The crossover is continuous with the Marvel Zombies prequel Marvel Zombies: Dead Days and explains events happening in the prequel (such as information regarding the zombified Sentry, which initially spread the plague).
Prior to the release of the first issue, Newsarama published a preview,[1] revealing the birth of the zombified Avengers, Ash's descent into the Marvel Zombie universe, and the infection of Spider-Man.
The "Werewolf Spider-Man" introduced during the closing moments of the series made his cinematic debut in the 2023 feature film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, depicted as a member of Miguel O'Hara's Spider-Society.[2]
Plot
Following Ash's death in the previous 'Army of Darkness' storyline The Death of Ash, he is now in (what appears to be) Heaven. The superpowered entity known as The Sentry shows up in the afterlife (having been sent there by the Watcher in Marvel Zombies Return) and begins consuming everyone in sight. Ash and the Sentry end up shunted into another reality (again by the Watcher according to Marvel Zombies Return). Along the way, Ash receives a prophecy warning him that "an army of the dead will rise" and that this world will fall.
In this alternative version of the Marvel Universe known as Earth-2149, Ash encounters a fight between Daredevil and Thunderball. He mistakes Daredevil for the villain, and after letting Thunderball escape, tries to warn the Avengers of a Deadite invasion. They do not believe him, mostly due to his buffoonery while hitting on the female members of the team. Scarlet Witch teleports Ash away, as Jarvis tells the team of a disturbance.
When Ash spots the now infected Avengers, he says he tried to warn them, and Spider-Man arrives and takes Ash off with a request from Colonel America. While Ash tells his side of the story to Spider-Man, Colonel America attacks and bites Spider-Man on the left shoulder, who seemingly drops Ash on the ground in front of some zombified Avengers. Realizing Ash is right and that his body is fighting the infection, Spider-Man bluffs and says he wants to eat Ash and carries him off, only to abandon him when he goes to check on his Aunt May and wife Mary Jane. (In the prequel comic Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, it is revealed that Spider-Man is eventually 'consumed' by the zombification disease and kills and devours his loved ones.)
Ash then encounters the Punisher, who gives Ash a bag of spare weapons and shoots and presumably kills Kingpin, Hammerhead and the Owl. On the ground, Punisher kills Thunderball, who is fending off his zombified Wrecking Crew allies, who then turn on Punisher. Ash bumps into Dazzler, who takes him to Doctor Strange's headquarters. Simultaneously, this reality's version of Ash, who had decided to fight the zombies, joins Dazzler. This reality's Ash is killed by a zombie Howard the Duck, who is in turn killed by the main version of Ash and the Scarlet Witch.
In Strange's mansion, Ash, Dazzler and the Scarlet Witch search for the Necronomicon, as Ash suspects that this is a Deadite invasion. Since there is no Necronomicon in the mansion, the trio travel to Latveria, the castle of Doctor Doom, which is under attack by an invasion force (from Dead Days, where Reed Richards turned his Fantastic Four into zombies upon deciding this infection is the most efficient form of life). Doom has Ash imprisoned with the other survivors for acting like an idiot. Ash then steals a Doombot's armor, disguises himself as Doom, and roams around Doomstadt.
While wandering, Ash meets the Enchantress, held prisoner by Doom, and frees her. When he takes her to Scarlet Witch and Dazzler, Enchantress drops her illusion, revealing that she is a zombie, and bites off Dazzler's finger, whereupon Doom kills both women with an energy blast. The zombies break into the castle; Scarlet Witch is attacked and infected by the zombified Punisher, and Doom is bitten and infected by Reed Richards, but manages to escape and fight back the disease to aid his people's escape to an alternate universe.
Ash locates this world's Necronomicon, but the talking book says that it cannot stop the zombie plague because the zombies are not Deadites. The book reveals that yes, an "army of the dead will rise" and yes, the world will fall, but that those two things don't necessarily have anything to do with each other, apart from happening around the same time. Ash threatens the Necronomicon, saying that when the human food supply is exhausted, the zombies will eat the book because it is bound in human flesh, and the Necronomicon decides to cooperate. On Ash's orders, it raises the zombie victims up as Deadites, distracting the zombies long enough for Doom to teleport Ash to a parallel world of his choosing and the survivors to a safe haven.
The invading zombies attack Doom just as Ash escapes. The zombies, upon finding the Necronomicon, reveal to it that they would never eat a book, and the zombified Wolverine hands the book over to the Hulk for use as toilet paper. Going through multiple alternate worlds, Ash accidentally chooses an alternate Earth populated by Marvel superhero werewolves and is pursued yet again. Ash is revealed to have somehow escaped from this Earth and returned to his own Earth by the following 'Army of Darkness' storyline, From The Ashes.
Covers
The cover of each issue of the Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness mini-series is a parody and/or homage of a famous cover from Marvel history, featuring zombie versions of the characters. All cover art is by Arthur Suydam. In each, Ash is spliced in alongside zombified characters or replacing a character on the original cover (i.e. Bucky)
#1, 1st printing is a homage to X-Men #141 by John Byrne.
Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness (128 pages, hardcover, September 2007, ISBN0-7851-2743-7)
In other media
The "Werewolf Spider-Man" introduced during the closing moments of the series made his cinematic debut in the 2023 feature film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, depicted as a member of Miguel O'Hara's Spider-Society.[2]
Related Research Articles
Doctor Doom is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Fantastic Four #5. The monarch of the fictional nation of Latveria, Doom primarily serves as the archenemy of Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four. He has also come into conflict with other superheroes in the Marvel Universe, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, the Black Panther, the X-Men, and the Avengers at times. While usually depicted as a supervillain, Doom has also been portrayed as an antihero at times, working with heroes if their goals align and only if it benefits him.
Mephisto is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Silver Surfer #3, and was created by Stan Lee and John Buscema and based on Mephistopheles: a demon character from the Faust legend, who has sometimes been referred to as Mephisto. Introduced as a recurring adversary of the Silver Surfer and Ghost Rider, Mephisto has also endured as one of Spider-Man's most prominent adversaries, being responsible for Norman and Harry Osborn's respective transformations into the Green Goblin and Kindred; and for the superhero's loss of his marriage to Mary Jane Watson, considering their future daughter Spider-Girl his archenemy. Mephisto has often come into conflict with Doctor Strange, Doctor Doom, Scarlet Witch and other heroes of the Marvel Universe, being responsible both for the creation of the Cosmic Ghost Rider and the descents of Phil Coulson and Otto Octavius into villainy.
Ashley Joanna "Ash" Williams is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Evil Dead franchise. Created by Sam Raimi, he is portrayed by Bruce Campbell and is the only character to appear in each entry of the series, including a post-credits and audio cameo in the 2013 and 2023 soft reboot films, respectively. Throughout the series, Ash faces off against "Deadites", evil creatures possessed by the ancient evil of the Kandarian Demon. Ash, since his debut, has been considered a cultural icon and an iconic horror hero. In 2008, Ash was selected by Empire magazine as the 24th greatest movie character of all time, and in 2013, was voted by Empire as the greatest horror movie character ever.
The Wrecking Crew is a team of four supervillains—the Wrecker, Bulldozer, Piledriver and Thunderball—appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. While not featured on the cover, the Wrecking Crew's first appearance is in The Defenders #17.
Dr. William "Bill" Foster, also known as Black Goliath, Giant-Man and Goliath, is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a professor with powers similar to Hank Pym's increasing size and mass to gigantic proportions.
Marvel Zombies is a five-issue limited series published from December 2005 to April 2006 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips and covers by Arthur Suydam. It was the first series in the Marvel Zombies series of related stories. The story is set in an alternate universe where the world's superhero population has been infected with a virus which turned them into zombies. The series was spun out of events of the crossover story-arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four, where the zombie Reed Richards tricked his Ultimate counterpart into opening a portal to the zombie universe only for the latter to contain the former from ever coming to his universe.
The Wrecker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Thunderball is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a frequent enemy of Thor and a reluctant ally of the Wrecker and the Wrecking Crew.
Sentry is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, with uncredited conceptual contributions by Rick Veitch, the character first appeared in The Sentry #1.
The Hood is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Brian K. Vaughan, and artists Kyle Hotz and Eric Powell, the character was introduced in his own self-titled limited series, which started with Hood #1. Robbins was originally a petty criminal, until an encounter with a Nisanti demon, which he defeated and robbed of its hood and boots, gaining superpowers in the process, such as levitation and invisibility. As "the Hood", he became a well-known figure in the New York City criminal underworld, and eventually formed his own crime syndicate.
Marvel Zombies: Dead Days is a comic book one-shot first published in May 2008 by Marvel Comics. It was written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Sean Phillips, with cover art by Arthur Suydam. It is part of the Marvel Zombies series and a prequel to Marvel's first Marvel Zombies limited series, which had the same creative team. The story shows the events of the zombie plague first infecting the Marvel Zombies Universe.
Army of Darkness comics are based on the film of the same name published originally by Dark Horse Comics, and later by Dynamite Entertainment who initially published them through Devil's Due Publishing.
Marvel Zombies 2 is a five-issue limited series published from October 2007 - February 2008 by comics publisher Marvel Comics. The series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips and Arthur Suydam. It is part of the Marvel Zombies series.
Dark Reign is a 2008 to 2009 comic book branding used by Marvel Comics. It deals with the aftermath of the "Secret Invasion" storyline, which leads to a shift of power in the Marvel Universe toward Norman Osborn. The title refers to Osborn's rise to national power and the ramifications thereof. Joe Quesada, then-editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, stated that "Dark Reign is not really an event, it's what's happening in the Marvel Universe." He believes that "Dark Reign leads to an interesting place in the Marvel Universe. I think you'll see a pulling back at the end of Dark Reign, but you'll understand at the end of it what we were trying to get to."
Marvel Zombies is a comic book metaseries published by Marvel Comics. The series features zombie versions of Marvel Universe superheroes and supervillains who have been portrayed as both protagonists and antagonists through the different limited series within the metaseries.
Marvel Zombies Return is a weekly five-issue comic book limited series, published by Marvel Comics in late 2009. It is part of the Marvel Zombies series of comic books.
Uncanny Avengers is a comic book series first appearing in the October 2012 debut of Marvel NOW!, published by Marvel Comics. The series follows an interconnected fictional superhero team, featuring members from the Marvel Universe. The team is united by Captain America upon the conclusion of Avengers vs. X-Men. Uncanny Avengers is also known as Avengers Unity Squad.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
