Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comics Discussion Thread!

[Hurley]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

For me, the quality of Dynamite's Army of Darkness stories started to fall rapidly after Ashes to Ashes. I stopped reading around all the League of Light stuff. It just doesn't have any appealing Evil Dead feeling for me (or any other for that matter). That being said, I like the new Space Goat Productions run.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

League of Light was a total nadir, I agree - I have no idea what they were trying to do, parody superhero comics or pay tribute to them, but the whole idea didn't work.

 

[EvilStarsteam]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

I started reading the comics in 2013 with their Volume Three series, and they was pretty awful, almost made me not bother to keep up with the series.

I liked mostly everything that was in Volume One (omnibuses Vol 1 and 2) but Vol Two is where it started to go downhill for me (I did like Hellbillies and Deadnecks). Ash and the AOD picked it back up for a tiny while. The only cross-overs I really enjoyed were the Darkman one, Marvel Zombies, and the first FvJvA, but some of the others were at least fun like the Xena ones.

 

[Hurley]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

I started reading the comics in 2013 with their Volume Three series, and they was pretty awful, almost made me not bother to keep up with the series.

I liked mostly everything that was in Volume One (omnibuses Vol 1 and 2) but Vol Two is where it started to go downhill for me (I did like Hellbillies and Deadnecks). Ash and the AOD picked it back up for a tiny while. The only cross-overs I really enjoyed were the Darkman one, Marvel Zombies, and the first FvJvA, but some of the others were at least fun like the Xena ones.

I kinda liked Army of Darkness Vs Re-Animator, until the weird point with the rabbit hole... That was one of the first red flags for me and it basically only went worse after.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

I started reading the comics in 2013 with their Volume Three series, and they was pretty awful, almost made me not bother to keep up with the series.

I liked mostly everything that was in Volume One (omnibuses Vol 1 and 2) but Vol Two is where it started to go downhill for me (I did like Hellbillies and Deadnecks). Ash and the AOD picked it back up for a tiny while. The only cross-overs I really enjoyed were the Darkman one, Marvel Zombies, and the first FvJvA, but some of the others were at least fun like the Xena ones.

I kinda liked Army of Darkness Vs Re-Animator, until the weird point with the rabbit hole... That was one of the first red flags for me and it basically only went worse after.

Oh man EvilStarsteam - volume three was a tough slog.  It had some tiny good ideas that got buried under terrible art choices.  I still need to actually finished AOD vs Darkman.  

@Hurley - I'll never forget them switching artists and writers mid-stream on that arc.  You could tell no one was communicating with anybody else.

 

[Hurley]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

@Hurley - I'll never forget them switching artists and writers mid-stream on that arc.  You could tell no one was communicating with anybody else.

So what do you think are the most interesting Army of Darkness runs? (apart from Ash and the Army of Darkness, I'm reading that now)

 

[DyD]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

I'm about to start the Marvel Zombies crossover. I read everything up to the Death of Ash arc and the Tales of Army of Darkness collection of short stories. I agree with both of you that the quality really started to drop once Nick Bradshaw left halfway through Ash vs. Re-Animator. I liked Ashes to Ashes, liked most of Shop Til You Drop Dead (issue #3 of that arc really sucks, though). I kinda liked the beginning of Ash vs. Re-Animator and some of the short stories from Tales of Army of Darkness. Everything else has been pretty subpar. There are a few good ideas in Old School and Death of Ash, but the storytelling and the art are pretty bad. I'm gonna power through the rest until I get to Ash and the Army of Darkness. Is there anything good between Army of Darkness vs. Marvel Zombies and Ash and the Army of Darkness?

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

@Hurley - I'll never forget them switching artists and writers mid-stream on that arc.  You could tell no one was communicating with anybody else.

So what do you think are the most interesting Army of Darkness runs? (apart from Ash and the Army of Darkness, I'm reading that now)

DyD
[quote pid='5976' dateline='1449695089']
I'm about to start the Marvel Zombies crossover. I read everything up to the Death of Ash arc and the Tales of Army of Darkness collection of short stories. I agree with both of you that the quality really started to drop once Nick Bradshaw left halfway through Ash vs. Re-Animator. I liked Ashes to Ashes, liked most of Shop Til You Drop Dead (issue #3 of that arc really sucks, though). I kinda liked the beginning of Ash vs. Re-Animator and some of the short stories from Tales of Army of Darkness. Everything else has been pretty subpar. There are a few good ideas in Old School and Death of Ash, but the storytelling and the art are pretty bad. I'm gonna power through the rest until I get to Ash and the Army of Darkness. Is there anything good between Army of Darkness vs. Marvel Zombies and Ash and the Army of Darkness?
[/quote]

They're a massively mixed bag.  Ashes to Ashes is at least amusing, but the Re-Animated crossover is a huge wasted opportunity and starts a downward trend. 

