Victorian Undead

Victorian Undead
Publication information
Publisher Wildstorm
Schedule Monthly
Format Limited series
Genre

Steampunk

Zombies in comics
Publication date January – June 2010
Number of issues 6
Main character(s) Sherlock Holmes
Doctor Watson
Creative team
Writer(s) Ian Edginton
Artist(s) Davide Fabbri
Letterer(s) Saida Temofonte
Colorist(s) Carrie Strachan
Editor(s) Ben Abernathy
Kristy Quinn
Collected editions
'Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies ISBN 1401228402
'Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula ISBN 140123268X

Victorian Undead is a six-issue American comic book limited series published by Wildstorm. The series was written by Ian Edginton, with art by Davide Fabbri. The story sets in Victorian England and follows Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in the midst of a zombie outbreak.

Contents

Publication history

The first series ran in early 2010[1] and the second in early 2011 - as Wildstorm folded during that period the last three issues were published directly by the parent company DC Comics themselves.[2]

Plot

Issue 1: The Star of Ill-Omen

In 1854, a strange comet enters over London, releasing little fragments in which one fragment penetrates into a street pump near Broad Street in Soho. Five months later, Soho suffers what appears to be a cholera outbreak. Doctor John Snow and Reverend Henry Whitehead investigate the outbreak. While Snow postulate the cause for the outbreak, Reverend Whitehead discuss of a recent confession from a tanner's apprentice about the dead coming back to life. Soon afterwards, one of Snow's deceased patients is resurrected as a zombie in front of a shocked Snow and Whitehead.

By 1898, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson investigate a charlatan who has been hypnotizing unsuspecting people into revealing their secrets. The charlatan turns out to be an advanced automaton and is disabled during a struggle with Holmes and Watson. The two are perplex of this discovery, in which Holmes deduces that the machine was controlled by an unknown person, who personally knows Holmes. Meanwhile, two workmen at a underground railway construction yard come across a corpse. One of the workmen sees a gold ring on the corpse and greedily attempts to appropriate it, but the corpse comes to life and bits him. The zombie is decapitated by the other workman, but he is also attacked and bitten by his coworker, who turns into a zombie.

At Baker Street, Holmes and Watson later study the automaton and are then urgently summoned to Scotland Yard by Inspector Lestrade over what appears to be a murder between the aforementioned workmen before they are brought to one of the zombified workmen and a functioning head of the discovered zombie. However, Holmes and Watson are forced to call off from their investigation by British Secret Service agents.

Issue 2: The Skull Beneath The Skin

Despite being warned by British Intelligence, Holmes and Watson continue their investigation and search for where the zombie was discovered. The two dug into the earthwork and found themselves in an underground city dating back to ancient London. They then found a corpse pile and look into their contents to find that some of the corpses are barely a year old. Soon they are surrounded by a horde of zombies. Being driven to a corner while learning that shooting the zombies in the head would effectively dispatch them, Holmes and Watson are fortunately saved by the arrival of heavily armed and armored Royal Marines led by the former's brother, Mycroft Holmes. After saving Holmes and Watson, Mycroft escort them to the surface and proceed in providing them answers.

As Holmes and Watson are being escorted, Sebastian Moran spies them from afar and travel to Whitechapel, where he reports his news to his master - an undead Professor Moriarty.

Issue 3: Written in Blood

At the Diogenes Club, Mycroft debrief Holmes and Watson of their government's knowledge about the undead. In 1854, the Broad Street cholera outbreak was in fact a zombie outbreak, in which more than a thousand people were killed and turned into zombies in the Soho district. Initially the government failed to understand what they were dealing with until the aid of Dr. John Snow, who had prior experience with the undead, strenuously contained and culled the outbreak. In the aftermath, the entire events were covered up as a cholera outbreak and Snow kept his silence after promises were made in improving public sanitation. The source of the outbreak, however, remains unknown and there hasn't been any undead incidents since the last forty years until now. Holmes analyze his brother's information and the recently discovered zombies, and believes that someone is creating and corralling the undead.

Meanwhile, Holmes' deductions are proven as the culprit Professor Moriarty has been creating an undead army in several secret locations throughout London, and release them in starting another, but much larger, outbreak. Holmes and Watson bear witness to the outbreak and fled to the safety of Baker Street. There Holmes ties the connection of the zombies in 1857 in concurrent to a comet, as the source of the outbreak for carrying an alien disease, after reading a book written by Moriarty; concluding that his arch-nemesis is behind this and noting that he was thought to be dead.

Issue 4: And Death Shall Have No Dominion

In a flashback to 1891, Moriarty survived his confrontation with Holmes at Reichenbach Falls. Here Moriarty, severely wounded, is founded by Sebastian Moran and inoculated with a serum based on the disease which created the undead, transforming him into a zombie but retaining his intelligence. In the present, the undead has overrun London. From Whitechapel, Moriarty reveals to Moran that he never intends to use the outbreak to yield the government to him, but instead desire to spread the outbreak further and forge an undead empire. Moran is morally perturbed by his master's intentions and attempts to kill him, but is infected in the process before escaping with his life.

At Baker Street, Holmes, Watson and along with Mrs. Hudson have barricaded inside. However, they are saved by the military that was sent out by Myrcroft Holmes. As they are evacuating the premise, a dying Moran finds Holmes and Watson, informing them of Moriarty before expiring.

Issue 5: The Earth Shall Give Up Its Dead

The undead has taken London with Moriarty reigning from a captured Buckingham Palace. Holmes and Watson have relocated to Windsor Castle, being used as a command center by the British government. They are granted an audience with Lord Bellinger, the Prime Minister, who informs Holmes that his government had anticipated another outbreak only because after previously discovering foreign agents were found attempting to steal the undead remains from the Soho outbreak for their respective nations in order to cultivate the undead virus as a biological weapon. As of now, Moriarty hold the ultimate and deadly weapon in the world. Holmes heavily advises Lord Bellinger that the only option to contain and neutralize the exponentially growing outbreak is to scorch London at the cost of losing the nation's capital.

Holme's advisement is soon put forward as the Royal Navy is set to bombard London after the undead had broken through Westminster Bridge. However, Holmes is aghast to learn that the government intends to let Moriarty be burn along with London rather than having him dealt with directly. But thanks to Mycroft, Holmes and Watson are provided with a launch into London to face Moriarty themselves. Before leaving, Holmes implores Mycroft of how Trelawney Hope, the current Secretary of State, became tasked in tactical deployments in which his brother explains that Hope succeeded from his predecessors of the Home Secretary, who fell to the zombies, based on a contingency plan.

Holmes and Watson lands in Whitechapel after deducing Moriarty's location from the clay soil found on Moran's footwear. The two enter a slaughterhouse where they are confronted by an apparently very-much alive Moriarty.

Issue 6: Inferno

Collected editions

Both series have been collected into trade paperbacks:

Notes

References

External links