easy enough to digest in one sitting, it can stand by its own merits but I highly recommend reading the original series before diving in for a more rewarding experience.
Fred Van Lente is a capable is capable replacement. His scripts have a dash of humor in an otherwise morbid story. It channels Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy with Aaron Stack the Machine Man in the Ash / Bruce Campbell role who is armed with both a saw and boom stick from his morphing limbs. The story reads fast and the twists would blindside you as you cannot adequately prepare yourself.
I miss Sean Philips moody art, but Kev Walker is up to the task of depicting decapitation, immolation and consumption of human flesh. I miss Arthur Suydam’s covers as well since he contributes a couple of variant covers with Greg Land providing the covers for the series. Which in a way is appropriate as the Marvel Zombie universe first reared its ugly head in a book Land handled the art.
A fun read and easy enough to digest in one sitting, it can stand by its own merits but I highly recommend reading the original series before diving in for a more rewarding experience.
November 25, 2017
I wondered how Fred Van Lente would do after taking over the reins from Kirkman, but I have to say I was surprised at how good this story was. Here Zombie Deadpool has entered earth through a Nexus into Man-Things Florida swamp and begun infecting tourists with the zombie virus. A secret government superhero team is sent in to contain the outbreak while Machine Man and the Avengers’ own robot supreme Jocasta travel to the zombie universe to collect a vial of human blood for a vaccination to be created. Once there they discover that Kingpin has built a zombie mafia which controls the last food supply for zombies. The rest of the story is a zombie creep fest and gore show. Great zombie story.
January 28, 2010
The post-modern Machine Man is one of my favourite anti-heroes. All MM, all the time. Interesting plot too.
November 10, 2022
Oh no! The Marvel Zombies have found a way to infiltrate the universe of the MCU! Apparently, the zombified superheroes of the zombie universe are looking for inter-dimensional gates to attack and plunder other universes in the multiverse, to spread the zombie plague. The only thing stopping them? Machine Man! And some silver robot-chick named Jocasta! (I've never heard of either of these characters, but they are apparently real Marvel superheroes.) Writer Fred Van Lente and artist Kev Walker continue the humor and the gore of the series started by Robert Kirkman. Honestly, there's no end in sight for this series... and that's a very good thing.
May 20, 2019
Machine Man does some interdimensional traveling with Jocasta, his on again off again girl bot,(Didn't she leave him for Ultron at some point), to find a cure for the zombie virus...Best line in the whole book, "Name is Machine Man, Aaron if you're nasty"
May 30, 2023
Pretty good but not as good as the previous collection
January 14, 2020
Each volume of Marvel Zombies has been radically different. This volume is an inter-dimensional conquest story featuring Machine Man, Jacosta, Zombie Kingpin, Zombie Doctor Strange, Zacosta's imaginary The Wasp consciousness, and virtually no one else. It's, at times entertaining. But some of the humor is flat, and if you're not already familiar with Jacosta's imaginary The Wasp consciousness (wich I wasn't), then it's confusing why The Wap is behaving like neither Marvel Zombies Wasp, Ultimate Universe Wasp, or Marvel-616 Wasp.
I'm not sure who to recommend it to. It really doesn't share too much with the previous volumes of Marvel Zombies, with the major players for those stories being marginally present. I guess it's for people who enjoyed The Intiative runs featuring Jacosta and the characters from the beginning of this volume. Oh, and Morbius fans get a double dose of the living vampire. SO if that's your jam, get on this. Otherwise, it's kind of a mixed bag.
I'm not sure who to recommend it to. It really doesn't share too much with the previous volumes of Marvel Zombies, with the major players for those stories being marginally present. I guess it's for people who enjoyed The Intiative runs featuring Jacosta and the characters from the beginning of this volume. Oh, and Morbius fans get a double dose of the living vampire. SO if that's your jam, get on this. Otherwise, it's kind of a mixed bag.
October 16, 2015
I found the story difficult to follow. I was unfamiliar with the characters. And other than the fact that they were Marvel Zombies the story line didn't seem to have much to do with the other stories in the series. 2 stars.
October 8, 2016
I held off on this, as I didn't care for some of the characters much. This was a great entry, with some of the best treatments of obscure Marvel characters around. Very well done.
October 30, 2019
Reprints Marvel Zombies 3 #1-4 (December 2008-March 2009). Zombies have invaded Earth-616 through the Nexus of Reality, and the entire Marvel Universe is at risk of infection. With H.A.M.M.E.R. on the situation, Portal is sending a team of Jocasta and Machine Man into the zombie universe with a dangerous mission to create a cure. Jocasta and Machine Man discover just because they aren’t human doesn’t make the zombie universe any less dangerous, and a secret danger could still be lurking on Earth-616.
