CBR Hack/Slash: Son Of Samhain

She's back!

Cassie Hack returns!

The monsters lurk Withing The Woods, read these reviews or you'll be Dead by Dawn!

The Evil Dead - Dead by Dawn - Army of Darkness
Hail to the King - A Fistful of Boomstick - Regeneration
The Evil Dead (comics) / Army of Darkness (comics) - Series 1 - Series 2 - Series 3
Army of Darkness vs Hack/Slash
Ash and the Army of Darkness
Evil Dead The Musical
Evil Dead (remake)/Drag Me To Hell

Friday the 13th series - Friday the 13th (2009)
Book One (Wildstorm) - Book Two / Friday the 13th (Avatar Press)
Jason vs Leatherface / Freddy vs Jason
Elm Street series - A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (WildStorm) / A Nightmare on Elm Street (Avatar Press)
Halloween series - Halloween (2007) - HII (2009)
Halloween (Chaos! Comics)
One Good Scare - NightDance - 30 Years of Terror - The First Death of Laurie Strode
Hellraiser 1
Final Exam
Silent Night, Deadly Night series - Part 1 &2 - Silent Night (2012)
Pumpkinhead 1
Chucky series - Curse of Chucky / Chucky (Devil's Due Publishing)
Leprechaun series / Candyman series
 Re-Animator series
Hatchet 1 - Hatchet 2 - Hatchet 3
Hack/Slash: My First Maniac - Me Without You - Omnibus Vol. 1 - Friday the 31st
Series 1 (DDP) - Hack/Slash Meets Zombies Vs Cheerleaders - Hack/Slash/Nailbiter
Series 2 (Image)
Transylvania 6-5000/Transylvania Twist
Tucker & Dale / Cabin in the Woods
Darkman series / Darkman (NES)

Comic title: Hack/Slash: Son Of Samhain Volume 1 
Art by Emilio Laiso
Written by Michael Moreci & Steve Seeley

Published by Image Comics
From February 2015
Lineup Hack/Slash series
Format: Trade paperback collecting Hack/Slash: Son of Samhain (Hack/Slash series 3) issues #1-5.

First up, let me warn you right away - Spoiler alert! Don't read any of the following if you haven't finished Tim Seeley's original Hack/Slash comic book series!

You thought Cassie Hack retired for good and most of the slashers stopped... but it's time to come back to a job that never ends!

Hack/Slash: Son Of Samhain is a direct continuation of Tim Seeley's series without his involvement for the first time in the series. Hack/Slash is now in the hands of creators Steve Seeley and Michael Moreci, the team behind Image Comics' Hoax Hunters while Tim is off to explore new ventures with his current creator-owned series Revival.

Hack/Slash clearly ended. But Image decided to bring back the title since Steven and Michael had some ideas how to explore new ideas within the series. They brainstormed a few possible ideas with Tim before picking up outside the hands of its creator. With a whole new creative team handing the title for the first time!

On the art front, we got the return of Emilio Laiso, who was one of my favorite Hack/Slash artist.

The story takes place some time after the conclusion of Hack/Slash and the epilogue seen in Army of Darkness vs Hack/Slash. Picking up with Cassie a few years after those events...

Cassie Hack has left the slasher hunter business. And she's even left her girlfriend Georgia and their home, working now as a bounty hunter in the middle of nowhere. After losing her long-time partner and best friend Vlad she decided to run away from everything and start anew.

But trouble's soon catching up with Cassie...

You thought there were only slashers? Turns out actual monsters exist too. We saw a glimpse of a few of them once or twice in past Hack/Slash comics. They've lived aside from mankind for ages, but they're about to come out of the ground to take back what's theirs.

This demon named Morinto took over these hordes of underground monsters, and he wants to wake up this ancient God Beast to reshape our world into his own image!

This old grumpy monster hunter Delroy seeks Cassie out of her semi-retirement. It doesn't take much convincing to get Cassie swinging a nailed-baseball bat again. You can ignore this calling for long.

Along the way they free this 8-year old raised as a killer. Turns out he was "made" out from Cassie's ex and Vlad's killer, Samhain! They name him October.

Cassie returns to action with this new partner and sidekick trusted upon her. New creatures are raising from darkness!

Along the way our pair of wisecracking protagonists are soon joined by old friends from Cassie's past life - Dog and Cat Detective agency! Ocky and everyone's favorite hell dog Pooch seem to work great off one another.

Will our heroes be enough to put a stop to this war on humankind??!

Hack/Slash: Son Of Samhain is only the first chapter in this new status quo for Cassie Hack.

The series takes a slightly different turn, Cassie finds herself now hunting monsters. Although there's some hints of a new rise of slashers and possibly a mix between both worlds (and apparently some build up towards a confrontation against classic monsters).

It.. actually works nicely. It really feels like a natural progression for the series. Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley wanted to explore new genres and build some new mythos for the franchise.

It all sort of takes a very grindhouse/Mad Max-turn.

Ocky is a great addition to the series. I wasn't sure on having a kid sidekick in Hack/Slash, but he's written in the story quite naturally and a normal continuation from the whole Samhain storyline. Plus there's a lot of parallels between him and Cassie, both having slasher blood in them. Cassie started this series running away from a normal family life but she ends up in a sort of mother figure role for our young hero.

A lot has changed since the original series. With Vlad's death we saw a major death affect the entire book. Cassie continues her character development.

The references to the previous series are far and between, they're kept to a strict minimum which didn't detract from the story.

The whole story felt like a throwback to older monster films, only here we have some actual intelligent protagonists for a change. It was very reminiscent of good ol' 80s horror films, with lots of blood and creatures running around.

Emilio Laiso's artwork is just fantastic. Phenomenal! He can do great funny expressions as easily as gruesome bloody monsters!

Also returning from the last run of Hack/Slash comics is Stefano Caselli back doing the main cover art. Plus some guest cover artists as well as Tim Seeley himself.

Overall, this first volume of Hack/Slash: Son Of Samhain was a lot better than expected.

The new status quo is fun and enjoyable. It's maybe not as original or good as the main series, but it was a nice enough continuation as good as it could have been, all things considered.

They managed to make this a fresh new start simple enough to get into as a new reader, and a great follow-up to the original series, which probably wasn't that easy a task. Highly Recommended read for horror and monster fans!

I honestly expected this to be a one off mini-series, until I noticed the "Vol. 1" number on the side of the book. So I guess we should expect more from this new Hack/Slash series despite the story closing on a sort of happy ending!

I give it:

2.5 / 3 ManThings!