The Marvel Universe Has Its Own Version of Walking Dead – Screen Rant

Marvel has its own popular zombie comic with a very similar name to the popular Walking Dead series within its own comic book universe.

Earth-616 in Marvel Comics is ostensibly based on a similar reality to ours with its own New York City and other analogous features. It diverges pretty clearly with all the super-powered people flying and swinging around and the never-ending threats that put the Earth at stake. But one of those weird similarities to real life is a popular zombie TV show just like our Earth only its not called The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead comic by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Tony Moore was a wildly popular and grim tale of survivors in the zombie apocalypse that reflected more on the monstrous nature of humanity on the brink than the flesh-eating plague of monsters that gripped the world. The TV adaptation also surged with popularity in the middle of a zombie renaissance that saw the undead creatures in many movies, shows, and comics. It only makes sense that a popular comic and show would also exist in the simulacrum universe of Marvel Comics.

Related: The Walking Dead: Does The Zombie Apocalypse Ever End?

A throwaway line in Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #1, by Larry Hama and David Wachter, pointed out the Stalking Dead is a popular show in the Marvel Universe. It was a line only designed to inform the characters that decapitation or head smashing is the only way to beat zombie ninjas. But including it draws interesting parallels with Marvel Comics and the real world.

While there are other random similarities that writers throw in from time to time, adding a knockoff comic into a comic universe with its own history steeped with heroes is a unique choice. Why would a world with near-constant pitched battles outside New Yorkers windows need a fictional dystopia with zombies? The Walking Dead is popular on our Earth because it is a relatable but also bleaker world than our own troubled one. Escapism through fiction allows for people to avoid the ugliness in our own world and enjoy a fictive universe with its own problems.

Apocalypse fiction has been in vogue for some time and reflects a grim reality. If the real world starts to look slightly dystopian then fiction veers farther into dark territory as a vehicle to analyze our troubled times. The Walking Dead worked best when its characters reacted how a regular person would when confronted with impossible circumstances and stomach-lurching choices between life and death.

Perhaps the inhabitants of the Marvel Comics Universe need a diversion from the constant siege against Earth by beings with powers rivaling gods and resolved to decimate humanity. An apocalyptic zombie TV show would appear tame next to the King in Black flooding the streets with an inky ooze of parasites and dragons intent on taking over Earth. A bit of diversion into a similarly grim TV show would make for a welcome respite to the anxiety of living in the Marvel Comics universe.

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The Marvel Universe Has Its Own Version of Walking Dead - Screen Rant