Just in time for spooky season, we have a Marvel story where all our favorite heroes turn into zombies! A meteorite crash-lands in New York City (because where else would it land?) and all the superheroes turn up to investigate. Unfortunately, the meteorite is carrying something that turns supers into zombies. Very hungry zombies. Now those zombies are taking over the world, turning all the super-powered people into monsters and feasting on regular humans. Zelma Stanton, Doctor Strange’s apprentice, quickly becomes one of the only unzombified people on Earth. Now it’s up to her and a few other survivors that she manages to find, (Nico Minoru, Elsa Bloodstone, and Deadpool) to save the world. But with Deadpool in charge of the most difficult part of the plan, what could possibly go wrong? Everything. The answer is everything of course. Find out all about it in The Hunger: A Marvel Zombies Novel by Marsheila Rockwell.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Aconyte for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of The Hunger: A Marvel Zombies Novel contains some spoilers!]
A Marvel Zombiepocalpse begins in New York City
It’s just another day on Bleecker Street when suddenly Doctor Strange is awakened by something. He’s not sure what but he’s sure something is coming. And then it does. With a spectacular boom, something smashes into downtown NYC. As the protector of Earth, Doctor Strange heads off to investigate.
Of course, he isn’t the only hero in New York and they all have come to see what’s going on and help out. Captain America is the first to enter the crater to investigate. And no one is prepared for when he comes back out. Because it isn’t quite Cap that comes back out. He’s changed, and he’s hungry. So hungry. He immediately starts munching on the closest hero. To Doctor Strange’s surprise, that hero gets back up and starts eating other heroes. And so on and so on.
Doctor Strange has seen enough. He starts to head back to Bleecker Street to come up with a plan when he runs into a very hungry Spider-Man. The next thing we know Zelma Stanton walks in on Doctor Strange gorging himself on some friends in the Sanctum Sanctorum. Zelma is sure she’s dessert but it seems that by eating, Doctor Strange is able to regain some self-control for a short while. He uses this time to lock himself away in the dungeon and charge Zelma with finding a way to save the universe from the zombie plague. Zelma doesn’t believe she’s up to the task but she knows she has to try, there’s no other choice.
Zelma Stanton, Nico Minoru, Elsa Bloodstone, & Deadpool team up and make a plan to save the world
Zelma locks herself in the Sanctum Sanctorum and begins researching a way to end the plague. She’s coming up with absolutely nothing and takes to using magical means to see what’s going on in the rest of the world. Things look very bad out there. Zelma watches hero after hero fall to the zombie plague. Then she sees a young witch, Nico Minoru of the Runaways, surrounded by zombies. Acting on instinct, Zelma teleports Nico into the Sanctum’s library. Nico is shell-shocked from her encounters with the zombies and is angry at Zelma for saving her and not her friends.
But together the two come up with a plan to track down Elsa Bloodstone, the monster hunter. It makes sense, as a monster hunter could solve a zombie problem. They manage to find Elsa, and Deadpool is with her. The new team then comes up with a plan to lock the zombies in a time loop which should reset the new world.
Now messing with time is very dangerous. Even if done very carefully, there can be large repercussions for just the tiniest mistake. For some reason, they decide to give Deadpool a vital role in this plan. And of course, he makes not a tiny mistake but a huge one, several huge ones. Now the world is even worse off and the four heroes need to find a way to fix time. All while trying to avoid a very hungry horde of super zombies and an ancient evil witch that wants to use them to rule the world. No big deal right?
When stories about zombies and time travel leave a bad taste in your mouth…
So this is a story about time travel and I hate time travel. I just have never liked it and the idea of changing time by going back in time doesn’t work for me, paradoxes and all that. But even setting the idea of a paradox aside, this book literally ends up exactly where it started. The entire story that I spent two days reading becomes pointless by the end. It felt like a waste of time. Yes this Marvel Zombies novel was funny at times and there was witty repertoire, but I didn’t feel like it was enough to make up for the circular plot.
I also didn’t like how stupid Deadpool was either. I know that he is usually portrayed as a bit of a clown but he came across as really mentally subpar. His lack of intelligence is so over the top that it took away from my enjoyment of the story. Rockwell just seemed to miss the mark of Deadpool’s style which has always felt more like a willful stupidity. Like, he’s actually not as dumb as he pretends to be, he just does it for effect and humor. But Rockwell just went for the stupid and skipped the intentionality behind it.
Final thoughts on this Marvel Zombies novel
If you’re really hungry for a good story, you might need to go shopping for something else. This isn’t the worst story I’ve ever read but I was definitely disappointed. The Marvel books from Aconyte are usually much better than The Hunger.
Admittedly I don’t like time travel or zombies, and that’s the meat of The Hunger. But even putting my preferences aside, the story didn’t hold up as a good one. The ending rendered the entire plot pointless, and the characters felt wrong. I just never ended up connecting well to any of them. And I could be Zelma so I’m not sure why at least she didn’t resonate with me more. Overall, if you really like zombies you might be interested but I don’t really recommend this one.
My Rating: 6/10
The Hunger: A Marvel Zombies Novel by Marsheila Rockwell is available now. Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus or in The Cosmic Circus Discord if you plan on checking out this novel. And if you’re interested in other books from Aconyte, or at least my thoughts on some of them, check out the links below or the Acoynte Books tag.
You Are (Not) Deadpool by Tim Dedopulos
Sisters of Sorcery: A Marvel Untold Novel by Marsheila Rockwell (featuring Clea)
Moon Knight: Age of Anubis: A Marvel Multiverse Missions Gamebook by Jonathan Green
