This is about the comic series from 2004. You might be looking for the Ash vs Evil Dead Season One episode Ashes To Ashes.
Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes is a four-issue miniseries released by Dynamite Entertainment and Devil's Due Publishing in 2004. Written by Andy Hartnell and featuring art by Nick Bradshaw, Ashes 2 Ashes was not only the first Army of Darkness title Dynamite would publish, but the first comic released by Dynamite overall.
Plot Synopsis[]
In the days following his return from his medieval misadventure, Ash Williams has returned to the 21st Century to resume his duties in the housewares department at S-Mart. However, his reminiscing about his epic battle with the undead is cut short when a Deadite customer runs amok in the aisles. Though the demon is swiftly taken down, Ash realizes he might be in bigger trouble when he finds The Wise Man of 1300 AD lurking about the store, who has come from the past to warn Williams that he had arrived back in his proper time too early, and now the past and present are feeling the effects of such a minor mistake.
Realizing that they needed to recover the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (and perhaps save Linda from her grisly fate), Ash and The Wise Man venture to the old cabin in the woods, though their trek is not without perils of its own, including the sudden combustion of a makeshift bridge and an encounter with a barrage of Deadite animals before reaching their destination. Upon their arrival, Ash finds Linda sitting beside a campfire behind the cabin, though she quickly reveals that she's already been possessed and taken by evil. After Linda's evil blood brings the woods themselves to life, Ash and The Wise Man make a crash-landing into the cabin, where the Ash of the past is looking for a fight. Knowing that there's no sense in trying to talk himself out of this battle, the two Ashes clash blades and trade blows as The Wise Man frantically searches for the Necronomicon. Using a fire poker to deal with Ash's severed hand, The Wise Man manages to recover the Ex-Mortis and open up the rift in time, sending the "younger" Ash back to 1300 AD. With the book acquired, The Wise Man tells Ash that they must now venture to the birthplace of the Necronomicon in order to destroy it. After seeing a vision of the world ruled by the Deadites should they fail in their mission, Ash agrees on the idea of destroying it, and the duo drive off from the cabin, unknowingly bringing Ash's hand along with them.
During the long flight to Egypt, The Wise Man relays Ash with the tale of what transpired not long after the defeat of the Deadite legion, that the book warned him of a coming battle in the future because of Ash misspeaking the words while trying to return to his own time. The residents of the castle (including Lord Arthur, Henry The Red, and Sheila) were quickly turned into Deadites, forcing The Wise Man to retreat to the future to find Ash. Meanwhile, Ash is paying little attention to The Wise Man's story, paranoid that something is out on the wing of the plane. Only after The Wise Man goes to speak with the pilots do the duo realize the plane is swarming with Deadites, and thanks to Wise Man taking a shot at one of the monsters with Ash's Boomstick, the plane goes into a tailspin, forcing the two to jump out into the wild jungle below.
Surviving quicksand, snakes, and the strange spirits which lurk in the wild, Ash and The Wise Man press on, though it is during a moment when which the two take a break that Ash's hand strikes, stabbing The Wise Man in the back with a knife, killing him instantly. Ash continues his mission alone, venturing into a deep cavern labyrinth that will lead to the Tomb of The Necronomicon. After dealing with the antics of his severed hand once more, Ash eventually stumbles into the tomb, where he battles a swarm of mummies and skeletons, and decides to give up on the pursuit of his hand. Elsewhere, Ash's possessed hand scurries off deeper into the tomb, and bonds itself to a skeletal corpse laying on the ground. Repairing rotting flesh with the evil-infused blood inside the hand, the corpse rises from the floor, revealing that Evil Ash has been reborn once again. The doppelganger wastes no time in using his dark magic to raise a new army of Deadites with the countless remains scattered around him, preparing to resume his mission to reclaim the Necronomicon for the forces of evil.
