{"id":39253,"date":"2014-03-30T19:51:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T23:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=39253"},"modified":"2023-03-19T19:57:18","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T23:57:18","slug":"george-a-romeros-empire-of-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/30\/george-a-romeros-empire-of-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"George A. Romero’s Empire of the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’m just going to throw it out there without fearing a spoiler troll. So we find out in “Empire of the Dead” that doctor Penny Jones is indeed the little sister of Barbara and Johnny from “Night of the Living Dead.” So that would mean that they were named Barbara and Johnny Jones. And that the scenario that took place in 1968, really was present times. The world we gander upon in “Empire” is set in New York five years after the zombie apocalypse ensued, so, it’s 1973? Or is “Night” set in modern times? Which one is it? And what happened to Barbara after she survived Johnny dragging her away from the zombie horde? Do “Dawn of the Dead” and “Day of the Dead” just not count anymore? Does “Empire of the Dead” officially wipe them out of existence?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Is “Empire of the Dead” continuity or official canon by Romero’s standards? Is “Empire” what was going to be a sequel to “Survival”? If “Empire” is just an otherworldly story about zombies, then including “Night of the Living Dead” in canon would mean that “Empire” is canon, so what is the deal here? So were there vampires in “Dawn” and “Day,” too? No seriously, there are vampires in “Empire of the Dead.” What’s the deal, Mr. Romero? What is word on this entire series? You see, the powerful politicians of the story are actually blood suckers, and they use the zombies as a means of sneaking in their own food source.<\/p>\n

Though the hunters outside hunt down rats to feed to lower class populations for food sources, the blood is drained as a means of feeding the vampires. So that means all the realistic interracial dynamics and looks at the cruelty of humanity is all out the window because there were vampires. I’m sorry it just does. Zombies, and their interplay with humans were always kind of a means of representing some important morality tale about humanity, and including vampires just throws that out the window. The vampire introduction just feels like Marvel horrified of being accused of ripping off Robert Kirkman. There’s already a zombie gladiator Colosseum, a shady character with an eye patch, and a dictatorial man known as “The Mayor” running everything.<\/p>\n

Every other element of the comic feels like Romero retreading everything he’s done in the last thirty years. There’s an ex SWAT member named Xavier who was bitten and now is cognizant of many things around her, including the environment. She even sticks a gun out on a thief attempting to steal in the city. There’s Penny insistent she can tame her and train her to be less aggressive. There’s the reveal that the zombies are being fed human parts, and there are plays on lower class and upper class politics in this new<\/b> New York City. Plus, don’t forge the on the nose jabs at politics and government a la the zombies being used as scapegoats to cover up political scandals to literally devour any evidence of the mayor’s vampiric feedings.<\/p>\n

Seriously, vampires? Vampires? Vampires?<\/strong> <\/em>At issue three I think I’ll bow out, allow it to unfold, and see what the overall reaction is from readers. Normally I’m very, very easy on George Romero, but “Empire of the Dead” is a massive missed opportunity to do something new and different for the zombie sub-genre. Marvel has George Romero and he gives us the recycled material and vampires. Onward and upward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m just going to throw it out there without fearing a spoiler troll. So we find out in “Empire of the Dead” that doctor Penny Jones is indeed the little sister of Barbara and Johnny from “Night of the Living Dead.” So that would mean that they were named Barbara and Johnny Jones. And that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[58,104,404,703,1151,1219,1221],"class_list":["post-39253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rot-your-brain","tag-action","tag-apocalypse","tag-george-romero","tag-mystery","tag-vampires","tag-zombie-apocalypse","tag-zombies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39255,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39253\/revisions\/39255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}