'The Incident has infected the planet, creating zombified Super Heroes who destroy everything they swore to protect. Doctor Strange realises the plague cannot be allowed to spread to other realities, but his Hunger is irresistible…
'Now Earth’s only hope is the Sanctum Sanctorum librarian, Zelma Stanton. She knows every spell in the book, but she’s no fighter. Enter witch Nico Minoru, monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone, and Deadpool. They plan to trap the zombies in a time loop, but it goes horribly awry (thanks, Deadpool), crushing a million butterflies, and the timeline unravels, making the original Incident look like a cakewalk. It’s going to take magic bullets, bloodstones, and brains to fix this flesh-eating nightmare.'
The original Marvel Zombies books were a very joyless, nasty affair. Not only were beloved characters dying in horrible ways, the nature of the zombie virus meant that even those infected with the disease were still suffering; Spider-Man eating his own family and then being wracked with guilt over it being a prime example. Whilst they might be entertaining books there's little joy to be found in them, and not a whole lot of hope. It's a good thing then that Marsheila Rockewell's new Marvel Zombies novel seems to be set in another universe entirely, and gets to do its own thing without being beholden to the comics that have come before.
The book begins with something landing on Earth, crashing into downtown New York. Doctor Strange is one of the many heroes who heads out to find out what's happened, along with some Avengers, Spider-Man, and a few other solo heroes. This is New York after all, this could very well be the start of some kind of planet wide invasion, and it's all hands on deck. Captain America is the first to head into the crater to find out what happened, and soon stumbles out of it clutching a wound, before turning into a ravenous zombie and biting his fellow heroes.
The super hero community quickly falls, with the super powered populace making for the most dangerous zombies you can imagine as they still have access to their powers and abilities. As the heroes begin to infect each other Doctor Strange tries to make it back to his Sanctum, but is captured by a flesh hungry Spider-Man.
In the sanctum, his apprentice, Zelma Stanton, prepares for another day managing Doctor Strange's library for him. However, when she finds a zombified Strange devouring the other residents of the building she learns that the end of the world has come. Thankfully, eating flesh has returned some semblance of control and personality to Strange, and he's able to help prepare Zelma for what has happened, and gets her to lock him away in the basement. Alone now, Zelma begins to try to find a way to repair the damage and put things right. Whilst searching through the world via magic, however, she discovers others like her, and begins to gather allies to help her in her mission.
The Hunger is perhaps the nicest Marvel Zombies story that I've read, the one with the most hope to it, the most heart. A large part of that is down to the fact that the book doesn't revel in the death and terror of the zombie plague, avoiding gratuitous death and dismemberment. The other reason is that the book gives us a central cast who are enjoyable to be around. Zelma is a young woman who has some confidence issues, who worries a lot and likes to shut herself away from things, but she has a good heart and cares about things, making her a surprising, but very likeable leader.
Our group of heroes also includes Nico Minoru from Runaways, who has a harder edge to her than Zelma, but also brings a lot of heart and emotion with her. Elsa Bloodstone is a sassy, sarcastic monster hunter who acts like the most dangerous and important person in any room she's in, yet never manages to come across as unpleasant. And Deadpool is Deadpool, a bit of lighthearted weirdness thrown into a situation where the team need someone to crack a joke or two, even if they're rolling their eyes at it.
The book is split into some distinct parts, with the first part showing the gathering of the group. Zelma is our main character for this, as she's the only one there from the start, and there are several chapters with her on her own just tying to survive inside the weirdness that is the Sanctum Sanctorum. The gathering of the troops is enjoyable read, and whilst Nico's recruitment is somewhat easy, the two of them going off to try and find Elsa is a lot more complex, and gives readers both action and horror to entertain them.
The latter half of the book, however, sees our team of mismatched protagonists trying to save the world by messing with time, trying to undo the zombie infection. But, as with most time travel stories when you mess with the flow of time it can have unintended consequences, and we get to see our heroes dealing with those consequences and trying to make things right in some unusual circumstances.
The Hunger is an enjoyable take on the Marvel Zombies formula, one that is doing its own thing and at times feels a lot more enjoyable than the comics its drawing from. The characters picked for the group are an odd one, and that oddness works well for the story, with most of the characters you'd normally expect to be the ones to save the world off the table thanks to the spread of the infection. If you're looking for something a bit different in the Marvel Universe, and don't want the same kind of Marvel Zombies stories this book is absolutely worth trying out.
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