Zombie (Marvel MAX)

Mike Raicht(writer), Kyle Hotz(art), Dan Brown(colors)

From the Cover: "Welcome to zombie action, MAX-style. The dead roam the Earth, s small town in New York state is under siege, and human flesh is what's for dinner! And humanity's last hope is hiding out in a little rest-stop on Interstate 90. Barricade your doors and windows and get the guns loaded- hell is on Earth, and it just might be up to a man named Simon Garth to stop it. "

What it is: The Zombie (MAX) mini-series collected into one softcover book. Ok, the back cover lies a bit. For starters the dead only roam that one small town (for now), and humanity is not resting it's hope on one man, nor one group. This is a zombie problem caused by the military and will likely be cleaned up by the military.
Ok, the story is this: We start with a bank robbery. The bank manager, being a hero, ate the bullet. The next in charge, Simon Garth, in the name of saving lives puts his own in the hands of the robbers... but they also grab his girl. The four hop in the getaway car, try to out-run the cops, and go right through a HAZMAT blockade. Good news: the cops stop. Bad news: the other side of the barricade is loaded with Army men turned living dead. So what happens next when they hide out in a rest stop? Well, that's the real story, where you figure out what's the bigger threat: viscous bank robbers or a litteral Army of the undead?

What I think: It's almost a cliche. There's elements of predictablilty (of course she's working with them!), conspiracy (get it, he's a MAD scientist who was hired to create them!), and gore (that thing ate your girlfriend, man!). Hey, I like cliched zombie movies, so don't get me wrong, it's just that I expected more from Marvel Comics than this. This seems so indy comics too me.
So clearly I have issues with the writing.
Now Hotz has his good-moments in art. He creates a good image of "zombies EVERYWHERE!" which is key. Mass numbers equals mass terror. And he pulls the gory parts off well enough. Problem is the hero and protaginist (Gyp) resemble each other too much at times, and some times the art strays off from the serious.

Final Word: I guess what I should get at here is whether or not this is a good read. Was it even a good read for me? Not so much. I didn't get into the characters, I saw too many things coming in advance, and my expectations (a little high admitably) were not met. Regret buying? I guess "kind of" is my response to that. Again, I expected more from Marvel.

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