Marvel and DC have been in a race to outdo each other since the two became rivals and one of the ways they did that was by copying each other. The two biggest comic companies in the world have used their main competition as "inspiration" in everything from plotlines, to characters, and even marketing strategies. Given this history, it is surprising that it took DC almost thirteen years to follow Marvel and create their own zombie plague. But despite similar premises, Marvel Zombies and DCeased reveal a surprising amount about the differences between their respective companies.
When Marvel first introduced the world of Marvel Zombies in 2005 it was a novel idea. While both Marvel and DC have had zombies in their universes, neither had ever experimented with the idea of how the presence of infected superheroes would change a zombie plague. The original Marvel Zombies miniseries was fully committed to exploring its premise. With writing from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Marvel Zombies was a world with zombies so powerful that they devoured Galactus and managed to consume nearly all life in the universe within a span of forty years. While the situation remains relatively grim throughout the first two Marvel Zombies series, Kirkman subverts zombie fiction by having hope come from the zombies themselves. Marvel's zombies retain their intelligence and can even become friendly to humans once they've avoided eating for a time. What's most surprising is that some of the zombies end up more heroic than the humans they want to feed on. Much like Kirkman's work on The Walking Dead, Marvel Zombies focuses on flawed heroes whose mistakes have dire consequences for those around them.
Another important aspect of the Marvel Zombies series is that it was incredibly weird almost from the very beginning. The series' first prequel is a canon crossover with Evil Dead, the zombified superheroes fight off an entire universe filled with ape versions of Marvel heroes, and the main line of books ends with Howard the Duck and Machine Man teaming up. All of this doesn't just take place in one pocket universe either. Marvel Zombies have jumped into both the main Marvel Universe as well as the Ultimate Universe. Even the Evil Dead crossover is perfectly in line with Marvel's habit of having licensed characters like Godzilla impact the main Marvel Universe.
In contrast to all of this is DCeased. Much like its Marvel counterpart, DCeased gives readers an entire planet filled with zombie superheroes, however, the portrayal is much different. Writer Tom Taylor and artist Greg Capullo are more interested in following groups of survivors than Marvel's series. The living humans of DCeased are flawed characters, but they are still undeniably heroes. Furthering this is the idea of legacy. DCeased's first major sequel, DCeased: Dead Planet follows a new Justice League made of people who inherited their titles from classic heroes.
Even though situations are often dire and characters frequently die, there is a real sense of hope in DCeased that isn't present in Marvel Zombies. Unlike Marvel Zombies, DCeased firmly establishes that a cure to the anti-life plague exists and that it will be found. For better or worse, Marvel Zombies also has much more gore. The original series' cover art by Greg Suydam coupled with Sean Phillips' interiors put a heavy emphasis on the zombies as decaying masses of flesh. In comparison, the gore of DCeased is much more about the reaction of survivors.
DC's zombie world is also entirely self-contained. The zombies of DCeased have yet to leave their own earth, let alone crossover with other universes. Because of this, each series in DCeased tells a complete story that doesn't require readers to have to read everything else.
It's not surprising that these two different approaches to zombie superheroes are a microcosm of Marvel and DC. Marvel Zombies is a gory look at flawed humans and unconventional heroes while DCeased is about fundamentally good people trying to make the best out of a bad situation. Given their differences, it would be wrong to call DCeased a direct copy of Marvel Zombies, even if they do share a premise. Much like Marvel and DC, Marvel Zombies and DCeased are unique takes on similar ideas.