Evil Dead 2: Beyond Dead By Dawn #2 Review and *SPOILERS*

You're Going Down

Written By: Frank Hannah
Art By: Oscar Bazuldua, Chris Summers, Jacob Bascle

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 26, 2015

Publisher: Space Goat Publishing

It's Monday and that means I get to review whatever I want....... just for the hell of it.  You know, because of Weird Science's famous Just For The Hell of It Mondays?!  Of course you know.  Anyway, in the first issue of this sequel to Evil Dead 2, all from the perspective of Annie Knowby, we saw Annie sucked into hell with the cabin after Ash was sucked into the time-tunnel, where he'd have all his Army of Darkness adventures.  The Medieval Dead is harsh, but nothing seems as harsh as actually going to hell.  Luckily for Annie, she possessed the knowledge and know-how to use the Necronomicon and Kandarian Dagger as weapons against the demons of hell and after fueling the dagger up with demonic energy, she used the weapon and a spell from the book to recreate Ash out of his own severed hand.  It was all pretty epic, but as weird as it sounds, I was looking for an Evil Dead book not featuring Ash.  That's called blasphemy in some areas, but I was interested in seeing what someone else would be like in battling "The Evil" and even though I didn't get that, I still got an issue and I guess that's pretty good.  Okay, so we've got Annie and Ash stuck in hell, let's see what they do to solve their damnation problem.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Ash getting all doppelganger-ed up and being completely ignorant on the subjects of chainsaw hands, boom sticks and time-tunnels and it's a really cool twist to have the Ash in this series be the crazed and afraid figure who hasn't chainsawed up because he has no memory of anything after cutting off his hand....... you know, since he was created from the hand that Ash cut off due to it being infected by "The Evil".  Just in case you forgot because you haven't watched Evil Dead 2 in awhile, Ash cut his hand off before Annie Knowby showed up in the movie with the newly discovered pages of the Necronomicon, so Ash doesn't know her at all...........even though she pretty much saved the day at the end of the flick.  After sitting Ash down and explaining everything that's gone on, you can understand that he's obviously a little upset and skeptical of Annie and his current situation.  That is, until he opens the cabin door and actually sees hell in all it's terrifying lost soul-ness.  

Okay, I guess seeing is believing, but it's going to take a little more than simply asking it seems to get Ash on board with Annie's plan to save her damned parents....... it's going to take a team building exercise.  During Ash and Annie's argument about why Annie isn't "Voodoo-ing" them the hell out of there, we see what Buffalo Bill would call a "Great Big Fat Person" fall from the sky and take a stalagmite right up the tuchas........ don't worry, it can't be that bad because this fatty just keeps on eating his slice of pizza as he yells for Ash and Annie to help him up.  Now, let me tell you that this wasn't a friendly fatso like Santa Clause or John Candy....... no, instead we get a rude glutton who starts calling Annie and Ash stupid jerks for not hurrying up and even though he's not BFF material, I don't think that our pair's response to him comes off as accurate....... or acceptable.  Yeah, when in hell I guess, but the two begin taking turns whaling him in the head with an axe until finally using his soul to charge the Kandarian Dagger.  It just really comes off as odd to me, but it did bring the two together 

In the end, Ash agrees to help Annie get her parents back from "The Swallower of Souls".......which I find funny that my ex-girlfriend somehow wound up in this book......... That's right, I just made an ex-girlfriend joke.  You might says it's hack, but I say you never met her.  

That's it for this issue of Evil Dead 2: Beyond Dead By Dawn and as much as I really enjoyed the first issue, this one comes off a little lackluster in comparison and even makes me wonder why the hell we had this "let's chomp up the annoying fat guy" scene.  It seemed really out of character, especially since we're dealing with a archaeologist and a pre bad-ass Ash.  Yeah, one could argue that Annie has seen some shit and is acting in response to that, but even though the fatty was annoying as hell, the multiple axe chops to his dome seems really excessive when she was only going to suck his soul into the dagger by the end of it.  Besides for that though, I dug this book and I loved the art.  The only thing that I wish is that we had a little more color popping off the page because even though I'm a fan of the art, the colors just come off a little dull.  Ash and the Evil Dead seems to be all the rage right now and as a fan, I understand why.  The new television show is great and really portrays the Ash we know and love through his many adventures in such a hilarious way that seeing a book like this come along that portrays the character so different for not having those experiences...... well, it's a breath of fresh air actually from the over the top-one liner spewing-asshole that we've seen a hundred times.  

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue doesn't seem to have the exact feel that the first issue did, it's still a fun read that gives us something new from Evil Dead that is actually intriguing and unexpected.  It's not one liner after one liner like we've seen from other Evil Dead inspired comics and it's doing something that I never knew I wanted to see and that's exciting........ even if this particular issue isn't all that exciting from what we got.  It's a lot of catch up to things that we've already seen from the first issue or the movie and one scene where the characters come off really odd.  I love the art though and I love the idea of this series so I'm going to keep reading and having a good time.

5/10