Hack/Slash #4 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Mark Englert (colors), Crank! (letters) & James Lowder (edits)

The Story: The first story of Tim Seeley’s new volume of Hack/Slash (since it found a new home at Image) comes to a close.

What’s Good: This was a really good issue and you could tell that Tim Seeley was saving some fun bits for this issue.  This will get a little spoiler-y, but I think it’s warranted because it is fun things like this that give Hack/Slash its soul.  First, we have the fact that Cassie has to snap her monstrous sidekick Vlad out of his mind-controlled state so he can help her fight the acid lady (sorry, forgot her name).  Long time readers know that Vlad’s cluelessness about sex, but increasing interest therein, has been a running joke in this series.  So, it was very funny to see Cassie pull up her shirt and plant Vlad’s face right in her bosom.  Sure, enough….he wakes up and joins the fight, but it creates an awkward moment for the two friends.

Next we have a scene where the rest of H/S, Inc. are fighting off zombified animals.  Among the animals are some zombie cats and they get rid of them my having Pooch distract them with a laser-pointer (that he’s holding in this mouth) while someone else shoots them.  Awesome!

But, the best moment is that Cassie and Vlad have their big battle with the acid lady in the Intelligent Design Museum.  Clearly the battle had to happen somewhere, but rather than having it in some parking lot or generic old house, placing the battle in this museum allows the creators to have all kinds of fun with the types of exhibits in such a place (like seeing humans trying to feed a watermelon to a vegetarian T. Rex).  That’s just good stuff!

I’ve been a little hard on the art in Hack/Slash, but it was a lot better this month and I think I know why.  Hack/Slash is probably a very hard comic to draw well.  Beyond the fact that there are a ton of different character types (skinny guys, hulking guys, sexy girls, zombies, etc.), those characters are always doing really dynamic things and it is very hard to maintain that sense of  energy.  That type of problem is going to be most noticeable on full-body panels of two characters fighting.  But, this issue has almost NO full-body panels; many are waist-up or just faces and hands.  And, at that level, the artwork still carries plenty of energy to make us feel the action.  Whether this was an adjustment by the creators or not, I really liked this art a LOT more than the past couple issues (which weren’t “bad”….they just needed a little more umph).