Army of Darkness was a movie about an ordinary man named Ash, who was thrust into the role of a hero against the Necronomicon and its undead followers. Later, comics based off of the movie were created. Among those comics were crossovers that starred Ash with other media characters. For instance, the comic Marvel Zombies had a crossover with Ash entitled Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness.
Marvel Zombies was a comic focused on infected superheroes from an alternate universe in year 2149. A thunderstorm appeared from above and a super hero dropped from the sky. The Avengers, who were first on the scene, jumped to his aid. One of the Avengers was bitten by him and became infected by the alien virus that the superhero was carrying. The Avenger bit other super heroes and together, they sent the city into chaos. The alien virus only infected the superheroes, turning them into zombies in the process. The comic explained what those infected superheroes went through as they tried to survive as the undead.
In Army of Darkness-Death of Ash (issues #12 & #13), Ash was on a mission to stop an evil hot dog company with ties to the Necronomicon. The story concluded with Ash exiting onward to another adventure, this time into an alternative Marvel Universe in Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness.
In Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness, Ash was entering onto another plane. A superhero entity carrying an alien virus, threw him into the Marvel Zombies Universe before following him inside. When Ash arrived, a deadite warned him of an undead uprising. After the deadite’s message, he became set on saving the human population from that uprising. His interactions with other characters filled in gaps from previous Marvel Zombies issues.
Title: Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness
Writer: John Layman
Color: June Chung
Pencils: Fabiano Neves (in Issue #5 with Fernando Blanco, & Sean Phillips)
Inker: Fabiano Neves
Letters: Randy Gentile; (in issues #4-5) Rus Wootan
Cover: Arthur Suydam
Issue: 1 (2nd printing; variant), 2, 3 (variant), 4, 5
Publisher: Marvel Comics in association with Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May-September 2007
Pages: 32
Price: $2.99
Side Notes: Each cover, like in Marvel Zombies, parodied and/or paid homage to famous Marvel comic book covers. It featured Ash spliced in or replacing a character from the original picture, and zombie versions of Marvel characters. Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness was also released in trade paperback and hardcover. The hardcover was popular enough to have a 2nd print featuring a different cover.
I found it distracting that anybody introducing someone or something well known had its own text. Although I had seen numerous comics do that, it felt bizarre yet humorous reading it in this comic.
Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness was a strange comic to read. The dialogue felt off, but it was mainly due to the zombies. They spoke without guilt, yet managed to retain some innocence in their murders. I liked the story for its quirky humor and back story that filled in scenes from previous issues of Marvel Zombies.
After reading Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness, I began to understand why many people were reading it at the time it was released. I could only suggest you read it too.
Please read it, do it for the zombie children.
“Hail to the king, baby”
Princess Powerful
princesspowerful@comicattack.net
I had to give this series a couple of read throughs after all of my zombie excitement had died down. Though I was happy 2 of my favorite things had been brought together the story did seem a little off at times but the bit of info that is given to fill in gaps from the previous series was helpful and entertaining. I did also enjoy Ash’s meeting with a zombie Howard the Duck lol
Yea, although I almost cried when Ash met Howard. 🙂 Ash is my baby.
What about Ash saves Obama?
lol
When the story’s done, I hope to review it so you all can witness my pain <3
shouldn’t Ash be too busy with Freddy and Jason to be saving the President too? lol He’s busier than Wolverine!
Don’t forget Xena and Re-animator. Yea, that man gets around…
isn’t the title a little misleading, I mean they really didn’t fight anyone BUT Ash…no vast army of Deadites anywhere!
There were deadites towards the end, but they were no match for the zombies 🙁
I actually expected an all out battle! I think that would have been a little better.ah well maybe next time.
Pingback: The 2010 Eisner Award Nominations