Undertaker #0
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeUndertaker #0 is the opening shot of Chaos! Comics' ambitious WWF licensed universe — the first comic book issue to present the Undertaker as a supernatural anti-hero locked in war over a hellish prison realm called Stygian, rather than simply a wrestling character in an action-adventure frame. By casting Paul Bearer, Kane, and the original villain Augustus (the Embalmer) as rival factions battling for the three Books of Death, writer Beau Smith constructed a mythology that went well beyond anything the WWF's television product could explicitly articulate at the time. As a Wizard Magazine mail-away supplement distributed inside a mainstream comics trade publication, it also represents one of the more unusual distribution experiments of the late-1990s Attitude Era crossover boom, placing a wrestling-licensed comic directly in the hands of the mainstream comics-reading audience. It stands as the in-universe origin point for the entire ten-issue Chaos! Undertaker continuity, introducing the core cast and cosmology that would drive the series through its full run.
The Undertaker #0 (1999) kicks off with the legendary figure locked in a brutal struggle to maintain his grip on Stygian, Hell's grim prison, as shadowy forces led by the Embalmer and Paul Bearer push to seize power. Written by Beau Smith and illustrated by Manny Clark, with inks by Sandu Florea and colors by Jason Jensen and John Merrifield, this early chapter of the Chaos! Comics series delivers a dark, intense clash of wills in a world where the dead are never truly at rest.
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The issue was produced by Chaos! Comics — the Scottsdale, Arizona horror publisher founded in 1993 and best known for Lady Death and Evil Ernie — after the company secured a WWF license during the peak of the Attitude Era, when professional wrestling's pop-culture footprint made it an attractive licensed-comics property. Chaos president Brian Pulido served as editor alongside Brad Gould and Gregg Pisani, while writer Beau Smith and interior artist Manny Clark (with inks by Sandu Florea, colors by Jason Jensen and John Merrifield, and lettering by Oscar Gongora) formed the creative team that carried through to the regular series. Rather than releasing the zero issue through the direct market, Chaos and Wizard jointly packaged it as a polybag insert exclusive to Wizard: The Comics Magazine #92 (cover-dated April 1999), giving it a controlled, collector-friendly debut tied to the era's dominant comics trade publication.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published February 1999 as a polybag insert exclusive to Wizard: The Comics Magazine #92; not available on the direct-market newsstand separately at launch.
- Written by Beau Smith with interior art by Manny Clark; additional credits include inker Sandu Florea, colorists Jason Jensen and John Merrifield, letterer Oscar Gongora, and editors Brian Pulido, Brad Gould, and Gregg Pisani.
- Cover is a photo cover featuring The Undertaker (Mark William Calaway) rather than comic artwork, consistent with the WWF licensed-comics photo-cover convention of the era.
- First comic book appearance of the series' core cosmology: the Stygian prison realm, the three Books of Death, and the supernatural war fought (in disguise) through WWF wrestling matches.
- Introduces Augustus (the Embalmer/Augustus Slayer) as the primary antagonist — a dark-ages druid who stole the first Book of the Dead and operates on Earth as a corporate tycoon whose company is staffed by escaped Stygian prisoners ('Dark Souls').
- Paul Bearer appears as 'the Transgressor of the Stygian' — a rival power who stole the second Book of the Dead — and Kane appears as a third wildcard faction whose agenda is deliberately left ambiguous in this issue.
- The issue runs 16 pages, consistent with the short-format Wizard supplement standard of the period.
- The Undertaker series ran ten issues (plus a Halloween special and a second Wizard mail-away, issue #1/2) before Chaos! Comics filed for bankruptcy in 2002, making this zero issue the inaugural chapter of a complete, self-contained continuity.
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