Wise Words

From the back cover of The Walking Dead comic series:


How many hours
                 are in a day
                             when you don't spend
            half of them watching television?

                                        When is the last time
                                                       any of us
                                               REALLY
                                                   worked to get something we wanted?

                                  How long has it been
                                            since any of us really
                                                     NEEDED
                                                         something that we WANTED?

                The world we knew is gone.

                          The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been
                 replaced by a world of survival and responsibility.

                                      An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept
                 the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on the living.

                 In a matter of months society has crumbled.
                            no government,
                                                  no grocery stores,
                            no mail delivery,
                                          no cable TV.


             In a world ruled by the dead,
                               we are forced to finally start living.

Vampires and Werewolves and Zombies, Oh My!

There is a group of famous contagious monsters that I like to call the 'Big 3': vampires, werewolves, and of course, zombies.

The Big 3.

But the trends of fiction have shown only one to be capable of world domination.  While there are a few cases I've seen depicting a vampire apocalypse, I have never seen this done with werewolves.  However, the zombie achieves this feat over and over.  I'd like to take a look at why this is.

Klaus Kinski as Dracula in Nosferatu the Vampyre.

Vampires

While vampires' greatest strength may be their intelligence (zombies are mindless, and werewolves minds are taken over by feral rage), this can also be seen as a big reason they don't pose as large a threat to society.  Vampires keep their own human morals, which means although it may be extremely difficult for them to resist the temptation to feed, it is still possible.

Also, vampires' allergy to the sunlight means they can only hunt and spread by night.

David Naughton transforming in An American Werewolf in London.

Werewolves

As with vampires, one of werewolves' greatest strengths also becomes a weakness when it comes to spreading to an apocalyptic proportion.  A werewolf can be considered the most brutal attacker.  With their animal strength and speed, and their overwhelming rage, they make excellent killers.  But a dead victim cannot transform into a new werewolf.  This means that it is more common for one werewolf to kill many people in a certain area, then for werewolves to spread.

Also, by classic rules, the werewolf is confined to hunting only during a full moon, giving it even less time to spread than the vampire.

Allan Trautman as 'Tarman' from The Return of the Living Dead.

Zombies

Zombies may be dumber than vampires, and weaker than werewolves; but we still see them over and over again biting their way to world dominance.

This is because zombies don't have limits as to when they can hunt.  They spend day and night trying to complete one task: consume flesh.

Also, zombies have no morals.  A zombie will NEVER decide against killing.  They don't have the capacity to stop themselves, even when faced with chowing down on a former loved one's brains.

As well, zombies slow movements and normal human biting capabilities make it fairly easy for a human to "survive" an attack.  Of course surviving with a wound means later dying and joining the undead ranks.


Sure, a vampire could easily outsmart a zombie, and a werewolf could tear one apart.  But the zombie's strength has always been in numbers.  Zombies can always be counted on for apocalyptic fiction.  They leave the 'night in a creepy castle' and 'terrorized little village' scenarios to the other guys.