Meanwhile, Ash solves a puzzle in one of the tomb's other chambers by placing the Ex-Mortis on a special pedestal specifically designed for it. The book begins to hiss and scream in agony as the pedestal rises, with Ash grabbing on for the ride. The pedestal breaks through the tomb's ceiling, bringing Ash and the Necronomicon into the wastelands of Egypt. Coming face to face with his double, Ash begins to fight his way through Evil Ash's new army of darkness on his own, unknowingly allowing the devious doppelganger the chance to grab the Necronomicon and mend his dismembered legion to challenge Ash again. With Williams backed into a wall and the Deadites growing closer, a time rift opens, where rides the Ash of 1300 AD and the combined armies of Lord Arthur and Henry The Red. The Ash of the past leaps off his horse to help his future-self, and accidentally merges their two bodies into one, giving his future-self a second burst of energy to take on the Deadites again.
The Wise Man (who had also come through the time portal) informs Ash that the Necronomicon must be cast into a ring of fire to be destroyed, prompting Ash to use the gas from his chainsaw to form a circle around Evil Ash. As the doppelganger gloats, Ash ignites the gas with a shotgun blast, causing the ground to open up and the Deadites to fall into the Earth, with Evil Ash suffocating in the sand as the desert begins to close the pit by itself. With the Deadites defeated, Ash thanks Arthur and Henry for their help, and notices Sheila standing behind a wall, having watched the battle from afar. As The Wise Man explains that the Necronomicon from the past (which he brought with him for this battle) must be thrown into the time rift, Ash is too distracted by Sheila, and quickly pushes the old sage into the portal, allowing him to have a private kiss with Sheila. As the time portal closes, Sheila warns Ash not to forget about the book, though she is cut off by the rift's closure before she can finish talking. Ash rides off triumphant from the tomb's ruins, unaware that the Necronomicon has been left behind in the sand...
Cover Gallery[]
Main Covers[]
Variant Covers[]
Virgin Covers[]
Trivia[]
- Ashes 2 Ashes was the first Army of Darkness comic to be released since Dark Horse's three issue Army of Darkness: Movie Adaptation from 1992/1993.
- Issue one of this series would later be re-released in December of 2004 as Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes Director's Cut.
- In issue one, The Wise Man's line about noticing something "from within the woods" is a reference to Sam Raimi's short film Within The Woods, which was used to gather funding for The Evil Dead.
- Many elements and references from Evil Dead II are featured in this series, including:
- The opening "flashback" in issue one shows Ash struggling against his possessed hand in the cabin's kitchen (as seen in Evil Dead II), but depicts the moment of Ash cutting off his hand occurring in the cabin's living room (as seen in Army of Darkness).
- In issue one, Linda is seen wearing the Michigan State University shirt based on the design seen in the opening of Evil Dead II.
- Deadite Ash appears on Greg Land's cover of issue two.
- The faux "Freddy Kruger glove" appears above the workshed door in issue two, as it did in the Evil Dead II film.
- In issue two, the Deadite Linda says the line "Hello, lover", which originated from the scene in Evil Dead II in which her severed head falls into Ash's lap.
- In issue two, Ash mentions that the trees had come to life right before the time portal opened, which was seen in Evil Dead II.
- In issue two, the deer head mounted above the cabin's fireplace begins to laugh after Ash grabs it, referencing the "laughing room" scene in Evil Dead II.
- The Wise Man's death from Ash's severed hand mirrors Annie Knowby's death by the hand in the climax of Evil Dead II.
Continuity Notes[]
- This series marks the beginning of Dynamite's long-running Earth-818793 continuity, the world in which many (but not all) of their Army of Darkness comics published from 2004 to 2013 take place.
- Though the next Army of Darkness series published was Shop 'Till You Drop Dead, the next chronological story (immediately picking up after Ashes 2 Ashes #4) would be "A Dame, Deadites, And A Dimwit" from the Tales of Army of Darkness one-shot.