My Name Is Bruce – One Shot – Review

By Milton Freewater Jr (writer), Cliff Richards (pencils), Michelle Madsen (colors), Michael David Thomas (letters), Bart Sears and Francisco Ruiz Velasco (covers)

To anyone trying to avoid spoilers for this movie don’t get this comic. It’s not a bad story, it just tells the movie’s plot. I was expecting more of a prequel, but from what I’ve seen of the trailers this book tells the short-short version. Still, it’s got me excited for the movie. I’m hoping the film’s writing to be funnier, but I feel that Bruce Campbell’s performance will handle that.

Milton Freewater’s writing keeps up a pretty frantic pace throughout. I don’t know who decided to adapt a film into a one shot, but 32 pages isn’t enough to cut it. That said, Freewater does the absolute best he can with so little room. Characters suffer the most since there isn’t room to develop them, but the story itself feels complete with a clear beginning and end. The problem with the lack of character development, however, is nothing really hits the mark. Bruce gets no introduction so the idea of him being a prick and transforming into a hero doesn’t fly. It’s also hard to get a real sense of the stakes with the story moving so fast. It’s all climax, little setup and less character. Will the demon kill everyone? Who cares, I don’t know anyone’s name – just Bruce Campbell’s.

From cover to cover Cliff Richards’ art looks lazy. Since the demon is the only character that gets more than four lines of detail the rest of the book looks slapped together. Granted, the demon is the most interesting visual element. But it’s no excuse for such a drastic drop-off in pencil quality for everything else. The backgrounds are weak, and the remaining characters look too similar. Some would argue that the lack of detail could be attributed to the action taking place. With everyone running and dying, the less detail would show the speed of the action. I don’t buy it, and neither should you.

I feel a prelude or non-direct tie-in would’ve been a better way to go for this book. It’s pretty clear that it wasn’t a priority for everyone involved. Since that’s the case, why spend your money on it? (Grade D-)

-Ben Berger

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

Army of Darkness: Home Sweet Hell #11 – Review

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

The chances of an Evil Dead 4 happening are comparable to winning the lottery. If it was going to happen it would have a long time ago. Moving the series away from film into games and comics is the next logical step to give fans their Ash fix. The question is, can there be an Evil Dead without Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi?

As a fan, this series falls flat for me. Army of Darkness is Bruce Campbell in many ways. It’s hard to convey his reactions and delivery through text, but it’s harder to do that without Ash in the story. Ash isn’t driving the action, which works occasionally, but here it misses the mark. James Kuhoric and Mike Raicht make the choice to pull Ash away from Deadites. The Necronomicon is part of the story, but the larger threat seems to be the seven deadly sins. The sins want to make Ash the new Sloth (for some reason). I’m also not sure why the Government is involved. It makes sense that they’d be aware of Deadites by now, but it feels too similar to Joss Whedon’s current run on Buffy.

The artwork isn’t bad, but it’s not really great either. My biggest complaint is the look of the sins. With the exception of Wrath, they’re total knockoffs of The Cenobites from Hellraiser. It’s not bad source material, but if you can look at Gluttony and not think of Butterball you’re kidding yourself. Blanco and Perez do an admirable job with the art other than that. The backgrounds (in the Hell House especially) are extremely rich and detailed. In fact, it reminds me of the mansion from the Gamecube version of Resident Evil.

I won’t say that this issue’s a total miss, but the humor, horror, and action all seem off. It doesn’t feel Evil Dead to me. I’m not asking for a remake, but there should be a larger connection to the source material than the title. None of the off-shoots of this series has made a slam dunk – look at the Evil Dead games. I liked them, but that was mostly Bruce’s delivery of the dialogue. It’s possible that Evil Dead can’t be great without Campbell and Raimi, but the potential is there. I think that’s why it’s such a bummer to see it miss. (Grade D+)

– Ben Berger