It was years before my friends ever convinced me to watch Army of Darkness. The first two Evil Dead flicks freaked me out as a kid, and I didn't buy into the notion that the third film in the franchise was a farce. Eventually, I did see why AoD had such a broader appeal than its predecessors, and the creators working on this further sequel in print form have definitely tapped into the same spirit. There's a goofy, frenetic and morbidly funny quality to the storytelling here, but it's also scattered. There's no real coherent plot, per se, just a diverse amalgam of action sequences in radically different settings.
After yet another harrowing adventure back in time courtesy of the Necromicon, Ash is back on the job at S-Mart, getting hassled by his boss and juggling the affections of two time-displaced honeys. Still, at least those are the worst of his problems, now that the evil book is lost and hidden in the remote sands of the Egyptian desert... or so Ash thinks. The Necromicon has found its way back into his life and has corrupted Ash's boss and other S-Mart employees, transforming them into undead monsters. Ash and a couple of pals must fend for their lives against impossible odds, and things get even weirder when Ash is flung into the far future... a future overrun by zombies.
The folks at Dynamite Entertainment are to be commended for finding a fill-in artist for the third issue whose style so closely matches that of Nick Bradshaw that one would be hard pressed to find the shift in this collected edition. Both Bradshaw and Greene bring an extreme, hectic and ludicrous tone to the book. The art follows the same cue at the script -- it doesn't take things too seriously. It's a bit difficult to follow the action at times, though, and that makes for a dizzying read. Furthermore, the artists' styles are so exaggerated, it's even a little tough at select moments to differentiate between the human characters and the monsters.
I understand that this book isn't designed for those unfamiliar with the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness concepts, but I was pleased to find some exposition at the outset of this book. Still, it's a shame more wasn't provided, because the evil Liliputian-esque Ash constructs could have used some explanation. Their attack is a fun sequence, but the rules governing the small creatures and their abilities aren't laid out.
What struck me the most about this book is the seemingly random nature of the plotting. Time travel makes sense in the context of Army of Darkness, but sending Ash to a dark zombie-filled future seemed like a completely different story than the one that gets underway in the first issue of the series. It seems like the future sequences could have made a strong enough limited series on their own, but here, it comes off as synapses firing off randomly. The plotting needs a lot more coherence. Nevertheless, Kuhoric captures the zaniness of the property quite well, and it translates well from the big screen to the print comic format. 5/10
