Hack/Slash: Bodybags #4 // Review
It’s 1:48 am. Linda is in the back of an unmarked white van. The woman in the passenger’s side front seat looks back to ask her how she’s doing. Well: all the other students in her class are dead. She’s got a lot of survivor’s guilt. Of course...that’s the least of her concerns as she and everyone else in the van are driven off the highway by a flashy sports car in Hack/Slash: Bodybags #4. Writer Tim Seeley concludes his mini-series with artist Stefano Caselli and Steve Kurth. Color renders the atmosphere courtesy of Kurt Michael Russell.
Vlad’s behind the wheel of the white van. Clownface is driving the sports car. They’re going slam into each other a few times before they get out of their vehicles to beat the hell out of each other. It’s not going to be a comfortable situation for anyone involved. There will be blood and bruises and there might even be a little bit of death, but it’s not going to be easy for anyone involved and it’s almost certain that things are going to get ugly before the final panel of the series. There’s a lot of anger and hatred between these two…
Seeley crams the issue with action. There are a couple of pages at the end of the issue that wrap things-up, but it’s mostly aggressive, over-the-top action. There really isn’t much that’s being presented in the issue that isn’t the big, major fight sequence that ends the series. Thankfully, Seeley has a way of constantly introducing elements that keep the action interesting throughout the issue. It’s a fun sequence, but Seeley’s dialogue feels more than a bit weak on more than one occasion. Seeley could have trusted the artist a bit more to deliver the impact at the end of the series, but he’s done a good job of pacing the final chapter in the series.
Caselli amps-up the action as a couple of ridiculously amped-up mesomorphs beat the hell out of each other. The chase along the highway prior to that has a lot of punch as well. Caselli has a strong sense of kinetics and momentum as he hurls big, meaty characters across the page in several directions. There’s a great deal of aggression slamming across the page throughout the issue. Russell’s colors cast the page in a grim atmosphere that clings to all the action quite well without ever overpowering it.
The series comes to an end with a lot of action. It’s been a fun journey, but it hasn’t exactly been able to maintain enough modulation to feel like a substantial journey. And while it hasn’t been one, long, excessive grind or anything like that, it certain HAS been a story that’s leaned-in to the action A LOT. So as a result, the whole of the four issues have felt a bit more percussive when they could have been quite a bit more nuanced and maintained more of an overall sense of impact.
