Simon Garth, the Zombie, was originally a character from a 1953 horror story by Stan Lee and Bill Everett.  He was briefly revived in the 1970s for the short-lived Tales of the Zombie, where he appeared in stories with titles like "When the Gods Crave Flesh!"  To be honest, for readers of my generation, he's mainly notable for being the penultimate character in the Official Handbook.

Now, he's brought back as part of the unexpectedly revived Max imprint.  For a while it looked as if the Max line was being run down, with only Punisher still going, and Supreme Power relaunched as a new Squadron Supreme title.  But now there's a whole range of new Max titles in the pipeline.  In fact, when you throw in Marvel's recent deal with Dabel Brothers, they seem to have a renewed interest in non-superhero comics right now.  (It must have helped when the sales figures for Squadron Supreme came in and they hadn't gone up at all, firmly squashing the notion that a "mature readers" logo was holding the book back.)

Mike Raicht and Kyle Hotz are the creators tasked with reviving this minor character, and their solution is... well, frankly, not to bother.  The original Simon Garth was a businessman who was killed by a disgruntled gardener called Gyps (oh yes), raised from the dead by his loyal secretary Layla, and wandered around random stories being controlled via a magic amulet.  In this version, he's a beleaguered clerk kidnapped by bank robbers just as a mysterious chemical spill causes a zombie rampage.

Zombie count notwithstanding, this really has nothing in common with the original character besides the re-use of his name.  He has a co-worker called Layla and one of the robbers is called Gyp (singular, you'll note), but that aside, it's all new.  You have to wonder what the point is of reviving a specific zombie character if you're just going to re-use the name and do Dawn of the Dead.

It's a B-movie zombie story, no more and no less.  In fact, it's so shamelessly B-movie that there's even a role clearly reserved for Samuel L Jackson.  For what it is, it's alright, but nothing especially memorable.  Kyle Hotz ought to be a good artist for this, since he's made the macabre his specialty.  But while it's okay, it's not his most inspired work, and somehow he's blundered into giving Simon and Gyp virtually identical character designs, making some scenes hard to follow.

If you want a zombie comic that does the usual, well, this is it.  On that level, there's nothing wrong with it, and it goes through the routine competently enough.  But it feels like it should be doing a lot more.

Rating: B-

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