Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1973-12-01 00:01:10 |
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Strange Tales #171
Issue(s): Strange Tales #171
Cover Date: Dec 73
Title: "March of the dead"
Credits:
Len Wein - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Frank Giacoia - Inker
Review/plot:
So the 1971 revision to the Comic Book Authority allowed the usage of horror monsters "when handled in the classic tradition, such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high-caliber literary works by Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, Conan Doyle, and other respected authors whose works are read in schools around the world" (quote found on Wikipedia). However, this didn't allow the usage of zombies, since zombies have never appeared in "high-caliber literary works". Marvel decided they wanted to use zombies anyway, but in order to keep the CCA stamp, they didn't call them zombies.
They call them zuvembies.
That is the stupidest thing i've ever heard.
Anyway, let's see what we've got here...
Brother Voodoo, who looks awesome, gets attacked by some, *ahem*, zuvembies in a graveyard and is knocked out. He wakes up to find himself in an underground AIM lab, strapped to a device that a zombie in a marching band jacket named Baron Samedi tells him will turn him into a zombie.
In addition to his ability to send his dead brother's soul out to attack people (which proves useless against the zombies this issue), Voodoo is also apparently Master of All Reptiles, and while Samedi is ranting, Voodoo has a lizard chew through a wire for him. After the machine fails, the zombies turn back into regular people and he beats the hell out of the AIM goons and lets some heavy machinery fall on Samedi.
Ok, well, the Master of All Reptiles thing certainly threw me.
I knew he repelled Damballah's snakes last issue, but i didn't realize that was because he was Master of All Reptiles (or did that contest make him Master of All Reptiles?).
Otherwise, this was kind of plain, even if it is the first time we've seen zombies in a Marvel comic. Brother Voodoo comes off as a fairly generic guy, even if his powers are weird. I thought it was cool to see AIM involved in the plot here, but that will actually get a minor backlash in the lettercols from people who wanted their horror comics more separated from the Marvel universe.
Quality Rating: C-
Historical Significance Rating: 2 - early Brother Voodoo
Chronological Placement Considerations: A footnote mentions that AIM is recently "on view" in Astonishing Tales and Marvel Team-Up.
References:
- Brother Voodoo saved a UN pathologist from some goons in Strange Tales #169.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
| Previous: Where Monsters Dwell #25 | Up: Main 1973 / Box 8 / EiC: Roy Thomas | Next: Special Marvel Edition #15 |
Comments
baron samdi was also featured in the bond film "live and let die" which was out around the same time as this issue.
"Zuvembie" comes from a Robert E. Howard story called "Pigeons from Hell". In this the zuvembie is a monster created by the arts of a voodoo-man, but not a zombie.
I remember Robert E. Howard also did a Solomon Kane story that had zombie creatures that were a blending of old and new zombie traits. They were mindless as in they were controlled by a spell caster but I think they ate flesh and had to be destroyed by magic or fire. Oh and they were not called zombies but vampires or vampyres. I remember finding it very interesting to see some traits of modern zombies popping up as far back as the 30s.
