The answer, to paraphrase an old chestnut, is ‘anyone he wants’.
It’s getting way too festive around here. As far as I’m concerned, Christmas isn’t allowed through the front door until the 13th, and only if it’s got that Star Trek pinball machine I’ve been asking for. For now, it’s time to talk zombies, which are eternal.
In December of 2005, Marvel launched the ‘Marvel Zombies‘ comic miniseries. For five issues, writer Robert Kirkman and artist Sean Phillips wove a fanciful alternate-reality tale about all of the heroes and villains in the Marvel universe – as hungry, unstoppable zombies. Wildly popular and thoroughly ridiculous, and clearly a nefarious plot to capitalize on the recent zombiphilia we all seem to be experiencing, the Marvel Zombies storyline found its way into some mainstream titles and will be crossing over with other properties, such as Army of Darkness, which is completely ripe for more zombie invasions. While ‘Marvel Zombies’ has not yet spawned any action figure incarnations (such as the House of M and Young Avengers storylines have), four very special Marvel Zombies have been spotted in figural format for the long-running Heroclix game from WizKids.
Heroclix have been produced in both Marvel Comics and DC Comics waves for a good handful of years now, both of which can be intermingled and battle each other. The most recent release was Marvel : Supernova, a collection focused on the more powerful heroes in the Marvel Universe, such as Silver Surfer, Thor, Thanos and Captain Marvel. One of these guys could flick Spider-Man and his Aunt May, five towns away, would be pulverized into a fine mist. As an added bonus to these powerful figures, WizKids delayed shipment on Supernova to slip in the aforementioned Marvel Zombies pieces.
As undead incarnations of Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine and Captain America (now known as Colonel America), they’re not especially powerful. I mean, they’re already dead, so they don’t have a stunning play value, but they’ve only made one thousand of each figure. The odds of finding any one of these four in a booster pack is 1:100, and that’s been driving Marvel Zombie resale prices sky-high, topping at over $100 per piece. Considering that the piece would have been found in an $8 booster package, that’s one hell of a sound investment.
Not only do these Zombies have a value within the game of Heroclix, but they’re accompanied by cards which allow them to be used within the new spinoff game, Horrorclix. Instead of battling superheroes, you amass an army of warring monsters and demons, mostly along the established (but modified) parameters of Heroclix.
Due to a shipping error from my friendly Heroclix distributor, I was lucky enough to end up with two of these Marvel Zombies, both Hulk and Colonel America. My toy luck has been pretty stellar lately, and I can only assume that the universe is karmically balancing out the rest of my quietly necrotizing existence. If a Destroyer action figure on the toy shelf means that I can smile through another soulless day, I think I’ll accept that as fair compensation.
While I love these plastic chunks, they’re also proving to be a sound investment. At this point, I think I’ve amassed a few thousand dollars’ worth of rare gaming miniatures. Heroclix values are determined by the rarity of a figure, its ability within a game, and lastly, how neat the character is in terms of the original comics. Piece values fluctuate most significantly when a new piece comes along with comparable or superior powers that might be substituted for another rare piece.
So, basically, zombies are enormously awesome. But honestly, they’re going to have to put up a fight if they want to match the total awesomeness of the Super Apes. Not only can you send an army of the undead into battle, but you can also gird an angry cadre of simians to take down your opponent, which has pretty much been a dream of mine since I saw The Wizard of Oz. Send a thousand of ‘em out to battle your foes, and then call them back to the thousand typewriters that I’ve set up and wait for the money to roll in. The logic is flawless.
Heroclix is truly an addictive game, and once you learn the basic principles, having thousands of tiny plastic heroes that are both sexy AND practical is a pretty rockin’ value. Moreso if they’re Zombies.
