By Robin Jones
Written by George A Romero
Art by Alex Maleev
The world as we knew has gone. Five years since the events of Night of the Living Dead, the human race is still trying to adapt to a world where the dead come back, the invasion may have been held off, but the threat is still there, waiting, lurking in the shadows. We follow the story of Paul Barnum, a hunter who rounds up zombies which show signs of remembered behaviour. These “smarter” zombies are then used to fight in gladiatorial style battles in the arena to entertain the rich and bloodthirsty. We also follow Penny Jones, a doctor who is studying how zombies have been and can be tamed, much like Dr Logan did with Bub in Day of the Dead.
This story is firmly planted in Romero’s expanded world, which for me, is a really exciting prospect. His last two films, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead haven’t exactly set the world on fire, in fact they were lacklustre additions to the franchise. What Empire of the Dead does is pick up from Land of the Dead, following on with the idea of different types of zombies. However, for new readers of Romero’s, it’s a nice jumping on point as well, with a good portion of the story spent setting up the world and characters. There’s also a really nice throwback to the story that started the whole series off, which ties the worlds together really nicely.
Like I’ve stated before, Empire of the Dead focuses on the idea of their being differing types of zombies inhabiting the world. There’s shamblers, there’s zombies with remembered behaviour and then there’s zombies who have limited thoughts, conflicting ideas within their heads and full control of their arms and legs. One of the characters in Empire is one of these, Xavier. An ex S.W.A.T team member, we get to see inside her head, the broken thoughts and feelings which works really well in the comic. Romero tried this in L.O.T.D but it didn’t really work on screen as well as it does here. There’s also another type of undead at work in Manhattan, but in the interest of being spoiler free, I’m not going to let on what. You’ll have to read it and see for yourself.
Now what really makes this book work is Alex Maleev’s artwork, and Matt Hollinsworth’s colouring. Hollingsworth uses washed out tones, all muted and toned down, giving a sense of despair, a world devoid of hope and dreams, and Maleev’s art really accentuates that. His panels are beautifully crafted, his establishing shots full of scope and story. I couldn’t think of a better artist to use to bring the gritty, hopeless world of George Romero’s world to life.
All in all, Empire of the Dead is a solid start to what could be a book to rival Robert Kirkman’s genre ruling behemoth The Walking Dead. The only thing that doesn’t work in my eyes is the addition of the other type of undead, however, it remains to be seen how the story will pan out, and perhaps it could be an injection of life into a genre of rotting, cannibal corpses.
I give this 8 out of 10.
Click HERE to view the Empire of the Dead: Act One series!
For more comic views and reviews follow Robin on Twitter at @Hulksmash1985
Posted on January 23rd, 2014
Category: PULP FRICTION, REVIEWS
Tags: Alex Maleev, Comic Reviews, Empire of the Dead #1 Review, George A Romero, marvel comics, Matt Hollinsworth, Robin Jones, Walking Dead, Zombies