Panel detail from Hack/Slash: Son of Samhain #1. Art by Emilio Lasio. Tim Seeley/Image Comics
It's nice to see a character change with the times without betraying those things that made the character interesting in the first place. The comic industry has shifted a lot in the past ten years, and that includes comic fandom, and while it may have been more acceptable for Hack/Slash to skirt the line of appealing to the T-and-A "bad girl" comic crowd back in 2004, it's not a good way to grow an audience who might be put off by the cheesecake covers or occasional bare breasts within the pages of a comic. And as someone who's read the first two Hack/Slash omnibus collections, I've always kind of felt that it looked like a trashier comic than was ever intended. The truth is slasher hunter Cassie Hack is an interesting character, and creator Tim Seeley has used her to explore a number of horror tropes in a comic that's typically much more fun than it is salacious.
Son of Samhain, a new #1 from writers Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley with Emilio Laiso on art, is not only a solid horror-action comic, it's an open armed "all are welcome" greeting to come aboard and see what Cassie Hack's world is all about. Supernatural fans will be familiar with the flavor here, which finds Cassie trying to move on with her life but getting pulled back into another monster hunting job by a burly stranger named Delroy. He's no Vlad, Cassie's former partner (missing from this book without any continuity explanation for those of us who aren't caught up), but the stakes are high and Lasio's exceptionally good at the creepy crawly monster bits.
The lack of fishnets and boobs does not in any way diminish the charm of Hack/Slash. This has always been a book about Cassie and what she's dealing with, and even if Tim Seeley is too busy with Batman books right now, her caretakers understand this. There's a meat-and-potatoes comfort in the simplicity of a monster hunting hero bashing monsters in the head with a baseball bat that I can really get into if done in a way that doesn't insult my intelligence. Thankfully, Hack/Slash always treated horror geeks like they have brains in their heads. Son of Samhain is a simple pleasure -- an unpretentious action comic with a strong lead and a Lovecraftian monster god. If that sounds like your thing, now's as good a time as any to come aboard.
Hack/Slash: Son of Samhain #1 will be available in stores and online from Image Comics on Wednesday, July 2.