Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes

Alright, now for the main attraction. Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes is the closest thing to a true sequel the movie is going to get. Due to licensing issues and what not with the movies, these comics basically ignore Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2, keeping the story and characterization of Ash from Army of Darkness, as evidenced from the opening narration from Ash matching that of the third movie. Like the majority of the rest of the stories, Ashes 2 Ashes is told in four issues, with about one or two action sequences per issue.
The first issue picks up where the movie left off, with Ash taking care of a Deadite shopper. Soon after he discovers that she wasn't the only tag along fro, 1300 A.D., as the Wise Man has come to inform Ash that he has come back too early! (A nice little reference to the alternate ending to AoD) Ash has in fact come back just as his past self has left with Linda to go to the cabin in the woods. Ash sets forth to try and prevent the whole ordeal with the Necronomicon. After a quick witted solution to the broken bridge, Ash and The Wise Man come across a Red Neck being assaulted by a deadite jack rabbit. Before too long, he gets possesed as well, just like the entirety of the woodland critters. Issue one ends with a bang, before leading into Issue two: Ash vs Ash. The first issue is your standard recap and introduces us to the new art style, a very cartoony style in sharp contrast to the last comics photo realism. The wise man speaks in Ye Olde English through out, which I don't really mind. What I do mind is the constant call backs to dialougue from previous movies, specifically Army of Darkness.

Army of Darkness: The Comic Adaptation of the Movie

Well this should be a rather quick review. If you've seen the movie, there's not much incentive to read the comic. It does serve as a refresher course, and the artwork is certainly interesting. I would best describe it as photo realistic, with only the Deadites having any real change, appearing more monstrous. The story is pretty much just a streamlined version of the movie, with a few scenes removed or abridged, but with at least two added. It does seem to be take itself more seriously than the movie it was based on. Gone are the goofy one liners and jokes, replaced with scenes that are more violent than the movie's, which I don't really feel deserves the R rating it has, and a running commentary from Ash. The major continuity difference is the ending, which uses the alternate Rip Van Winkle ending. Unfortunately this of course renders it out of canon with the rest of the stories here, so the only real explanation I can think of why they included it was for completions sake. Though it is based on an early screenplay by Sam Raimi. So it really comes down to whether or not you feel like watching the movie again on if you should read this one. I say go for it, just to get a look at the artwork and to compare it with the movie.
While we're on the subject, quick question, if Bad Ash started on the right side, why doesn't he have the metal hand? Oh well, c'est la vie.

Evil Dead/ Army of Darknes Omnibus Vol 1 Review

Coming Soon! Reviews of The Army of Darkness comic adaptation, Ashes 2 Ashes, Shop til you Drop and the other comics collected in Evil Dead Omnibus Vol 1. Find out if it's worth the price, or whether or not it was written by some primitive Screwhead.

Ushio and Tora

I suppose I should make some constructive use of this series, so I guess I'll review it. Ushio and Tora is a ten episode OVA based on the manga series of the same name. It's your standard monster fighting series I suppose, with nothing terrifically fascinating about it. The most I can say about is that it's not bad, though not great either. The humor is good enough, the action scenes are easy to follow, and the voice actors did a great job. The word I could best use to describe it is formulaic. The basic plot is a kid, Ushio Aotsuki, is the descendant of a famous Demon slayer, who years ago pinned a foul beast to a rock with the Legendary beast spear, a weapon capable of destroying monsters, but at the price of the humans soul, which may lead to the wielder of the beast spear becoming a monster themselves. This translates to Ushio growing longer hair and fangs, but his flesh also grows thicker, preventing attacks that would normally tear right through a human from going all the way through. As luck would have it, Ushio just happens to live on top of the spot where the monster was trapped, and he winds up stumbling upon him while moving some of the offerings made to his family into storage.
This releases the demons aura, but not after a humorous scene where Ushio and the Demon, from here on referred to as Tora, exchange insults after Tora asks to be released so that him may kill again. Ushio of course refuses and rubs the spear even deeper into the wound. Any way, Ushio's schoolamtes, Asako and Mayuko come by and are assaulted by fish demons, so Ushio needs the spear, but that means releasing Tora. Bad news, right? Well after a breif fight between the two, they team up to destroy the giant monster that has appeared. Basically Tora then swears he's going to eat Ushio, so he sticks around the temple, waiting for the moment to strike, and Ushio is making him clean up the mess he sort of started.
I can't really go into detail about the other episodes, but six of them are two parters, with these episodes proving to be the most violent. I may go into more detail at a later date, but they can be summarized like this: Monster unleahed, Ushio and Tora fight, either by a misunderstanding, or because Tora really was trying to eat Ushio, They team up and either kill the monster or learn some moral.
It's a two disc DVD set, with five episodes on each disc, with a blooper reel and a three episode comedy special, though they're only ten minutes long each, so don't get excited. The episodes are basically one that introduces an Comedy Special character, a monster that cleans the bathroom, one where Tora takes care of a kitten, and a silent movie one where most of the characters from the series chase Tora. This last one is my personal favorite of the three, if only because I enjoy seeing all the characters Super Deformed.
I've never read the manga, so I'm not sure how great that is, but I'm sure it ends better than this. Not sure whether or not it's been translated, though I doubt it. 33 volumes though, so you just know it lasts a lot longer than this. If each book covers at least three stories per volumeThat still leaves upwards to thirty-one volumes. None of the episodes seem to last longer than a few chapters, if that. Maybe on at most for the first batch of episodes are only three chapters long, but I'm sure the two parters were longer. They also left out a few stories from the manga, so that's a bummer. I usually don't advocate using scans of manga, but I suppose since this isn't available in english, I can make an exception, but you really should track down the OVA to balance this out, at least a little.