Army of Darkness/Xena Warrior Princess: Forever...And A Day is a six-issue crossover comic series released by Dynamite Entertainment in 2016. Written by Scott Lobdell and featuring art by Elliot Fernandez and Diego Galindo, Forever...And A Day was the third crossover between the Army of Darkness and Xena franchises (preceded by Why Not? and What, Again?, both from 2008).
Plot Synopsis[]
Surrounded by an army of the dead and cradling the dying body of her partner Gabrielle, Xena makes a desperate play, one which could turn the tides of their seemingly hopeless battle in a heartbeat. As the shambling Deadites draw closer and closer around them, Xena pulls out a cursed page of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, tearing it in the hopes to summon a great warrior who walks through time...
In the 21st Century, newly promoted assistant night manager Ash Williams is preparing to start his shift at S-Mart, and just as he's getting ready to put the moves on an employee named Amber (who is equally infatuated with Ash as he is with her), a time vortex has other plans for him. Whisked away across time, Ash is immediately taken prisoner by a gang of marauders who have taken over a small village. Breaking free of his chains, Ash begins to take on the outlaws by himself, only for Xena to leap into the battle and attack Williams. While Xena has no recollection of meeting Ash before, a dizzy Gabrielle does, though the memory of their previous encounter is quickly fading like a dream. Realizing that perhaps he's been summoned to the wrong time, Ash has Xena tear a page of the Necronomicon and return him to the future, leaving two ladies confused as to what exactly transpired.
Sometime after this incident, Ash is preparing to make love to Amber in the back room of S-Mart when another time vortex opens. Before reaching his unknown destination, a wrinkled hand yanks Ash out of the time stream, dragging him into the great Multiverse Colosseum. Before him stands a very old woman in a cloak, a member of the Guardians of The Space-Time Continuum, who chastises Ash for his frequent disruptions of the timeline. Growing tired of this berating, Ash punches the Guardian and rushes off into a portal to save Xena. Again, Ash finds that he's gone back too far, now at the night of Xena's birth. Eventually, Ash returns to S-Mart where Amber awaits. No longer in the mood for some "sugar", Ash is distraught knowing that somewhere in time, Xena and Gabrielle needs his help, and he keeps letting them down.
Another romantic evening for Ash and Amber goes awry, and the time rift dumps Williams on a rainy ancient ship port. He soon finds Xena (now a pirate, some time before she met Gabrielle) and gets hired as the new first mate of her crew. Later, as the ship passes through a raging storm, it suddenly brushes up on the shore of a tropical island hidden by the gods. As Xena plans to plunder this island for it's treasures, Ash discovers it is none other than the Garden of Eden of biblical legend. Knowing that they shouldn't be tampering with a place such as this, Ash asks Xena to leave the island and never return. Xena begrudgingly agrees, and sends Ash back to the future.
Another summoning teleports Ash to New York City on August 14th, 1945. There, he encounters Melinda Pappas and Janice Covington, two archeologists who were the "modern" reincarnations of Xena and Gabrielle. Covington and Pappas are in the middle of tracking down a squadron of Nazis who have acquired a copy of the Necronomicon. As they await for the Nazis to make the first move, Melinda explains she recognizes Ash from the Xena Scrolls, but before she can elaborate any further, the Deadite Nazis arrive. Figuring there must be a lot of "magic crap" in the air, Ash brings forth the spirit of Xena in Melinda's body by kissing her. After a brutal bloodbath, the Nazis are obliterated and Ash personally sinks their submarine waiting in the harbor. Melinda reverts back to her normal self, and tells Ash that perhaps the universe is trying to give him clues on where to go by sending him across Xena's history.
Ash returns to his proper time, knowing that Xena might make one last attempt at summoning him. For 50 years he waits, and now, Ash is a grey-haired old man well into his 70s, sitting in the ruins of what used to be his bustling S-Mart. His waiting has paid off, and Ash is brought directly to Xena and Gabrielle in the midst of a massive bar fight. Posing as an ambassador from the town of Graceland, Ash plans to "hire" the two warriors as his bodyguards on a trip across the ocean. When the ship runs across shallow ground, the three pile into a small rowboat and paddle to the hidden island, and suddenly Xena recognizes the old Ash as her first mate from a decade prior. Before Ash can elaborate, the rowboat is struck by a flaming arrow, forcing the trio to swim to shore, where an army of Deadites and a man wearing nothing more than a loincloth waits for them. The strange man reveals himself to be the first man created by God, scorned by the loss of Eve to Adam. Knowing that the only heroes who could stop him were Ash, Xena, and Gabrielle, "Steve" began to create an army of Deadites to kill them once and for all. The three warriors fight through the undead legion with ease, and Steve's reign of terror ends when Ash's chainsaw slides into his neck and spine. With the forces of evil stopped, Ash bids Xena and Gabrielle farewell (as they can never summon him again) and disappears into the time portal. Ash's body is de-aged as he lands in the aisles of S-Mart, and he realizes that he's gone back to before everything with Xena's final battle began. With the timeline saved, he finally gets a kiss from Amber as his night shift begins...
Cover Gallery[]
Main Covers[]
Variant Covers[]
Virgin Covers[]
Trivia[]
- The preview description for issue four in issue three misspells Melinda Pappas as "Melinda Poppas".
- Steve was originally named Larson, as revealed in the description of issue five in issue four.
- Series writer Scott Lobdell stated that the Amber featured in Forever...And A Day is modeled after the Amber featured in his 2008 Galaxy Quest: Global Warming comic series.
- When the Necronomicon washes onto the shores of the Garden of Eden in issue six, the spine is incorrectly depicted on the right side of its face cover.
Continuity Notes[]
- One of the "time windows" in issue one depicts Jack The Ripper. The League of Light, Assemble! storyline in Army of Darkness Volume 2 established that the unnamed Chosen One of the late 19th Century was the real Ripper while he was possessed by the spirit of Hell's Prophet. As the one featured in this series does not look like the Chosen One iteration, it might be a copycat murderer.
- Ash mentions that during his previous encounter with Xena, he gave her a page of the Necronomicon that she could use to summon him. Unless there was an unseen meeting between the events of What, Again? and Forever...And A Day, such a transaction did not occur.
- The Multiverse Colosseum appears to be a larger version of a Nexus Point (Army of Darkness Volume 3).
- Ash previously encountered Deadite Nazis in Army of Darkness Volume 3.
- Issue five takes place 30 years after the events of the Furious Road series. This would explain Ash's hesitation to leave the S-Mart store with Eva's group in the aforementioned miniseries, as he was waiting for Xena to summon him again.