Welcome to the newest column for Multiversity Comics! Following our two part analysis of the first half of the original series (2004-2013), it seems prudent to continue that type of analysis going forward. The format may change with the times, but in general we will take a similar approach to it as on the Isu Codices, one of looking at the present through the lens of the past, along with some possible surprises along the way.
As a note: unlike prior analyses, this one will not skimp on spoilers, though it will still attempt to be new reader friendly by way of bringing up past information.
Furthermore, for sake of clarity: “Hack/Slash” is a mature comic book series. As such, many images may not be suitable for younger audiences, and quotations and/or panels may include liberal curses and mature content such as profanity, violence, or sexual imagery.
New Concepts
For sake of clarity, “new” concepts will be ones introduced in the discussed story that were not present in previous volumes of this column, not necessarily those that are entirely new altogether. Furthermore, on account of how crossover-friendly the epic is, certain elements may only be important to the crossover itself, but may be important enough to bring up.
Slasher Bloodlines
The chemical is passed down through generations, presumably having mutated the ingesting parties’ genetic structure. While this kind of behavior was likely not part of the flower’s original properties, which seemed to only allow for a single reanimation that degenerated with time, the improvements made by Akakios gave enough time for those who ingested the panacea (in particular his own cult) to pass down a kind of “latent slasher potential” to subsequent generations over the course of two and a half millennia. Such latent slashers tended to have certain recurring personality quirks, including being, to quote Dr. Jack Hack, “a loner, an individualist, obsessive… prone to fits of anger and violence.”
Of course, these characteristics can very easily include one Cassandra “Cassie” Hack, and with good reason. She, through her mother’s side, has the dormant black ambrosia within her, as is noted by those who sample her blood for one reason or another. While it doesn’t allow for outright superpowers for the most part, it is definitely at least part of why she is so bad at keeping long-lasting contact with most others (to the point of her all-but-confirmed antisocial personality disorder), not to mention her nearly superhuman levels of durability when it comes to withstanding blood loss and wounds. The abilities are not enough to be confirmed as beyond human, but still seem to imply that there may be something to her.
Akakios’s position as the “father” of the slashers comes with a bit of a problem. Following his seemingly permanent death in the ‘Final’ arc after his decades in the amnesic identity of Samhain (long story), the ability for slashers to come back more than once appears to have been eradicated. The undead raised by Dr. Ezekiel Chase each seem to have one life. While Cassie does run into slashers, she is only really shocked when coming across those she had already killed before. In effect, Akakios seems to have been a mystical tether to life, one that is gone after his demise. Slashers can still rise once, but after that, if they are killed, they do not seem capable of returning on their own without the use of some other form of magic, hence why she is so shocked to see ones she put down more than half a decade ago.
Continued belowThere is some overlap between slashers, otherworldly avatars, and witches (among other possibilities), as shown in “Hack/Slash vs. Chaos!” at its climactic battle, but the fact that the manner of death for some supernatural creatures that happen for the same reason as the bonafide slashers are shown in a different way (being immolated in arcane energies rather than just screeching and returning to the murder fields) shows that perhaps the term was just used as a convenient catch-all word, and not that one means the same as the other.
Norse Mythology
Admittedly, association with Norse myth is limited to the work on the “Chaos!” series, which Tim Seeley had a hand in reviving (no pun intended), but the elements shown are nonetheless intriguing.
First, we have Draum-Niorun (anglicanized from its original Old Norse “Njǫrun”), the alternate identity of Vex of the Chosen. Not much information is actually known about Niorun save for her identity as one of the æsir (the principle gods of the mythology, including the likes of Odin and Thor), with her name indicating a possible connection to the earth or an identity as sister-wife to Njörðr (Njord) of the sea. The specific identity of Draum-Njǫrun as spoken by Mistress Hel (the newest version of the entity formerly known as Lady Death before her excision from the comics, and an adaptation of the goddess of Helheim, land of the dishonorable dead) is noted in at least two texts as a dwarf word for night. As such, she is known in this particular canon to be a “minor dream deity revered only by dark elves and grey dwarves.” Of course, she doesn’t do very much in this story, but her inclusion still brings the divine into play, and her dialogue’s use of such terms as “jotnar” (giants, though not always truly large), “Nott” (personification of the night) and “corpse-ravens” further alludes to an overall backdrop of divinity.
On the other hand, we have another element that had never been seen before in full (though alluded to in the crossover with “Mercy Sparx”): angels. Specifically, Vulnavia represents the valkyries, those warrior women who choose half out of the dead in battle to go to Valhalla (the other half going to the field of Fólkvangr). Here she is seen as an overall angel, but much like Njorun being sent in the form of Vex to aid the Chosen, Vulnavia could have been sent by Wotan (better known as Odin) to prevent the destruction of path back to life from death.
New Issues
“Hack/Slash vs. Chaos!”
As will be relatively atypical, this first installment will not merely go over the latest issue of “Hack/Slash” (“Hack/Slash vs. Chaos!” #5), but instead the entire event as it stands. We also have an interview on the crossover as well, from before its release.
The miniseries is written by Tim Seeley, with artwork by Rapha Lobosco (on #1) and Celor (on #2-5), colors by Dee Cunniffe, and lettering by Chris “Crank!” Crank.
“Vlad… how am I supposed to live… when the only way I feel alive anymore… is when I’m surrounded by death?”
