Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comics Discussion Thread!

[Kain]

Covers for Army of Darkness Forever issue #4 are out!

 

[MaidOfKandar]

Description: In this issue: Excitement and horror oscillate across three timelines as Future Ash recruits robots to reassemble the Necronomicon, Bad Ash sends his mini-minions into the Internet, and Sheila loses the Wiseman in the woods – possibly forever!
Issue streets January 17
Covers in order drawn by Francesco Mattina, Arthur Suydam, Tony Fleecs and Nick Dragotta

 

[Swofty]

.. Bad Ash sends his mini-minions into the Internet ...

They'll probably end up here then at some point. Thanks for the heads up M.O.K. ..

 

[MaidOfKandar]

HEH! You're welcome!

 

[MaidOfKandar]

Huh, I don't know what happened to it, but I posted solicits and covers for February last week! Going in to do this again.

ETA: never mind, up on the main page here.

Even more importantly: the series is slated to extend its run and exceed six issues, which is a rarity for AOD comics these days.

 

[xage]

Recently got this, awesome addition to my Evil Dead Collection! Received it from CGC after the event with Sam Raimi and Ted Raimi in Son of Monsterpalooza!

 

[Kain]

Covers for issue #6 are out! The first two are real bangers.

 

[MCT28]

I noticed it the main Evil Dead Archive page that it said AOD Forever #6 was going to be the last issue, but it actually got an extension: https://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/pressrelshow.html?display=c2406d95-ba84-ee11-80c4-b083fed06a4f

Tony Fleecs actually let that little fact slip in an interview way back in September, saying it's going to at least 12 issues, but Dynamite sent out a formal press release earlier this month announcing the additional issues.

 

[Kain]

I noticed it the main Evil Dead Archive page that it said AOD Forever #6 was going to be the last issue, but it actually got an extension: https://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/pressrelshow.html?display=c2406d95-ba84-ee11-80c4-b083fed06a4f

Tony Fleecs actually let that little fact slip in an interview way back in September, saying it's going to at least 12 issues, but Dynamite sent out a formal press release earlier this month announcing the additional issues.

Thanks for the correction!

 

[MCT28]

Anybody else here reading AOD Forever? My thoughts on all three issues have been about the same: 1) Not crazy about the art, but it grew on me by the end of issue one. 2) Each issue has had one really solid "chapter" (#1 Sheila, #2 1993 Ash, #3 2093 Ash), but accidently makes the other chapters weaker. 3) Fleecs clearly did his homework when writing this, and won me over by including the "so I left her there" line from the AOD TV cut in the first issue.

Overall, I think it's been OK, but definitely leaps and bounds better than AOD 1979.

 

[Deadite_Scholar]

Anybody else here reading AOD Forever? My thoughts on all three issues have been about the same: 1) Not crazy about the art, but it grew on me by the end of issue one. 2) Each issue has had one really solid "chapter" (#1 Sheila, #2 1993 Ash, #3 2093 Ash), but accidently makes the other chapters weaker. 3) Fleecs clearly did his homework when writing this, and won me over by including the "so I left her there" line from the AOD TV cut in the first issue.

Overall, I think it's been OK, but definitely leaps and bounds better than AOD 1979I

I've only read the first two issues so far and I agree that the art is not great. They seem to always want to draw Ash as some punk Nicktoons teen for some reason. But getting past that, the story is really interesting. It is a natural progression of the film, with lots of lore built in and an intriguing mystery. It's been very enjoyable so far. Storywise, probably one of my favorite arcs I've read. I hope it continues to get better.

 

[DyD]

So, I decided to give it a shot and read the first three issues... It's alright. Definitely an improvement over most of Dynamite's usual output of AoD comics.

The artwork is fine. It has a distinct personality, it's very dynamic and has an european/early '90s flavor that I really like. My only gripe with it is that Ash doesn't really look like Bruce Campbell most of the time and the artist has a problem keeping character faces consistent, but other than that, I dig it. There's been FAR worse artwork in Dynamite's AoD line (the style does seem better suited to the medieval and post-apoc settings than the modern day sections, though). The Suydam and Dragota covers have been killer as well.

