Evil Dead 2: Dark Ones Rising is a three-issue miniseries published by Space Goat Productions in 2016. Written by Frank Hannah and featuring art by Oscar Bazaldua, the series is an immediate sequel to Space Goat's previous Evil Dead 2 series Cradle of The Damned.
Plot Synopsis[]
It's been two weeks since the adventure in the Mirror Dimension, and Annie Knowby plans to start over with her life. Destroying the Necronomicon, the Kandarian Dagger, and the Smiley Cat Food Factory in a raging inferno, she walks down the roads of rural North Carolina alone until stopping beside a cattle farm, where a young woman is trying to help one of her cows give birth. Annie offers her assistance and reaches inside the cow, only for the simulacrum Ash to emerge.
Ash explains that The Dark Ones are coming to Earth, and they need to prepare for the impending battle with the tools they have, but Annie informs him that she destroyed the book and dagger after mourning him. The two leave the farm and hitch a ride in a hay truck to the town of Red Knob, only to discover it's been swallowed up by an enormous sink-hole. From the hole emerges a giant tentacled humanoid beast, which begins to absorb the souls and bodies of the dead from a nearby cemetery. Ash and Annie hop into the cab of the now-deceased hay farmer and make a beeline to New Orleans.
In a Hoodoo shop in the city's French Quarter, Annie explains to the store's owner (and old friend of her father) Miss Ginnie that the Dark One's arrival is her fault and they want to stop the creature before the world is completely destroyed. Ginnie leads the two into a secret room in the shop's root cellar, a room where glass jars containing the souls of history's most powerful bokors have been placed upon an altar. The Hoodoo witch explains that the captured souls once belonged to her father, but after his passing years ago, they no longer serve any master. She says that perhaps they'll be some assistance in this battle, but maybe they'll feel as if the world deserves to be destroyed.
Back in the Carolinas, the Dark One's rampage has captured the attention of the United States Military, who have sent a squadron of Apache attack helicopters to deal with the threat. Missiles strike the creature, and hundreds of rotting corpses which make up the monster's body drop to the ground below, but it only infuriates the Dark One...
In New Orleans, Miss Ginnie finally scums to the effects of a strange green potion she had drank prior to Ash and Annie's arrival, and dies on the floor of the cellar. Ash shatters one of the soul jars, and a neon green mist enters the old sorceress's body. The bokor senses the presence of the Dark One, who says it will need an "empty vessel" to operate if it is to help combat the coming monster. Taking over Annie, the bokor and Ash head outside to see that the Dark One has finally arrived in the city. In a hurry, Ash heads back into the cellar and retrieves the other jars of bokor souls and brings them out, unleashing them from their glass prisons. The spirits swirl around Annie, and release her of the first bokor's possession.
With the Dark One getting closer and closer, Ash and Annie watch as the bokor spirits join together to summon Damballa, who has taken on the form of a giant neon blue serpent. As the two enormous gods battle for the future of humanity, Ash is overwhelmed by his Deadite-side once more, chasing Annie into a dark building. Annie grabs a nearby axe and strikes at the Deadite Ash, lopping off his right hand with a swift strike. At that very moment outside, Damballa is triumphant, and the Dark One explodes, creating an enormous pile of rotting corpses that blankets the entire city. With everything seemingly over, Annie finds Ash (turned human once again) and embraces him, offering to patch up his severed arm. With Ash bandaged up, Ash and Annie walk the streets of New Orleans to find a bakery with beignets, but suddenly, the Dark One rises from the ground, smashing the duo with it's enormous fist.
The world goes black, and Annie awakens in the Mirror Dimension, with Ash and Regardie standing over her. Regardie explains what they have just experienced was "path-working" for the real Dark Ones, who were curious if taking the souls on Earth was a viable option. He then tells them that the souls of Earth are now weak, and offer little power or strength to beings such as the Dark Ones, and perhaps they'll try again in another thousand years or so. Ash becomes irate, asking if the whole thing was fake, why is his real hand missing. Regardie disregards Ash, and sends the two back to the real world, warning them the Dark Ones still have access to their psyches, and pray they never intervene again.
The glow of the portal dims, and Ash and Annie are back in the old cat food factory. They look around and spot a large patch of obnoxious graffiti on the walls, which was not there prior to their departure. Annie hears voices from deeper in the factory, and the two find three teenagers reading from the unguarded Necronomicon Ex-Mortis...
Cover Gallery[]
Main Covers[]
Variant Covers[]
Other Covers[]
Trivia[]
- In issue three, the Dark One says "...not in the spaces that you know, but between them...", which was a line spoken by Ash Williams in the original deleted opening of the Army of Darkness film.
- Three sequels for this series were announced for release in 2017 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Evil Dead II film which were titled Doppelganger Wars, Revenge of Evil Ed, and Ash 2.0. Two of these three series were canceled following Space Goat's growing financial troubles that year, with only the two-issue Revenge of Evil Ed actually being released.