Designation: Earth-2149 The humorous tone of the various Marvel Zombies series - especially the one which revolves around Ash, wise-cracking hero of the Evil Dead films turning up - sort of belies the fact that it's a bleak, bleak universe to live in. First discovered (and quickly escaped from) by a young Reed Richards in Ultimate Fantastic Four, Earth-2149 is a universe where every superhero has been transformed into a ravenous, flesh-eating member of the undead. Except they still retain all of their powers, so they can't really be killed, and they've chowed down on most of the planet's civilian citizens. Eek. Still, at least their plan to invade the Ultimate Universe didn't work. Although that does mean the Marvel Zombies world gets ever more bleak, as the undead decimate the planet to a point that Hank Pym and Reed Richards - retaining their massive intellects, along with an insatiable appetite for living flesh - start brainstorming ways to invade other universes to infect and act as a buffet for the starved zombie heroes. It's a fun premise - tossed out as a joke by Mark Millar during an editorial meeting - but a world where everybody who isn't a superhero has been eaten alive, and the remaining superheroes are slowly starving to death? Pretty dark!
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