Then you start getting arcs that are written interestingly but have art like this:

....Basically all of Long Road Home/Out of Hell looks like this and it's terrible.  If you can tolerate the art, tho, the writing's okay.  

The only issues I really like in the third arc is issue...8 I think.  Where they flashback to Ash in junior high, where he met Linda.  That whole arc was an endless wasted opportunity.

Crossovers I'd go with F/J/A (which is twice as good if you like the other two franchises) and the Danger Girl crossover.

 

[Joem1k]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

I got up to the death of ash and sadly, that's were i stopped for the comic book series, the only story arc that i would consider my all time favorite from the army of darkness series is probably the "Ashes 2 Ashes" story arc, nick bradshaw's art style and the writing felt right for the overall series, not to mention the fact i got really into the ash/wiseman partner dynamic they had for half of the arc, and the immense sadness i felt when

Spoiler

He gets stabbed in the back by Ash's hand, and his burial scene overall.

I think that was the overall thing that i most liked about that story arc, and i wished that there was more stories of Ash and the wiseman going on more quests together, after ashes 2 ashes it never really did feel the same to me and ashes 2 ashes is really the only one i ever really pick back up and read over again.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

That was actually a really good scene. They actually had Ash be remorseful!

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

And cue the next arc, which sounds like a direct spin-off of the first version of AOD comics continuity and a direct continuation of Ash vs the Classic Monsters.  Starts in March, written by Nancy Collins, who just finished a run on Vampirella:

Army of Darkness: Furious Road: [font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif]Twenty years from “now”: The Deadites and their Army of Darkness have succeeded in bringing down Western civilization. An unexpected upshot of the demons taking over was supernatural species such as vampires, witches, and werewolves forming an uneasy alliance with humanity in order to survive. The only hope for both mankind and monsters alike is a ritual that will send the Deadites back to the hell that birthed them. But first, a rag-tag crew that includes the Frankenstein Monster and Eva, the Daughter of Dracula, have to track down the fabled spell book known as the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and deal with its guardian, a certain Ashley “Ash” Williams.[/font]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif]Gee, I wonder what this could be a parody of..[/font]

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[font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif]by [size=small][font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif]Gabriel Hardman[/font][/font][/size]

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[font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif][size=small][font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif]By Tyler Crook[/font][/font][/size]

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[font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif][size=small][font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif]By [size=small][font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif]Francesco Francavilla[/font][/font][/size][/font][/size]

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[font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif][size=small][font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif][size=small][font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif]By Tony Fleecs[/font][/font][/size][/font][/size]

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[font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif][size=small][font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif][size=small][font=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif]By Robert Hack (Subscription only Cover)[/font][/font][/size][/font][/size]

Thank you for catching this, Elise!

 

[Kain]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

Geez, another one? I'm not liking the art.

 

[DyD]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

I like it that it is somewhat Mad Max inspired and I like a couple of those covers, but the story doesn't interest me one bit. I really don't like when they bring creatures and characters from outside the Evil Dead mythology - which sadly has been about 50% of everything Dynamite has done with the property. It's almost as if Evil Dead isn't their focus anymore, even though Ash is in every one of these story arcs. They actually moved away from it with the Ash and the Army of Darkness reboot and now they're already back to doing this? Is it really that much of a bigger reader draw than just having Ash and Evil Dead stuff in the stories? Is it really that hard to make an interesting Evil Dead story using just Evil Dead stuff in it?

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

I think my biggest problem with arcs like these is that they never, ever do anything interesting with the parody. So it just ends up being very "WHOO, Ash is riding historic on the Fury Road" without any thought put into it.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

Going back to the Space Goat Production side of things, Evil Dead 2: Cradle of the Damned is dropping next week:

And here are the covers for Issue #2 of that arc, which comes out in February:

The Revenge of Hitler arc is dropping simultaneously, and we've already covered that one.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

Cover for Furious Road #2!

By [font=Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif]Gabriel Hardman[/font]

[font=Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif]First previews for Issue #1 at Bleeding Cool.  I have no idea why they're focusing in on the original characters.[/font]

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

Furious Road #3 Cover and Summary:

Cover by Gabriel Hardman again

[font=Arial, Helvetica, serif, sans-serif]Description: Ash is neck-deep in family drama when Dr. Talisha is discovered dead of an apparent vampire attack, leading to an angry confrontation between Eva, the Daughter of Dracula, and her estranged father. Can the delicate truce between the humans and their monstrous protectors withstand such bloodshed and betrayal – or is this truly the end for them all?[/font]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, serif, sans-serif]...YEP..[/font]

 

[Elise41]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

Where did you find the cover Missy?

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

@ Elise - off of Newsarama!

 

[MaidOfKandar]

RE: Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comic Discussion Thread!

And here's the cover to the fourth issue of Furious Road, another Hardman production: