Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comics Discussion Thread!

[MCT28]

I now think it's one of the worst

Clearly you've never read the Ash The Author digital comic. That's possibly the lowest of the low. When AOD Forever sucks (which it has at many points), it really does feel like a slog, but it is nowhere near as bad as what Ash The Author is in just 16 pages.

 

[Kain]

Army of Darkness Forever #11 covers are out!

 

[MCT28]

Army of Darkness Forever #11 covers are out!

After thinking about it for awhile, I believe part of the reason I've been generous in my reviews of this series has been because of the covers, particularly the C and D ones. I don't want to jinx myself for saying it, but I know I've been very fortunate that I've been able to get most of the covers I wanted so far. If nothing else can be said about this series, the variants have been absolutely amazing in a way that I feel they haven't been since the Death To The Army of Darkness series from 2020.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

Clearly you've never read the Ash The Author digital comic. That's possibly the lowest of the low. When AOD Forever sucks (which it has at many points), it really does feel like a slog, but it is nowhere near as bad as what Ash The Author is in just 16 pages.

God, that one's so rare I haven't read it yet!

 

[MCT28]

God, that one's so rare I haven't read it yet!

You're not missing much. Here's a taste...

To sum up the plot of this story:

Spoiler

Ash wrote a book about his life, and he goes to NYC for the press tour. A rep from the publishing company (the woman in red in the picture above) tags along with Ash to help boost his social media following as another way to increase sales for said book. Ash gets an Internet troll sending him death threats (see pic above), who eventually shows up at Ash's book signing with the Necronomicon. Of course, the book "activates" and the troll gets possessed (or maybe he was possessed before? It's not exactly clear on that), as well as two random people. Ash kills the two randoms in two panels (oh yeah, Ash also explicitly says that they're elderly/crippled before all this started) and gives chase to the troll, who opens up a portal. I guess they figured that since the second Xena/AOD crossover already did the whole "going into the worlds of famous books" thing, the portal just dumps Ash into the NY subway. The troll is standing on the tracks when a subway comes barreling down the line, and for some reason, Ash jumps in front of the train to save the guy from getting squashed. Both Ash and the troll make it to safety, and I guess the Necronomicon was destroyed by the train, because the guy is immediately released of his possession and arrested. Ash looks around to see that people have been livestreaming Ash's deed, which has significantly increased his social media following. Everyone holding a cellphone cheers for Ash, and they go out for drinks at McSorley's. The end.

It should also be noted that the story switches to a different artist half-way through that heavily relies on filtered 3D models and photographs, but that doesn't really matter since the first artist's pages all look so radically different. I pity anyone who paid $18 or $30 for this.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

OK, I never managed to get my hands on that one - not the worst AOD comic I've read but lord that's not good.

 

[MCT28]

There was a livestream this morning on the official Dynamite Entertainment YouTube with Ron Marz, who wrote the Prophecy crossover series (which Ash Williams was a part of). While he doesn't mention Ash but once during the interview, Marz reveals that Ash was added to the crossover's roster after plans to add the pulp heroes Dynamite had the rights to at the time (like The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Spider) fell through.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

OK, that's interesting. At least they're not letting the rights founder after this latest batch ends.

 

[AlvinB]

With the permission of all mods, I'm opening a new thread for discussing the ongoing Dynamite Comics run!

Here's the cover of the next issue of the Hail to the Queen arc:

I'm currently two issues behind, so I'll just give my thoughts on the arc really quickly, then open the floor to debate: Spoilers for issues 1-8 under here:

Spoiler

I was really, really excited for this arc, and the first three issues kept me going: who wouldn't want to watch Ash kill Deadite Nazis in Brazil with his female counterpart from another world. I loved the execution and idea behind Ashley K Williams and what they did with her.

Buuut the last three or so issues have lost their way a bit, starting with a confusing split in which Ashley K. kills an alternate version of Ash in an alternate version of Kandarian hell. This is apparently the version of Ash who resides in the Regeneration video game, judging from the existence of Sam the Deadite as his sidekick. That sends us into what I think's been the best part of the storyline thus far: a trip into Ash's adolescence, where we find out he and Linda were junior high school sweethearts and he had no idea how to ask her out on a date.

Apparently, the "Ash Prime" of the storyline's the one who was tossed into 70's Japan, then back home again, after taking a side-trip to the Prohibition era. I liked this little fill-in on Ash and Cheryl's grandpa here: they're descended from a G-Man, and Ash is, in a way, named after him (the J stands for James). I'm looking forward to seeing how they're gonna wrap this up, and I hope they can recover from their missteps.

Also upcoming: Army of Darkness vs Hack/Slash, where Ash teams up with Cassie Hack to kill demons. Whoever did the variant covers has a fondness for comic art:

https://studyhelper.com/argumentative-essay-samples

wow looks great!

