REVIEW: Army of Darkness #3

(Dynamite Entertainment, 2015) 

Story by Cullen Bunn
Art by Larry Watts

I’m somewhat of a fan of the Evil Dead/ Army of Darkness franchise, but this is the first AoD comic I have read. It’s also a #3. I’ll be honest and say some of it when over my head. It’s probably due to me catching a 3rd issue out of 4 and just getting a slice of it. The setting and situations were a little weird to me, since it was set on a space station. That was jarring for me considering the last I caught up with Ash he was returning from the medieval times of AoD the movie.

I’m not saying setting the story on a space station couldn’t or shouldn’t work, but it was weird to me. Then again, the setting for AoD the movie was pretty crazy as well, so I supposed there isn’t anything that should be off limits for Ash. The story was still supernatural in some ways, but it had a technological aspect to it. The writing functioned well for the kind of story that AoD is expected to tell. Ash was slapsticky when needed, badass when needed, and snarky at all times. Some of the banter between Ash and Evil Ash felt off for me, but then again, like I said, I am not up to speed on the comics. It’s also been a few years since I’ve seen the movie.

The pacing and action seemed well thought out and well executed. There were a couple of other characters involved that I was new to, but they seemed to round out the action scenes well. There was a nice transition where Ash was left with some monster clawing at his face, and he is screaming something like “for the love of god, get it off!” and the action starts following the other protagonist, his partner, a young girl. You are left wondering about Ash and the face clawing monster, yet now you are focused on the other protagonist. It was a nice transition, and kind of slapstick at the same time. It looks like this is a fun comic to write.

The art was all around very good. Very clear action, nice body poses and blocking. Nice fight sequences. The plot moves briskly and the art never gets in the way of you moving along at the pace the story wants to go. It had a “Next Wave” feel to me. Just in terms of the drawings and the simple streamlined presentation of the art. The colorist had a lot of colored lightning bolts/energy crackle to color in a convincing way, and did a nice job. The coloring overall was nice. The whole issue was well lit as they were on a space station, so there wasn’t a lot of moody lighting or dark scenes to break things up.

I liked this issue enough, probably not enough to seek out the other issues though. All the tasks were performed with a general sense of competency and the finished product was nicely done, it just didn’t suck me in I guess. Maybe if I come across the trade and get the full story I might change my mind. It’s also possible that I’m not as big of an Army of Darkness fan as I thought. A real fan might see a lot more to love in this than I did. After all, there was plenty of chainsaws and boomsticks.


BJDuVallBJ DuVall is a novice comic creator, and nerd. He likes to spout opinions, whether people like to listen or not. Usually not.

www.bjduvall.com

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