Hello, again Biters this is James GBM’s skeleton in the closet retuning for our November creature of the month the zombie.

Another Comic Book Adaptation

On March 17th, 2015 the CW television network adapted Vertigo‘s horror comic iZombie to the small screen.

iZombie the television series stars actress, Rose McIver currently sits at four seasons with an upcoming fifth and final season in 2019.

The Summary

Liv Moore, a medical student, gets invited to a party which turns into a macabre zombie arena. Liv wakes up from the dead and becomes a zombie. For maintaining her humanity, she must eat human brains, so she began working in coroner’s office to access brains.

Eating a brain gives her memories and traits of that person. So, she helps detective Clive Babineaux to solve the murder as a psychic.
— Written by, Awinash Singh – IMDB

A Little Research

I went into this series blind, never even knowing of the comic book until doing my research for this article. Let me tell you I am a fan. Upon research, I found the show does differ in a few ways from its source.

In the comic book, Liv is a revenant gravedigger in Oregon named Gwen who fixes the dead’s unfinished business and also deals with other supernatural creatures.

However, CW’s iZombie follows Liv, a zombie assistant medical examiner in Seattle who helps solve murders with the Seattle Police Department while trying to keep her zombie self-secret.

As stated I went into the series blind. The changes from the comic book to the small screen don’t personally bother me as I didn’t grow attached to the character of Gwen Dylan, the revenant gravedigger.

In my personal opinion, the essence of the character, either Gwen or Liv remains intact.

Reinventing Zombies

What I like about this show is how it reinvents the zombie. They evolved them from the mindless shuffling rotting corpse to a “creature” that can completely act and function as regular humans so long as they can periodically consume brains.

That’s not to say those zombies of old don’t exist in this show. However rarely featured, the way CW made the brainless zombies’ part of the action is by brain deprivation.

Nonetheless, my real enjoyment from the show comes from what happens when Liv eats a brain. Much like fellow CW actor Tom Cavanagh of The Flash television series — who has played multiple incarnations of the same character from season to season, Liv goes through changes from episode to episode.

Once Liv — even her comic book inspiration Gwen, eat a brain they acquire the memories, quirks, and talents of that person.

This factor not only leads to comedic or dramatic results within the show for those who don’t know her secret, but it also allows McIver to display her range as an actress while getting to have fun with the character.

Zombies For Thoughts

Overall Biters, I’m glad I found this television series. The zombie creature to me was never that interesting. Often less glamorous and romanticized than vampires and werewolves among others.

With that said, iZombie brings a new twist on an old paranormal classic creature and has me as a fan. For that reason, I highly recommend both the comic book and the television series.

The Skeleton,
James Vaughan