PUBLISHER Dynamite
WRITER Nancy A. Collins
ARTIST Kewber Baal
COVER ARTIST Robert Hack
SERIES of 5
PAGES 32 pages.
COLOR Full Color.

An exclusive Robert Hack cover, only available to pre-order customers and limited to initial orders. In this issue, the Deadites and their Army of Darkness have succeeded in bringing down Western civilization. An unexpected upshot of the demons taking over was supernatural species such as vampires, witches, and werewolves forming an uneasy alliance with humanity in order to survive. The only hope for both mankind and monsters alike is a ritual that will send the Deadites back to the hell that birthed them. But first, a rag-tag crew that includes the Frankenstein Monster and Eva, the Daughter of Dracula, have to track down the fabled spell book known as the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and deal with its guardian, a certain Ashley Ash Williams.

If there’s one complaint about Dynamite’s new Ash series, Army of Darkness: Furious Road, it’s that it goes by so fast. Nancy A. Collins throws us straight into the action as an eclectic band of road warriors are rolling through future Detroit in a caravan to some unspecified location. They find what they were looking for and get more than they bargained for.

Based on the Evil Dead movies starring Bruce Campbell, the latest comic book version finds Army of Darkness taking on a Mad Max-style approach with a tense crew of biblically code-named individuals driving fully armed armored vehicles while fighting off marauding cackling deadites. There’s even a machine gun wielding nun for some reason. They eventually reach their destination, a convenience store in ruins. And they come across the man himself, Ash.

This is all table-setting but it’s a fast-paced thrill to see Ash and the group fighting together but there’s not much else explained. Consider this first issue more of an appetizer than a meal. Collins does a great job pacing the issue, it’s a slightly visceral experience but I just want more of it. The art is terrific though.

Kewber Baal has the skill of a cinematic director. His “camera work” contributes to the kinetic look and feel as the perspectives change from one panel to the next. The layouts themselves are creatively varied adding a punch to certain events. Schimerys Baal’s colors give it the proper gritty look of this dystopian landscape, capturing a world at dusk littered with trash and deadites. There’s plenty of depth amid the shadows.

Army of Darkness: Furious Road #1 is a fun, gory, thrill ride that ends too soon. It’s a nice addition to the Evil Dead mythos and it certainly whets the appetite for more. Despite the briefness of this introductory issue, Collins and the Baals instill enough confidence that this title is good enough to add to your pull list.

Whoa: Sam Raimi And Bruce Campbell Reunite For EVIL DEAD RISE
Almost four decades after the original!

WOW, this is big news! Forty years after Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead blew the doors off and left us wanting more (which we got with the genre-changing Evil Dead 2, followed by Army of Darkness, Fede Álvarez's 2013 reboot and the 2015-2018 Starz series Ash vs Evil Dead), Raimi's reuniting with his star Bruce Campbell and producer Rob Tapert for a brand new film, Evil Dead Rise, on HBO Max – partnering with New Line! Isn't that a nice little jolt of nostalgia right to the heart?

From today's press release:

Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell – the acclaimed filmmaking team behind the iconic “Evil Dead” franchise – will reunite with horror house New Line Cinema nearly 40 years after the Studio’s landmark release of their seminal shocker for the highly anticipated next chapter in the saga, “Evil Dead Rise,” for HBO Max.

Moving the action out of the woods and into the city, “Evil Dead Rise” tells a twisted tale of two estranged sisters, played by Alyssa Sutherland (TV’s “The Mist” and “Vikings” ) and Lily Sullivan (“Picnic at Hanging Rock,” “Jungle”), whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.

With Tapert producing, and Raimi and Campbell signing on as executive producers, along with Romel Adam, John Keville and Macdara Kelleher, the new film is being written and directed by award-winning Irish filmmaker Lee Cronin, who was hand-picked to take the helm by Raimi, Tapert and Campbell after earning widespread praise from critics and fans alike for his feature directorial debut, the 2019 chiller “The Hole in the Ground.”

Said Raimi, “I’m thrilled to bring ‘Evil Dead’ back to its original home at New Line 40 years after the release of the first film. The company’s history as pioneers of horror speaks for itself. I’m equally excited to be working with Lee Cronin, whose gifts as a storyteller make him the ideal filmmaker to continue the enduring legacy of the franchise.”

“At its core, ‘Evil Dead’ is about ordinary people overcoming extraordinarily terrifying situations,” added Campbell, whose embodiment of the ‘Evil Dead’ franchise’s reluctant hero, Ashley J. “Ash” Williams, has propelled the actor/filmmaker to international icon status across generations. “I can’t wait for Alyssa and Lily to fill the blood-soaked shoes of those who have come before them and carry on that tradition.”

Said director Cronin, “The ‘Evil Dead’ movies filled my brain with terror and awe when I first saw them at nine years old. I am excited and humbled to be resurrecting the most iconic of evil forces for both the fans and a whole new generation.”