Written by Fred Van Lente, Marvel Zombies 3 is a horror comedy comic book series. Following Marvel Zombies 2, the series features art by Kev Walker, and the issues were also included in Marvel Zombies: The Complete Collection—Volume 2.
Marvel Zombies was a series that I should like by definition. I like Marvel characters, and I like horror movies…unfortunately, even by 2006, I was kind of over the zombie boom and didn’t have much interest in the series. Reading this volume around ten years after its release, I enjoyed it for certain aspects, but it still doesn’t make me a big fan.
The series plays a lot with the “funny” zombie aspect. A lot of the art pulls from films like Evil Dead and Army of Darkness (which the zombies previously crossed over with), and it is that tone for which it is aiming. Part of what I liked about Evil Dead was the tone was combined with completely bonkers visuals and the crazy acting of Bruce Campbell. This is hard to capture in a story (even if the story is visual), and instead the story has to rely on the storytelling and presentation to get laughs…which it sometimes does (like Fisk’s stress eating), but it often is so-so humor.
The story does make the jump to the Marvel-616 Earth which is the common Earth of most Marvel stories. This does add a bit of weight to the story since the zombies have already eaten through all of the heroes of their world. I like that characters like Machine Man and Jocasta are the logical choices to combat the infection and both characters were always favorites of mine. As a result, the series gets a bit of leniency there.
Marvel Zombies 3 feels like more of the same. It is another zombie outbreak followed by the potential of more zombies being spread. The feels like the basic MO of the franchise, and it doesn’t feel like it is building toward anything significant. With the zombies’ popularity, Marvel Zombies can’t necessarily have “an ending”, but it would be nice if a finite plan was in the works for these characters. Marvel Zombies 3 is followed by Marvel Zombies 4: Midnight Sons.
Written by Fred Van Lente, Marvel Zombies 3 is a horror comedy comic book series. Following Marvel Zombies 2, the series features art by Kev Walker, and the issues were also included in Marvel Zombies: The Complete Collection—Volume 2.
Marvel Zombies was a series that I should like by definition. I like Marvel characters, and I like horror movies…unfortunately, even by 2006, I was kind of over the zombie boom and didn’t have much interest in the series. Reading this volume around ten years after its release, I enjoyed it for certain aspects, but it still doesn’t make me a big fan.
The series plays a lot with the “funny” zombie aspect. A lot of the art pulls from films like Evil Dead and Army of Darkness (which the zombies previously crossed over with), and it is that tone for which it is aiming. Part of what I liked about Evil Dead was the tone was combined with completely bonkers visuals and the crazy acting of Bruce Campbell. This is hard to capture in a story (even if the story is visual), and instead the story has to rely on the storytelling and presentation to get laughs…which it sometimes does (like Fisk’s stress eating), but it often is so-so humor.
The story does make the jump to the Marvel-616 Earth which is the common Earth of most Marvel stories. This does add a bit of weight to the story since the zombies have already eaten through all of the heroes of their world. I like that characters like Machine Man and Jocasta are the logical choices to combat the infection and both characters were always favorites of mine. As a result, the series gets a bit of leniency there.
Marvel Zombies 3 feels like more of the same. It is another zombie outbreak followed by the potential of more zombies being spread. The feels like the basic MO of the franchise, and it doesn’t feel like it is building toward anything significant. With the zombies’ popularity, Marvel Zombies can’t necessarily have “an ending”, but it would be nice if a finite plan was in the works for these characters. Marvel Zombies 3 is followed by Marvel Zombies 4: Midnight Sons.
June 3, 2023
Talk about a total tone shift.
From the first 2 volumes being an interesting and fun mashup of zombies and well known superheroes to a 3rd installment with far more serious take with a lot more gore and a ton of lesser known characters, the Marvel Zombies storyline has now hit the level of just flat out absurdity and/or craziness.
Gone are the more familiar faces of zombified Iron Man and Captain America and their quest for food. Instead it’s Möbius, machine man, and ARMOR fighting undead Kingpin and his farm of edible clones.
This one is far more bloody, dark, and nuts than the previous ones, reminding me of the Deadworld Judge Dredd story arc from Ken-W. I wouldn’t say this is “great”, but then again, I’m weird so anything that’s dark and bleak and pushes the limits of commercial comics is gonna get high marks from me…just be ready for Marvel Zombies 3 to be something way different than Kirkman originally came up with.
From the first 2 volumes being an interesting and fun mashup of zombies and well known superheroes to a 3rd installment with far more serious take with a lot more gore and a ton of lesser known characters, the Marvel Zombies storyline has now hit the level of just flat out absurdity and/or craziness.
Gone are the more familiar faces of zombified Iron Man and Captain America and their quest for food. Instead it’s Möbius, machine man, and ARMOR fighting undead Kingpin and his farm of edible clones.
This one is far more bloody, dark, and nuts than the previous ones, reminding me of the Deadworld Judge Dredd story arc from Ken-W. I wouldn’t say this is “great”, but then again, I’m weird so anything that’s dark and bleak and pushes the limits of commercial comics is gonna get high marks from me…just be ready for Marvel Zombies 3 to be something way different than Kirkman originally came up with.
January 19, 2023
Van Lente tosses the entire Marvel Zombie storyline out the window for a totally new thing. It’s mostly successful as an entertaining read. There are some TERRIBLE lines in it, so bad I sometimes wondered if he was doing it purpose, but overall still interesting.
The whole thing feels like a crazy action blockbuster from the 80’s, but one of those without one of the major action stars of the time. So you don’t really know the whole story behind the characters and who they’re supposed to be but you vaguely recognize everyone enough to get the gist of how you’re supposed to be seeing them.
Anyway, average read. Not bad, but only for those who really want to see more Marvel Zombies, but without all that “power cosmic, are Galactus and can fly now” stuff. A more stripped down and accessible MZ story, if you will.
The whole thing feels like a crazy action blockbuster from the 80’s, but one of those without one of the major action stars of the time. So you don’t really know the whole story behind the characters and who they’re supposed to be but you vaguely recognize everyone enough to get the gist of how you’re supposed to be seeing them.
Anyway, average read. Not bad, but only for those who really want to see more Marvel Zombies, but without all that “power cosmic, are Galactus and can fly now” stuff. A more stripped down and accessible MZ story, if you will.
December 9, 2021
This was probably better than number 2. There are still some things needing answers, but this interestingly seems to fill some of the gaps between 1 and 2.
I liked the action, but it would have been nice to get some more relatable or known heroes. The Marvel Universe has always struggled because it only has two historically bankable properties Spiderman and X-Men.
With neither of those two present in this edition, I'm asking, who are these people? The X-Men cast is HUGE, and you couldn't give any of them a role here? The beginning with Deadpool is one of the most enjoyable parts.
The Inhumans are your big reveal? And I can't say Wolverine is in it (besides some of the artwork) because he should be off in space with the other heavy hitters.
Still, good action, lots of gory fun.
I liked the action, but it would have been nice to get some more relatable or known heroes. The Marvel Universe has always struggled because it only has two historically bankable properties Spiderman and X-Men.
With neither of those two present in this edition, I'm asking, who are these people? The X-Men cast is HUGE, and you couldn't give any of them a role here? The beginning with Deadpool is one of the most enjoyable parts.
The Inhumans are your big reveal? And I can't say Wolverine is in it (besides some of the artwork) because he should be off in space with the other heavy hitters.
Still, good action, lots of gory fun.
August 10, 2022
The original team has moved on and usually that spells disaster for a franchise, but Fred van Lente has done a wonderful job in writing a contained story that entices and expands the universe. Set somewhere before Marvel Zombies 2, Marvel Zombies 3 is concerned with Machine Man trying to find uncontaminated blood from the zombieverse to help A.R.M.O.R. create a vaccine with. Obviously some subversion is afoot and it does not work out as planned, but the story is engrossing, though at times a tad clichéd. The art has never looked more gruesome, the characters are entertaining and the conclusion to this story is interesting and opens the door to more tales within the universe.
July 11, 2017
I was a little apprehensive once I saw that Kirkman wasn't at the helm, but it turns out Van Lente gives us a fascinating tie-in to the first two series, and I'd argue that the art here is the best yet in the whole line. I like how it approaches from another angle and shows us more of the Marvel characters and where they fall into the zombie apocalypse, and also how the 'alt universe' will collide with our own, ours being the 'real' Marvel universe. Not to mention, I don't think we've had this much of an awesome Machine Man in one place before.
April 21, 2022
3 / 5 for 'Marvel Zombies Vol 3' by Fred Van Lente & Kev Walker
Another entry in the Marvel Zombies saga, which unfortunately doesn't quite match the highs of books one and two by Kirkman & Phillips. Van Lente provides a perfectly serviceable story regarding excursions into alternate realities, with Machine Man and Jocasta as the main heroes, and the art by Kev Walker is fine, if a little uninspired and a little rough around the edges.
A good TPB, not great, but not bad either; just good.
