This is a translated version of the articles.
Sometimes
called “Evil Dead”, sometimes called “Army of Darkness”, both titles refers to
the universe created by filmmaker Sam Raimi in the films Evil Dead, Evil Dead
2 and Army of Darkness – and now including Ash vs Evil Dead tv series. The
stories follow Ash Williams, a nobody that end up involved with Necronomicon Ex-Mortis,
an ancient Sumerian text capable of release the forces of evil. Ash was played
by actor Bruce Campbell who, since then, became strongly associated with the
franchise. The series of films gained a cult following and was adapted for
other media, including comics. In the comics, Ash travelled to space and time,
fought classic monsters and meet several characters like Freddy Krueger, Jason,
Vampirella and… Xena, the Warrior Princess? This and more, thanks mostly to
Dynamite Entertainment. Let’s dive in into the many Army of Darkness Comics.
Army of Darkness (Dark Horse, 1992)
The
transition to comics began in 1990s by Dark Horse, which adapted the third
film of the franchise, Army of Darkness. It was adapted in a 3-issue
miniseries with original script from Sam and Ivan Raimi, and ilustrated by John
Bolton. The comics has the original ending was
not in the final version of the movie.
Army of
Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes (Dynamite, 2004)
In the
2000s, Dynamite acquire the rights over the franchise, relaunch the Army of
Darkness adaptation and made a new 4-issue miniseries continuing the adventures
of the character. In Ashes 2 Ashes, the story began where the third film left
off with the Wise Man arriving into Ash’s time and telling him that this is not
yet the correct time, and he’s actually moments before he let the woods in the
first Evil Dead film. Once again he has to face evil in the woods, finds her
past self and, with the help of the Wise Man, go to the past where the events
from the third movie took place in an attempt to destroy the book that started
it all. The miniseries was written by Andy Hartnell, with art from Nick
Bradshaw.
Army of
Darkness: Shop Till You Drop Dead (Devil’s Due/Dynamite, 2005)
Published by
Devil’s Due and Dynamite, this new 4-issue miniseries is the direct sequel to
Ashes 2 Ashes and follows Ash, back to Egypt, believing that the Necronomicon
Ex-Mortis was destroyed forever. But the evil book found a way to return and
one more time is at the hands of Ash's annoying boss, so he has to join his coworkers to fight against evil. It was written by James Kuhoric
and illustrated by Nick Bradshaw and Sandford Greene.
Army of
Darkness – Volume 1 (Dynamite, 2005)
Finally
Dynamite decided to give Ash a regular title, which follows directly where Shop
Till You Drop Dead left off. This first volume has four arcs: Ash vs
Reanimator, where the character meets with Herbert West, classic H.P. Lovecraft
character; Old School, where Ash returns to the cabin where it all started; Ash
vs Dracula, where Ash has to prevent the Vampire from using the Necronomicon; and
The Death of Ash, that close this first volume and ending up with Ash arriving in
the Marvel Zombies Universe.
Army of
Darkness vs Marvel Zombies (Marvel Comics, Dynamite, 2007)
With the
success of the series about Marvel characters becoming zombies, Marvel and
Dynamite made this crossover where Ash ends up going to the Marvel Zombies
universe before the infection that was brought to earth by the Sentinel and had
to join the resistance against the zombies superheroes. The 5-issue miniseries is
written by John Layman with art by Fabiano Neves, Fernando Blanco e Sean
Phillips. The story is cannon both to Ash’s and to Marvel Zombies chronologies.
Darkman vs.
Army of Darkness (Dynamite, 2006)
In a great
homage to the creator of Evil Dead, this crossover finds Ash meeting Deadman,
another classic 1990s film series created by Sam Raimi. In the story,
Deadman’s old love accidentally releases the forces of evil with Necronomicon
and Deadman has to count on Ash to help fix the problem. It was
written by Roger Stern and Kurt Busiek, with art of James Fry.
Army of
Darkness – Volume 2 and 3 (Dynamite, 2007)
The second
regular series of Army of Darkness lasted until 2009 and sees Ash travelling to
different tim periods and alternated realities. There was also a third series
that lasted 13 issues.
Ash vs
Freddy and Jason 1 and 2 (Dynamite, Wildstorm, 2008; 2009)
It was only
a matter of time for this to happen. Ash met Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm
Street) e Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th) in two different occasions: the
first, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, is based on a screenplay from a sequel to
Freddy vs Jason film that was never made; the second is called The Nightmare
Warriors and is a straight up sequel to Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, featurng cameos from several characters from these franchises.
With the
comic version of Ash well established in a universe where anything can happen, Dynamite brought this unusual crossover that happen not only one, not
only two, but three times. In Army of Darkness / Xena: Why Not?, Ash travels to
the world of Xena to destroy a mini-version of himself that could destroy that
world. Xena/Army of Darknes: What, Again? puts Xena and Gabrielle in the 21st
Century and Army of Darkness/Xena: Forever... And A Day puts Ash finding Xena
in different points of her life.
Ash Williams
and the universe created for the films found fertile ground in the comics,
giving birth to a number of wacky stories and crazy crossovers with characters
like Danger Girl, Vampirella, Hack/Slash and, more recently, Bubba Ho-Tep (from
the movie in which Bruce Campbell plays Elvis Presley). He even saved president
Obama!
Titles
based on Evil Dead 2 (Space Goat, 2015)
Space Goat productions acquired, in 2015,the rights to the movie Evil
Dead 2 (the aspects that involved who has the rights to what is complicated and it's not relevant for the moment) and decided to publish several comics based on
characters from that movie. Beyond Dead By Dawn follows Annie Knowby and a copy
of Ash in Hell; Cradle of the Damned is the direct follow up to Beyond Dead By
Dawn; Tales of The Ex-Mortis is an anthology that shows people in different times
and places who come in contact with the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis for; the Revenge
of One-Shots, where Ash battles fiction and real villains (Revenge of Hitler, Revenge
of Dracula, Revenge of The Martians, Revenge of Krampus, Revenge of Jack The
Ripper, and Revenge of Evil Ed); Dark Ones Rising, where Ash and Annie
accidentally release Cthulhu; and A Merry Deadite X-Mas, where Ash and Annie
are summoned to a Deadite-infested Christmas theme park.
Army of
Darkness was one of the movie franchises that had the most success in comics,
spanning an enormous list of titles. If you are a fan of the film universe and
still didn’t read any of the comics, I highly recommend.
Rafael Algures is a Bachelor of Philosophy specialized in Neurosciences of Language. He is also a copywriter, content and science writer, and a comic book creator. His latest work, “Gutter of Horror: Transition” is available at Amazon – digital and paperback.
Further
Reading: Army of Darkness Omnibus Volume 1, by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi and
others.