 

[MCT28]

AOD Forever #9 thoughts:
* 1993 section: This issue really really made me realize just what a waste the first handful of chapters of the 1993 section were, because now we're actually getting to part everyone wanted to see. We didn't need several sections of Evil Ash trying to figure out the Internet, or getting arrested for killing some random dude at S-Mart. Hell, why couldn't he have been the one to get the pages at the cabin and start the apocalypse there instead of wasting those chapters with 2093 Ash? Regardless, I'm happy now that Ash gets into full-blown angry ass-kicking mode, and gets best line of this series so far: "You should know better than anyone, I don't care at all if the 'darkness has fallen.' I don't care whose world it is either. I'm just happy I get to beat the shit out of you again."
* 1300 AD section: Again, pulling from a concept we already saw in Ash and the Army of Darkness. I guess Fleecs really didn't know what else to do in 1300 AD besides "put Evil Ash together again so he can be in 1993." Not much to say other than it's certainly a... unique(?) way to get possessed by a Deadite...

The cracks of the "first act" (1-6) are really starting to show now that we're at this point in the story. So much could have been done differently that now I'm sad this was how the big 30th anniversary special was handled. We're on course now, but far too many people have jumped ship to care.

 

[Kain]

Covers for the final issue of Army of Darkness Forever are out:

 

[MCT28]

Covers for the final issue of Army of Darkness Forever are out:

Fleecs definitely had the best covers in this series. I got his covers for 1 and 8, and I'm starting to regret not picking up the others. Heck, when I got #8 (Evil Ash and the skeleton soldiers), the guy at the comic shop even said "that's a badass cover."

 

[Kain]

I'm really curious about what the next AOD spin-off will be and how long we will have to wait.

 

[MCT28]

I'm really curious about what the next AOD spin-off will be and how long we will have to wait.

Not long I'm sure. Just from 2020 up to AOD Forever #12, there's been 42 issues of AOD comics (three regular series and two crossovers), so it's been pretty steady.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

I'm really curious about what the next AOD spin-off will be and how long we will have to wait.

I can answer that one, since it's buried in the blurb for issue 12:

This is it - it all ends here! The timelines have merged and our players are all in place for a glorious blowout orchestrated by the pure evil that is the Necronomicon! Where will fate send Ash next? Find out in the fearsome finale of Army of Darkness Forever!
And be sure to be here next month for the first-ever Army of Darkness Gore-tacular!

Not sure what that entails, naturally, but it looks like we're gonna get another Halloween special, at least!

 

[MCT28]

And be sure to be here next month for the first-ever Army of Darkness Gore-tacular!

Not sure what that entails, naturally, but it looks like we're gonna get another Halloween special, at least!

Probably just another 48-page special. Barring the digital-exclusive "Ash The Author", they haven't done an AOD one-shot since 2018, so we're long overdue for it.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

Yep, sounds like it'll be some kind of one-shot!

 

[MCT28]

Comic book artist Larry Watts (who did the interior artwork for Evil Dead 2: Revenge of Hitler, covers for Evil Dead 2: Cradle of The Damned, and the interior art of Army of Darkness: Ash In Space) was chit-chatting over on r/EvilDead and revealed that Revenge of Hitler was originally pitched as an "Ash vs Trump" comic.

He was also asked about what it was like working with StudioCanal on ED2 vs working with MGM on AOD, and then revealed that there were plans for a "Machete vs Army of Darkness" comic. I guess the world wasn't ready for Danny Trejo vs the Deadites...

 

[MCT28]

So that HorrorHound magazine doing a retrospective on the Evil Dead trilogy has a selection covering the Space Goat Evil Dead 2 comics, which is directly taken from a book they published last year called HALFTONE HORRORS The History of Horror Movie Comic Books, which sets out to cover every officially licensed comic based on a horror movie. Dark Horse's Army of Darkness #1 is hidden in the shadows on the book's cover, and other Evil Dead-related comic covers have appeared in other material related to this book, so it's definitely safe to say that they're covered in it. I might have to pick up a copy of this sometime...

 

[MaidOfKandar]

Comic book artist Larry Watts (who did the interior artwork for Evil Dead 2: Revenge of Hitler, covers for Evil Dead 2: Cradle of The Damned, and the interior art of Army of Darkness: Ash In Space) was chit-chatting over on r/EvilDead and revealed that Revenge of Hitler was originally pitched as an "Ash vs Trump" comic.

He was also asked about what it was like working with StudioCanal on ED2 vs working with MGM on AOD, and then revealed that there were plans for a "Machete vs Army of Darkness" comic. I guess the world wasn't ready for Danny Trejo vs the Deadites...

OK that's fascinating