Written by Cullen Bunn
Art by Larry Watts
Colors by Aikau Oliva
Published by Dynamite
This week, Cullen Bun concludes his arc of Army of Darkness, one of the numerous continuations of the trials and tribulations of Ash Williams. The story follows the living example of an unwilling hero being shot into space in an attempt to finally rid Earth of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis. Naturally, things go array, resulting in a deadite infestation aboard International Space Station. But not just among the crew members of course, that would make things easy, the evil of the Necronomicon has made its way into the station’s computer systems, granting life to killer space suits, an evil robotic clone of Ash himself, and now a corrupted broadcast satellite ready to spread its evil across the world.
Let it be not said that Cullen Bunn does not know how to deliver humor, fun, and horror all in one neat package. He captures the sense of ever slipping madness that nips at Ash William’s conscience and fights it off with his own brand of off-beat snark. Still, that doesn’t mean Ash is entirely sympathetic. Cullen writes him like a noted pig head that deserves a good chunk of the endless punishment that the universe continues to throw at him. It’s also fun to see how much of a genuine dolt he is. Armed with his chainsaw hand, trusty boomstick, and the vastly over qualified astronaut Hoshi, Ash Williams must stop the deadites from destroying humanity with the power of television, though for some reason that sounds a little redundant.
This issue is drawn by Larry Watts. Watts hits an interesting balance as far as artists go. He has a rather sloppy looking style but it rarely drags the book down, likely thanks to Bunn not missing a beat. He takes liberties with the interiors of the ISS that calls for some head tilting. His faces and figures do not look solid, borderline sloppy. However he saves it with raw personality, unlike some certain Earth 2 artist that shall go unmentioned. That’s also due to the great colors by Aikau Oliva. He shows a great range on what is meant to be a simple action/horror book. He goes for warmer calmer colors for those few moments Ash and Hoshi aren’t running for their lives or nearly sucked into space.
Army of Darkness #5 is a great finale to this arc. Bunn has a great sense for Ash Williams and manages to make him one part action god, one part clown, and one part swine. This is one of the books where lackluster art is made up by a perfect harmony of tone between artist, writer, and colorist. That being said, this issue does go without some of the great mic drops and twists to beloved Evil Dead scenes that came before. It’s still a fun read.