Ash and the Army of Darkness Annual 2014 Review

Will Ash kill all the witches and return home? Read on to find out.

The official description from Dynamite:

Stranded in the 1300’s, Ash Williams leads a war against evil as he searches for a way home to the present day. Ash’s search is complicated when his soul is stolen by three witches and the only way for him to go home is to follow them from time period to time period and recover the parts of his missing soul. Ash must once again rise up against the forces of evil and their army of darkness if he is to have any hope of ever returning to the modern world he left behind.

Having been a huge Evil Dead fan for many years I’m always passionate when it comes to reading any of the comic adaptations, as whether they’re good or not they always get a strong reaction out of me. Recently this revived series got an unfortunate negative reaction from me, as despite the series proving to be good on the whole that issue felt like a waste (Ash and the Army of Darkness #4). Fortunately however this issue is much better as though far from perfect it has a extremely interesting plot.

Shannon Eric Denton manages to harness the fun wacky tone that made Ash one of the most beloved cult icons of B list horror, creating a relatively unique story with it. I use the word relatively as it’s not as if we’ve never seen a hero battling a witch before. Despite this Denton takes us down an ever twisting road in this story, predictably not allowing our hero any form of pleasure (well almost none). He combines this with humorous dialogue that is more than appropriate for an Ash tale, and overall he’s created a fun and quirky one-shot Annual.

Nacho Tenorio gives us some very lively artwork that suits Denton’s story brilliantly, also fitting in with the style that Dennis Calero has created for the main series. It does however not have quite the same intensity as Calero’s as despite being overall very good with tremendous layouts it doesn’t stand out as much. Despite this it’s hard to give much fault to Tenorio’s art, as besides there being some panels that were lacking in detail, as well as general preference there isn’t really anything to complain about.

Ash and the Army of Darkness‘ 2014 Annual is as Ash would say… Groovy! Hard to resist that quote. Anyway pick this up as if like me you were disappointed with the last issue of the main series as this will restore your faith in the Ash and the Army of Darkness comic franchise. Recommended.