Happening somewhere within the timeline of Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, the mighty Ashley J. Williams (from the Evil Dead feature films) gets rejected from the afterlife and transported into the land of Earth-2149, the world of The Marvel Zombies!
FIRST PRINTING: 2007
Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness is the third trade paperback collection of the Marvel Zombies storyline. It generally offers some action, but a lot of story progression. Summing up the previous books and meshing human heros with superhumans created a great undead dynamic.
Overall, I really like this bit of storyline, but it feels like the current authors wrote themselves into a corner. In this storyline, they came up with the idea for cross-over events happening alongside the events of Marvel Zombies: Dead Days. Instead of being a true sequel, it almost feels like a story happening in a sideways universe (such as those offered on the TV show, Lost).
This reality’s version of Ash gets pursued by both uninfected superheroes, as well as undead ones. Ash retains his chauvinistic characteristics from The Evil Dead movies (including Army of Darkness), frequently hitting on all the ladies of this world until eventually partnering up with The Scarlet Witch and Dazzler. These characters prove to be great foils to his advances, but ultimately help him in his quest to escape the land of the Marvel Zombies.
All actions lead to reactions. The Punisher gets to finally kill off this world’s version Kingpin. And it feels justified. Finally! This version of Dr. Doom overturns his title of “super-villian” by rounding up all uninfected humans in hopes to be humanity’s greatest hero, which doesn’t exactly go as planned. And the Earth-2149 Ash meets the true Ash, to quacking results.
Strength: Supporting characters finally get bits of storyline, including Howard the Duck?
Weakness: I hate the timeline crossovers. Very Confusing! Move the story forward, not sideways!!!
WTF Moment: Ash eventually escapes the land of Marvel Zombies… only to deal with the land of Marvel Werewolves! I smell sequel!
Noteworthy Quotes:
– “This world will die, and an army of the dead will rise.”
– “…the origin is extraterrestrial… not supernatural.”
– “Listen to me! The world is going to end! You are all in terrible danger!”
– “I need food. And by food, I mean one thing — FLESH!”
– “Yummmm. Tastes like chicken.”
– “The infected may be dead, but they are certainly not undead.”
Review: 4/5