Dynamite’s Army of Darkness Vs ReAnimator Pits Brain Against Chainsaw-Wielding Brawn
If you’re locked down under quarantine and need a nostalgia hit to see you through these dark times, Dynamite comics have you covered. For over a month now Dynamite has been letting a new selection of comics go each week for free on the Comixology digital platform. When I say free, I mean free. Just add them to your cart and enjoy. The selection covers a huge range of pop culture properties, from James Bond to Turok, so there’s bound to be something to pique everyone’s interest. I jumped at this opportunity and got my hands on a horror crossover that should have happened sooner.
Writer James Kuhoric and artist Nick Bradshaw join forces to pit chainsaw-wielding time-traveler Ash Williams against mad-scientist necromancer Herbert West in Army of Darkness Vs ReAnimator. So yeah, let’s be honest, this pairing is a no-brainer that had all of the nineties to come to fruition and never did. Two of the greatest Lovecraftian properties to infiltrate the pop-culture consciousness and they didn’t meet up until 2006. Better late than never. But how do our daring creative team handle this undead union? Well, not too bad.
It’s clear from issue one of this four-part collection that we’re picking up from a previous story in another Army of Darkness series, but after a quick update on that tale and the film we’re good to go. Ash finds himself in a mental hospital, pinned with the mass murder of employees and customers alike at his old stomping ground S-Mart (shop smart!). And who else is lurking around the hospital? Well, it ain’t Patch Adams (although be honest, you’d read that, too). Herbert West has taken up residence and is plotting with a devotee of the Old Ones to use Ash as a sacrifice to open the gate to the Deadite world. All hell breaks loose when an Ash Williams super-fan and his sorceress girlfriend break Ash out ahead of schedule.
Overall, I can’t fault this story too much. It’s a brisk read at only 4 issues and the pace is fast as hell with Ash breaking out and hacking through undead monstrosities before the end of the first issue. James Kuhoric has a masterful control over Ash’s character, but I would have liked to see a bit more from Herbert West. There’s some clever use of pre-established lore and plenty of callbacks to iconic moments from the film franchises. I am particularly fond of a sequence where Ash is pulled into a deadite world modeled after Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, battles a giant caterpillar, and meets old Howie Lovecraft himself.
Interesting stuff that would be hard to pull off outside of the comic page. On the page itself, we have the art of Nick Bradshaw. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the style. This is a common issue that comic fans will be familiar with. The cover of this collection features an amazing piece by Gabriele Dell’otto. The interior work, while consistent and better than some I’ve encountered, is a bit too stylized and cartoonish for my taste. But, I won’t let that hamper my enjoyment too much. After all, Bradshaw does shine when portraying the myriad of horrors and abominations that hit Ash like a fetid tidal wave. I won’t give him too hard a time.
This book is definitely worth the read if you have an hour or two and you literally can’t beat the price. I’d love to see Bruce Campbell match chins with Jeffrey Combs on the big screen, but that seems unlikely so I’ll take what I can get.
This gets 7/10 on the madness meter.
Check out the comic here: https://www.comixology.com/Army-of-Darkness-vs-ReAnimator/digital-comic/1576
Check out Dynamite’s digital range here: https://www.comixology.com/Dynamite-Entertainment
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