Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes
Devil's Due Publishing Continues the Cult Horror Franchise in Comics
Sep 15, 2008
- Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes
- 4 Issue Mini-Series
- Published by Devil's Due Publishing and Dynamite Entertainment
- Writer: Andy Hartnell
- Pencils: Nick Bradshaw
- Colors: Etienne St-Laurent
- Letters: Josh Johnson
When it comes to cult horror movies--indeed, cult flicks in general--you’d be hard pressed to find a series with a more rabidly devoted fan base than that of director Sam Raimi’s (Spider-Man, The Quick and the Dead, Darkman) Evil Dead trilogy. Since the first Evil Dead was released in 1981, fans have been hungry for more.
Devil’s Due Publishing and Dynamite Entertainment have heard that call and continued the film series--the last installment of the trilogy, the campy Army of Darkness, was released in 1992--in comic book form.
Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes, the mini-series that kicked off an entire line of AoD comics--picks up immediately after Army of Darkness and continues the adventures of everyone’s favorite lovable bastard of a reluctant hero, Ash J. Williams.
The Further Adventures of Ash Williams, Chosen One
After his misadventures in the 13th century with the Necronomicon Ex Mortis as detailed in the film Army of Darkness, Ash Williams has attempted to return to a semblance of a normal life, working at S-Mart and just eking out a living, happy to be free of the evil Necronomicon’s influence.
Of course, in the Evil Dead universe, nothing is ever so simple.
Finding that some of the horrors from the past have followed him to the present, Ash discovers that the spell designed to send him back to his own time has actually shot him to a point before he first tangled with the forces of the evil book of the dead. Before his girlfriend died, before the evil got into his hand and he lopped it off at the wrist--in short, before Ash’s world went completely crazy.
With the wise man who gave him the means to return to his own time slipping into the future and becoming his partner in crime, Ash sets out to undo what is destined to go horribly wrong…
Tech Specs and Final Verdict
Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes is one of those rare media tie-ins that is a delight to read. All too often, a well loved movie translates as flat and lifeless on the comic page, but Ashes 2 Ashes is wonderful and vibrant.
Andy Hartnell’s writing is somewhat derivative, recycling lines from the movie liberally instead of introducing fresh content, but somehow, it still works. Ash sounds like Ash and the spirit of the book is very much in tune with the movie it’s based on.
The real treat, however, is Nick Bradshaw’s pencils. One of the hardest things for any comic artist to accomplish is to take a flesh and blood actor--especially one with a decidedly obsessively picky audience--and turn them into a believable facsimile on the comics page. Bradshaw takes Bruce Campbell--every nuance, every quirked brow and every smarmy smirk--and brings him to life on paper, something that no artist before or since has accomplished so admirably.
In addition to this, Bradshaw’s cartoon style is well suited to the lighter side of the Evil Dead universe and brings a humorously macabre dimension to the storyline. Even the coloring by Etienne St-Laurent compliments the other elements of the Ashes 2 Ashes. Virtually nothing about the mini-series can be nitpicked, even from a hardcore franchise fan’s perspective.
For everyone that ever wondered ‘Whatever happened to Ash?’, Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes answers the question in a satisfying fashion. For Evil Dead fans, this mini-series is one not to be missed.
