The 8 Most Epic Zombie Appearences In
Extremely Awesome Franchises
By: Michael Lee
Zombies themselves are an important part to pop culture, most noticeably in the horror genre. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that many famous television shows, movies, and comics have dedicated time to exploring the effects of the living dead on their series. More often than not, zombies will add a little terror and spice to a previously bland show, or in case the series is kick-ass already (which most of the following series are) the undead will add a whole bunch more kick-assness to it. Lets take a look at the 8 most epic zombie appearances in extremely awesome franchises:
8) South Park Zombies
Ya want to know how to kick the first season of your highly rated on a poorly rated cable network off right? Include an episode about zombies with in your first few episodes of the season. It's no denying that South Park made Comedy Central, and this was the episode that did it. In "Pinkeye", Kenny is killed and through a freak accident, though he is brought back to life as a zombie and starts terrorizing South Park residents, who hilariously believe the rise of the undead is an epidemic of pinkeye. That's possibly the most loony backstory to a zombie apocalypse I've ever heard (okay, maybe not the looniest, but loony non the least). Also, this episode of South Park parodies the Michael Jackson "Thriller" music video, which itself deserves it's own seat at the top of the greatest achievements in zombie pop culture.
7) Black Lantern Corps
The Black Lantern Corps wish to seek out and eliminate all sentient life and emotion from the universe. That's a f*cking hardcore Wikipedia description. You know what else is hardcore? The fact that the Black Lantern Corps is made up of deceased members of the DC universe! Still not hardcore enough? Well it's not just any deceased DC beings, it's the ones that have emotional ties to those who oppose the Black Lanterns. These guys bring back those that mean the most to you, and use them to kill your ass! Earth Two Lois Lane and Superman are part of the Black Lanterns. So are Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Lex Luthor Jr, and Azeral. And just hope that you're not Deadman, cause he wound up having to fight is own reanimated remains! Do you know what type of psychological effect that must've had on him? Oh yeah, and did you know Aquaman was dead? Neither did I but he's a f*cking Black Lantern now too, and instead of making the Black Lanterns lamer, the Black Lanterns make Aquaman cooler! Finally, tell me how badass their f*cking poem oath thingy is:
"The Blackest Night falls from the skies,
The darkness grows as all light dies,
We crave your hearts and your demise,
By my black hand--The dead shall rise!"
Feel free to piss your pants at any moment now.
6) The Simpsons Zombies
The Simpsons have dealt with their fair share of zombies. Recently (and by recently I mean just last month when they fought the living dead in "The Treehouse of Horror XX") the family of five had to take down their fair share of zombies inspired by "28 Days Later" lovingly dubbed "munchers". Hilarity ensues as Bart, Maggie, Homer, Lisa, and Marge travel with Apu to a safe haven for the uninfected and hopefully devise a cure for the munchers from Bart, who is immune to the disease. Also, I've realized how hard it is to make jokes about already wacky and funny shows, so let me bring up the other "Treehouse of Horror" segment that involves zombies so I can quickly get back to the joke making. "Dial Z for Zombies" was another Halloween episode segment dedicated to the undead (only these zombies were the classic, slow-moving, Romero-style zombies. After dabbling in the occult, Bart raises the dead with a little help from the previously mentioned "Thriller" album. When the undead attack, Homer dons a shot gun and shoots down George Washington, Albert Einstein, and William Shakespeare, who were all apparently buried around Springfield. Also, this episode contains one of the most popular Simpsons' dialogue ever spoken, but I'm not going to post it here for if you are a true nerd you would already know it. Otherwise, to YouTube and/or Wikipedia you must go.
5) Harry Potter Inferius
Chris already described how the undead made the sixth Harry Potter movie better, but let me elaborate: An Inferius is a corpse controlled through a Dark wizard's spells much closer to the zombies of Voodoo folklore than those usually portrayed in horror movies. Light and Fire are their only weakness and they are incredibly difficult to stop. Even worse is the fact that Voldemort was killing enough people to make an army of Inferi! F*ck. After finding this out, all I actually wish Voldemort would've won, just so the book "Harry Potter and the army of the f*ck you up undead" could've been published. Also, had Harry been defeated he could've come back as a zombie! Oh, if just I was J.K. Rowling....
4) Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash
Okay, so if you wanna get technical (and really nerdy) deadites are not really zombies, but just for the heck of it I won't consider that for this list. So basically, after the suckage that was "Freddy Vs. Jason", Ash stumbles upon a few murders he realises was caused by deadites. As it turns out, Jason has found the Necronomicon and Freddy Krueger now inhabbits his mind. Sh*t goes down and alot of teenagers die. Eventually, Freddy develops reality-altering powers when he taps into the evil book's true power. Freddy resurrects all of Jason's previous victims from the Friday the 13th films as Deadites, which is extremely badass. The Trio fight against the undead and each other before Ash ultimately wins by using the Necronomicon to open a portal, banishing Freddy to the Deadite world, while Jason and the Necronomicon are trapped underneath a frozen Crystal Lake. Not a single part of this description could even begin to be identified with the term "lame", and that's why this series of comic books make the list. A sequel series is due out soon called "The Nightmare Warriors" which I can't wait to read a synopsis about on Wikipedia!
3) Transformers Zombies
Optimus Prime has died like what, 16 times in the series? Well imagine how scary Optimus Prime would be returning from the dead? (Not counting all those times he returned from the grave perfectly fine. I'm talking Zombie Prime.) That's exactly what happened in a season three episode of "The Transformers". Topless Robot even went as far as to call it "...The most terrifying cartoon ever aired on weekday afternoons." In this episode, the Transformers escape the clutches of Decepticons by hiding in a space ship that doubles as their morgue. Let me emphasize: A ship where DEAD TRANSFORMERS ARE STORED! Obviously, one of the dead robot corpses was that of Optimus Prime who was killed in the movie. Imagine the surprise that the Autobot's suffered when their ex-leader f*cking awakes from the dead with his face half ripped open and one arm missing, and proceeds to kick the ass of their new leader! That's like Obi-Wan Kenobi
returning from the exploded remains of the first Death Star to kick poor Luke's butt at the end of episode Six! Horrific and awesome, just the way I like my fantasy movies.
2) Star Wars Zombies
2) Speaking of undead Star Wars characters....That's exactly what we were subjected to in Star Wars Tales #1–#20. In these arguably un-cannon stories, Han and Chewie land on a planet infested with the re-animated corpses of formal Imperials who crash landed on the planet not too long before them. Han and Chewie, representing the badassary they are known and loved for, take down all 1,000 members of the Imperial undead. Oh, but the zombies stories from a galaxy far, far away doesn't stop there. In "Death Troopers", an Imperial ship comes across a derelict Star Destroyer carrying a terrifying disease which might be considered zombie-like in nature. Fans went apesh*t for this novel, as finally "Star Wars" took on the horror genre in an outstanding way! The author of the novel, Joe Schreiber, actually held a fan contest to see who could make the best trailer for his novel, which you can watch here. If you dare...
1) Marvel Zombies
It all started in December 2005. The premise is that almost all superpowered beings on Earth-2149 become flesh-eating zombies after being infected by an alien virus. Spider-man, Hulk, Iron Man, Wolverine... They are all infected. Even worse, they eventually devour the Silver Surfer and gain cosmic powers. The world is no longer safe, and it's up to the Wasp, Doctor Doom, and the Black Panther to save the day. It's a climatic tale that makes up for just about every sh*tty product Marvel has ever released. Super-powered zombies. Kinda makes you wonder why this wasn't thought of before-hand. Luckily, this idea wasn't just tossed aside after the 5-issue run. Lately, Marvel Zombies is being incorporated into quite a few current Marvel storylines. From Civil War to The Ultimate universe, nothing has been spared. Even Earth-616 (the Earth we know and love) got a taste of the zombiverse, when the decapitated head of Zombie Deadpool (dubbed: Headpool) fell out of no where into the clutches of our beloved Deadpool, eventually joining the Deadpool Corps come 2010. Hell, there was even an arc where Ash from "The Evil Dead" series was transported into the zombiverse and had to slay the diseased heroes (which kind of ties it into the Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash comics above). If there was ever a zombie crossover to be proud about, Marvel Zombies is it!
Michael Lee is a writer for Nerdism Comics, and f*ck it! It's late. No closer for you! You can write to him at Nerdismcomics@yahoo.com
