Random Happenstance

I couldn't even guess how many times I've watched the Evil Dead movies--I know I watched ED2 the other day! And I've probably seen Re-Animator and its sequels a few times as well. Perfect time for this, then! From 2022, The Army of Darkness versus Reanimator: Necronomicon Rising #5, written by Erik Burnham, art by Eman Cassallos. I got the Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 tribute cover, but there were 4 others for this issue alone!

I read the first couple series when they came out, then later got a ton of these on digital from Humble Bundle, and can't recall if I've read this particular series...probably? Look, a lot of the Army of Darkness/Evil Dead books have a bit of a formula: Ash lands somewhere new, makes a few enemies, maybe a few friends, the Deadites show up and probably eat all of them, and Ash gets sent to the next exotic location. The hook for this series was Herbert West--the Reanimator--gets his hands on the Necronomicon; and horror ensues into the future, where an unkillable and even more insane version of West is a science tyrant. Ash is forced to play the curse card: he 'drops' the Necronomicon, then hammily plays up that he'll get it back and nothing can stop him, which of course brings Deadites out of the woodwork after it.

Ash and a girl--I don't think I saw her name this issue, but she gets possessed by a Deadite, after opening a time portal. Ash kills her, but ends up stuck in medieval times again. (Possibly for like the third or fifth time in the comic continuity!) Tyrant West is left to the tender mercies of the Deadites, but a younger version of West is also transported through time, ending up at Miskatonic University in Massachusetts--in 1928! Well, that just frees him up to continue his experiments; he cared about little else.

(Why were both of these comics on top of my scanner?) These are usually a bit of fun: I know I got this and part of the crossover with Bubba Ho-Tep in a big order from Midtown Comics; so every so often I get a few. Those crossovers reminded me, I wouldn't mind reading (or re-reading?) the Darkman crossover: wow, that was from 2007? If the Army of Darkness books had proper numbering, I wonder where they would be now. Careful though; there are variant covers up the wazoo. Don't end up buying the same issues over and over...I haven't yet, which seems more like chance than anything.