WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Empyre: X-Men #3 by Vita Ayala, Zeb Wells, Ed Brisson, Andrea Broccardo, Nolan Woodard, & VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
As Empyre rumbles on, the X-Men are having to not only deal with the Cotati invasion but with a horrific horde of zombies. Marvel Zombies have popped up in various universes throughout Marvel's multiverse and even in the Secret Wars crossover. And what's even more horrific than the return of zombies to the Marvel Universe is that these new undead antagonists have an unnerving new ability that other iterations of the horde have not.
In Empyre: X-Men #1, the Scarlet Witch who has inadvertently unleashed zombies upon Genosha. Haunted by her decimation of the mutant populace during House of M, Wanda botched her attempt to make things right, causing its 16 million dead mutants to rise. And in Empyre: X-Men #3, these zombies show that they can turn the plant-like alien Cotati into zombies too.
With the plant people from beyond the stars known as the Cotati invading the Earth, the X-Men are caught between two seemingly insurmountable foes. While having the Marvel Zombies and the Cotati face-off might bring some initial reprieve, events took a rather dark turn with the revelation of the zombies' new ability. While the zombies that have plagued the multiverse before have been able to assimilate many things, they've never infected plant-life before. The implications and ramifications of tat s ability is potentially devastating to all life on the planet and other planets with large amounts of vegetation.
Horrifying as the conversion of plants into ghoul-like zombie beings is, this isn't the first time we've seen Marvel Zombies combine themselves with something else to become more formidable. During Secret Wars' Battleworld, one of the many events that took place was Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies, which saw the two warring factions actually team-up. The leader of the Marvel Zombies faction, Magneto, sought a parley with Ultron and the two villains devised a plan to combine their army's forms and eradicate their mutual enemies. What came next was half-zombie half-robot monstrosities. In the original Marvel Zombies canon, their unending hunger led them to eventually consume the Silver Surfer and Galactus, imbuing them with the power cosmic.
In this issue of Empyre: X-Men, the Marvel Zombies have once again seemingly attained god-like powers. According to a dying Cotati, they had in their possession a Cotatinaught, which is a doomsday device of sorts containing a god-like being of immense power. The Cotati goes on to explain that it is rare that one is ever seen outside of their pod or unleashed at all. Unfortunately for the X-Men and the planet, the zombies have gotten to the pod. Zombies, both mutant and Cotati alike, are seen vomiting into the pod and corrupting its natural state.
The corruption being forced into the pod infects the being within, also known as The Broadleaf Lord. The issue ends with a zombified titan of a being bursting forth from its gestation capsule and roaring aloud. The horrific reflection of a holy Cotati being now looms over the fallen nation of Genosha, with the potential to subjugate mutants, aliens and now the rest of humanity, and the Omega-level psychic team Magik has assembled might not be enough.
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