A strange virus comes to Earth and starts turning every human male into brainless impulse-driven zombies in Under The Flesh. The nefarious zombification urges the male populous to satisfy their most primordial, sexual needs. The implication made in the comic is that men, without brains, turn into savage rapist cannibals. That’s just my two cents.

Meanwhile, the main character, Lt. Ruben Lobos, is injected with nanobots, turning him into a super soldier, not only more powerful and intelligent but also immune to the virus, seconds before the scientists in charge of the experiment get infected and try to kill him in a zombie frenzy.

He escapes and rescues his girlfriend, seeking refuge in a library, later joined by a group of women in tight, not-fitted-for-zombie-apocalypse clothing, led by a cop named Naomi.

Two months later the group is still hiding in the library, while the world goes silent around the until the biker gang comes in. The majority of the group is not very interested in what the protagonist is trying to tell them though, especially not Tabby, the teenager looking like a fully matured adult who keeps trying to seduce Lobos. (Because, of course, that’s what you do when society is shattered to the ground.)

For a trained, biologically enhanced, and supposedly more intelligent man, the main character seems to have no clue how to convince people to do what he thinks they should do. Instead, the writer seems to lack a sense of how real women would react in this situation.

The biker gang provides the only real action of the issue and they come and go without even noticing the survivors hiding at the library. Meanwhile, all of them have different takes on what they should do next, except for Dinah, Ruben’s girlfriend, whose jealously makes her suspect all the women among them have romantic feelings towards Lobos (because that is super important right now). Dinah, now enraged, decides for some unknown reason to leave the building.

This comic has everything a zombie story should have, but lacks the same aspect that makes them likeable. The writing itself, provided by G. Deltres, is violent for the sake of being violent, without reason or purpose, insulting just for shock value. This abuse only worsened by the lack of depth in the main character, who is far from a leader, let alone the “super man” he is supposed to be and whose interaction with the only other guy in the group is to verbally abuse him when he refuses to do as he is told.

The women are written as mere instruments or obstacles for Lobos, drawn and written in order to seem inclusive but with “girls will be girls” literally expressed in the characters’ thoughts when Dinah and Tabby fight over the teenager’s constant flirting with the grown man. The script, from its conception, has PROBLEMATIC written all over it.

The art, on the other hand, is not bad. Each of the characters is recognizable and expressive, with a color palette that allows for a better understanding of time and sense of the situation. J.L Giles has a very clear style which enhances the narrative and provides something likeable without diving into excess. It’s a shame, though, that great art illustrates such lousy writing.