This quote may be the final words of the crossover event between the cast of the Chaos! universe and the highly malleable, crossover-friendly world of “Hack/Slash,” but it nonetheless encompasses everything about Tim Seeley’s renewed direct characterization of the Serial Killer Killer herself. At her core, Hack is broken, with her untreated personality disorders causing all kinds of grief. Usually, she’s antisocial or manipulative, but has her heart in the right place.
However, for all her good intentions, Cassie Hack isn’t exactly known for making the best of decisions, especially under emotional pressure (see also: Samhain, Margaret Crump, and Laurie Peacetree, among others). Her experiences seem to have driven her halfway to villainy and back again, especially around the middle of the crossover. The very thought of Delilah Hack returning from the grave (and she very nearly managed to come to Earth a fourth time) appears to have a dangerous effect on her daughter’s mental state. From the moment she realized that she was facing slashers again that she had killed roughly five to six years prior at a minimum, Cassie delved into her worst impulses, ones that she seemed to have, to a minor degree, put behind her after coming to terms with her post-Haverhill life. That said, sliding back into old habits is hardly a new concept to Miss Hack (see also: ‘Army of Darkness vs. Hack/Slash’ and ‘Son of Samhain,’ among others), but even Vlad realized that the possibility for the return of the Lunch Lady could leave Cassie with absolutely no limits on what she is willing to do in order to prevent her return. There are two results that we witness out of this lack of restraint: one is bad, the other is worse.
Continued belowOn the one hand, she is willing to sacrifice every single member of the undead to make that happen, including ones who side with her and have sided with her in the past across multiple crossovers and the like. After all, she doesn’t exactly have a high number of allies on the other end of the mortal spectrum, as she herself notes. The amount of supernatural hunters she actually can associate with who are themselves supernatural creatures can be counted on one hand, and even fewer of them (including the one who is herself a vampire) are actually undead. But the only time we know of that she thought a slasher could potentially be benevolent, it was the brainwashed, false identity of Samhain over Akakios, leading to quite a lot of harm in the long run (including the deaths of some of her closest friends). On account of that, it’s probably not all that surprising that her hatred of slashers, which really is as much, if not even more, a manifestation of her own self-loathing that she pretends doesn’t bother her, would override her willingness to protect the few allies the Dysfunctional Duo have left.
On the other hand, her time with the Draugsplitter seems to have corrupted her the longer she wields the blade, though it is unclear if the corruption is only one way as seen by Cremator’s violent reaction while discussing it with Lucifer. Through her, the sword augmented all of her internal negative feelings regarding the undead in an attempt to make her into some kind of cosmic executioner. Usually, this violence would probably just be relatively impersonal and judge based on the basic idea of the dead needing to stay dead, but her early comments, especially during her duel with Chastity Marks, come across as racist against all undead, up to and including the Chosen (aside from Voodoo Childe), Chastity, and incidentally likely Ernest “Evil Ernie” Fairchild. Just take what she said during that duel. “No one is supposed to get another chance once they’re gone. Because the living have to live their own lives. Not have them destroyed when one of the undead snaps and aces a bunch of kids in a cafeteria. You. The Chosen. My mom. You’re all the mistake of the universe and it knows it.”
Once she realizes what she was doing was wrong, Cassie still keeps to the idea that she would do anything to rid the world of slashers again, showing that even a glimpse of Hell itself (and not just a hellish dimension like Nef, but the actual infernal plane of Hell) will not change her. When she defines herself by her opposition to killers and the undead, our horror hunter makes it nigh impossible to live a normal life, something she has realized time and again, but is at the forefront for these issues.
Evil Ernie, who knows Cassie very well on account of his view into her mind back in “Hack/Slash vs. Evil Ernie,” is able to identify her problem. That he is trusted can be chocked up to both their similarities and the fact that, in that same issue, he resurrected her after she had died from a misfired bullet by a police officer. Like her experiences with Delilah and the classmates, Ernie had experienced his own physical abuse at the hands of his stepfather Buford. Though the experiences themselves differ, there are enough parallels for him to be understood.
In essence, being downtrodden and poor led Cassie to feel a need to assert herself however she can after her guilt complex triggered her crusade as a huntress of monsters. Unfortunately, her version of a defense to protect herself is a fiercer offense, which can be manipulated by others to cause a lot of harm to those unworthy of it. To paraphrase Ernie himself, her “armor” became a suit of sharp edges to hurt anyone who came near her, then was used as a weapon in and of itself. She went from being defensive and unwilling to be touched to pushing people away (both intentionally and accidentally) to focusing on on killing rather than living her own life. As Miss Hack is aware at various points in her career, that’s no life at all, but her post-traumatic stress disorder doesn’t allow her much relief for extended periods of time.
Continued belowOnce the conflict is resolved (in a way that will likely have far more influence on the Chaos universe comics than “Hack/Slash” itself), all that’s left is to come back to the land of the living after the trip through Hell. Unfortunately, Cassie being… well… Cassie caused all of her near-friends in the Chosen (and Chastity) to abandon her, with Evil Ernie reluctantly driven back to his darker persona to aid the emergent Queen Hel. It seems that even with her being ostensibly more mature, some things don’t change easily.
But hey, at least she’ll be okay for a little while.
… Right?
We’ll check back in next month, with some new material to discuss in not one, but two forms: the sixth omnibus and a new crossover over at IDW Publishing (referenced in the image above).
Want to know more about the series, or about this crossover in general? Interested in a who’s who on the slasher image or elsewhere? Feel free to ask away in the comments below.
