Broken Frontier

Simon Garth continues to find himself facing a dire predicament as hordes of the living dead gather round for the kill.

The reinvention of the Zombie is in full swing at Marvel and so far this series is turning out to be a gut-churning nightmare (in a good way). It’s also rare for the House of Ideas to fully embrace an all-out horror project such as this one, and I am definitely getting my money’s worth here.

The story opens from the previous issue as a continuation which saw Simon and friends caught in a sticky situation. This time around Simon has come to blows once again with Gyp and now it appears as if a resolution is in the offering between the two. Gyp wants Simon to lead him to where he stashed the money (stolen from the bank in issue one), but they need to figure out a way of getting free from the zombies. The easiest solution is to find a set of keys to Bristol’s truck, but in order to do that they must run straight through a horde of flesh eaters to get to freedom. This seems easier said than done and once their plan is put into action, Simon decides to take a stand against Gyp causing more trouble for the group.

Now this one ends on another cliffhanger and writer Mike Raicht seems to understand the usage of story beats, and he knows how to strategically plant them throughout the issue. It certainly helps to amp up the drama tenfold and this only helps to create more tension in terms of the plotting. Beyond that, the dialogue employed for this tightly screwed story bites down hard on the reader and it forces you to keep your attention throughout. My only criticism is how the original origin of Simon Garth has been ignored in favor of a more heroic one that is so unlike his portrayal in the classic stories from Zombie magazine. I can’t say I am in favor of the change, but I can understand how the update of the character is more in line with the type of story this genre has currently been noted for.

The art of Kyle Hotz though continues to grab you by the throat and shake the doldrums out of you. I can’t say enough about his work on this series and it just keeps getting better and better with each issue. This time around the action scenes are much fiercer than before and all the zombies are drawn with a gory zestfulness that really tickles me pink seeing as how I am a big horror fan. I think it’s fantastic that Marvel has decided to take a chance on this book and allow such graphic content to shine though on this project.

So for my tastes this book hits all the right marks. The story and art go right over the top and this just makes Zombie a thrilling read. I wish Marvel would spend more time with the MAX line since there is obviously some potential here to expand. At least Zombie is a great start point and I am sure we will be seeing more of Simon Garth in the near future.