Thursday, October 15, 2009

This seems like the hard way to get a Zombie.

Until I looked it up, I thought Calypso first appeared in McFarlane's Spider-Man #1. Although his return is hyped on the cover without mentioning his name, the third story in Daredevil Annual #9 is a mild disappointment, since it doesn't feature the promised Zombie/Daredevil/Doppelganger throwdown that was promised: Daredevil doesn't appear in this story. Instead, Calypso, best known for her appearance in Todd McFarlane's first Spider-Man story, sets out to bring back Simon Garth, the so-called Living Zombie, since she wants to see the "zombie whose spirit never fled his body at death." She tries to seduce Papa Doc, who buried Garth to put him to rest, then stabs Doc when that doesn't work. Classy.
I think Dopple-D there would've made a great figure, if he wasn't covered in points.
After Garth rises from the grave yet again; to test him, Calypso brings back the Doppelganger, or the Red Devil, or the Devil Ge Rouge: Daredevil's evil counterpart from the Infinity War crossover. The ungrateful Doppel-Devil turns on Calypso, and the Zombie obeys orders and fights him, in a spiritless manner. The Zombie does bite him one, but more from instinct than anything; and as a creation of voodoo, this Zombie's bite isn't infectious, it's just gross. Doppel-D knocks the Zombie's jaw off in turn, and escapes.

Calypso is furious that the Zombie lacks free spirit, but Garth then disobeys and frees the soul of his friend, Papa Doc. After that, he returns to his previous order, "Kill the Redman!" Which isn't very specific, and I'm not sure if that meant the fake or the real Daredevil, so who knows what the Zombie thought; but I don't think it ever came up in DD's book.

The Doppelganger would, though; and I do like his design. This one, and the Spider-Doppelganger, were probably the two best evil copies from Infinity War; and the Spider-Doppelganger got a Toy Biz action figure back in the day. I'll dig him up later, but I wish Doppel-D had got one as well. Although his horns look kid-unfriendly...

Panels from "Resurrections," Glenn Herdling, 'scribe;' Scott McDaniel, 'diabolist;' and Bud LaRosa, 'hoogan.'

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