“When a man’s an empty kettle, he should be on his mettle, and yet I’m torn apart. Just because I’m presuming that I could be kind of human, if I only had a heart.”
These are the opening words to the Tin Man’s song in The Wizard of Oz, but they also describe Poke’s central conflict in the new DC Vertigo series Bleeding Hearts. Mouse-Pokes-Golf-Ball-Out-Of-Head-Hole (Poke for short) is a man-eating zombie struggling with new feelings. A zombie’s life is filled with constant feelings of hunger, but lately Poke has been feeling something unfamiliar—and it seems a lot like remorse.
Bleeding Hearts is the first new title to come out of DC’s Vertigo relaunch, and it offers a fresh look at the zombie apocalypse genre. Yes, it’s well-trodden ground, but Deniz Camp and Stipan Morian do something I haven’t seen before by telling their story from the zombie’s point of view. It’s an interesting hook that got my attention immediately.
There’s a sequence in the middle of the debut issue where we see a lone adult female fight off a horde of zombies like an action hero. The scene lasts for a few pages, as the woman dodges the flesh-eaters, firing her gun, climbing buildings, before ultimately meeting her end. She looks like she would be the main character of another zombie comic or movie, but this time we’re getting the perspective of the undead creatures that ate her.
We learn about zombie culture, how they view the world, what their society is like, and how they relate to one another.
“It’s a misconception even among the undead that we hate life,” Poke narrates. “It’s just the opposite. We love life. We go searching for it everywhere. On top of mountains, under cities, manning military bases. We rip it, still beating, out of ruined chests. We scratch open stomachs and spill it out onto the ground in great, growing islands. We love life so much it’s scary.”
If you watch enough zombie movies and read enough zombie comics, then you already know that at their core every zombie survival story is really about humanity, and Bleeding Hearts is no different. However, in this case, it’s about a zombie struggling with his own humanity. The story opens with Poke discovering that his heart is beating, something that zombie hearts are not supposed to do. Poke hides this anomaly from his zombie peers, which is probably the most human reaction imaginable.
The comic is narrated by Poke, and as we read his internal thoughts, we get the sense that he’s more empathetic than his zombie peers. At one point Poke ponders the way the others ostracize a zombie named Finds-Whole-Family-In-Basement-And-Eats-Them-Himself-Over-Course-Of-A-Week (yeah, the zombies have weird names). Poke notes that it’s unfair to be named for the worst thing you’ve ever done and finds the shunning cruel.
“This is one of the most terrible things we can do to each other, considering we’re not really alive and don’t feel pain,” he says. “To be forever defined by the worst thing you’ve ever done. But we all have secrets, don’t we? Don’t we all make mistakes. Some things just happen, outside of our control.”
At another point we see Poke tear up at the sight of a decayed human corpse holding the bones of their child. Later, he thinks about all the people he’s eaten alive and questions his place in the world.
“Are we evil?” Poke muses. “Well, we’ve pretty much exterminated the living. Ten billion people.”
This leads to an interesting cliffhanger, which I won’t spoil here. I will say that it puts Poke in a position where his newfound morality will be tested. The question is, will he follow his heart, or go with what his society wants him to do. These are questions humans face on a regular basis, but now we’re seeing this conflict through the eyes of a zombie, and I’m loving it.
So far, we’ve only gotten one issue, so I don’t know where Camp and Morian are going with this, but I have some theories. Poke’s feelings of empathy seemed to be tied to his new beating heart, but what came first? Did Poke’s empathy cause his heart to begin beating again, or did the heart cause him to feel these new emotions? Is Poke’s case unique, or are there other zombies out there hiding their hearts? If Poke gets through to Mush, would his heart begin beating too?
There are so many questions to ponder, and we’ll have to wait a month until we start getting answers. All I can say is that Camp and Morian have my attention, and I have a feeling that Bleeding Hearts will change the way we all look at zombie stories.
Bleeding Hearts #1 by Deniz Camp, Stipan Morian and Matt Hollingsworth is now available in print and as a digital comic book.
Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, movies and comics for DC.com, is a regular contributor to the Couch Club and writes our monthly Batman column, "Gotham Gazette." Follow him on Bluesky at @joshualapinbertone and on X at @TBUJosh.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Joshua Lapin-Bertone and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
