Warning: Spoilers for Army of Darkness Forever #6!Just when fans were certain that the destruction of the Necronomicon‘s pages would spell the end of the evil tome, The Evil Dead confirms that the Book of the Dead is destined for an entirely different fate. Previously, the comic sequel Army of Darkness Forever suggested that in a post-apocalyptic future, the book will inevitably and literally be in pieces at the end of the world.
Now, a new discovery made in Army of Darkness Forever #6 by Tony Fleecs, Justin Greenwood, Brad Simpson, Troy Peteri, Joe Rybandt, and Marshall Hoyt – reveals that the Necronomicon will evolve into a child.
The revelation is as shocking as it is terrifying. Ash and the protagonists who follow in his footsteps are constantly doomed by evil perspiring from this book, and not even the destruction of its pages can destroy it for good. Evil never dies, and apparently, neither will the Necronomicon.
The comic series acts as a continuation of the original deleted ending of Army of Darkness. Ash Williams awakens in a post-apocalyptic future demanding the Wiseman’s help to return to his time. That proves easier said than done when the Necronomicon is reduced to pages, but on the Wiseman’s advice, Ash scavenges the world around him to locate every single missing page. When he assembles all the missing pages, even without the cover binding, Ash is encouraged to recite those cursed words — “Klaatu barada nikto” — again. However, he must do it perfectly this time if he wants to return home.
Ash does exactly that, but instead of returning home, the Necronomicon takes on a new, living, whole shape. The Necronomicon is proving to be the personification of a cockroach: it just keeps coming back no matter how hard it gets stomped out. In this case, it appeared that the Necronomicon was gone forever once it was reduced to pages, but clearly, that isn’t the case. Or, rather, the classic form of the Necronomicon has ceased to exist. That’s what gives the book its cockroach quality, the fact that even when it is seemingly destroyed, it becomes reborn as something completely different.
Evil has haunted whoever has stepped in front of the Necronomicon throughout the Evil Dead franchise. The book has been a burden upon Ash, and now, it burdens him as a child. Evil as persistent as the Necronomicon doesn’t die as much as it evolves. It not only evolves in the shape it takes to torment those who encounter it, but it evolves in the way it torments people around it. Now, the Necronomicon is doing far more than just sending demons after Ash like it has in past Evil Dead entries, but it’s now becoming a pesty child to burden him in whole new ways.