Suite aux évènements de Shop Till you Drop Dead, Ash est arrêté pour le carnage de Prixbas et est envoyé à l'asile d'Arkham. C'est là qu'il va faire la connaissance d'Herbert West, qui convoite le Necronomicon pour parfaire sa formule de Re-Animation. Ash continue ses péripéties et se trouve maintenant confronté à monsieur Re-Animator en personne qui ne souhaite qu'une chiose : l'invasion de la Terre par les forces des ténèbres.
The crossover idea liked good on paper (the Necronomicon Ex Mortis book in Evil Dead series is just based on Lovecraft's pseudobiblium with the similar name so it had to happen sooner or later...), but it could be far better.
In this book, Ash is committed to a mental institution, but it turns out to be where the Re-animator is. Honestly, I had trouble following what was going on through a lot of this. I didn't really understand why several of the characters were doing what they were doing. And then Ash was suddenly in Wonderland. It wasn't dull, I'll give it that, but it didn't really feel like it made a lot of sense and I had a lot of trouble following what was going on in the action sequences. On the whole, I have to say that I didn't dig it.
The first problem with this comic is that, rather than being a completely stand-alone adventure, it is part the terrible ongoing ARMY OF DARKNESS series written by James Kuhoric, who somehow makes both of these iconic characters unappealing.
It honestly hurts to give this such a low rating, as I'm really a huge fan of both franchises; but, I was totally disappointed in this from start to finish, in no small part because of its disservice to one of my all-time favorite characters.
I haven't read any of the other "Army Of Darkness" comics, so I can only compare this Ash to the Bruce Campbell version. I'd say he's represented fairly well here, but he seems a little bit too overpowered. The Ash of the third film was already much more of an indestructible James Bond kind of character than the first two "Evil Dead" movies, but he still seemed to get hurt quite a bit. Here, a lot of the slapstick seems to be missing.
The other character of note, and the one that truly sunk my rating for this, is Dr. Herbert West. I wasn't a fan of the H.P. Lovecraft story where he originated, but the West they're using here is clearly intended to represent the Jeffrey Combs version. That's all well and good, because I absolutely adore that West. With that in mind, they really dropped the ball. For one, West is barely even in this. He has all of maybe four appearances throughout the story, and his personality is horribly represented even in those precious few sequences. The Herbert West of the first film was a lovable antihero with psychotic tendencies. He was wholly committed to his research, but he never displayed signs of malice. He'd do anything with no concern for how it affected others, but it was always in accordance with the advancement of his work. That's a subtle but important difference between the Combs version and what we get in the comic. In the comic, he has a god complex that hadn't shown itself until the latter end of the second movie. Even if I were to accept that they were using the West from what most fans would agree is a far inferior film, I couldn't accept that character trait overwriting everything else that makes him such an interesting character. Most notably is his wit.
This crossover had tons of potential from the get-go. Two vastly different characters with vastly different personalities from remarkably similar films clashing or uniting in one package? Ash's suave and nonchalant barrage of one-liners crosses paths with the scientifically-minded West, who lacks all manner of social graces? The force of Ash with or against the brilliant and unhinged mind of West? All this adds up for what could have been truly epic. I mean, imagine all the possible exchanges of dialogue between the two. Also, imagine the possibilities for combat. Be it against one another or working together, this crossover could've been fascinating. However, that's not what we got.
The characters that the comic uses for marquee value don't get near enough time for vital chemistry, and one of which is so horribly written that it's insulting to fans. The story is poorly executed and lacks the charm that made each character's respective franchise so great, then it cops out in the end and essentially admits that it lied to you from the very beginning. The only positives I have for it are the writing for Ash and the artwork. Aesthetically, this is nice. Intellectually, it falls flat. Hard. This comic was a huge letdown.
Absolute garbage and the worst AoD comic so far. Couldn't even finish this trash. Boring, boring boring, uninteresting, uninteresting, uninterested, same thing over and over and over. I was also reading the first omnibus, and couldn't finish that either. I suppose the AoD universe just doesn't translate well to this format, aside from the crossovers with Jason, Freddy, and the Marvel Zombies, all of which were great. Steer clear.
It apparently never even occurred to the writers that women would want to read this, and the portrayal of female characters was appalling. Everything else-wise, it still wasn't particularly groovy. I was hoping for so much more. Since Bruce Campbell and Jeffrey Combs were never actually in a movie together, which I have always felt was a massive shame, I thought this would be the next best thing. It wasn't. It really wasn't.
"You want a nursery rhyme, Demon Boy, I got one for you. Ash be nimble, Ash be quick... Ash blows off your friggin face with a boomstick!" yall.......... how did they make two hotties SO ugly.... the art is straight out of a ctrl+alt+del comic... that horrible ugly no bitches art style..... there's a panel where sheila's boobs defy physics... this sux lol not to mention the pages were so cluttered i couldn't tell what was happening.... also herbert and ash barely interact :/ There's two good alt covers for this and that's all you need to see. so sad :( horror nerds stay losing ig
A little disappointed. Herbert West is overly villainized and only interacts with Ash for like 3 pages. It shouldn't have included Re-Animator until they had a better storyline idea for both franchises. We do get more into H.P. Lovecraft but even that's sidelined for Alice in Wonderland imagery and characters. There are way better Army of Darkness comics to read.
I don't know why you'd bother getting access to the Re-Animator license and not use it properly, some great art by Nick Bradshaw but the book doesn't go anywhere and Herbet West is a passing character and is far detached from the film version it could have been anyone else. Wasted potential.
A topic which sounds good, but unfortunately fails in the execution. Some of the material feels like retread and Dr. West bares little resemblance to his film counterpart.
Nice seeing AOD take on Re-Animator, and dropping couple of other classic fantasy literature here. The monsters are very cool, some of them even create some kind of WTF-feeling. The art was better than the past AOD, not so cartoon-network-caricatures ...
So, all in all not so bad at all. Groovy, baby !!! Swallow your soul !!!
I have been a big fan of The Evil Dead right from the beginning. When Army of Darkness came out it was my favorite movie and I watched it many times. I really loved when Bruce came back for the TV show and was sad when it ended. Finding comic books like this one just renews my faith in humanity. A fun read for everyone who likes the dead.
This was by quite a long margin my favourite of these Army of Darkness comics, which isn't to say it was brilliant. But it did at least try and do something a little different.