3 / 5
Another entry in the Marvel Zombies saga, which unfortunately doesn't quite match the highs of books one and two by Kirkman & Phillips. Van Lente provides a perfectly serviceable story regarding excursions into alternate realities, with Machine Man and Jocasta as the main heroes, and the art by Kev Walker is fine, if a little uninspired and a little rough around the edges.
A good TPB, not great, but not bad either; just good.
3 / 5
August 2, 2020
Kinda boring. There are a few interesting ideas here and there, but none of them are really well developed.
For instance, I liked seeing how Kingpin tried to save his wife. However, she then approaches individuals who she believes to be zombies, which doesn't make any sense. And then, Kingpin eats her, because Van Lente wanted to make a lazy joke.
I also don't understand how Kingpin got to shut Black Arrow up. The Lockjaw scene is nice, though.
For instance, I liked seeing how Kingpin tried to save his wife. However, she then approaches individuals who she believes to be zombies, which doesn't make any sense. And then, Kingpin eats her, because Van Lente wanted to make a lazy joke.
I also don't understand how Kingpin got to shut Black Arrow up. The Lockjaw scene is nice, though.
May 30, 2024
"LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR THE MERC WITH HALF A MOUTH!"
- Zombie Deadpool, because regular Deadpool just wasn't obnoxious enough.
So, is Machine Man always such a dick? I don't know anything about him AT ALL. And I only got about three pages of Zombie Deadpool. What a rip-off.
Frankly, after a binge of Marvel Zombies, I'm just done with this topic altogether. Zombies 1 and 2 were actually pretty good. This one, not so much. Could've been worse. Also, could've been a LOT better. Two stars.
- Zombie Deadpool, because regular Deadpool just wasn't obnoxious enough.
So, is Machine Man always such a dick? I don't know anything about him AT ALL. And I only got about three pages of Zombie Deadpool. What a rip-off.
Frankly, after a binge of Marvel Zombies, I'm just done with this topic altogether. Zombies 1 and 2 were actually pretty good. This one, not so much. Could've been worse. Also, could've been a LOT better. Two stars.
February 7, 2020
I literally just read this because Morbius, the Living Vampire, is in it and I'm trying to dig up as much as I can with him in it. That being said this was by far the best Marvel Zombies I have read. I thought Machine Man aka "Aaron" was hilarious (liked him with the Ms. Marvel titles too) and it actually had a good story.
October 22, 2021
Not as fun as the previous Marvel Zombies runs, there was barely any mention of the Avengers/X-Men, the only heroes turning up being Morbius, Machine Man and Jacosta travelling to a different universe.
For me, it just didn't live up to the previous two, and took a turn I didn't care for.
TWs for blood, gore, zombies/cannibalism, death, sexist comments
For me, it just didn't live up to the previous two, and took a turn I didn't care for.
TWs for blood, gore, zombies/cannibalism, death, sexist comments
January 1, 2022
We see the Zombies are trying to invade alternate universes and have also trying to find alternatives to easing their hunger and their solution is pretty demented and the story itself does see a return for the dark humor of the original. As it feels like a Zombie Action movie kind of like the Evil Dead movies.
January 30, 2023
For me, this volume was mainly interesting because it pushes forward the overall marvel zombies narrative, but I miss the big name marvel guys! Machine Man was pretty cool though! I really hope this group meets up with Spiderman, wolverine. And crew. I'm excited to see if that happens in the next volume.
November 21, 2024
This isn't written by Kirkman, the author of the first 2. Still, I actually liked it better. It follows Machine Man and Jocasta as they travel to a "perpendicular" dimension to gather ingredients to stave off the zombie infection while trying to avoid a Zombie Kingpin and his minors in NY. I barely knew the characters, and thoroughly enjoyed meeting them.
July 10, 2018
La tercera entrega de una serie impresionante,me impresiona que DeadPool zombie entrara en el universo 616(universo donde viven todos los superheroes),su aparcicion es graciosa y la historia de tras fondo es increible,mis 10/10
February 22, 2019
Continuing the Marvel Zombie saga. The zombies try to take over our dimension by infiltrating the gov't agency ARMOUR. Machine Man goes to their dimension for DNA samples and meets zombie Kingpin. Very good.
May 23, 2020
I felt that the original Marve Zombies series, while good, just seemed to be missing something. Whatever THAT was (the missing part) it's been found in MZ 3. It's a more gripping story although it stays within everything else in the MZU. Good stuff, Maynard.
September 26, 2024
I’m loving the progression of the storyline and how even after they run out of flesh, there are … not plausible reasons, but good enough explanations that I’m going to keep reading- my low rating is just due to enervating for this set following robots 🤷🏻♀️
August 28, 2018
it was cool because the superheros turned into zombies
November 15, 2018
it was trash
Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews