Archie Gets Groovy Facing The Army of Darkness

Robert Hack cover art for Archie X The Army of Darkness,
from Dynamite and Archie Comics

Clearly February is the month for crazy comic book crossovers. Following the exciting announcement of the Fantastic Four landing on The Planet of The Apes, it's now come to my attention that a certain Ash Williams (of Evil Dead/Army of Darkness fame) is paying a visit to Riverdale - to save Archie and his crew from a soul-sucking horde of zombie deadites!

There’s a certain man – name’s Ash, you may have heard of him – who is doomed to battle against the forces of evil, over and over again, whether he likes it or not. No matter where he goes, the cycle of violence always repeats itself – until the day that he arrives in the picturesque town of Riverdale.

This supernaturally wholesome community seems to break the curse that has plagued Ash ever since he first encountered its otherworldly evil all those years ago. Or rather, the curse was broken – until an over-curious teenager named Archie finds a copy of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis and reads a portion of it aloud, summoning the horrifying Deadites once again!

Now Ash and the good townsfolk of Riverdale must hold back the undead hordes long enough for Archie to undo what he’s unwittingly done. Otherwise, an Army of Darkness will roll over Riverdale and destroy everything and everyone in its path – and that’s just not going to happen on Ashley J. Williams’s watch!

Fresh-faced author Erik Burnham (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters) joins wide-eyed artist Bill Galvan (Archie, Guardians of the Galaxy) for a long night’s journey into mayhem with Archie X Army of Darkness #1!

Burnham's run on Ghostbusters was superb, so I have high hopes for this melding of two very different humorous franchises when the first issue arrives in stores in February.

Featuring clean-cut covers from Galvan, Robert Hack, Laura Braga, Craig Cermak, and Stuart Sayger , this premier issue also boasts a special Premium Mystery Blind Bag that contains three limited editions of the issue selected randomly from a range of variant covers exclusive to this offering – including two original covers by Galvan and Francesco Francavilla, as well as multiple line art variants and coloured blanks. Please Note: The number of Blind Bags is limited, and allocations may occur.

Guardians (2017)

It may have taken me several years to track down a physical copy of this Russian superhero flick - that I first learned of it back in October 2015 - but now that I've finally gotten to see Guardians I have to say I wasn't disappointed.

It's far from perfect, but as silly fun goes it's hugely entertaining, and coming in at under an hour-and-a-half knows not to outstay its welcome

Whether due to budgetary cuts, poor editing, or something simply got lost in translation, the story's all over the place; ultimately feeling more Power Rangers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than Marvel Cinematic Universe.

During the cold War, mad scientist Avgust Kuratov (Stanislav Shirin) pioneered experimental techniques to turn civilians into superpowered Soviet soldiers - aka The Guardians - but then went too far, resulting in his own transformation into superstrong villain, with the power to control technology with his mind.

Kuratov has now returned, at the head of an army of clones and stolen military technology under this psychic control, and laid siege to Moscow.

The Russian authorities track down four of Kuratov's experiments - Ler (Sebastien Sisak Grigoryan), who has the power to telekinetically move rocks and earth; speedster and blademaster Khan (Sanzhar Madiev); werebear Arsus (Anton Pampushnyy); and amnesiac Kseniya (Alina Lanina), who can turn invisible and has resistance to temperature extremes - enlisting them to fight their creator.

The backstory connection between the villain and the members of The Guardians brings a strong Fantastic Four vibe to the proceedings, and while not much time is spent on sub-plots at least some effort is made to add a modicum of depth to the main characters.

Massive kudos to whoever realised the only way you could improve on having a hulking werebear as a main character would be to equip him with a frakking big machine gun, instantly turning the otherwise amusingly-named Arsus into a cult hero for the ages.

With its very simplistic, linear, storyline, Guardians is pulptastic, weird science at its finest, with surprisingly effective special effects that only occasionally feel overextended.

While best watched in the original Russian with sub-titles (the dubbing is reminiscent of cheesy '70s Hong Kong martial arts movies), this requires an extra level of commitment that I'm not sure the film truly warrants.

But if you're in the right frame of mind, and looking for a superhero film that isn't traditional American fare (but also doesn't stray too far away the standard tropes of the genre), then Guardians is well worth 86 minutes of your time.

The ending - and then the mid-credit scene - are clearly opening the door for sequels, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It's worth noting that while the blurb on the back of the DVD packaging references a long history of "superpowered characters" - going back to Nazi experiments in the Second World War and then spreading around the globe - none of this is ever mentioned on screen.

This was either something invented by the DVD distributors, to possibly broaden the film's appeal, or backstory lifted from the original script that never made it into the actual movie.

Arsus

Kseniya

Khan

Ler

Kuratov