EDITOR's NOTE: The first issue of Zombies of Mass Destruction will be available in stores on July 23.

Plot: "With the financial and human costs of combat in the Middle East growing, the United States military has adopted a new weapon…Zombies."

Comments: The premise sounds interesting, no? Why drop billions of pounds of explosives on anyone who so much as looks at your star-spangled banner funny, when you can drop a dust-by-morning zombie on them instead?

Kevin Grevioux (Alius Rex, the Mighty), the man that brought you Underworld (yes, the movie), is the writer of this yarn. He succeeds in grounding this otherworldly story in our own world through the CNN broadcast that plays alongside the zombie war in Iran. The U.S Governments denial of being involved in the escalating violence in the Middle Eastern country, even as they drop zombie payloads via stealth bomber, echoes of reality.

The idea that the U.S government would actually utilize such an unethical weapon is not so far-fetched either. Anyone who’s seen pictures of prisoner treatment in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, or video footage of Hiroshima will have to admit that America have been prone to crossing that line more than once. If they could do it, they would.

Moving on from that politically charged paragraph, we come to the pencils, coming by way of Brazilian artist, Geraldo Borges (Wonder Woman, The Darkness). He performs his duties with great results. His action sequences are fast paced and explosive. His zombies are suitably creepy and gothic, and ‘Payload N-00’ has an iconic look to him - if you’re going to get a zombie to hold the central role, this guy is perfect. He even manages to do what no American artist could - make the "bad guys", the Iranians, look heroic as they gun down the walking dead.

My one problem with this piece is time. As in the time it took me to read through this. I mean, sure, there is a lot of haunting imagery here, but when the first 14 pages of a 24 page comic are one big scene-setting battle scene, there isn’t really much reading to do. I don’t have any problems with long battle scenes, but when the only point for it being there is to set up the story, to put the zombies in position for the next few issues, this scene could have been done in 7 pages. Tops.

There is also a scene in which a zombie takes two pages to walk away. Two pages. I know zombies like to shamble a bit, but this guy was jumping all over the show and running people down just two pages ago.

Final Word: Good writing, good artwork and a great premise, held back somewhat by the actual amount of time it takes to read it, ZMD #1 looks set to be the first issue in a great mini-series. Worth picking up, if only to know what's going on in #2.

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