Publisher: Devil's Due Publishing (In 2010 Tim Seeley closed the then ongoing series with issue #32 and moved to a new home at Image Comic’s. Hack/Slash's first release on Image was the 4-part miniseries My First Maniac, which was followed by a new Hack/Slash series.)
Writers: Tim Seeley (Also known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, G.I. Joe vs. Transformers and New Exiles.)
Letterers: Brian J. Crowley
Run through of Hack/Slash’s origins:
Hack/Slash is basically about a horror victim, Cassie Hack, who has decided to seek her revenge on the monsters that originally terrorized her which are best known as “slashers”. Cassie teams up with a huge beast of a man known as Vlad, who is well known for being huge as fuck and wearing a gas mask and carrying to Vlad sized meat cleavers. Together the unlikely duo takes down any slasher that they come in contact with.
If you don’t know what a slasher is, you are on the wrong blog and should probably log off of the internet for the rest of your life.
Besides hunting down slashers, Cassie is also on the hunt to find her father who left her soon after she was born. Due to her father leaving, Cassie was left alone with her over whelming mother who worked as a chef at the school that Cassie attended.
As a young child, Cassie was really awkward and unattractive (which I swear, all of the girls who grow up to be the most gorgeous are) and was constantly ridiculed and teased by her fellow classmates. Cassie being an extremely tough girl was able to handle the criticism by her fellow classmates but her overly eccentric and insane mother was not. She basically lost her shit and went on a murdering spree, killing every single child who ever hurt her sweet Cassie. Eventually Cassie caught her mother doing the unspeakable and called the police, saving the life of her mother’s most recent victim but unfortunately witnessed her mother’s suicide shortly after.
Now the reason why I am explaining all of this is because, her mother later on rises from the dead and became Cassie’s first ever battle with a Slasher.
I should probably emphasize the fact that Cassie spent the majority of her life alone. No friends, no real family, so when she met Vlad she was already tough as all hell due to all of the things she had been through but Vlad being a big softy he couldn't resist spending his life by her side not only being her own personal body guard but also her first real friend.
Chucky’s back story:
Chucky is a slasher (obviously) and is best known for his first appearance in Child’s Play (1988). I’ll try to make this brief. Chucky is basically a living doll (based off of the true story of the Robert doll) except in this movie a serial killer comes back to life by possessing a “good guy doll” which is basically this creepy as fuck children’s toy.
How he is resurrected into this doll is a bit interesting. Charles, a serial killer, is on the run from the police. After being shot by a homicide detective he quickly preforms a voodoo ritual which allows his soul to enter into one of the creepiest looking dolls in the store before he bleeds out and dies. It also allows him to get away due to the fact that all the detective was left with is Charles presumably dead body.
I am pretty sure you can picture the gong show that goes on after Charles possesses the doll.
Now that you know a bit of the history on the 3 main characters in Hack/Slash VS. Chucky I am going to continue on with a brief summary of what this one shot is all about and hopefully with all of the information I have provided you, you will be on the hunt to own this as well because I’m going to tell you right now. You are going to want to buy this. Not only this one, you are going to want the entire Hack/Slash series because it is honestly amazing.
Cassie is so fucking hot and such a bad ass. She is truly an inspiration to all women and in ways she reminds me so much of Buffy Summers but that’s a story for another day.
This issue begins with Cassie and Vlad looking for a slasher named Laura, who at the beginning of the issue we get a quick glimpse of sewing the one and only, Chucky.
The two find Laura’s hide out and Vlad breaks down the door. They start calling her out and telling her how shitty she is at hiding and after being badly burnt there is no way she is going to be able to continue on the way she is currently.
Very quickly our duo realizes they were set up by Laura and that it was a trap that they so foolishly entered. The two get bombarded by zombie like people while Laura traps Vlad and casts a voodoo spell which makes things go all Freaky Friday and the two souls switch bodies. Which means Vlad is now trapped in Laura’s extremely burnt up body and Laura is now an extremely strong, beast of a man.
Laura, now in Vlad’s body, decided death wasn’t enough for Cassie and with one swift punch throws her to the grown and tells her that she has much more in store for her and leaves.
Cassie helps Vlad up and poor Vlad is badly injured and confused and entirely unable to be of any help to Cassie so Cassie heads back in to see what else she can uncover and of course, she finds the infamous, the one and only, Chucky.
Cassie goes to lock him back up where Laura had left him but Chucky offers her a great deal. He clearly knows a hell of a lot about voodoo and switching souls out of bodies, so if Cassie sets Chucky free he will help her hunt down Laura and get Vlad’s soul back into his own body. Cassie being desperate to help her bestie, she sets Chucky free and they head out in the van to find Laura.
Unfortunately the painkillers Laura takes on a regular basis is starting to wear off and Vlad is beginning to feel the full extent of the injuries Laura went through prior. Chucky says he can fix that to with a secret voodoo recipe…aspirin and whiskey.
So the newly found trio takes a detour to a liquor store. Cassie pulls over and Chucky tries to go inside but Cassie stops him quickly asking how he, as a doll, plans to go up to a cashier to buy some alcohol.
Of course Chucky quickly explains that he’ll kill the cashier and then peace out with his supplies. Cassie has none of his shit and puts a gun to his head but he has none of that and turns around on her and starts chocking his out.
This is quickly stopped when Vlad grabs Chucky and holds a knife to his head and says one of my favourite lines in the entire series that I have read so far and I quote “I want my own body back, yes. But my life is not more important. I will die. I will stay trapped here always to save you from hurting that blonde girl”. I just loved that.
They agree to disagree and Cassie heads in, steals the booze and pills and leaves. She gives them to Vlad and they decide to head over to see the voodoo master Papa Sugar.
Cassie, being oh so good at sweet talking the guy, tells Papa Sugar to tell them where the fuck Laura is hiding so she can force the little bitch to give Vlad back his body. Papa did not put up with any of the harsh words Cassie had to say and drugged her with a inhalant that makes her entire body unable to move but forces her to stay awake and watch it all.
Sugar picks her up and tosses her on his bed (which was really uncomfortable to read because Cassie being extremely sexy as usually is dressed up in fishnet tights, a short skirt and a tiny tight fitting tank top so when she fell to the ground her legs just flopped open and she was entirely unable to move and hide herself from being seen) but yeah Sugar is just about to have his way with her when BOOM Chucky jumps in to save the day. Holding a voodoo doll and some pins Chucky throws it to the ground saying that isn’t going to do shit and pulls out a nail gun and asks him why put pins into a doll when he can put pins into the real thing.
That’s where I am going to leave off because it only gets better from there on in. This is a MUST READ and a MUST BUY. Hack/Slash is awesome and it was made even better when they throw recognizable slashers into the mix.
You can find this issue in the 300 page omnibus at most local comic books stores or you can purchase it online at mycomicshop.com.
Since this review was rewritten from my show notes you can listen to myself discuss this comic book as well as The Prowler (1981) and Madman (1982) with the host One Sick Puppy and our special guest Jay of the Dead (Horror Movie Podcast) on the Dead As Hell Horror Podcast at deadashellhp.com or listen to us on iTunes as well as Stitcher Radio.
xxx
Channy Dreadful
