:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63078426/dceased1_capullo_cover_1550518748733.0.jpg)
2019 is DC Comics’ year of the villain, and today the company announced one more hard blow to its battered superheroes: a global zombie apocalypse. The name of the story is, of course, DCeased.
Now, don’t get too scared, as this six-issue miniseries is not canonical. But then again, maybe do get scared, because the guy writing DCeased is Tom Taylor (X-Men: Red, X-23), whose tenure on DC’s Injustice: Gods Among Us series successfully wrenched reader heart-strings for years on a foundation of terrible things happening with relentless frequency.
Taylor will partner up with artists Trevor Hairsine (Red Hood and the Outlaws), Stefan Gaudiano (The Walking Dead), James Harren, and Rain Beredo (Marvel Knights 20th); the first issue of DCeased will hits shelves on May 1.
So how does a global zombie infection kick off in the DC Universe? How else but with Darkseid? The New God’s “techno-organic virus infects the world’s networks and spreads to some 600 million people through anything with a screen,” according to IGN. “Those affected try to remove the virus from their minds by scratching and ripping at their own flesh. But once the virus takes hold, they essentially become a rage zombie.”
If this sounds familiar, you might be thinking of the Marvel Zombies series over at DC’s distinguished competition. Between 2005 and 2011, Marvel Comics produced about a dozen different stories and series about a Marvel Universe where all life throughout the cosmos had been zombified. Although the setting started with a couple of Ultimate Fantastic Four stories, it really kicked off with Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) and Sean Phillips’ (Fatale) Marvel Zombies miniseries and its follow-up books.
Obviously, zombie apocalypse is a formula that has worked for superhero comics. And given Taylor’s proven talent for balancing character, humor, and tragedy, DCeased could be a series to watch.
