WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marvel Zombies: Resurrection #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Leonard Kirk, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.
The latest incarnation of Marvel's undead superhero franchise, Marvel Zombies Resurrection, takes a more traditional approach to the zombie apocalypse. The comic's premise is closer to Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead than his original Marvel Zombies series.
In a world where most of the superheroes have become undead horrors, Spider-Man is part of a ragtag band of survivors. While he's handy with a gadget, it's an unsung science hero who provides the group with the weapons that keep them alive.
Between the potentially lethal headaches caused by an overactive Spider-Sense and the responsibility of looking after the Richards children, Peter Parker has a lot on his plate. It's taking everything he has just to hold it together in the zombie apocalypse. Forge serves as the team's resident tech genius. He's whipped up some impressive, if macabre, weapons for his team to battle the undead.
Former Thunderbolt Moonstone and the late Captain Marvel's pet flerken Chewie are the only members of the team with offensive powers when they're ambushed by zombies. Forge levels the playing field for the rest of the group with his weapons. That includes the one he wields, a rifle that fires Cyclops optic blasts directly from the late X-Man's skull.
It's a strikingly grotesque visual, but also an effective weapon. It keeps an attacking zombie Nightcrawler at bay until the cavalry, a reprogrammed Sentinel called Nana, can finish him off. Forge's gun isn't the only one that turned a mutant body part turned into a weapon.
Franklin carries a gun that shoots beams of light out of what looks to be Dazzler's finger. Valeria has a rifle that shoots flames that could come from Sunfire's disembodied arm. Even Parker has traded his webs in for a weapon that's like a combination of Gambit's staff and Daredevil's billy club. It is also, possibly, a sly nod to the weapon of choice for the TV Walking Dead's Morgan.
The mainstream Marvel Universe version of Forge has always been a prolific inventor. His mutant power allows him to invent and engineer any device he can think of, making him one of the few peers of super-geniuses like Reed Richards and Tony Stark. His abilities have made him an indispensable member of the X-Men's support team for years, including his current role on Krakoa.
Although his most famous invention was a mutant power neutralizer that accidentally stole Storm's powers, Forge was also responsible for creating the iconic Blackbird jet that the X-Men have used for years as well as the current version of Cerebro, which backs up mutants minds so they can be resurrected as needed.
Unfortunately, Forge's attachment to his time as an X-Man proves to be his undoing. He leads the group back to the X-Mansion, where they encounter an infected Beast. Forge makes the mistake of trying to reason with his former teammate and pays the ultimate price as Zombie Beast quickly kills him by way of his claws.
Parker loses both Forge and new love interest Moonstone by the end of the issue. While he does at least gain the help of Blade, he'll surely miss Forge's ingenuity as he tries to keep the Richards children alive and deal with the Galactus spawned zombie plague.