Spoiler Alert: If you want to be shocked by the comic you can read it first then read this and decide if you agree or disagree. I will reveal important plot pieces and shockers in this review…. at least… I guess they’re important.
This week Image is releasing a one shot companion to their ongoing series Hack/Slash. I’ll be the first to admit that the promises of a super-villain queen that demolishes cities with her explosive powers battling 2 people who just plain like killing killers peaked my interest enough for a read. After the six minutes it took to absorb the book, I almost wish I hadn’t. I’m aware that this is supposed to be an over the top violent, edgy, profane, and sexual experience. The Bomb Queen is rocking a thong bikini, and the main character is in a mesh top and mini-skirt, trust me, the connection wasn’t hard to make. Through the well done art and the angry demon battles I found myself thinking, “I’ve read this before” or, “Really? This isn’t sex charged enough?”
The problem that I found with the book wasn’t the the art work or the premise. I thought the characters were well put together and thought-out enough to be interesting. My gripe was the needless piling-on of the “all comic readers are pervs” imagery. It didn’t help develop the characters, advance the story, or really change the outcome.. Oh my god I sound like my parents….
I don’t consider myself a prude by any means, there’s generally nothing that offends me, and this comic is no different. I just find being explicit for the sake of being explicit to be tacky. As an example: imagine that you’ve already wrapped your head around them entering an alternate dimension with their spiked bat and meat clever to kill a demon who’s invading our world, and of course most of the demon’s minions are naked zombie women. As an added bonus you then get to wrap your head around the super hero crew that wanted vengeance against the Bomb Queen and her demon cat. (He, by the way, was fed off of hate, and he only wanted his hate stone back. Unfortunately for him it was nestled firmly in the queen’s Vajay.) At what point do you ask, ” Why didn’t she just leave the hate stone at her bomb queen palace, or shag pad, or whatever?” The answer is right in front of you, and is depicted in the image below. Because if she didn’t then the hate stone couldn’t give her a 3 page hate orgasm when the demon is slain..
The point of my rant is simply this: After reading past the death of our foe the “Demon Cat” and watching the Queen’s 3-page orgasm due to the release of hatred into her super-villain Vag, I found myself wondering when it would all just end. For any form of entertainment the viewer checking for the ending, or waiting to escape the confines of the media providing the escape is a bad thing.
This is something to pick up to say you own it, or to prove that nothing shocks you. The artwork is fantastic, and the story is so so, for artistically inclined folk this is probably a worthy look. As for me I think the fact that nothing shocks me was proven years ago, and art escapes me, so I’ll let this one go to the “donate” pile .