Red Sonja vs. Army of Darkness

Last weekend, I made a trip to my local comic book shop to pick up my copies of Bug Wars and Savage Sword of Conan. As usual, I took a quick lap around the store where I found the latest issue of Rogue in the Savage World that I needed to pick up and something I wasn’t expecting: Red Sonja vs. Army of Darkness.

I’ve really enjoyed my foray into sword and sorcery over the past year, but I still haven’t fallen in love with Red Sonja. I’ve read a few comics and even bought the audiobook for Gail Simone’s novel, Consumed, but I just haven’t connected with the character yet. I don’t mind her; I just don’t find her all that interesting. But when I saw her on the front cover next to Ash Williams, I just had to know what was inside. So, I snagged both issues released thus far and added the remainder of the run to my pull list. Then I went home and got reading.

Tim Seely, creator of Hack/Slash, is the writer on this series, and having read quite a bit of Hack/Slash last year, I figured he’d nail the tone perfectly. Hack/Slash is a horror/slasher series, and he obviously loves the genre, and from reading the first two issues of Red Sonja vs. Army of Darkness it’s clear he loves Evil Dead. He has Ash’s sense of humor down pat, and he even got an audible laugh out of me in the first issue. I did a little research and in the press release announcing the series Tim Seely mentioned that “the first Hack/Slash story began life as a pitch to get the rights for Army of Darkness for comics.”

The horror is great when it comes, and the artwork is mostly good. I’m not a fan of how Red Sonja is drawn in comparison to other Red Sonja books I’ve read, but it works well enough for the story. The covers are fantastic.

The story is a fun one, Ash finds himself reflecting about the time he could have been king and his long-lost love Sheila (from Army of Darkness). Since he can’t cyberstalk her, he does the next best thing: he heads to the library to see if there is any information on what happened to her. What he discovers encourages Ash to pick up the Necronomicon and to head back in time to find Sheila. I won’t spoil what comes next, but it was a fun little twist, and it sucked me in unexpectedly.

I honestly didn’t have high hopes for these books. I’ve read some Army of Darkness comics in the past, and while they offered me a fun distraction, they weren’t all that memorable. However, I’m really in love with this series thus far, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Hail to the king, baby.