REVIEW: The Crow Hack/Slash #2

The Crow Hack/Slash #2 is published by IDW Publishing, written by Tim Seeley, layouts by Tim Seeley, art by Jim Terry, and letters by Neil Uyetake. Revelations and soul searching for Cassie Hack fill this issue as Angeles Cero prepares her next move.

Picking up right where last issue left off, The Crow Hack/Slash #2 finds Cassie trying to come to grips with what her negligence caused to happen to her partner Vlad. The depth of emotion in her soul searching was more than I expected. It gave the character real humanity. What more there was some poignant commentary about society, and its view of drug addiction, in this moment.

Cassie confesses to a comatose Vlad that she didn’t help Lucy last issue because she was a drug addict. She expounds on how this was a failing, and it’s consequences. Her attitude toward those suffering from drug addiction can be seen all too often in society and Seeley does a heartfelt job of calling it out in this story. Given Cassie’s behavior last issue I was very happy to see her come to these realizations. Nothing helps an excellent comic story like some quality social commentary and character growth.

The rest of The Crow Hack/Slash #2 is spent mostly catching the reader up on who everyone is. This necessity is handled well. While I’m sure big fans of The Crow we’re disappointed by the late appearance last issue, it allowed the lengthy explanation to not bog down the introduction to the story. While Marcus Grieves’s background is handled competently, Cassie is built up even better. Rather than have her explain herself to another we learn about her in the best way. Through how those in the world react to her. Whenever possible it is a much more natural way to catch a reader up. And will always be my personal preference.

Terry’s art continues to impress in The Crow Hack/Slash #2. As the story deals with matters of deep emotions the art doesn’t shy away from putting the reader right in the middle of it. Rarely has a comic kept me so in the middle of a story. It is almost suffocating at times. But in a truly good way. The emotional emphasis really helps keep this book grounded. Considering the main protagonists are a baseball-wielding punk girl, and a man back from the dead, it would be easy the story to become disconnected from the reader. But the very human emotion, enhanced greatly by the art, does wonders to avoid this.

A sprinkling of action further keeps The Crow Hack/Slash #2 moving long. Just as with its emotional moments, it’s violence is equally felt. It continues to display such moments in the rawest forms. Keeping the seriousness of such actions in the forefront of their panels. Opposed the the “cool, look at that” mentality violence is often approached with, this feeling of weight helps this book stand out to me.

The Crow Hack/Slash #2 delivers an excellent second issue. Once it has the world building out of the way it uses its time to set up the next issue. The tease ending promises both an escalation to the conflict as well as a bit significant change in atmosphere for next issue.