Army of Darkness Vs. Hack/Slash was a six-issue comic crossover miniseries published by Dynamite Entertainment in 2013. Written by Tim Seeley and featuring artwork by Daniel Leister, the series combines characters and elements from the cult-classic film Army of Darkness with Seeley's own Hack/Slash franchise. The story itself serves as a direct sequel to the events of the second ongoing Hack/Slash comic series, as well as continuing the long-running continuity of Dynamite's Army of Darkness comics started in 2004.
Plot Synopsis[]
It's been six months since Vlad paid the ultimate price to save Cassie Hack from the wrath of Akakios, and Cassie can't help but constantly think about her partner's death. After a dinner date with her girlfriend Margaret Crump gets derailed by the memory of Vlad, the two decide to return to their home in the suburbs of Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Upon arriving back to the house, Cassie notices a beat-up Oldsmobile covered in deep machete scratches parked outside, prompting Cassie to go in alone first to investigate. Inside, Cassie finds their adoptive daughter Sandra Krank sound asleep in her crib, though Kristen the babysitter is nowhere in sight. Grabbing a shotgun from under Sandra's crib, Cassie comes face-to-face with a lantern-jawed stranger wielding his own double-barreled shotgun. Though the man claims he's seeing answers, Cassie wants to hear none of it, and fights the stranger until Margaret arrives. Upon looking his the metal hand Cassie realizes that the stranger is in fact Ashley J. Williams, S-Mart stock-boy and an infamous figure in the monster hunting community.
Ash tells Cassie that someone has been selling pages of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis to wealthy individuals, with the most recent sale occurring right here in Coon Rapids. Doing some detective work, Ash discovered the buyer had also looked up directions to Cassie's house, and came to investigate (and learn the buyer's identity). It's then that Cassie realizes that Kristen the babysitter is missing, though she and Ash quickly find the teenager in the basement, now turned into a Deadite. Using an electric carving knife, the two monster hunters make quick-work of the possessed girl, and load up her dismembered body in the trunk of Ash's car. Cassie tells Margaret to take Sandra and meet up with some friends in New Jersey to lay low for awhile. Shortly thereafter, Ash and Cassie walk away from the burning house, setting out on their mission to take down the mysterious seller who target Cassie's new family.
After a few days on the road, Ash and Cassie arrive in St. Louis, Missouri after reading about a "real stand-up citizen" named Mahesh Banerjee who suddenly snapped and killed his accountant. Having dealt with devious doppelgangers before and seen "that look" in their eyes before, Ash believes this Mahesh may have his own evil clone running around. Sneaking into the prison where Banerjee is being held, the duo confront the doppelganger (as well as two Deadite inmates) in the shower, where they eventually get him to give up the location of the real Mahesh. After disposing of the clone and rescuing the real Banerjee, Ash and Cassie learn about the man's criminal past, his path to redemption, and the reason he sought to purify himself with the magic of the Ex-Mortis. Before dropping him off at a nearby hospital, he tells them the book's pages are being sold by a woman named Britt Cilento, who has amassed a cult of followers following the disbanding of The Black Lamp Society.
Several days pass, and Britt Cilento has discovered Ash and Cassie are following her trail of evil, prompting her to hire a team of assassins called "The Dead Soldiers" (who have been "enhanced" by the power of the Necronomicon) to go after them. The team tracks Williams and Hack to a motel next to a wild west-themed roadside attraction in West Virginia. Using authentic western weaponry (as well as their own evil doppelgangers), Ash and Cassie take out their attackers one by one until learning the identity of the team's leader.
In Stamford, Connecticut, a man purchases a page of the Necronomicon to resurrected Sarah Toothaker, a woman who was falsely killed for being a witch in 1692. After getting some detailed intel from her friend Catherine "Cat" Curio, Cassie discovers that four children have recently gone missing in Stamford, all of whom are descendants of the man who condemned Sarah Toothaker to death in the late 17th Century. Luckily, the two demon-fighters arrive in town the night that Sarah's modern-day admirer and lover intends to sacrifice the children to appease the demons which had brought Toothaker back. Escaping from a sink-hole leading directly into Hell itself, Ash decapitates Sarah with his chainsaw, which discourages the approaching demons from taking the children. After dropping off the kidnapped kids at a gas station, Cassie makes an impetuous decision and fools around with Ash inside the Oldsmobile.
In the year 190 BC, the young necromancer and alchemist Akakios is confronted by Scythian soldiers at his remote shack of a home in the barren valleys of Greece, as the body of a recently deceased child-killer had been taken earlier that day. Inside, Akakios prepares himself to fight the soldiers, only for the corpse to arise from the table it had been laid upon an attack his resurrector. As the guards break in and pause to take in the sight inside, a series of pistol shots ring out and kill the troopers (as well as the reanimated killer). Akakios asks his mysterious savior who they are, only to be greeted by Britt Cilento.
