Army of Darkness: Home Sweet Hell #12 – Review

By James Kuhoric, Mike Raicht, (writers) Pere Perez, (finished art) Ivan Nunes, (colors) Simon Bowland, (letters) Fabiano Neves, and Stjepan Sejic (covers)

Issue #11 for me was in many ways a dud. Whatever ailment Ash was going through that made him a sissy took away the entire appeal of the book. So why would I read #12? Curiosity I suppose, and as we all know, that killed the cat.

The good news is Ash starts to feel more like himself and embraces his role as the chosen one. The bad news is – well, everything else. Ash fighting something other than Deadites is fine, but what follows should be more than Hellraiser fan-fiction with bad jokes. Wrath asks, “How many souls can we tear apart tonight?” It comes across WAY too much like “We’ll tear your soul apart,” which is one of the most famous lines from Hellraiser. The line also loses all its punch coming from Wrath who looks and acts like a whiny little boy. It’s not threatening and not original. What’s worse is the dialogue between Ash and The Necronomicon. The Book of the Dead talks to, taunts, and cures Ash of his mental ailment. I can see what they were going for, but none of it really works.

For all of my harping on the writing, it’s still a very pretty book. Pere Perez’s style really fits the world of Army of Darkness. The origin of Pride, Envy, Greed, and Wrath are highlights in particular. With anywhere between two and four panels we get the life story of those four sins. The choice to give the book red eyes is another good move. I’m against the book having a consciousness and becoming Ash’s side-kick, but if it has to be done it might as well be able to emote and look menacing.

As an Evil Dead fan it’s hard to recommend this book. From a writing standpoint, it never feels Evil Dead-ish. It may look like it sometimes, use some of the same phrases, but it just isn’t. I doubt many fans will get into this book. There are just too many changes are made and none of them for the better. (Grade D-)

– Ben Berger

The Evil Dead #1 – Review

By: Mark Verheiden (Writer), John Bolton (Artist)

I don’t know why they keep making books or comic adaptations based on movies or TV shows. There is little to nothing added to the original material that can make it better. And in this case, since the original author (Sam Raimi) didn’t contribute anything, I don’t really care what they have to offer.

The story is the same (OMG! I can’t believe it!) as the movie. Mark Verheiden added a couple of new scenes, like some back story for the characters before they get on the road to the cabin. Wow.

This first issue gets roughly to almost the middle part of the movie, where Cheryl was floating in midair, possessed. I guess Verheiden wrote more scenes for the rest of the 3 issues. I can only see this adaptation done on three at the most, but not four! This is just milking it.

The art is beautifuly painted by John Bolton (he did the Army of Darkness adaptation as well). For some of the panels it seems like he painted over the film, which are very well done, I might add. One thing to notice is that only Bruce Campbell’s likeness was used. The rest of the cast doesn’t look the same as they did in the movie. I’m also nitpicking here, but the wardrobe wore by the rest of the characters is different. (Grade: C)

-Daniel Yanez