Continuing my Evil Dead themed reviews this week we delve into the world of comics. Specifically the world of Army of Darkness (if you're not familiar with the Evil Dead series, Army of Darkness is the third movie in the movie series). Army of Darkness gained popularity in its own right as a comic series several years back and has had many crossovers (Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Re-Animator and even two mini-series with Xena Warrior Princess). One such crossover, which connects into the main series is with the Marvel Zombies.
Marvel Zombies came from an arc in Ultimate Fantastic Four (the Ultimate Marvel Universe takes place in a more contemporary and younger world), where Mr. Fantastic thinks he's communicating with the older mainstream version of himself. This led the reader to think that a full blown crossover was going to happen, but it seems that the world he was tricked into entering was filled with super powered zombies. This was originally a new version of the Frightful Four, but the world they left behind intrigued a lot of readers, so the Marvel Zombie series was born.
MZvAoD takes place at the beginning of the events that turned a nearly silver age version of the MU into the flesh hungry, darkened world we know in the main series and UFF. Ash enters the MU after being punched by the zombified Sentry literally out of his world's afterlife. This is just one of the humorous aspects of the book that is a little out of place when compared to the other entries in the MZ series, but fits perfectly into the AoD feel of the comic.
Ash tries to tell the Avengers about the dangers of the deadites, but they think he's crazy until the Sentry enters their world and starts eating the citizens of New York. This leads into the events that we see in Marvel Zombies: Dead Days. Ash meets an alternate version of himself, who is automatically eaten by zombie Howard the Duck. He befriends Scarlett Witch and Dazzler and go to Latveria to retrieve this universe's version of the Necronomicon, but little does Ash know that none of this has to do with the Evil Dead.
This book is well written. Ash is the lowest powered of the characters. He rejects becoming the Punisher's sidekick, comes onto Dazzler and accidentally helps the Wrecking Crew against Daredevil. Ash is just an observer as the world falls apart. His quips and puns made me laugh on more than one occasion. His reactions to the characters reminds me of how he didn't fit into medieval times in the film.
The book is filled with violence and gore, like the other entries into the MZ series (and most of the AoD and Evil Dead series). Ash blows zombies' heads off in several instances. The zombies gut the underpowered throughout the beginning of the book. Black Widow is turned and automatically grabs a miniature poodle and proceeds to eat it like a meatball sub. If you pick this up for your kid thinking it has 'Piderman' in it, so it has to be for kids... well you know nothing about comics and might be a bad parent, but that's another subject all together (or you might be an awesome parent).
Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness is a mouthful to say (and type), but it's blast to read. If you know nothing about MZ, you can still enjoy the book, but a little knowledge about Evil Dead would help, at least see the movie of the same name before jumping into the book. The quips are cheesy and occasionally dark, but fun in either instance. If Marvel Zombies becomes a animated feature (considering the violence in Dark Knight Returns... maybe?), the sequel/prequel should being Bruce Campbell in to voice our chainsaw handed hero. One can hope.
9 out of 10 poodle subs.
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