A fan-favorite member of the Guardians of the Galaxy has just unleashed a whole new breed of Marvel Zombies.

Marvel Zombies: Dawn of Decay #1 opens to find Rocket Raccoon and Groot imprisoned within the superhuman supermax facility known as The Raft. There, they face General Thunderbolt Ross and the Avengers for the purported crime of attempting to steal away a powerful new weapon in the government’s possession. Fortunately, Captain America can help the two escape any real repercussions for their actions, though he can’t escape one of Groot’s sneezes. Even worse, whatever bug Groot is carrying is not only contagious, but cannibalistic, and one whiff is all it took to kick off a bonafide zombie apocalypse.

Written by THOMAS KRAJEWSKI Art by JASON MUHR Colors by RACHELLE ROSENBERG Letters by VC’s TRAVIS LANHAM Design by KAT WALKINGTON Main cover art by JASON MUHR & MATT MILLA Variant covers by NICK BRADSHAW & MORENO DINISIO, RON LIM & ROMULO FAJARDO JR., ANNIE WU, and SEAN GALLOWAY

The original Marvel Zombies made their comic book debut back in the pages of 2005’s Ultimate Fantastic Four #21 by writer Mark Millar and artist Greg Land. These undead heroes and villains hailed from a world that had been overrun by a zombie plague kicked off by the arrival of an infected Sentry from another world. After falling victim to the infection for themselves, the Fantastic Four of this twisted reality reached out to the Reed Richards of the original Ultimate Universe, convincing him to bridge the gap between their worlds without letting on their true intentions.

Since then, the overarching mythos of the Marvel Zombies franchise has spread throughout the Multiverse, even bleeding over into the primary Marvel Universe on more than one occasion. The brand has become so popular that it has made its way beyond the comic book page and into the animated corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—courtesy of 2021’s What If…? from Marvel Studios and Disney+. Currently, a four-part Marvel Zombies series is expected to continue the story that began in What If…? before closing things out in a gruesome fashion.

The plant-based zombies of Dawn of Decay are just the latest iteration of such horrors to appear in the pages of Marvel Comics this month. Besides these particular cannibals, the primary Marvel Universe is under threat of a horde of so-called Zombiotes. Created by the villainous future iteration of Eddie Brock known as Meridius, these Zombiotes have already begun overruning the streets of New York City and claiming the lives and powers of heroes and villains alike. The Zombiote attack has been set against the backdrop of Marvel’s ongoing Venom War event, adding just one more layer of tension to the already pulse-pounding proceedings.

Marvel Zombies: Dawn of Decay #1 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.

Source: Marvel Comics