XXXombies (Comics) | Review

Porn and zombies rarely share the same sentence. Adult film studios of the 1970s operated in the shadows of society but writer Rick Remender (Captain America: Castaway in Dimension Z, Venom: Savage Six) hurls that grimy world headfirst into raw zombie apocalypse territory with XXXombies, a limited series from Image Comics.

XXXombies is the first title under Crawl Space, a horror comic line of Image Comics. It cranks up the exploitation factor to maximum overdrive– think less The Walking Dead, more Dawn of the Dead filtered through a gritty 70s drive-in theater projection booth running on cheap film stock.

Remender combines porn industry chaos with the ongoing undead carnage in ways designed to shock even seasoned horror readers. The premise alone guarantees serious controversy– adult performers shooting explicit sexual content while Los Angeles rapidly transforms into a zombie-infested quarantine zone outside of their doors.

Here's the thing– this isn't your typical zombie survival story. Crawl Space: XXXombies operates as both a zombie thriller and exploitation film satire. The creative team clearly understands that sometimes the best horror comes from fully embracing the absurd rather than running from it.

Set in 1977 Los Angeles, the story centers on Wong Hung Lau, a sleazy, exploitative porno film producer drowning in massive debt to dangerous people. His desperate solution to this urgent problem? Gather a group of adult performers for an intensive weekend of shooting some porn to generate much-needed cash and pay the mob.

While they're isolated in their filming location, a zombie outbreak sweeps through L.A., turning the city into a quarantined nightmare. When the crew emerges from their secluded shoot, they discover their world has now become a living hell populated by hordes of flesh-eating undead.

The adult performers bring unique apocalypse survival dynamics– people who are already used to exploitation and routinely operating outside social norms now confronting complete societal breakdown. Some eagerly embrace violence as necessary strategy, others struggle desperately.

What follows is a desperate, ugly fight for survival that combines zombie horror tropes with the gritty aesthetic of 70s exploitation cinema. The protagonists must navigate through the zombie hordes while trying to deal with their own survival instincts and the harsh reality that their past lives have now been entirely destroyed for good.

The story doesn't shy away from the darker implications of its own premise. Remender uses the zombie apocalypse as a raw backdrop to boldly explore themes of desperation, exploitation and human nature when society suddenly collapses during a catastrophic crisis leaving no survivors.

1970s pornographic industry setting proves integral rather than just backdrop. These characters start from society's margins, making their slide into lawlessness feel quite inevitable. Remender explores how people who often exploit each other professionally handle these situations where exploitation shifts to sheer life-or-death survival.

The characters aren't conventional heroes– they're deeply flawed people making questionable decisions in impossible circumstances. This approach creates real tension because you're never quite certain who will survive or what lines they'll cross and what they'll sacrifice to stay alive.

The pacing moves at breakneck speed, with each issue steadily escalating both the violence and chaos. Remender deftly balances those gross-out horror moments with character development, ensuring the story maintains its emotional weight despite progressively more extreme content.

Each of the four issues systematically raises stakes– starting with basic survival during a zombie apocalypse, going through resource scarcity and brutal territorial conflicts with other survivors, ultimately forcing characters into moral choices about betrayal, murder and exactly what they'll sacrifice in a moment just to continue breathing.

The zombie threat feels viscerally dangerous, with creative kills and practical consequences for every mistake the characters make. The script moves efficiently between action sequences and character beats, maintaining solid forward momentum without ever sacrificing narrative depth.

Remender's writing finds the right balance between exploitation elements and dark storytelling. The dialogue feels genuinely authentic to the seedy 70s setting, never sliding into caricature. He understands that effective exploitation horror needs solid character foundations to make all the extreme moments land with real, visceral impact.

Artist Kieron Dwyer (Captain America: Bloodstone Hunt, Superman: The Trial of Superman) and Tony Moore (Battle Pope: Genesis, Fear Agent: I Against I) deliver art that perfectly captures the grindhouse aesthetic Remender is aiming for. The visual tone never once misses its gritty mark.

Moore showcases that distinctive zombie design philosophy he perfected on The Walking Dead, while Dwyer's meticulous linework provides essential gritty texture. The deliberately rough art-style matches the brutal tone well, with those zombie designs proving particularly effective and threatening enough to keep any reader on edge.

Moore and Dwyer don't shy away from drawing both explicit sexual content and extreme visual gore with equal unflinching detail, boldly showing graphic dismemberment, sexual violence and the deeply disturbing visual intersection of both controversial themes without any reservations.

Crawl Space: XXXombies does quite well as homage to exploitation films and zombie horror. It's not for everyone– the content is extreme and these themes are deliberately provocative but for readers who appreciate horror comics that take risks and challenge expectations, this four-issue limited series delivers what it promises outright.

XXXombies contains graphic depictions of sexual situations, extreme violence including torture and dismemberment, sexual exploitation themes and content that quite deliberately combines adult material with horror in ways that certain readers will find deeply disturbing and offensive.

The creative team understands their genre and executes it skillfully with confidence. This isn't cheap shock value for its own sake– it's a carefully crafted story using extreme content just to explore themes about survival, morality and human nature unraveling under intense pressure.

If you can handle the content and appreciate a well-executed horror comic that never pulls any punches, XXXombies earns its place among the more memorable zombie stories in comics. Just don't expect to find this one in the all-ages section. This is strictly a series for readers who want their horror unapologetically unfiltered and raw.

Crawl Space: XXXombies is a four-issue Image Comics limited series by Rick Remender, collected in trade paperback or Omnibus format, available in print through local comic-book retailers and online storefronts, as well as digitally through ComiXology, Kindle and other e-book platforms.