Superhero Media: Army of Darkness

Despite being a nerd of about the right age, and the holder of a degree in Film, I've never been much of a fan of the Evil Dead films, or Sam Rami's work in general. Like? They're fine? Just not my thing really. That said, I have an Ash for my Ultimate Alliance games (as well as general Zombie gaming) because I recognise that the films are popular and that Ash himself is an interesting enough hero to carry the story. I really feel that this is one of those films, like Ghostbusters, that I don't actually have to review, because anyone looking at this blog would probably have seen it more times than I have. About the only contribution I can make to the discussion is to point out that Lord Arthur is played by Marcus Gilbert, who played Ancelyn in the 1980s Doctor Who story "Battlefield", so why bother, really? 

Army of Darkness would make a pretty good miniatures game, as only Ash and the car-chariot are not readily available in miniature form in a variety of scales; I've personally only seen heroic 28mm Ashes. Which, of course, suits me fine, as that scales him nicely with my repainted Heroclix. Man, what else? I want to have a game where Ash joins the Nightstalkers and/or the Croatonans, which makes me think of a team-up between Ash and the Ryan Reynolds version of Hannibal King. In fact, I think that's the trick with Ash and the Evil Dead franchise in general, that Ash is everyman enough to transfer into different settings and conflicts and remain interesting and entertaining. Not only is he as exasperated as we, the audience, imagine we may be in similar circumstance, but he is also as enduring and resourceful as we would like to think of ourselves as being. I mean, Ash is pretty dumb, and he manages to save the day, so I, being much smarter, must be capable of doing the same, right? 

I don't think I'll ever be a big fan of this franchise, though I did enjoy the Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash comic and want to include Ash in some games. Much like Buffy, I think my lack of engagement with the Evil Dead series comes from not having grown up with it; I didn't start watching them until I was in my twenties, so there's no glaze of nostalgia to distract me. The films are fine, just not my kind of thing. As I said way back in my Ash Vs Evil Dead - Season 1 "Superhero Media", I probably won't be doing any more of these. Both Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 aren't really superhero films, even by my loose definition, and I just don't feel like watching more Ash Vs Evil Dead, especially with the huge backlog of DVDs and recordings I have to get through. If I can get my hands on the Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash comics again, that one may show up at some point.