Coming from Image Comics, Undead was one of the most successful zombie comics ever made and helped revitalize the genre, even spawning several successful TV shows. But that was after Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore altered their pitch after Image rejected their original idea, and if they had stuck to their original pitch, The walking dead legacy would be very different.
Originally, writer Kirkman intended for the series to focus on a world-destroying zombie apocalypse, but that apocalypse would have occurred over decades and the world in question would have been very different. Instead of a modern Earth, the story was supposed to take place in a futuristic and utopian version of Earth.
In Kirkman's original proposal, while exploring outer space, the government discovers a strange mineral that turns people into zombies. As the government often does, their first idea was to use this as a potential weapon of war. They intended to use the mineral in bombs, allowing them to turn anyone not killed by the initial blast into zombies.
The Walking Dead almost went in a completely different direction, embracing more science fiction
The series would be unrecognizable to fans today
The government's idea didn't go as planned, as few things happen in zombie media. The mineral would end up infecting a large part of society, with citizens turning into voracious zombies that attack utopia. The comic book would then show the fall of this utopia over several decades. Each story arc would be set in a different time period and focus on a different group of characters. One of Kirkman's brilliant ideas was that each arc would be entirely self-contained, meaning one could take any time period and read it from beginning to end to get a complete story.
Looking for more sci-fi comics? Check it out Invinciblealso by Kirkman and artist Ryan Ottley, available now from Skybound Entertainment/Image Comics.
Undead, As fans know today, it begins like most zombie media: with a zombie apocalypse that wipes out most of humanity. This apocalypse is fast and brutal. One of the main reasons the “walkers” in this universe are so dangerous is because they are all infected. No matter how someone dies, as long as their brain is intact at the time of death, they will reanimate as a walker. It was a brilliant way to explain how the world was destroyed so quickly and completely.
After the apocalypse, the story follows a group of survivors led by Rick Grimes as they try to find safety from both walkers and other humans. The story takes them across America, and they meet a number of characters and lose many friends along the way. One of the things he did Undead The brutal deaths for which the series became famous stood out. While the story was certainly fun, it wasn't the first idea Kirkman had for his zombie magnum opus.
Kirkman's original idea for Undead It was fascinating
Fans can hope he returns someday
Unfortunately for everyone, as cool as Kirkman's original idea sounded, Image just wasn't interested. The comic premise was rejected and Kirkman was sent back to the drawing board. Unwilling to give up on the idea of his zombie epic, he reworked it into the story readers are now familiar with. But the original idea still has many things going for it and could still work if revitalized. One of the most fascinating aspects of zombie media that is rarely explored, which Kirkman seems to agree with, is what happens after the zombie apocalypse.
Most zombie media only focuses on the immediate end of the world. Often, zombies appear one day and destroy everything before anyone can react. The original idea for Undead was to show a slow descent into chaosand, ultimately, how society would prevail against the zombie threat. It's a great idea and it's a shame Image didn't go along with it. While Undead While it's a fantastic comic book series as it is, it's not exactly as innovative as Kirkman's original plans.
Kirkman always played with science fiction and zombies in the same story. There are some points in The walking dead history that this combo was teased, like the infamous ending of Undead #75, which ended with the cliffhanger of the Governor, now with cybernetic enhancements, returning from the dead. After brutally murdering Michonne, he orders Rick to kneel and surrender to the new alien overlords who have used the zombies to weaken humanity enough for an invasion.
Rick Grimes2000 It's bizarre science fiction Undead Spin off
By Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, Cliff Rathburn, Dave McCaig and Rus Wooton
This story was included as part of a bonus ending to issue #75, but ended up becoming a spinoff called Rick Grimes2000. This story was a fever dream of ideas which included things like Rick Grimes using a laser sword to fight a cyborg governor and Alpha and Beta merging into a giant zombie to fight a giant cyborg version of Michonne. While it doesn't feel as nuanced as the graphic novel Kirkman originally pitched, it's probably the closest to a zombie and futuristic Earth that readers will get soon.
Rick Grimes2000 let Kirkman explore all the absurd science fiction and alien invasions he wanted.
What Undead ended up being still a genre-defining work of comics. It spawned several TV shows and even video games. There's no denying the impact comics have had on the medium and the genre, but we can't help but wonder what would have happened if Kirkman had stuck to his original idea. It's possible there would have been more zombies crossed with sci-fi in pop culture if Kirkman had gotten his way. The success of Undead not only did it spawn TV shows based on Kirkman's work, but it also inspired some copycat zombie shows.
Undead Could have taken the genre in a different direction
Zombie media would be very different if it had
It's honestly It's not that surprising that Kirkman originally wanted to explore aliens and a utopian Earth as your original Undead idea when looking at your work history. Invincible is another great Kirkman creation and many of the characters in this comic are aliens. Rick Grimes2000 let Kirkman explore all the absurd science fiction and alien invasions he wanted. The fact that Kirkman's original plan isn't what readers understood isn't particularly surprising.
Part of being creative is having to refine ideas over time. Very rarely does the first draft of an idea end up on the page, as can be seen in Kirkman's book. Invincible TV show now. While the Invincible the comics are undeniably good, the TV show feels like a second pass: a refinement of the ideas Kirkman originally brought to the comics. With UndeadKirkman, unfortunately, didn't get a chance to refine his idea. Instead, he had to choose something entirely different to publish the comic. While Undead It's fantastic, it could have been very different.
Undead #1 is now available from Image Comics!