Once you have eliminated the impossible, what remains however improbable must be the truth
Victorian Undead is a comic series by written by Ian Edginton, with art by Davide Fabbri that sees Sherlock Holmes battling a number of supernatural threats in Victorian London.The first six issue series Victorian Undead:Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies pits Holmes and Watson against a Zombie plague that threatens London while dealing with the return of an old adversary.
This was followed by a oneshot, Victorian Undead Special: Sherlock Holmes vs. Jekyll/Hyde set in the aftermath of the first series, featuring Holmes and Watson dealing with the strange case of Dr. Jekyll.
A second series Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula would pit the detective against the good count after the novel's events go off the rails.
Tropes from Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies
- Age Lift: Watson is older than Holmes as in many adaptations.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The Broad Street cholera outbreak was actually a zombie plague and Dr. John Snow and Reverend Henry Whitehead worked to contain it and cover up the truth.
- Backfrom The Dead: Prof. James Moriarty returns after Reichenbach. Here he was mortally crippled and only survived by injecting himself with the revenant formula he developed, allowing him to retain his mind.
- Big Good: Mycroft Holmes, who organizes the defense against the zombies.
- Bittersweet Ending: London is bombed by the Navy and many people have died, but the zombies are eradicated and the city begins rebuilding.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: The British military that contained and purged the 1854 zombie outbreak used medieval era plate armour and melee weapons to combat the undead.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Sebastian Moran is a cold-blooded killer but even he is horrified by Moriarty's true plans, believing he just intended to hold the city for ransom.
- Government Conspiracy: The British government covered up the 1854 zombie outbreak as a cholera outbreak. Even Dr. John Snow kept his silence in exchange for the government supporting an extensive sanitation program. They once again cover up the second outbreak caused by Moriarty. Holmes and Watson are obligated to not speak of this to the public much to the latter's disappointment.
- Historical Domain Character: Dr. John Snow and the Reverend Henry Whitehead were involved in combatting a zombie outbreak in 1854 London.
- Mr. Exposition: Mycroft explains the history of the revenant plague.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: Due to the setting the zombies are referred to as "revenants".
- The Necrocracy: Moriarty plans to turn all England into shambling monsters with himself as emperor.
- Sequel Hook: Moriarty's survived as a head with a new lab and a zombie Moran.
- Shout-Out: As in Night of the Living Dead (1968), space radiation is implied to have spawned the virus.
- Tank Goodness: World War One-era British tanks make an anachronistic appearance in the British Army's arsenal in combatting the undead when they are dispatched to save Holmes, Watson and Mrs. Hudson. It is later revealed by Prime Minister Bellinger that the tanks, along with the other technological military advancements, were made in response to fears that the European nations were planning to weaponize the undead virus.
- Villain's Dying Grace: Moran is infected by the plague and spends his last rational moments passing on information to Holmes.
- The Virus: The zombie plague created from water contaminated by a fragment of a radioactive comet.
- You're Insane!: Moran, who is not on board with Moriarty's real plans, calls out on Moriarty being insane.Moran: You're insane!Moriarty: I am a reanimated corpse with a barely reined craving for human flesh—and only now you question my sanity?!
Tropes from Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula
- Aborted Arc: The plot thread of Moriarty's survival is left hanging, aside from a brief mention that the last of Moriarty's revenants were destroyed offscreen.
- Adaptational Villainy: Arthur Holmwood betrays his friends to side with Dracula, and before that was responsible for bringing Dracula to England.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Despite his betrayal, Morris and Seward still mourn Holmwood when they find his body.
- Alternate Continuity: To the novel. Here Arthur Holmwood was an agent of the Diogenes Club who sought out Dracula as part of the British effort to find supernatural weapons in the wake of the revenant attack.
- Bittersweet Ending: Dracula is dead and the Queen safe, but only Van Helsing and Harker remain of their party. Lucy is still at large. Holmes bitterly notes this event will only encourage the weaponization of the supernatural.
- Body Double: Queen Victoria hired an actress to pose as her body double when Dracula gained access to Buckingham Palace. The Queen didn't get turned or killed, but unfortunately her double didn't survived.
- Death by Adaptation: Mina Harker, Arthur Holmwood, John Seward all survived in the original.
- Dracula: The main villain and Vlad Tepes himself.
- Driven to Suicide: Mina kills herself by exposing herself to the sun after Dracula turns her.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Dr. Seward is unceremoniously dragged off when the group is ambushed by Lucy and Dracula's brides.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Arthur Holmwood does not get it and get drained by Lucy.
- In Spite of a Nail: Quincy P. Morris still dies taking down Dracula.
- Karma Houdini: Lucy escapes and is still at large by the story's end.
- Kick the Dog: Lucy mocks Mina for being a fool in not embracing vampirism.
- Love Makes You Evil: Implied to be the ultimate reason why Holmwood fell.
- Mythology Gag:
- Harker, Morris, Seward, and Holmwood are drawn to resemble their actors in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
- Dracula's plan to usurp the throne of Britain and Arthur Holmwood's Adaptational Villainy allude to Anno Dracula.
- Shout-Out:
- Holmes quotes Dr. Pretorius' lines "here's to a new world of gods and monsters" from Bride of Frankenstein.
- Transhuman Treachery: Lucy Westerna. In each confrontation with the protagonists, she goes on and on to the protagonists how she likes the power that being a vampire has given her. Though she reveals she's not very loyal to Dracula either, leaving in the middle of the conflict with her newfound power rather than be killed. Notably, in a reversal of the novel, she's not killed either and still at large in London to spread vampirism at her own paceLucy: [after Helsing offers her "peace" in exchange to know Dracula's whereabouts] Peace? Do you imagine I am in pain, professor? A tortured soul? Look at me, I'm magnificent! In my warm life, all that expected of pretty little Lucy was to marry well and become a broodmare. Squatting out children and dancing to my husband's whims and fancies. Now I am so much more, I had to die to become fulfilled. I am stronger than all of you, faster,—the things I can see and hear—I am extraordinary!
- We Used to Be Friends: Holmwood was this to Seward and Morris before he betrayed them.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Dracula has long white hair and is a cruel monster.
