Zombies
Most people are ignorant of the evolution of the zombie. Thanks to three properties, they think that zombies are all dead, flesh/brain-eating things.
Those three properties?
Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead, and The Walking Dead.
The first two are old, of course, with TWD being the contemporary entry. Most zombie movies after Night of the Living Dead are of the flesh-eating variety.
Frankly, I’m tired of it.
I’m tired of having the world overrun by zombies, I’m tired of watching people running from zombies, I’m tired of zombies being the only “scary” things in these properties. Kirkman, to his credit, does give us some characters to fear outside of the zombies in TWD, but really, I don’t think it’s enough.
Basically, in a world such as that, you’ve kind of painted yourself into a corner. How do you stop the infestation? How does a band of regular people come up with a plan to save the world?
I’m tired of it.
What I’d like to see is the return of Simon Garth. A series of one-shots that follow him around, and those who have the amulet come to ruin in some manner. Let someone follow the path of destruction, a practitioner of the arts who wants to rid the world of the “evil” of the zombie, who feels responsible for the havoc that has been caused. That person should be a family member of those who turned Garth into the zombie in the first place. A horror series studying the underside of the Marvel Universe, along with giving it more magic titles.
I think that would work, and bring back the zombie as a creation of someone else. It will say something about the controller of the zombie, rather than the zombie being a cipher for people to react to. Horror on a more personal level, which is what’s missing from a lot of today’s zombie tales.
That’s my take.
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Category: Columns, The Daily Dose
hhhmmmmmmm so maybe you should read Zombie Years by the incredibly talented Juan Navarro, it’s really good…. I mean that what I’ve heard… KOFF KOFF…