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Marvel Zombies has been all the rage in comics for about the last year. The mini-series, written by Robert Kirkman, drawn by Sean Phillips and starring painted covers by the amazing Arthur Suydam, follows an alternate world of the Marvel Universe where all the heroes and villains have all become flesh-eating zombies. While they crave flesh, they have retained their human minds -- one of the things that makes this series so much fun.
Well, now the fun of zombies and Marvel characters has crossed over into the realm of toys thanks to Diamond Select Toys. Today, I introduce to you two of the three planned releases for the Marvel Zombies: Spider-Man and Colonel America. Let’s start with Spidey!
Spider-Man in the books is one of the only characters infected that truly wants to die. While others have embraced their zombifacation Spider-Man wants nothing more than to join Aunt May and Mary Jane in the great beyond.
The packaging for this figure is a joy to look out. Everywhere you look on this package is art work from cover artist Suydam. And everything that man paints is amazing! The packaging is just like all the other Marvel Select figures that have been on the market in many years. A large window front to display the figure and colorful graphics adorning the back, sides and inside the packaging. The back of the package features an issue of Zombies with Spidey on the cover, the figure itself and then also shows the other two figures in the wave.
Pulling the figure out of the box and plastic we get our first look at the horrific zombie. The detail on him is superb. We will start at the head and work our way down.
His head is awesome, for lack of a better word. Most of the Spider-man mask at the bottom is rotted away to reveal his horrible face underneath. His left eye socket is showing, and his mouth is revealed. There are bits of flesh still attached to his jaw and teeth but it is, for the most part bone and teeth now.
Moving down to his chest and arms, his costume is dirty and torn in many places. His right shoulder has large gaping holes in the costume showing rotting flesh and muscle. The detail extends around the back on his right side where the holes and rotting flesh and muscle continue. His left arm is still mostly human looking and fully encased in his outfit but his right hand has taken a beating. It’s mostly bone now and there is very little material covering the hand. The ripping holes around the figure continue sporadically on his arms.
Moving down to his legs, we see the damage is far more extensive. His left leg is mostly fine, but his right leg is a mess! His right thigh is almost nothing but rotting flesh and muscle attached to his hip, and his right leg is almost ALL bone!
Moving to articulation, he has the usual fare for joints for a Marvel Select figure. Shoulders, elbows, hips ankles, head. But this figure has one shining piece of coolness. His right leg can be de-attached from him and he can hold his own zombie leg! That to me is worth the price of admission folks!
He also comes with a base. Once you have collected all three figures, their bases can connect to show the horrific scene of the Silver Surfer torn to shreds by the zombies for his cosmic power, bolts of said cosmic power leaping from the torn parts of his body. Spider-man’s base has the torso of the Surfer. He stands on the base okay, but there aren’t any pegs for his feet, so you kind of have to cram him against the plastic pieces of the cosmic power for him to stand properly.
Moving on to Colonel America. His packaging is in the same style as Spider-Man’s. Pulling the figure out of the box and we get our first look at Col. America!
In the mini-series, the Colonel is the apparent leader of the zombies. The funny thing is they still are fighting villains, even though they are all mostly dead now. But the Col. keeps the heroes fighting. Just not to save the innocent. They are fighting to save lunch!
Col. America’s costume is one of the coolest things about this figure. It’s incredibly detailed and incredibly dirty and grimy. There aren’t any tears in his costume to reveal that he’s the living dead. But we do have one of the most disgusting faces a mother couldn’t bring herself to love!
Col. America’s face is the epitome of zombie. Since his mask shows his ears, eyes and jaw well we get a remarkable looking decomposed face. His eyes pure white, his jaw nothing more than rotting flesh and his ears look like an old boxers ears only I bet they smell much worse.
One of the cool things about this figure is, just like in the comics you can remove the top portion of his head to reveal his brain in all its disgusting glory.
Col. America also comes with his shield, which while looking a little worse for ware; it’s mostly the same shield that has come with every Marvel Legend version of him. Straps to place the shield over his shoulders, and a clip to place it on his wrist. Only mine I couldn’t get the shield clipped to his wrist because one, the wrists are to big because of the sculpted gloves and two I was afraid if I forced them I would snap the clip in two.
The articulation is the same as Spider-Man, so no real news here. The base is a little more fun though. It depicts an arm of Surfer spitting out cosmic power. Once again there were no pegs for the feet of the figure, so you kind of have to just cram him against the rays of the cosmic power so he will stand.
The two bases hooked together remarkable well. It will look really cool once Hulk hits the shops, which if it’s soon I will give you all a look at him as well since I have one coming.
These two figures are well worth the investment. Hit up your local comic store, specialty shop or online retailer and pick them up. They fit in nicely with your Marvel Legends figures or on their own displayed on their bases. They are well worth it, trust me!
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Review and Photos by Jason Devall