The heroes of the Marvel Universe have faced impossible odds in a plethora of comics, from vampires to time-traveling madmen like Kang. The one thing those stories have in common is that the heroes come out on top. In Marvel Zombies, that is not the case for almost all of the named heroes of the universe.
After Uatu sent the zombified Sentry to Earth-2149, the Avengers, X-Men, and every other hero in the universe were turned into zombies. While the Avengers were the first of the heroes to turn, others survived the initial onslaught to keep fighting the good fight. From being killed while saving another hero to surviving 45 years after the Sentry landed, the following heroes survived Marvel Zombies for a time.
10 Daredevil Saves Nova And Gets A Spider Bite
While the Avengers were some of the first people turned, Spider-Man actually escaped after being bit, only to eat Mary Jane and Aunt May. When Nova came to check on him, he turned on the cosmic hero, attempting to bite him. Matt Murdock stopped the bite using his escrima stick.
After saving Nova, Daredevil attempted to fight Spider-Man, only for the zombified Spider-Man to turn around and bite him. Daredevil knew about the Zombies, even calling out the need to kill Spider-Man, but wasn’t able to hold his own against the wall-crawler.
9 Nova Gets Taken Out By Carol Danvers
Nova entered the Zombie fray by finding Spider-Man eating his family, but survived that fight and went on to join the front lines of the defensive teams. Joining the rest of the heroes on Nick Fury’s Helicarrier, Nova was the only hero to speak out, claiming they were already all dead.
Nova participated in fights against Gravity, the Thunderbolts where he barely survived thanks to Johnny Storm, Fantastic Four villains Wizard and Mole Man, and the originally turned Avengers. In this final battle, he and Johnny Storm fought Carol Danvers, who took a bite out of the cosmic hero and turned him.
8 Wolverine Loses The Fight Against Hawkeye and Colonel America
The X-Men at the Xavier Institute were first seen in the middle of the battle where Charles Xavier had already been eaten by the team members of Alpha Flight. The group is saved by Magneto who recruits them to fight back against the zombie scourge.
After Wolverine and Magneto took down the Sinister Six, they joined the great battle against the Avengers. Though he avoided being killed by Mar-Vell, he was eventually taken by both Colonel America, this universe’s Captain America, and Hawkeye.
7 Reed Richards Ruins Everything By Turning The Fantastic Four
Reed Richards is a super genius, but he is also a single idea away from being a supervillain on his best day. The Reed Richards in Marvel Zombies is no different. After losing his children to a zombified She-Hulk, he and the Fantastic Four join the rest of the living heroes aboard Nick Fury’s Helicarrier.
It is there that he decides that the plague is actually the next evolution of man and embraces it. He turns The Thing, Human Torch, and his wife Susan Storm into zombies. Their first action is to turn Reed, which is what he wanted.
6 Iron Man Dies Trying To Save The Few Living Heroes
While Bruce Banner was working on a cure for the Zombie Virus and Reed Richards was accepting his newest evolution, Tony Stark spent his time on the Helicarrier creating a dimensional portal. Having abandoned the potential of saving humanity, he recognized the loss.
After assuring Fury the plan was for the best, he finished the dimensional portal before being attacked by the zombified Fantastic Four. Reed purposefully doesn’t eat Stark, only biting him to infect him, causing him to turn and rebuild the machine as a zombie.
5 Thor And His Mighty Hammer Didn't Stand A Chance Against The Fantastic Four
While he was not with the Avengers team that found the zombified Sentry who kicked off the zombie plague, Thor was kicking about New York on his own business. The first time fans saw him in the series was when he battled the Thunderbolts team, smashing heads with his hammer in a team-up with Nova.
He participated in several major battles, but the God of Thunder did not last against the final stand against the Fantastic Four. After he broke a dimensional teleporter made by Tony Stark, the Fantastic Four turned him quickly.
4 Doctor Strange Didn't Even Try To Save Himself
As one of the most powerful members of the typical Marvel roster, Doctor Strange seemed like he would be one of the few surviving members of the human race during the Zombie invasion. This was true for most of the events of Marvel Zombies: Dead Days.
Eventually, he was cornered by the Fantastic Four in the Helicarrier along with Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thor, and Nick Fury. Unlike most depictions, Strange doesn’t say a word and accepts his gruesome fate without a struggle.
3 Nick Fury Tried To Save The World Before Being Completely Eaten
Leading the last of the Earth’s heroes in a desperate attempt to save the world, Nick Fury provided a flying home base and working lab for the still-living warriors. Not only did he provide shelter, but he was the voice of reason for the group, even shutting down Nova’s complaints.
While running rescue operations and calling the heroes to the battle against the Avengers, he also oversaw Stark’s dimension-hopping plan. When the Fantastic Four attacked, he sheltered the portal with the last heroes on the ship. Fury was spared zombification because the Fantastic Four ate him entirely, which was hinted at in his first major speech.
2 Magneto Fought Dozens Of Heroes But Lost To The Wasp
Believing himself to have been the catalyst for the Zombie virus, Magneto set out to stop the spread by killing everyone who was infected. He teamed up with the X-Men and the last of the heroes, eventually leading them into the battle with the Avengers.
Magneto was the opening figure of the first Marvel Zombies series, with him fighting the Avengers by himself. He got the upper hand against most of them, taking off Hawkeye’s head and scalping Colonel America before being bitten by Wasp, then eaten by the Avengers.
1 T’Challa Lasted 45 Years In The Zombie-verse
The longest-lasting hero of the Marvel Zombies series, T’Challa was saved by Hank Pym to be a literal snack to satiate the zombie. After escaping Pym’s lab, he is taken to Asteroid M by Magneto’s Acolytes and given prosthetics by Forge. He later has a child with one of the Acolytes.
After the Avengers left Earth, the rest of the zombies died and the Earth became habitable, the Acolytes and T’Challa returned five years later, founding New Wakanda. In Marvel Zombies 2, T’Challa is finally turned by Wasp after 40 years during an attempted assassination, ending his living streak.