Previous to Britt's arrival, the ceremony in which her followers sacrificed themselves for the Necronomicon back in the 21st Century had been disrupted by Ash and Cassie, who somewhat reluctantly followed her into the swirling blue time-rift. Though they couldn't catch up to Cilento, the two monster fighters landed at the Theater of Dionyus in Greece, where they were sold into slavery after killing the theater's lion. After a few months trapped in 190 BC, Ash and Cassie (along with their "owner", a wealthy widow named Scylla) devise a plan to wipe out the army of Deadites raised by Akakios in this era using Ash's vast experience with engineering, chemistry, and the art of war. During the attack, Cassie strays from the plan and beats Akakios to the brink of death, though Ash stops her, warning of serious effects of a death in this era could have on the timeline. Cassie manages to knock out Ash and reclaim the Necronomicon, fleeing into a time rift with the intent to save her partner Vlad.
Ash quickly gets to his feet and follows Cassie into rift, where they're pursued by Britt Cilento (who Akakios has transformed into "The First Paladin"). Hack kills Cilento moments before the fall out of the portal, arriving in a corn field just a few minutes before Vlad is to meet his end. Distracted by the "Stab Happies" creeping around the farm, Ash once again tries to warn Cassie about the consequences of altering history by telling her of his own attempts at saving loved ones from evil, only to face a horrible chain-reaction of events that shouldn't be. Finally taking Ash's plea to heart, Cassie watches Vlad die again before embracing Ash and crying on his shoulder.
It's now December, and Cassie and Margaret have an uninterrupted dinner date knowing that Sandra is at home under the care of Ash. When the couple return home after catching a movie, Ash tells Cassie he'll probably never come back to their new home out of fear of evil targeting them to get to him. After apologizing for using him all those months ago to use the book for her personal desire to save Vlad, Cassie watches as Ash gathers his gear and walks out into the snow...
Cover Gallery[]
Main Covers[]
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Trivia[]
- According to the script for the first issue, the black leather jacket Ash wears in this series is a direct reference to the one he wore during the events of the first Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash series.
- The newspaper Ash reads in the bathroom in the beginning of issue two misspells St. Louis as "St. Lois".
- Unlike other versions of the character seen throughout the Army of Darkness comics, the new iteration of Bad Ash featured in issue three has a gauntlet right hand (as opposed to having a hand made of flesh).
- The trade-paperback misspells the series title as "Army of Darkness vs. Hack/Skash" on the spine.
Continuity Notes[]
- Ash's "introductory" page in issue one contains several nods to previous Army of Darkness comics, firmly establishing it within the Earth-818793 continuity:
- The large figure in the hockey mask is intended to be Jason Voorhees (from the two Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash crossovers), as the real Jason could not be used.
- The black and yellow zombie superhero (a color-swapped Death-Defying 'Devil from Dynamite's Project Superpowers series) is intended to represent the events of Marvel Zombies Vs. The Army of Darkness.
- The werewolf represents Ash vs. The Classic Monsters, the four-part storyline from Dynamite's first ongoing Army of Darkness series (though it could possibly also represent Brad Fenrison from the League of Light, Assemble! story from Army of Darkness Volume 2).
- Ashley K. Williams represents the events of the third ongoing Army of Darkness series.
- Ash's demonic hand from issue six was previously introduced in Army of Darkness (Volume 2) #27, where it was seen being used by Hell's Prophet during the time it possessed Ash's body.
- In issue six, Ash mentions several times in which he had gone back to the past to prevent a needless death in his personal past:
- "I stopped Linda from going to the cabin." Though this specific scenario was never seen in any Army of Darkness comic, the groundwork for Ash trying to save Linda might have originated during the events of Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes, in which Ash attempted to save Linda upon realizing that he had returned from 1300 AD just a few days too early.
- "Saved Caroline before she got done with the machete." This refers to Caroline from the two Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash series, more specifically her death at the hands of Jason Voorhees and his machete in Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors #1.
- "Kept Allison from getting bit." Ash teamed up with Alison "Dazzler" Blair in Marvel Zombies Vs. The Army of Darkness. In the fifth issue of that series, Alison was bit by the zombified Enchantress, resulting in Doctor Doom immediately killing Dazzler to prevent her from being infected. Ash's later comment about there being "a giant world eating tyrant from space" after his return referrers to Galactus, who first arrived on Earth in the Marvel Zombies universe shortly after the events of Marvel Zombies Vs. The Army of Darkness (though Galactus would have arrived regardless of Ash's actions).