The writing is a mixed bag. There's a whole bunch of new ideas here that I think are very cool and interesting, but there's also a fair share of tired, recycled plot points and embarassingly bad humor and dialogue. I still don't like the decision to follow three different timelines. They don't have enough pages per issue to properly advance all three concurrent storylines, which really hurts the pacing and character development (also, they wasted 2/3s of the first issue just recapping the movies and retelling both AoD endings, but I guess that was kinda necessary). I feel the comic would probably benefit from following just Sheila in the post-AoD medieval timeline and post-apoc Ash in the future, as the S-Mart timeline is the weakest of the three and the one that feels the most disconnected from everything else (although I'm enjoying what they're doing with Ash/Bad Ash there – I just think it'd probably work better as a separate standalone story). They also still haven't given us even a hint of why there are two different futures sprung from the medieval arc, and what they end up doing with that it's what could really make or break the whole thing for me.

Overall, I'm pretty positive on it. It still has that cheap vibe most of the Dynamite AoD stuff has, but it's probably the best thing they've done with the property since Steve Niles' "Ash and the Army of Darkness" – or maybe even the original Nick Bradshaw stuff. I'm gonna give them a couple more issues to get a better idea of where they're going with it.

 

[MCT28]

I still don't like the decision to follow three different timelines. They don't have enough pages per issue to properly advance all three concurrent storylines, which really hurts the pacing and character development (also, they wasted 2/3s of the first issue just recapping the movies and retelling both AoD endings, but I guess that was kinda necessary). I feel the comic would probably benefit from following just Sheila in the post-AoD medieval timeline and post-apoc Ash in the future (although I'm enjoying what they're doing with Ash/Bad Ash in the S-Mart timeline).

That was one of my big gripes with it, too. I think Fleecs knew that juggling the three timelines was going to be a bit troublesome in the beginning, hence why it's going to be a 12 issue series and not the average five or six most of the AOD comics are. If I had to guess, I suppose the first "half" is going to be the set-up, and the second is going to be all the timelines converging (but I would be genuinely surprised if any of the timelines cross-over before issue six).

 

[MCT28]

Cleaning out my files and remembered I had these gems that I'd thought I'd share here:

Back in 2018, Space Goat Publishing licensed out the rights to their Evil Dead 2 comics to an Italian publisher called Weird Book, which translated the series into Italian and reprinted them as paperback and hardcover collections. In 2019, Weird Book commissioned Italian artist Manthomex to do exclusive variant covers for the trades, starting with Beyond Dead by Dawn (which was actually translated into "Death Before Dawn").

For the second trade variant (collecting the Cradle of The Damned story), Weird Book decided to commission Manthomex to do an unofficial official crossover with Space Goat's other horror licensed comic that they were reprinting in Italian: The Howling. When the two separate covers were placed side by side, we see Ash taking a swing at one of The Howling's werewolves breaking into a cabin.

So there you have it: Evil Dead 2's forgotten official crossover with The Howling franchise on an Italian-exclusive trade-paperback variant cover.

 

[MCT28]

AOD Forever #4 is out today. Just read through it, and I really don't have that much to say about it besides Sheila's and 1993 Ash's parts were very weak, and it makes me wish that 2093 Ash had the entire issue to himself.

 

[Kain]

Covers for issue #7 are out!

 

[DyD]

AOD Forever #4 is out today. Just read through it, and I really don't have that much to say about it besides Sheila's and 1993 Ash's parts were very weak, and it makes me wish that 2093 Ash had the entire issue to himself.

Yeah, the 1993 storyline is weak. I think the idea of having Bad Ash manifesting as a split personality of sorts making Ash have evil, murderous thoughts he might not be able to control is really interesting, but I still think that would probably work better as its own separate story rather than an alternate timeline that's part of this story. Here, it just feels like a distraction. By the way, I thought the announced extension from 6 to 12 issues was a good thing, since they really seemed to be struggling to properly develop three different storylines in a limited number of pages per issue, but now I'm thinking it's not gonna make that much of a difference, like it doesn't matter how many issues they have, it won't lead to a meatier story and more well rounded characters. I mean, c'mon, they waste an entire page in this issue having Ted explain to Ash how early internet worked, and it reads like a frickin' Wikipedia article. It's just a waste of a page. In general, the writing took a serious hit in quality this issue, with them resorting to AvED-style juvenile humor and lazily recycling stuff from the movies in the least interesting or thematically relevant way (Mini-Ashes again? Why? I sincerely hope it's not just to have Bad Ash manifest in flesh the exact same way he does in AoD, thus ruining the only interesting aspect of the 1993 storyline so far). It's starting to look like they don't actually have enough story to fill even that original six issue order.

Anyway, my outlook is not so positive anymore. I hope it improves and does justice to the potential I saw in the last two issues, but it isn't looking very promising after this issue. If it keeps going like this I don't see myself sticking with it much longer – and as a matter of fact, I don't see it reaching that 12th issue either.

