Army of Darkness Furious Road #3 Review

Army of Darkness Furious Road #3

Writer: Nancy A. Collins
Artist: Kewber Baal
Colourist: Schimerys Baal
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Publisher: Dynamite

A review by Amelia Wellman

Issue two of Army of Darkness Furious Road was amazing. Issue three is amazeballs! The Evil-Deadness of this series is really shining through with issue three with blood and gore and chainsaws cutting off hands–oh my, yes! Seriously, the amount of hands that get lopped off in this issue is insane: it’s like a Star Wars movie up in here!

The story so far is that some of the last vestiges of human and monster kind are living under a truce in a Michigan city renamed Alive. Tensions are heavy this issue when a doctor is discovered dead of an apparent vampire attack. This causes an angry confrontation between Dracula and his daughter Eva that just might screw over what’s left of humanity.

Issue three is a bottle episode (so to speak) with everything that happens, happening in a single room. The original characters get less development then they have in the past two issues, but I don’t begrudge the story for that because Ash has to be the centre of all this Deadite madness. Otherwise, what’s the point? We’re here for his cocky, sarcastic attitude and his bitchin’ chainsaw hand after all! Character development aside, the action in this issue moves the story along at a good pace and the ending leaves me eager to see issue four.

The art of Army of Darkness Furious Road continues to accomplish so much. Action and movement is excellently handled with no panels being too cluttered or confusing and the action in issue three has really gone up a notch! Sure there were werewolf bikers in the last issue, but this one seems to get right into the heart of Evil Dead and that’s lots and lots of blood! There’s a lot more gore in this issue with some close ups and angles that would make Sam Raimi proud! There’s also a great effect on the Deadite’s eyes during a close up where they appear opalescent. The shading and the colours come together in just the perfect way to make it some of the most clever comic book art I’ve seen recently.

The Verdict
Buy it! Evil Dead is always a bloody (see what I did there?) good time and Army of Darkness Furious Road is no exception! It’s maybe not the straight forward Deadite story that we know from the movies, but vampire, werewolves, Frankenstein’s monsters – and more – make for an amazing (if not a bit odd) Evil Dead spin-off!