The undead rise once more in Marvel Zombies: Red Band #1, but this time, the Marvel Universe may not even get to have its own origin story…

Marvel Zombies is a comic that really needs no introduction. The premise is right there in the title. It’s Marvel, and there are zombies. Introduced as a story arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four, it quickly became its own sub-franchise, with many follow-ups published in the years since. Some of them are in the same continuity, some aren’t, but the idea was robustly popular enough that it’s endured for two decades and counting. It even became the basis for an episode of the animated What If? series on Disney Plus, repurposing the scenario as if it happened in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With its own full spinoff arriving this month, why not bring Marvel Zombies back for another run? Yada yada corporate synergy.

In this new edition of Marvel Zombies, the conceit is that the undead invasion happens much, much earlier in the timeline than it ever has in the title’s past — specifically the dawn of the Marvel Universe itself, tying into the origin of the Fantastic Four. But this time around, it’s not just amazing powers they return with. They also arrive with an insatiable hunger for brains! (And other viscera, I assume.) With a crew of superheroes in their earliest forms assembling to take down the zombie threat, will they succeed in their goal of staving off apocalypse?

Yet another entry in Marvel’s nascent Red Band imprint, Marvel Zombies: Red Band is violent and bloody as hell, but that’s almost redundant to say. It’s zombies! I actually don’t really know if I would say this new series is any bloodier or more gruesome than its predecessors, but they’re really hammering that aspect into the marketing. In any event, it’s certainly not false advertising. Fans of both the Marvel Zombies title and zombie media in general will likely enjoy this. It’s sort of critic proof in that way, but at least in this one’s favor, it’s also pretty good and entertaining.

Writers Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan have lots of fun with the premise here, with their iteration of the zombies themselves leaving on the smart and sentient variant of that genre. Some of the kills here are especially creative and gruesome, but the piece de resistance in particular is one twisting of a character’s classic battle cry that I won’t spoil. Jan Bazaldua’s art is similarly good, marrying the old-timey aesthetic of the era with bloody visuals lovingly colored by Erick Arciniega. As I said, Marvel Zombies: Red Band is exactly what the people who want it would expect, and there’s something to be said for knowing your audience.