 

[MCT28]

Yeah, the 1993 storyline is weak. I think the idea of having Bad Ash manifesting as a split personality of sorts making Ash have evil, murderous thoughts he might not be able to control is really interesting, but I still think that would probably work better as its own separate story rather than an alternate timeline that's part of this story. Here, it just feels like a distraction. By the way, I thought the announced extension from 6 to 12 issues was a good thing, since they really seemed to be struggling to properly develop three different storylines in a limited number of pages per issue, but now I'm thinking it's not gonna make that much of a difference, like it doesn't matter how many issues they have, it won't lead to a meatier story and more well rounded characters. I mean, c'mon, they waste an entire page in this issue having Ted explain to Ash how early internet worked, and it reads like a frickin' Wikipedia article. It's just a waste of a page. In general, the writing took a serious hit in quality this issue, with them resorting to AvED-style juvenile humor and lazily recycling stuff from the movies in the least interesting or thematically relevant way (Mini-Ashes again? Why? I sincerely hope it's not just to have Bad Ash manifest in flesh the exact same way he does in AoD, thus ruining the only interesting aspect of the 1993 storyline so far). It's starting to look like they don't actually have enough story to fill even that original six issue order.

Anyway, my outlook is not so positive anymore. I hope it improves and does justice to the potential I saw in the last two issues, but it isn't looking very promising after this issue. If it keeps going like this I don't see myself sticking with it much longer – and as a matter of fact, I don't see it reaching that 12th issue either.

I really think the route should have been introduce the three timelines in issue one, and have each subsequent issue be dedicated to one character before the inevitable cross-over between the three stories. Sheila has done basically nothing besides see a group of Deadites, tell everyone about it, and then the Deadites weren't there when she returned. 1993 Ash/Evil Ash has basically done nothing besides talking to himself at S-Mart and learn about the Internet. 2093 Ash seems to be the only one taking care of business at the moment. I get that the multiple timelines thing is based on an idea that Sam had for AOD2, and listing to Fleecs talk about this makes it apparent that he's a fan of the franchise and really did his homework, but it really should have just been the 2093 story, or just 1993 and 2093 at the very least.

 

[DyD]

I really think the route should have been introduce the three timelines in issue one, and have each subsequent issue be dedicated to one character before the inevitable cross-over between the three stories.

Yeah, that would be a much better structure for this series than what they're doing. If they continue giving only about 7 pages for each timeline every issue while still wasting time on pointless scenes, it's just gonna take forever for anything even remotely significant to happen in any of the three storylines. It will take a lot of patience to stick with this comic on a monthly basis.

Sheila has done basically nothing besides see a group of Deadites, tell everyone about it, and then the Deadites weren't there when she returned.

There's a lot in the Sheila storyline that I like and that I feel could lead to some really interesting places if given focus: Her unfinished business with Henry the Red, the whole thing about being able to sense the evil after being possessed herself, the fact that neither Arthur nor the Wiseman in their chauvinistic arrogance seem to think much of her even after all she went through... But as it's looking right now, I don't believe they're planning on doing much with any of that.

2093 Ash seems to be the only one taking care of business at the moment. I get that the multiple timelines thing is based on an idea that Sam had for AOD2, and listing to Fleecs talk about this makes it apparent that he's a fan of the franchise and really did his homework, but it really should have just been the 2093 story, or just 1993 and 2093 at the very least.

I think the medieval and post-apocalyptic stories could actually work very well together, but I also kinda wish it was just a continuation from the original AoD ending – which is what I thought this was going to be from their initial announcement. I can't help myself from wondering if that was actually the original plan and they added all of the multiple timelines crap later just because the multiverse thing is popular right now. That would certainly explain why the 2093 stuff seems more solid than the stuff on the other two timelines.

 

[MCT28]

AOD Forever #5 is out today. Much like the last issue, I really enjoyed the 2093 Ash section, but did we really need to

Spoiler

go back to the cabin?

Like, this story was putting along just fine without it, and I get that

Spoiler

logically there would be a page of the book there since they blew all over the place and got tossed in the cellar in ED2

, but c'mon, man. But at least it was just

Spoiler

Ash's hand

there and we didn't have to do the whole

Spoiler

"confronting Linda" thing that these comics love to do whenever they do go back to the cabin.

The 1993 segment really didn't have anything going on, and the 1300 AD was the second most interesting part, but even then

Spoiler

the Deadites taking over Castle Kandar

isn't exactly a new concept, either.