Herbert West is a fictional character created by H. P. Lovecraft for his short story "Herbert West—Reanimator", first published in 1922. Herbert West became involved with the Evil Dead series when he fought Ash Williams in Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator in 2005, and since then, he has become part of the Army of Darkness Comics continuity started by Dynamite Comics in 2004.
Biography (2005-2015)[]
At Miskatonic University[]
West was a student at Miskatonic University, working on becoming one of the next generation of medical researchers. Once, he called Dean Halsey an "Archaic Old Fool" due to him not believing that tissue can be re-animated after death, even though West himself had created a re-animation serum that brought back a frog for five minuets before the serum caused the frog to disintegrate. Herbert then sought the help of Dr. Whateley, who listened to West about his formula, then told West that Halsey is an obstacle for him, and West should kill him. Not wanting to kill Halsey, Whateley believes that West is unsuitable to reign over both the living and the dead if he is unwilling to take a life, and using Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, the "Black Soul" of Herbert West (his Mirror Dimension counterpart) who kills Halsey immediately. Whateley tells the new Herbert West that he needs to look in the Necronomicon for the answers on how to perfect his formula, and his work can begin, starting with his classmates...
Herbert West vs. Ash Williams[]
Six months have passed since Herbert West has become "The Re-Animator", and Ash Williams has been put into his care at Arkham Asylum when he was sentenced to life at Arkham by a judge that deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial for the murder of everyone inside an S-Mart store. Over this time, West has been working on a way to improve his Re-Animated creations so they are not just simple-minded zombies. One day, West and Dr. Whateley unleash the Deadites using their copy of the Necronomicon, initiating the first step to bring The Dark Ones back to Earth from their Mirror Dimension prison. When he was trapped in the Mirror Dimension, Ash met the "Real" Herbert West, who was replaced by his "Black Souled" counterpart. The real Herbert West later escaped the Mirror Dimension when Ash was fighting Whateley as he tried to open a portal to bring The Dark Ones back. Shortly after Arkham Asylum was destroyed due to the portal being disrupted, it was revealed that West was the only survivor, and said that he needed to regroup and begin his research again.
Saving The World In 2012[]
Herbert West found himself locked up in Miskatonic Asylum with a Mayan copy of the Necronomicon, and found out from it's blood-inked pages that the Mayan Prophesy that the world was going to end in 2012 was true, and he needed to stop it. He used the book to open a portal to bring him to the team that wanted to save the world from Kulan Gath. When Gath summons his "Horsemen of the Apocalypse", West follows one of them, Chaac, to Las Vegas, Nevada. Chaac notices West and stabs him in the chest. Ash Williams also happened to be in Vegas and kills Chaac with the Necronomicon West brought with him. Ash sees that West is dead, and finds a bottle of the Re-Animation formula in Herbert's bag and injects it into him, bringing West back to life. Herbert and Ash then meet-up with the rest of the team, and eventually stop Kulan and stop the Prophesy.
Going Back In Time[]
Herbert West: A Real Headcase (from Army of Darkness/Reanimator)
It is unclear whether or not it was intentional or accidental that Herbert West ended up in the early 20th Century, but using the Necronomicon landed him there. Wanting to continue work on his Re-Animation formula, West decided to join the United States Army during The Great War (AKA World War I) to get his hands on fresher bodies to experiment on. By 1922 he was back state-side and went back to working on his formula. On March 4th, 1922, Ash Williams was brought back in time to Herbert's location, where he became West's new assistant for a time. West took the Necronomicon Ash had brought with him and used it's power to finally perfect his formula, but Ash tells him that all West had done was turn them into Deadites. As the Deadite/Re-Animated bodies come for Ash and Herbert, West tells Ash that he knows who Ash is and being stuck in the 1900's has driven him mad. The Deadite/Re-Animated monsters break into the room Ash and West are held up in, but they only attack Herbert, who is decapitated by the creatures. Sometime before his death, West hid the Necronomicon in the Miskatonic Library, where one day his evil copy and Dr. Whateley will try to use it to summon The Dark Ones.
Return To The Present[]
Herbert mentions his former teammate and lab assistant, Ash Williams (from Reanimator #4).
Although West was decapitated in 1922, he was resurrected somehow and returned to the present day to continue his research. Here he battled a Cthulhu-worshiping cult also found love in a woman named Susan Greene, making her his new assistant, and later another "Re-Animator", working on a formula together.
Notes[]
- Some information comes from the official Herbert West character biography from the Prophecy trade paperback.
Appearances[]
- Re-Animator #0 (2005)
- Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator #1-4(2005)
- Prophecy #2-7(2012)
- Reanimator #1-4(2015)