Obscure Marvel fancast of the day: Stefano Masciolini as Malcolm Cortez! In the Marvel Zombies Universe, super-powered sentient zombies wiped out the entire planet, save for twelve survivors. These survivors were Magneto’s Acolytes (though Magneto himself did not survive) led by Fabian Cortez, plus Forge of the X-Men and T’challa aka Black Panther. Fabian found and saved Black Panther, and brought him to Asteroid M, the base where the Acolytes and Forge were hiding from the zombies. Believing the planet to be picked clean, the zombies ---who now possessed the Power Cosmic from consuming Galactacus---left Earth and went out to devour the universe. After five years living in fear on Asteroid M, the survivors returned to the now wild, overgrown, and deserted Earth. The only people left alive, they established a colony on the outskirts of New York City, and dubbed it New Wakanda. T’challa and Fabian Cortez struggled over leadership for many years, but the people chose T’challa. Fabian’s eventual son, Malcolm, however, did not accept this choice. As Malcolm grew into a young man while T’challa became elderly, Malcolm began to have designs on the throne for himself, going so far as to secretly murder T’challa’s son, and attempt to do the same to T’challa. However, the assassination was botched when The Wasp, the “pet zombie” of the survivors, turned T’challa into a zombie to save his life. This served Malcolm almost just as well though, since now he had reason to lock T’challa away, as the King was now a danger to his own people. Just as Malcolm was announcing this to the village, the zombies returned from outer space at last after decades, having finally devoured all life in the universe. They were delighted to see that there was life on Earth still, and were eager to eat up all of New Wakanda. Malcolm put aside his conflict with T’challa and those loyal to him, such as the elderly Forge, to work together to save his people. At one point, he was ready to fight all of the super-powered zombies on his own! Eventually, a way was discovered for the zombies to control their hunger, and the plan was for them to live among the survivors at New Wakanda. Malcolm, however, opposed this plan, deeming it an accident waiting to happen, and refusing to forgive them for their past crimes. Using a machine taken from the labs of the late Richard Reeds, Malcolm sent all of the zombies---including King T’challa---to another universe, leaving New Wakanda safe...and himself as its new ruler. Malcolm is a complicated character. He’s undeniably a villain, killing others to gain leadership for himself and brutally beating Forge to possible death in a rage, yet he also is ready to bravely defend his people all by himself against a horde of the super-powered undead. His desire to take T’challa’s place is also not due to simply wanting power over others, but wanting to give the people a better quality of life, feeling that under T’challa’s practices they are merely surviving, not living. He even has a curious moral code, deciding not to kill T’challa’s grandson until the boy is “old enough”. He obviously idolizes his father, citing him as a “great man”. Speaking of Fabian Cortez, while Fabian Cortez is a treacherous and cunning usurper in 616, his Marvel Zombies version was far more moral and heroic, even being the one who saved Black Panther from Earth in the first place when it was still crawling with zombies. So Malcolm takes after his father----but the 616 one rather than the one of his own dimension! Malcolm is a mutant like his father, but his exact power is unknown. The only indication is at one point his fist glows with green energy when he prepares to attack the zombies.
